ENGLISH

ENGLISH
1. The name of a people (the achievements of the English); the adjective associated with that people and with its country, England, which occupies the southern part of the island of Britain (English traditions).

2. Short forms E, E., Eng. The name of a language originating in north-western Europe (the history of English); the adjective relating to it (English dialects).

3. A course offered in schools, universities, and other institutions, whose aim is to provide students with knowledge about (and skills in relation to) the language, aspects of its literature, or both; first-year English; English as a Foreign Language (EFL); English language teaching (ELT); English Language and Literature; Business English; remedial English.

4. The adjective and noun used in Canada for speakers of English as opposed to French, regardless of ethnic origin: differences between the French and the English; English Canadians. [In the article that follows, the first and second senses only are discussed. For the third sense, see TEACHING ENGLISH; for the fourth, see CANADIAN ENGLISH.]

The English

Early Germanic settlers in Britain were referred to in Latin as the gens Anglorum, which can be translated as both ‘Angle race’ and ‘English people’, and called themselves Englisc/Ænglisc or Angelcynn (‘Angle-kin’). The name Englisc contrasted with the names of both Celtic and Scandinavian people in Britain: ‘Nah naðer to farenne ne Wylisc man on Ænglisc lond ne Ænglisc on Wylisc’ (Neither Welshman to go on English land, nor English on Welsh: ordinance); ‘Gif Ænglisc man Deniscne ofslea’ (If an Englishman kills a Dane: Laws of Aethelred, both citations from c.1000). However, by the time of the Norman Conquest, English was the name for all inhabitants of England, regardless of background. For many years after 1066, the Normans were commonly distinguished from their English subjects as French, a dichotomy sustained in state documents long after it ceased to mean much in social terms. By the 14c, English was again the name for all subjects of the king or queen of England, whatever their background, and has remained so ever since.

Ambiguity

A new uncertainty developed in the 16c. Wales was united with England in 1535 and the English and Scottish monarchies became one in 1603. The union of the parliaments of England and Scotland took place in London in 1707 and the state of Great Britain officially came into existence. Increasingly from these dates, the term English has been used in three ways: to refer to the people of England and matters concerning England alone; to refer to the people of England and Wales and matters concerning both; to refer to the people of Great Britain (England, Wales, Scotland, and varyingly all or part of Ireland), and matters concerning them all. Generally, the first usage prevails when Irish, Scots, Welsh, and English people are talking to or about each other, although English people are famous among the others for using their generic name to cover all four. When talking among themselves, through the media, and in international situations, many English people use English without specifying whether they are discussing themselves or all Britons and perhaps without being clear about the limits they intend. This is also often the case with Americans, mainland Europeans, and others:
‘While Rafelson is a great admirer of Robert Redford, he did not think an American playing an aristocratic Englishman in “Out of Africa” worked. So he decided he wanted English actors and settled for two virtual unknowns. Patrick Bergin, like Burton, whom he plays, is Irish and the star of “Act of Betrayal,” a recent mini-series about an Irish Republican Army informer. Iain Glen, a Scotsman, who plays Speke, was in the West End production of Tom Stoppard's “Hapgood” early last year’ (in ‘Quest for the Source of the Nile, on Film’, New York Times, Feb. 1989).

The language

English is part of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, along with, among others, Danish, Dutch, and German. Once confined to Britain, it is now used throughout the world. Its use and distribution can be discussed in various ways, including geographical distribution, status as an official or other language, and status as majority language or mother tongue (first language), alternative language, medium of education, second language, or foreign language.

In the later 20c, non-native users of English have come to outnumber native users, partly because of the accelerating spread of the language, and partly because of increases in population and educational opportunities in many parts of the world. Estimates of the overall number of users of English relate to the three criteria of English by birthright (in the ENL territories in the 1970s estimated at c.300m people), English through historical association (in the ESL territories also c.300m), and English through usually formal acquisition (in the EFL territories c.100m). The total of c.700m was widely accepted in the early 1980s, but some linguists, for example David Crystal (‘How Many Millions?—The Statistics of World English’, English Today 1, Jan. 1985), have discussed doubling this total to c.1.4bn so as to bring in anyone who uses any kind of English, extended or restricted, ‘correct’ or ‘broken’. It is probably safe to assume that by 1990 some 10% of the inhabitants of the EFL nations were usefully familiar with English, and that around a billion people currently use it in varying degrees and for various purposes, in almost a 2-to-1 ratio of non-natives to natives.

Variety

The diversity of English has always been so great that efforts have often been made to distinguish between a ‘proper’ or ‘correct’ core, almost always a minority form associated with class and education, and other forms that are closer to or further away from that core, which is usually perceived as the standard language. There are four ways in which this kind of distinction has been made:

Language and dialect.

