UNIVERSITY OF

GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Dissertation submitted as part of the requirements of a BA (hons) in English Language and

Linguistics at the University of Gloucestershire

SUBMITTED BY

PHAM THI THANH TAM S4115009

GUIDED BY
Tran Tin Nghi
 1. World Englishes meaning

English is presently spoken in over a hundred countries. American English, Australian English,
Babu English, Banglish, British English, Canadian English, Caribbean English, Chicano English,
Chinese English, Denglish (Denglisch), Euro-English, Hinglish, Indian English, Irish English,
Japanese English, New Zealand English, Nigerian English, Philippine English, Scottish English,
Singapore English, South African English, Spanglish, Taglish, Welsh English, West African
Pidgin English, and Zimbabwean English are all varieties of World English. (Nordquist, 2019)

Linguist Braj Kachru divides World English variations into three concentric rings in his work
"Squaring Circles," published in the International Journal of Applied Linguistics (Kachru , 2016)
. Although these labels are imprecise and, in some cases, misleading, many scholars agree with
[academic author and writer,] Paul Bruthiaux, [Ph.D.,] that they provide "a useful shorthand for
classifying contexts of English worldwide." Kachru also includes a basic visual of the World
Englishes circle concept in the presentation "World Englishes: Approaches, Issues, and
Resources." (Nordquist, 2019)

In his book "The Language Wars," author Henry Hitchings observes that the term "world
English" "is still in use, but is contested by critics who believe it strikes too strong a note of
dominance." (Hitchings, 2012).

PART 1 :English as a global language, its pros, and cons.

A global language allows people from diverse cultures to communicate with one another.
Language has always been at the center of cultural identity. A global language bridges
communication gaps and allows people to better comprehend one another's cultures.

Since the 1970s, the rise of globalization and neoliberalism has resulted in unprecedented levels
of international trade and business between different countries. In order to acquire from or sell to
a business partner in another nation, you must communicate efficiently and precisely.
Fortunately, a global language removes the communication barrier, allowing for greater
international trade and economic growth opportunities.

The "Language Barrier Index (LBI)" "quantifies international language barriers by measuring
the dissimilarity between trading partners' main languages." (Lohmann et al., 2011)
Despite the fact that it includes a highly hard mathematical calculation, it illustrates the benefit of
having a single global language. Lohmann discovered, using the LBI, that "language barriers are
a significant deterrent to bilateral trade." An rise of 10% in the Language A 10% rise in the
Language Barrier Index might result in a 7% to 10% decline in bilateral trade flows." (Lohmann
et al., 2011)

There are much more drawbacks to having a global language than the one I'll mention in this
section. However, I'd like to investigate this one because it has a direct bearing on the field I'm
currently studying.
 Having a global language has given scientists access to a vast amount of literature from all over
the world, but it has also presented significant challenges for non-native English speakers.
"They're scientists," you may be thinking. "Why do scientists need adequate English language
skills to get their papers published?" Scientists who want their work to be acknowledged
internationally must attend English-language conferences or talks and read English-language
scientific articles. (Huttner-Koros, 2015) According to The Atlantic, 80% of scientific
publications were written in English. The text also mentions that "a journal published in a
language other than English must at the very least include English abstracts." (Huttner-Koros,
2015)

According to a BBC , 400 languages have died extinct in the previous century - around one every
three months - and 50% of all existing languages will become extinct in the next century (Nuwer,
2014) Needless to say, this is concerning, because an extinct language represents the loss of a
distinct civilization. People who can communicate in a global language have more opportunities
for employment, education, and overall success. As a result, some minority language speakers
assume that acquiring a global language will provide them with financial benefits (Nuwer,
2014) .Furthermore, as our cultures become more interconnected as a result of globalization, the
takeover of minority languages by a global language becomes more likely.

Finally, a global language has advantages and downsides. Its strong aspects include improving
cross-cultural contact and setting the door for more international trade between countries. Its
disadvantages include the difficulties it presents for non-native speakers in the sciences
(particularly when it comes to publishing scientific material) and its role in the extinction of
minority languages.

1. Kachru's Three Concentric Circles of English

Kachru built a model of the many usage of English across the world. This model is made up of
three concentric circles, which he labels as the inner circle, outer circle, and expanding circle.
(Quirk et al., 1985)

1) The inner circle

The inner circle includes the 'traditional bases' of English, such as the United Kingdom, the
United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and anglophone Canada. English is considered a
'first' language in several nations.

2) The outer circle

The outer circle includes places where English is not spoken natively but is nonetheless used for
communication (e.g., as an official'second' language or as the nation's official language for
business and trade), owing to historical causes. Kachru classifies these countries as 'norm-
developing', implying that the inner circle's norms are further developed and replicated in the
outer circle.
3) The expanding circle

The growing circle contains much of the rest of the world's population - nations that do not see
English as historically or politically significant, but instead regard it as a foreign language or
lingua franca. These countries are 'norm-dependent,' meaning they are completely reliant on the
norms created by the inner circle's native speakers.

