The historical context

 the geo-historical context >how English reached a position of pre-eminence  the socio-cultural context >why a position of pre-eminence will last  the combination of geo-historical and socio-cultural strands >why English has so many varieties

Origins within the British Isles  5 th century: northern Europe > English spread around the British Isles and mixed with Celtic languages: Wales, Cornwall, Cumbria, and southern Scotland  1066: Norman conquest English nobles moved to Scotland  12 th century: Anglo-Norman knights moved to Ireland

Outwards  16th century: from the British Isles to North America  1588: end of the reign of Elizabeth I  5-7 million speakers  1952: beginning of the reign of Elizabeth II  about 250 million speakers, most of them outside the British Isles

Timeline  Old English  Late Old English  Middle English  Early Modern English  Modern English  Late Modern English 1950 – 2008  BBC Timeline  _english.shtml _english.shtml

Expeditions  1584: North Carolina (Walter Raleigh)  1607: Virginia (Tidewater accent: /z/ and /r/) e.g. Zummerzet  1620: Massachusetts and New England Pilgrim Fathers (silent postvocalic /r/)  1640: 25,000 immigrants from the British Isles

3 main divisions (p. 34)  New England > Great Lakes Northern dialect  Virginia > Gulf Coast (Texas) Southern dialect  Mid West > California Midland dialect There are many mixed dialect areas but the main divisions are still found today

The frontier people  17 th century: Scots-Irish immigration wave  1776: American Independence > 1 out of 7 Scots-Irish  1790: 4 million people  1890: 50 million people > Sunbelt accent: from Virginia to California

Other influences  Spanish: west and south west  French: north and middle regions (Louisiana)  Dutch: New York < New Amsterdam  Large numbers of Germans: Pennsylvania  Africans: south > slave trade 1700: 2,500 black slaves 1775: 100,000 black slaves

The 19 th century  Irish: 1840s (potato famine)  Germans: 1848 (failed revolution)  Italians: 1848 (failed revolution)  Central European Jews: 1880s (pogroms) 1900: 75 million people 1950: 150 million people

USA  1990 census: almost 200 million speakers of English  2000 census: almost 215 million speakers of English  English as a sign of American unity > conflict with those who want to protect minority languages  20 th century: movement in support of English as the official language of the U.S.

Canada  new land farming fishing fur-trading Ongoing conflict with the French  15 th century  Queen Anne’s War  French and Indian War > French defeat > from New England to Nova Scotia

Canada  1776 US Declaration of Independence loyalists moved to New Brunswick “late loyalists” moved to Montreal (attracted by cheap lands!)  Many British people identify a Canadian accent as American, many Americans identify it as British!

Canadian English  different from British English  different from American English  French influence  French as the co-official language (chiefly spoken in Quebec) Sociolinguistic situation not found in other English-speaking countries Ottawa and code-switching (Poplack)

The Caribbean (p. 38)  black population in the West Indies 1517 the importation of black slaves from Africa to work in sugar plantations (Spanish colonies) 17 th century: Atlantic Triangle (slave trade) Europe – West Africa – Caribbean islands and American coast

Caribbean English  1776: American Revolution: 500,000 black slaves  1865: end of US Civil War: 4 million black slaves (abolition of slavery)  Policy of the slave traders > different language backgrounds > pidgin English (English spoken by sailors and slaves) > black Creole (southern plantations) > Creole forms of French, Spanish, and Portuguese  eventually West Indian speech moved to the U.S., Canada, and Britain  programme4_3.shtml programme4_3.shtml

Australia  1770 James Cook > first penal colony in Sydney (to relieve the pressure of overcrowded British prisons)  1788 first fleet  ,000 people  ,000 people  million people  million people

 prisoners from London (Cockney) and Ireland  influence of Aboriginal languages  late influence of American English  The country now has a very mixed linguistic character

New Zealand  1790sEuropean whalers and traders  1814Christian missionary work among the Maori  1840Treaty of Waitangi (first British colony) > ,000 people > ,000 people > ,000 people (emergence of New Zealand English) > million people (Crystal, 1997) > million people (Crystal, 2003)

Australian and New Zealand English  New Zealand: a stronger sense of historical relationship with Britain > British accent  New Zealand: growing sense of national identity (vs. Australia)  New Zealand: rights of the Maori people > Maori vocabulary in New Zealand English > Maori: 10% of the population

Homework  Read p  Surf the websites reported here and listen to the various accents.