B Y E U G E N I E B R A U N

A N D K A R O L I N A B U S C H M E I E R

Second Language Englishes:Asia and the Pacific

Outline

1. Introduction

2. Indian English

3. Singaporean English

4. Conclusion

Introduction

Categorization of Asian Englishes: regional andfunctional

regional:

South Asian (e.g. Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan,…)

Southeast Asian & Pacific (e.g. Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore,..)

East Asian (e.g. China, Hong Kong, Japan,…)

functional:

Outer Circle (e.g. India, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka)

Expanding Circle (e.g. China, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand)

South Asia South Asia

typically consists of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka

South Asian Englishes

Indian English

Pakistani English

South Asian Englishes

Indian English

English language policy:

“We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect…” (Macaulay‟s Minute from 1835)

General Information

200-333 million speakers of English in India – depending on the estimates – in a country over a billion people

Multilingualism

A businessman living in a suburb of Bombay:

“His mother tongue and home language is a dialect of Gujarati; in the market he uses a familiar variety of Marathi, the state language; at the railway station he speaks the pan-Indian lingua-franca, Hindustani; his language at work is Kachhi, the code of the spice trade; in the evening he watches a film in Hindi or English and listens to a cricket match commentary on the radio in English” (Pandit, in: Gargesh, p.91).

English Language Education

Three-Language-Formula

1. Language: mother tongue or regional standard

2. Language:

in Hindi-speaking states: modern Indian language (MIL) or English.

in non-Hindi-speaking states: Hindi or English

3. Language:

in Hindi-speaking states: English or MIL

in non-Hindi-speaking states: English or Hindi

English in the Media

Newspapers: published in about 100 languages

Radio: regional music, Bollywood film songs, news broadcast in Hindi and English

TV: English and Hindi dominate in the News; sports channel presents at least 25 percent in English

Private channels provide entertainment and information in various Englishes

Vowels Consonants

/e/ and /o/ as in faceand goat are realized as monophtongs, not diphtongs

Opposition between

/ʌ/ and /ə/, /a/ and

/ɔ/ and /ɛ/ and /æ/ not clear-cut

Affricates /ts/ and /dz/ are pronounced as palatal c and j

The internal fricatives θ and ð are non-existent and articulated as dental aspirated voiceless stop th

Variations in Phonology

Lexicon

Most noticeable changes in the lexicon:

Indigenous words in English:

Food: dosa, idli, vara, roti

Innovations:

Finger chips for French fries

full-boiled and half-boiled egg for hard- and soft-boiled eggs

Compounds:

Tool-down-strike

To chargesheet

To turnturtle

Code switching and code mixing

A Good morning.

B Good morning.

A Kya haal hen. (How are you?)

Kayi din se aap dikhai nahin diye. (I haven‟t seen

you for a long time.)

B Men Dilli gaya hua tha, ek selection committee ki

meeting thi. (I was away in Delhi. There was a

Selection Committee meeting.)

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asian Englishes

Singaporean English - History

1819: establishment of a trading outpost for the British East India Company

Rapid population growth due to Singapore‟s strategically ideal location; inhabitants are mainly of Chinese and Indian origin but also of European, Asian and mixed backgrounds

1867: Singapore becomes a crown colony

Increase of Singapore‟s importance as a trading center further increase of population

Composition of the society from the late 19th century until WWII:

European ruling class (10% of the population)

Asians “who managed to get by”

Growing Asian elite

Leaders of the Asian elite: subjects to the British crown blend of European and Asian culture

Expansion of government-run (i.e. English-medium) schools

After WWII: call for independence; 1959: Singapore gains self-rule

1965: achievement of independence

Modern Singapore: blend of western lifestyle and Asian traditions still upheld; Singaporean English as a means of expression of this Asian-European culture

Singapore English – Language Policy

Total population: ca. 3.2. million; three major ethnic groups: Chinese (77%), Malays (14%), Indians (8%)

Four official languages chosen in 1959: English (as lingua franca), Mandarin, Tamil, Malay (as mother tongues of the predominating ethnic groups)

Interestingly, practically no Chinese actually spoke Mandarin as a mother tongue and only 60% of the Indians used Tamil as home language

Ethnicity-based bilingualism as educational policy

First Language: English

Second Language: ethnic language of the student (i.e. Mandarin, Tamil or Malay)

Enables English to serve as a lingua franca in the multilingual Singaporean society BUT also prevents Asian languages from development into another lingua franca, thus putting an emphasis on English