Figure 3: Kachru’s Concentric Circles of English

Source: (Kachru's three concentric circles of English I - researchgate)

PART 2 : The historical background of the American and canadians language

In a speech delivered in 1857 to the Canadian Institute by the Reverend A. Constable Geikie, the
term "Canadian English" was first mentioned (Dollinger, 2016) . The French language, which
was brought to Canada by French immigrants in the 17th century, was one of the early impacts
on Canadian English. French phrases and idioms have found their way into Canadian English,
particularly in the fields of gastronomy, politics, and social life. (Boberg, 2014) British English,
which was brought to Canada by British settlers in the 18th and 19th centuries, had a significant
impact on Canadian English. Many terms and idioms in Canadian English have been taken from
British English, including truck, flat, and elevator. However, Canadian English evolved its own
lexicon, which includes terms such as tuque, chesterfield, and double-double. (Chambers, 2009).

Before we look at the features of English as spoken by Canadians, let us first ask why English is
spoken in Canada. The explanation lies in the nation's history, which was colonized in the 1600s
by the English and the French, who progressively lost control of the region. The British monarch
is still the head of state of Canada, which is a Commonwealth nation.
The expansion of Canadian media, including as television, cinema, and literature, has also
contributed to the development of Canadian English. Chambers (1998) observes that the
Canadian media has contributed to the development of new terms and idioms that represent
Canadian culture and values. Canadian organizations like the CBC and the Canadian Oxford
Dictionary have also contributed to the promotion and definition of Canadian English.
(Canadian English 2023)

Canadian delicate was a class-based sociolect that was once part of Canadian English. In the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Canadian dainty was distinguished by the adoption of
some characteristics of British English pronunciation, producing in an accent akin to, but not
identical to, the Mid-Atlantic accent known in the United States. Following World War II, when
it was branded as pompous, this accent fell in popularity and is now practically never heard in
current Canadian society outside of archive recordings utilized in film, television, or radio
documentaries. (Sathiyanathan , 2017)

As a result, English is the official language of Toronto and the other major cities. Over time, the
descendants of the English immigrants developed their own dialect of British English, known as
Canadian English. Canadian English is more true to the mother language than American English,
retaining the British forms of 'theatre,' 'centre,' and 'color' but also adopting characteristics of
American English. Verbs ending in '-ize' in Canadian orthography (often spelt '-ise' in British
English) use the '-ize' form, as in American English. In terms of pronunciation, Canadian English
is more loyal to British subtleties than American English, which has 'flattened' numerous sounds.
(Eurotrad, 2023)

In summary, Canadian English's history reflects the country's rich linguistic and cultural legacy.
While numerous terms and idioms from other languages have been acquired by Canadian
English, it has also evolved its own particular lexicon and pronunciation that reflects the
country's distinct identity. (Sankoff et al., 2008)

VOCABULARY

Our anglophone forefathers in Canada meet new flora, animals, and landscapes, resulting in the
creation of new C.E. terms, and the process has continued ever since. As with all varieties of
English, there are three common methods for developing new CE vocabulary. The first is to
expand or modify the meaning of existing English terms. Political terms such as Confederation
(Canadian Confederation) or a riding (electoral district).

For example:

Canuck (Canadian)

(liberal),
grif
 Blunosers (Nova Scotians), (Nova Scotians),

a brown cow (the drink)

Spud Islanders (from Prince Edward Island). (from Prince Edward Island).

The borrowing of new terms from other languages is the second main way that C.E. vocabulary
has grown. Caribou (both the animal/meal and a Quebec wine/whisky), chipmunk (from
Ojibwa), igloo (Inuktitut 'home'), and mukluk (first and Inuit boo) are all loan terms from
aboriginal languages. Famous French terms taken into C.E. for example :

Tourtière Meat pie

Toque or tuque The hat

Walk nonchalantly
sashay

A third method that C.E. vocabulary has evolved is through the creation of terms from English
materials. Two instances spring to mind: First Nation, Nanaimo Bar, New Canadians, and
Separate School. Medicare (medical + care), permafrost, Petrocan, and splake are all used in
blends. Words like Expo (from exhibition), hydro, and Mountie are examples of C.E.
abbreviations. A blueberry buckle, dew-worm, eavestrough, humidex, insulin, kerosene, loonie,
ski-dô, and Velcro are all examples of famous C.E. coinages that commonly describe new
innovations. While not all of these Canadianisms may be part of one's everyday vocabulary, I
expect that many of them are familiar to and used by anglophone Canadians. According to
Crystal (Crystal, 2005, p.342) in his Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language.
However, a number of these Canadianisms and others (for example, kayak, parka, reeve,
skookum, hockey technical words, and so on) have grown so common that they are now part of
what he refers to as Word Standard English.
GRAMMAR