The use of such terms as LANGUAGE and DIALECT for mutual definition is common to most European languages, but there is a paradox in how they are used and understood. Although a language is widely seen as being ‘made up’ of dialects, there is nonetheless in every language a single form held to be superior to all dialects: the social, literary, and educational standard. In this tradition, English paradoxically contains its dialects while standing apart from them. Linguists have sought to overcome the problem by treating STANDARD English as another dialect, the standard dialect, whose generally assumed superiority and prestige are not attributable to intrinsic merit but rather to social utility. Because of its status, this dialect has diversified in ways that make it the only one that can be used in discussing such matters as philosophy, economics, and literature. However, although a perception of the standard as also being a dialect may be helpful in social and educational terms (making it first, as it were, among equals), tensions persist between speakers whose usage is judged (more or less) non-standard and those whose usages (more or less) fit the norm.

Language and lect.

Sociolinguists have created such terms as acrolect, mesolect, and basilect from the root element of dialect. At first the terms referred, respectively, to the high, middle, and low forms of CREOLE languages, when compared with the standard form of the language on which they are based: for example, the acrolectal form of Jamaican Creole is that form perceived by sociolinguists and others as closest to standard English, while its basilect is the form or forms farthest removed from standard English, its mesolects jostling for space somewhere between. The terms have, however, been extended in recent years to refer to positions on the continuum of all relationships in any language complex. From this viewpoint, standard English is an acrolect in a firmament of other assorted lects.

Language and variety.

In order to avoid the social and class implications of such terms as dialect and lect, scholars have in recent years often preferred the neutral term VARIETY. Here standard English is one variety among others (whether it is first among equals or unequals), and in turn has its own (sub)varieties. The standard and its varieties are used for one range of purposes, Scots, Cockney, and their equivalents and all their varieties for other purposes, and Jamaican Creole, Krio, and their equivalents and all their varieties for others still. By and large, this approach has proved useful and even emollient. Variety coexists with dialect and lect and enables diverse difficult issues to be examined and discussed in non-adversarial ways. It does not, however, change the general perception of one English that is, in effect, more equal than the others, an ‘educated’ variety that spreads into a vast periphery of other (usually ‘uneducated’) varieties.

The Englishes and the English languages.

The most radical departure in recent years looks at English not as singular but plural: in effect, a family like the Germanic languages. In such a view, the term ‘English’ has always covered more than one language: Old English different from Modern English; Scots different from English (both being Germanic languages as distinct as Dutch and Frisian in the Netherlands, or Dano-Norwegian and Nynorsk in Norway). In addition, Krio in Sierra Leone, Kriol in Australia, and Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea, etc., are so different from the core that they are ‘English-based’ rather than ‘English’. The commonest term for the plurality of English, especially in Africa and Asia, is the New Englishes, referring to varieties that have grown up in territories once controlled or greatly influenced by the UK and the US. An even more controversial expression is the English languages, which places the main varieties of English on a par with such groups as the Romance languages and Slavonic languages.

Many kinds of more or less marginal usage occur every day. In code-switching, a mix of English and Hindi (or Spanish, or Tagalog, etc.) may be more English one moment, more Hindi the next; it is often hard to indicate precisely when speakers cross the border between two otherwise distinct languages, as for example English and French in Montreal, Quebec. One group of English-speakers may refuse to confer equivalent status on another (‘They don't really speak English’), on weak grounds such as differences of accent or on strong grounds such as general unintelligibility. However, there is nothing new in this.

Diversity

Regardless of the terminology they might use, few scholars have supposed that there is only one monolithic English; rather, the problem has been how to reconcile one label with the many facets of the thing so labelled. English was diverse when it began and has continued to be diverse. Until the Union of the Parliaments (1707), the varieties used in England and Scotland were no less distinct than the different but closely related Spanish and Portuguese, but a consequence of the Union was the subordination of Scots (the English language of Scotland) to English (the English language of England) and a blurring of its ancient distinctness. In large part, the generic name English contributed to the assumption even among Scots that there was only one English language properly so called. In the same century, however, the American Declaration of Independence (1776) marked the creation of a new national and linguistic ‘pole’: a second national variety of the standard language that had been disconnected from London and the institutions of England. In the later 20c, Australia had begun to create the institutions of yet another national standard, while at the same time the concept of national standards has begun to spread: if there could be acknowledged varieties of the standard in two long-established autonomous nations, there could be further such varieties elsewhere.

