The Emergence Of New Englishes

“Authority and American Usage,” an interesting essay written by the brilliant and quick-witted David Foster Wallace, presents an argument on different ways of understanding the ever-changing American usage in the English language. Keeping up with the English language in America is like chasing your new, untrained puppy down the street. Tiring and basically impossible to get a hold of. Over the past centuries, the English language has evolved so much, that if you took a person from the 13th century and threw them in the middle of New York City in 2013, it would be as if two different languages were being spoken.

As society begins to change so do other aspects that are within that particular society. Within the articles “Why Good English is Good for You” by John Simon, “Do You Speak American” by Robert MacNeil, and “Lost in America” by Douglas McGrey, each author gives their own insight as to how social changes have impacted the language within America, as well as the implications of those changes. While they each argue different views on how those implications have benefitted or hindered the language, they all agree on the fact that the language is ever-changing.

The English language is always changing. It has been evolving slowly over time. The language that was spoken over 2,000 years ago is entirely different from the everyday language that we use today. In recent years, the English language has evolved rapidly due to the advancements of modern technology. Despite having pros and cons, technology has played an important role in changing the English language and the way we communicate with one another by using new forms of communication, terminology, and code switching between all the different languages.

Robert MacNeil, a writer of many great historical articles, was once, a journalist and news anchor. In his article, “English Belongs to Everybody”, MacNeil responds to the fear of many Americans who believe that Spanish will soon sweep over English. He argues that English can not be diluted by any other language as “it has prospered and grown because it was able to accept and absorb changes,”

“Intrinsic arguments describe the English language as providential, rich, noble and interesting. Such arguments tend to assert what English is and what other languages are not”. As mentioned previously, notwithstanding that the english language is widely-spoken around the world, diversity is important and for many individuals language is the basis of their culture. Making english the global language is essentially

This paper compares and contrasts American English and British English. Although English is the root of both versions, there still is quite a few differences. American and British English was created over time because of Europeans traveling from England to America long ago. Though American and British English are distinguishable, both Americans and Britons could understand each other when conversing since the versions of the English language are so closely similar.

According to Colin Goh, a Singaporean filmmaker, people always play with a language which is also the case with English and we are going to see the use of many vernaculars more and more in future. English has always evolved and this is simply the next step of its

“The History of the English Language”. http://www.uni-due.de/SHE/. Univ. of Duisburg Essen. April 2013. Web 4 Oct. 2013.

have you ever read an older piece of text and noticed anything different? such as the way the language was spoken/written. The reason our language differs from then is because of the influence of other languages around the English language its self. This influence help to create the modern English language we know today.

In more modern times the interaction of English speakers with other languages, through first colonialism, and later the emergence of English as a global language has enriched the vocabulary (‘pyjama’) and led to the evolution of different versions of English around the world, for example the hybrid ‘Singlish’ that has emerged in Singapore.

The English language has changed drastically over the years, but are we the reason that is has changed so much?  With the world constantly changing and evolving, the way we speak changes too; Many things such as technology, music, media, and new products have influenced the way that English is spoken today.

It is made very clear that many things have changed in the English language since Early Modern English. The largest change in the language since then is the vast amount of vocabulary that has been added. Many words have come from the fact that Britain was a world wide empire during the 18th and 19th centuries making it so that words from all over the world naturally became part of the English language. All of the changes in language over time lead up to the English that is spoken by nearly 375 million people all over the world. Starting from the early 500’s, as far as experts could trace back, to now English has spread from one corner of Europe to around the world.

Each colony created their own language which they spoke following this the languages continued to evolve and develop. Interestingly, there is no one universal English language or world standard of English, there are diverse varieties and accents differentiating each form of English spoken.

There are many people in society, especially those with a prescriptivist attitude, who strongly believe that the Standard is ‘intrinsically superior to other varieties’, as stated by K Burridge. It is clear however that this is not true, when one considers the ability of ethnolects and Aboriginal English to express identity and finer nuance. Ethnolects occur when features of someone’s first language or ‘mother tongue’ are adopted into their second language, in this case English. Features can include the phonological addition of vowel sounds to the ends of nouns e.g. bread /_/ (common to Greek and Italian); the

     “In the world were over seven thousand languages have exisisted, one language had become dominate. This dominant language is English.” “In the majority of countries throughout the world speak English as their second or first language, no longer just America or England.” English has taken many forms, American English, the Queen’s English, Australian, Canadian English, and several others. Even American English has taken several types of English, Jersey English, East Coast English, West Coast English, Southern English, slang English, and Ebonics. All of these languages have major variants between them, but are all of them are still understood aboard. Without English the world couldn’t operate,