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The emergence of English
Brief notes on the origin of the English language
Brief notes on the origin of the English language
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Since the 16th century, the language of English, which in theory, stems from a small island between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea has, to an extent, stretched across the world, with as many as 50 countries now using it has their official language (British Council, 2013) in some form or another. This spread was seemingly due to several influential factors; the expansion of the British Empire, Britains leadership in the industrial revolution, American's economic and political ascendancy from the late 19th century and the spread of English through technology like the internet (E. Schneider, 2007: 1). From American English to Australian English, each country has socio-linguistically developed its own variety of English, through undergoing different processes of development and integration. The linguist, Kachru (1922), put forth a model to categorize these varieties of English, although whether the model is deemed Eurocentric or not is debatable, yet it does appear to be one of the more popular models which separates the 'world Englishes' into three concentric circles namely the inner, the outer and the expanding circle. These 'world Englishes', a contentious term to catalogue the varieties of English present are, for some, used in diverse contexts, such as for trade, business and international communication and are often linked to countries in the expanding circle of Kachru's model, like as Russia, Brazil and China (K. Bolton, B. Kachru, 2006: 225). This essay aims to detail a selected variety of English, known as 'China English' (a term first adopted by G. Chuangui, (1980: 2)), (although some may classify the English Language variety developing in China as 'Chinglish' (J. Liu, H. Tao, 2012: 146)), which argumentativel... ... middle of paper ... ...Communication. Bookcraft Ltd. p. 95/ 108 Pride. J and Liu. R., (1988). Some aspects of the spread of English in China since 1949. International Journal of the Sociology of Language. p. 74, 41 Radtke. O., (2007). Chinglish: Found in Translation. Gibbs Smith, Publisher. p. 8 Runqing. D, Yajun. J., (2001). The Review on the Study of China English in Recent 20 Years. Foreign Languages’ Teaching and Research, Vol. 1. p. 40 Xiaohong. J., (2001). China English in Cross-cultural Communication. The Journal of Si Chuan. Foreign Languages’ Institution, Vol. 6. p. 12 Yajun. J., (1995 (a)). Chinglish and China English. English Today, Vol. 41. p. 51 Yamashita. S, Bosco. J, Eades. J., (2004). The Making of Anthropology in East and Southeast Asia. Berghahn Books p. 164 Zhang. F., (2009). China English: Adaptation of English to Chinese Culture. Ludong University Press. p. 93