National standards

The question has become: how many such standards are there (or can there be), and how do (or should) they relate to each other? In the last two decades, there has been a thoroughgoing reconsideration of the idea of a standard language or dialect or variety. Effectively, this is as much a political as a linguistic issue. In places once diffident about their English and accustomed to being patronized (such as Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, and Scotland), the possibility that they too either have or could have their own standard has led to such works as ‘The Accents of Standard English in Scotland’ ( David Abercrombie, in Languages of Scotland, edited by A. J. Aitken and Tom McArthur, 1979) and In Search of the Standard in Canadian English (edited by W. C. Lougheed, 1985). Whereas few disagree that there is a national standard for the US and for England (or Britain), many are dubious about a standard Australian or an Irish standard, while others doubt that there is even such an entity as Indian English out of which a standard might grow. The debate proceeds, and institutions are emerging (linguistic surveys, dictionaries, publishers' house styles, centres of language study) that increasingly serve to reinforce and even extend claims that once seemed both radical and slightly absurd.

See HISTORY OF ENGLISH, STANDARD ENGLISH.

THE WORLD DISTRIBUTION OF ENGLISH

The territories in which English is a significant everyday language, in alphabetic order according to regions of the world, are:

Africa and the western Indian Ocean.

Botswana, British Indian Ocean Territory, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The mainland Americans and the South Atlantic.

Argentina, Ascension (Island), Belize, Bermuda, Canada, the Falkland Islands, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, St Helena, Surinam, Tristan da Cunha, the United States.

Asia.

Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cyprus, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Kuwait, Malaysia, the Maldives, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam.

The Caribbean.

Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, St Christopher and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Virgin Islands (American and British).

Europe

The Channel Islands, Gibraltar, the Irish Republic, the Isle of Man, Malta, the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland).

Oceania

Australia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Hawaii (in the US), Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Western Samoa.

It is not always easy to establish whether English has a constitutionally endorsed status in the territories in which it plays a role. It might be expected to have such a status in the UK and the US, but does not; in both it is a de facto rather than a de jure official language, although in a number of US states it is formally endorsed as the official language: see ENGLISH LANGUAGE AMENDMENT. English has generally acquired legal status only when a government has concluded that explicit recognition is necessary, usually to establish it as a sole medium or a comedium of administration and education. In the following countries, English has a statutory role: Botswana (with Setswana), Cameroon (with French), Canada (with French), Gambia, Ghana, India (with Hindi), the Irish Republic (with Irish Gaelic), Lesotho (with Sesotho), Malawi (with Chichewa), Nigeria, Pakistan (with Urdu), Papua New Guinea (with Hiri Motu and Tok Pisin), the Philippines (with Filipino), Seychelles (with Creole and French), Sierra Leone, Singapore (with Mandarin Chinese, Malay, and Tamil), the Solomon Islands (with Solomon Islands Pidgin English), South Africa (with Afrikaans, Ndebele, Pedi, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu), Swaziland (with Siswati), Tanzania (with Swahili), Uganda, Vanuatu (with French and Bislama), Zambia, Zimbabwe.

ENL, ESL, AND EFL TERRITORIES

The global distribution of English is often currently described in terms of English as a Native Language (ENL), English as a Second Language (ESL), and English as a Foreign Language (EFL):

1. ENL territories.

Most people in ENL territories have English as their first and often only language. There are two groups: (a) English profoundly dominant: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Ascension Island, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Dominica, England, the Falkland Islands, Grenada, Guyana, the Isle of Man, Jamaica, Montserrat, Northern Ireland, St Christopher and Nevis, St Helena, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States of America (but see next), the Virgin Islands (American and British). (b) At least one other language significant: Canada (French), Channel Islands (French), Gibraltar (Spanish), the Irish Republic (Irish Gaelic), Liberia (various Niger–Congo languages), New Zealand (Maori), St Lucia (Creole French), Scotland (Scottish Gaelic, and Scots if defined as a distinct language from English), South Africa (Afrikaans; various Bantu and Khoisan languages), Wales (Welsh). Some commentators argue that the US is, or will soon be, a member of this group, with Spanish as the other nationally significant language.

2. ESL territories.

Many people in ESL territories use English for various purposes, and in some English has an official, educational, or other role. English may be generally accepted or more or less controversial. The territories are: Bangladesh, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Cook Islands, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Western Samoa, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

3. EFL territories.

The rest of the world. English may be more or less prestigious and more or less welcome in particular places. Many people learn it for occupational purposes and/or as part of education and recreation, at school or in college, or its acquisition may be casual and haphazard, in the family or the workplace, or on the street. Competence varies across a gamut from fluent to a smattering gleaned for limited purposes.

Provisos.

These categories need to be buttressed by certain provisos regarding, among other things, the varieties of English used in ENL territories, the existence and use of related English-based creoles in both ENL and ESL territories, and the presence of communities of native speakers in some EFL territories.