Practically no real choice of one‟s ethnic language (students having neither Mandarin nor Tamil nor Malay as mother tongues virtually have to learn two foreign languages )

recent development in the case of non-official Indian varieties: some of them are offered; however, they are not taught as regular school subjects but as community-run weekend classes and are not supported by the government (the state does not provide facilities or teacher training)

In 2009 the former Singaporean PM Lee admitted that the bilingual education system had serious flaws and that it had been a wrong way from the start; currently, the bilingual education system (esp. the mother tongue issue) is being revised

Formal vs. Informal

formal level: Singapore Standard English

informal level: Singapore Colloquial English/Singlish (since the late 1970s)

Singlish = "broken" English

A "badge of identity" (Gupta, 1994) and "qualifies as a dialect to express emotionality and proximity or to play with, a language of one„s heart, an identity carrier" (Schneider, 2009)

Regarded rather as a handicap by the government launch of the "Speak Good English Movement" as an attempt to eradicate Singlish "If we speak a corrupted form of English that is not understood by others, we will

lose a key competitive advantage. My concern is that if we continue to speak Singlish, it will over time become Singapore's common language. Poor English reflects badly on us and makes us seem less intelligent or competent." (PM Goh, 2000)

Highly popular among the population according to a study 41% of the respondents stated that they do not need to speak

good English

Features of Singapore English - Phonology

no difference between long and short vowels

"marry" = "merry" = "Mary" (pronounced with an /ɛ/)

"come" = "calm" (pronounced with /ʌ/)

omission of dental fricatives

/θ/ and /ð/ /t/ and /d/, sometimes also /f/ and /v/, rarely /s/ and /z/

word-final cluster simplification

/lift/ /lif/

word-final fricatives always voiceless; no vowel shortening before voiceless fricatives

"rice" = "rise"

"leaf" = "leave" = "live"

usually non-rhotic but younger speakers tend to use the post-vocalic /r/

Features of Singapore English - Grammar

Word order in indirect questions

"May I ask where is the stamp counter?"

Deletion of the indefinite article

"May I apply for car license?"

Unmarked verb forms

"He always go there every Saturday"

Standard SingE does not differ considerably from Standard BrE; Singlish, however, does

Features of Singlish- Grammar

Inversion ("is it" as a standard tag question)

"You're teaching us today, is it?"

Copula deletion

"X a teacher" instead of "X is a teacher"

Interrogatives: only "why" and "how" have to be at the sentence-initial position

"How you on the computer?"

"She eat what?"

Null subject (perhaps influenced by Chinese)

" so in the end ... Ø didn't didn't try out the rides, so initially Ø want to to take the ferris wheel "

Deletion of object pronouns

"Sorry, we don't have" instead of "Sorry, we don't have it"

Lack of "if"

"Got money, I would see the movie"

Topic prominence

"Play soccer he very good also"

Features of Singapore English - Vocabulary

Incorporation of loan words from other languages spoken in Singapore

"kiasu" = "fear of losing out" from Hokkien (Chinese dialect)

"makan" = "to eat" from Malay

Hybrid compounds

"botak head" = "bald head"

Phraseology

"catch no ball" = "fail to understand"

Shift of meaning

"send" = "to accompany someone"

Singlish – Pragmatic Particles

mostly loans from Cantonese and Hokkien

usually clause-final

used to indicate the speaker's attitude to what he is saying

examples:

"This is lobster, ah?" "Lobster lah"

"Scared, why you scared lor?" assertive "lor" indicates that there is no reason to be scared

Conclusion

Policy of bilingualism as the main characteristic of both (post-colonial) India and Singapore

Same starting point, different ways:

India: English as an associate official language; does not endanger indigenous varieties

Singapore: English as the First Language; three ethnic languages chosen as further official languages, disregarding other existing ethnic varieties

Outcome:

Huge problems with the system of education in Singapore

Singlish as a language phenomenon

References

Gargesh, Ravinder, South Asian Englishes, in: Kachru, Bral B., Kachru, Yamuna, Nelson, Cecil L. (Ed.): The Handbook of World Englishes, Blackwell 2006.

Jenkins, Jennifer, World Englishes. A resource book for students, London u.a. 2006.

http://www.lingref.com/isb/4/047ISB4.PDF

http://www.littlespeck.com/content/education/CTrendsEdu-091219.htm

http://www.angelfire.com/planet/lemon_sce/index.htm

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http://www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg/shastxt.html