Because English grammar is uniform across the board, there aren't as many C.R. grammatical
features. Let me give you two examples. The first is that C.E. speakers/writers can and do use
either the -t or -ed form, or both, for the English past tense and past participle in some verbs,
such as Knelt/Kneeled, leaped/leaped, learned/learned, e] and so on. Although not provided as a
standard, in my experience, I use some of these interchangeably (burnt/burned, spelled/spelled),
but others are more fixed. ''I dreamed,'' seems unusual to me, therefore I prefer ''dreamt,'' as do
knelt and leaped. Although C.E. dictionaries include both -t and -ed forms, no research on each
frequency, particularly in speech, has been conducted to my knowledge. The way the term
"Canada" is employed is another clear grammatical trait of C.E. On the one hand, as in the
Canada Council or the Canada Cycle Corporation, this word is frequently employed as an
adjective. On the other hand, "Canada" is often used in the names of government institutions
(Statistics Canada, Parks Canada), corporations (Air Canada, Petro Canada, Bell Canada), and
magazine titles (Nature Canada, Ski Canada) in C.E. with French syntax.

SPELLING

What Clarke refers to as "the hobgoblin of Canadian English spelling" (Clarke, Focus on Canada
1993) is difficult to generalize. C.E. dictionaries frequently provide a variety of possibilities,
however there are two major categories of features. The first are the most common variants, such
as -size in verb ends (nationalize, publicize, synthesize) and -re in noun endings (as in theatre,
center, fiber, meter, and so on). However, the center is no longer uncommon, and standard
English spellings for some words (for example, axe, catalog, cheque, dialogue, plow, etc.), while
some other words follow typical British spellings (syrup, pajamas), and still others use typical
American spellings (jail, tire). Second, beyond these fundamentally constant forms, there are
more changeable ones that vary with persons or areas, such as -ours. Most of Canada uses the -or
ending (color, honor, neighbor, amour, etc.), although the -or ending is more common in the
West (e.g., Alberta). Similarly, there is variation in how Canadians handle double the last "I" in
words like enroll, mesmerize, satisfy, traveler, and so on. To complicate matters, reference books
or word processing spell checkers based mostly on American dictionaries are used. It's no
surprise that we're rethinking the spelling habits we learned in school. Clarke writes, "All that
can be safely asserted of contemporary conventions of standard Canadian English spelling, when
there is a British/American choice, is that the norm is not yet to choose either indifferently for
the same word in the exact text" (Clarke, Focus on Canada 1993, p.59).

PRONUNCIATION / SPEAKING

CE speaking is likely the clearest indicator that someone acquired their English education in
Canada. Several examples of typical C.E. speech are visible, and I will go over a few of them
here. First, for C.E. speakers, several terms, can be pronounced in either the American or British
manner, or both.

AMERICAN BRITISH
 LABratory laBORatory
SKedjul (schedule ) SHedjul

inTRESting
inTEResting

TomEHto (tomato) tomAHto

Second, preceding voiceless consonants (such as stops /p/, /t/, and /k/ and fricatives /f/, //, /s/,
and /t/), Canadian ráiing with the initial element of a diphthong from /a/ to // or // with /-/ and /-u/
is typical. This is true for terms like about, out, type, house, ice, south, wife, and so on.
Third, C.E.'s speech demonstrates a lack of vowel distinction. This usually implies that phrases
like cot and catch, don and dawn, or yell and hauler have the same pronunciation for C.E.
speakers. Speakers of other types of English, such as American English, would recognize these
terms based on the vowel sounds they employ while pronouncing them. Abisheva, Whole
language in TESOL 2014, recognizes this distinction, gives useful vowel charts for C.E. and
American English (with which my students are often familiar), and discusses the practical
implications of phonetics in the ESL/EFL classroom. However, there is evidence that a vowel
shift occurs in C.E., including variable rounding of the unrounded vowel (Clarke et al., 2008)

Fourth, while not distinctive to CE, CE speakers utilize a voiced flap or tap more frequently than
other English variants. In this situation, a 't' letter in a word will frequently become a /d/ sound in
CE speech, as in the following examples: better, butter, Otatawa, water, and so on.

Fifth, Canadians and other anglophones are aware that CE speakers employ ''eh'' in a unique
way. This is because CE speakers use eh 1) more frequently than other English speakers and 2)
as a continuer in narrative discourse (i.e., ''I'' it's $2, huh?''). Although these eh serve grammatical
functions, they are typically found only in CE speech and not in writing. Finally, in addition to
the distinctions mentioned above, many CE speakers pronounce certain words differently than
those in other English varieties. Arctic, khaki, pacify, resources, and species are among the new
pronunciations. Compare the pronunciation guides for these terms in your CE dictionary to those
for other English variants. While you're at it, consult your CE dictionary to explore the additional
CE characteristics and modifications for vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and spêch mentioned
below.

To summarize, this profile of common CE features is not exhaustive but rather serves as an
introduction. What interests me is how these characteristics appear to be so constant, despite
their diversity. Despite the dominance of mostly American media in Canada, CE has maintained
this constancy and variation.
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