Search results for 'tag:Dialects tag:English as a second language' matching tags 'Dialects' and 'English as a second language'

BOSNIANS NEEDED!!!

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:14:08 GMT

Hello, no I am not recruting for a bosnian army
I am doing a report on bosnian-american accents and dialects. If anyone who is bosnian and has learned english as a second language could talk to me and hopefully send an audio of a reading THAT would be very great!!! The report is on a DVD in documentary type format. I NEED BOSNIANS lol
thanks a lot
ashleigh

Re: Who's learning Indian English?

Marvin A. — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 16:36:10 GMT

Just who would that "we" be?

The "we" being most other speakers of other dialects of English. When "we" hear Indian-English, especially in places where that is very rare, such as here, we simply perceive it as being an English as a Second language non-native speaker of English, with grammar and pronunciation influenced by that person's native language. It doesn't matter whether it is considered by many to be a legitimate dialect of English, or even whether some people speak it natively. Anyway, the original question was *not* whether Indian English is a legitimate dialect of English, but *rather* whether one would see an advertisment for someone teaching Indian English to *native speakers* of American English. I can tell you right away, that no one would go for that (especially Americans), because of how Indian English is perceived. And even if it were not perceived in that way, speakers of one dialect of English do not make a habit of seeking instruction in another dialect of English simply to be able to communicate with someone who speaks in a different way. The only exception would be actors, etc.

For example, Standard American English, Southern English, Standard British English, and Standard Indian English may all be said to be standard dialects of the English language.

Standard Indian English may be considered a "Standard" form in that it has a *standardized* form, but that does not mean that it is perceived as being that way (by speakers of other varieties). To many speakers of English it simply sounds like an English as a Second language. But, maybe not to you. You may encounter Indian English fairly often. I'm just telling the opinion of someone from a place that has very few speakers of Indian English. In fact, I've only heard one person from India speak in my entire life--and they sounded like they were speaking RP.

Re: Vernacular speakers

milky — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 00:04:31 GMT

Marvin A.

<I'm not sure what exactly you mean by "vernacular speakers".> Those that speak a dialect which is not the standard or prestige form.

In general, yes - ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers already teach nonnatives world over, so we don't need to talk about nonnatives.

Re: British Pronounciation vs American Pronounciation

nona the brit — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 07:18:24 GMT

Something I find a little strange is when English learners decide to learn an accent of British English (for example the poster who said he had learnt Cockney English for 4 years). Why would you do that? I've also heard that people are learning Estuary English.

OK, very few people speak RP English now (in fact very few people ever spoke RP) but there is a general 'non-accent' English (I suppose this is what people are calling BBC) these days. Why Cockney and not Geordie, or Liverpudlian, or Glaswegian, or Bristolian if you want to learn a strong accent from a small area of Britain?

To be honest with you, the vast majority of people I meet who have English as a second language have an accent relating to their country of origin/original language, no matter whether they think they have or not. Why would you want to complicate this by adding in a touch of a regional British dialect on top?

I once met a man from Newcastle who taught English in Russia. We all (native Brits from elsewhere in the UK) had a few problems understanding him because of his strong accent anyway, so I do wonder how well his pupils are doing in the wider world...Newcastle/Russian mix?

So why do learners choose to learn a regional dialect?

Re: Why American English??

YoungCalifornian — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 01:05:29 GMT

Guest, I think you are in some form of denial. Of all the countries you've mentioned other than America and Britain, I believe that only in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa can it be said that English is the predominant language. While I would agree that the English spoken in Australia and New Zealand is far closer to British English, it really deserves it own category in my opinion. You've also neglected to mention the Canadians, whose brand of English is much closer to that of Americans. Furthermore, I would guess that the population of the United States exceeds those of Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa combined. So while American English may not be as widespread as you seem to think British English is, I would venture to say that it probably has just as many, if not more, speakers.

I'm also not quite sure how you've come to the conclusion that British English is more popular. Native speakers of English do not choose their dialect based on any preference, in fact they don't choose their dialects at all. Your dialect is the result of the region/class/ethnicity you are born into. Countries that look to British English as the standard do so because they were once British colonies, not because they found British English to be more pleasant that American English. It seems to me that the only way to compare the popularity of one English variant to another would be to poll those who use English as a second language. They are the only ones who would have chosen to use one form over another, and in such cases I would venture to guess that American English is just as "popular" as British English.

Lastly, why is this such a competition? I took a Linguistics course a few years back and one of the first things they told us was not view any manner of speaking as wrong. No dialect, my professor said, was superior or more correct than any other. So what do you mean that British English is "a lot more accurate"?

Here Is The Origin and History of The English Language

Guest — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 12:30:24 GMT

English is a Germanic Language of the Indo-European Family. It is the second most spoken language in the world.

It is estimated that there are 300 million native speakers and 300 million who use English as a second language and a further 100 million use it as a foreign language. It is the language of science, aviation, computing, diplomacy, and tourism. It is listed as the official or co-official language of over 45 countries and is spoken extensively in other countries where it has no official status. English plays a part in the cultural, political or economic life of the following countries. Majority English speaking populations are shown in bold.

Antigua
Australia
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Bermuda
Botswana
Brunei (with Malay)
Cameroon (with French)
Canada (with French)
Dominica
Fiji
Gambia
Ghana
Grenada
Guyana
India (with several Indian languages)
Ireland (with Irish Gaelic)
Jamaica
Kenya (with Swahili)
Kiribati
Lesotho (with Sotho)
Liberia
Malawi (with Chewa)
Malta (with Maltese)
Mauritius
Namibia (with Afrikaans)
Nauru (with Nauruan)
New Zealand
Nigeria
Pakistan (with Urdu)
Papua New Guinea
Philippines (with Tagalog)
Puerto Rico (with Spanish)
St Christopher and Nevis
St Lucia
St Vincent
Senegal (with French)
Seychelles (with French)
Sierra Leone
Singapore (with Malay, Mandarin and Tamil)
South Africa (with Afrikaans, Xhosa and Zulu)
Surinam (with Dutch)
Swaziland (with Swazi)
Tanzania (with Swahili)
Tonga (with Tongan)
Trinidad and Tobago
Tuvalu
Uganda
United Kingdom and its dependecies
United States of America and its dependencies
Vanatu (with French)
Western Samoa (with Samoan)
Zambia
Zimbabwe

This compares to 27 for French, 20 for Spanish and 17 for Arabic. This domination is unique in history. Speakers of languages like French, Spanish and Arabic may disagree, but English is on its way to becoming the world's unofficial international language. Mandarin (Chinese) is spoken by more people, but English is now the most widespread of the world's languages.

Half of all business deals are conducted in English. Two thirds of all scientific papers are written in English. Over 70% of all post / mail is written and addressed in English. Most international tourism, aviation and diplomacy is conducted in English.

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The history of the language can be traced back to the arrival of three Germanic tribes to the British Isles during the 5th Century AD. Angles, Saxons and Jutes crossed the North Sea from what is the present day Denmark and northern Germany. The inhabitants of Britain previously spoke a Celtic language. This was quickly displaced. Most of the Celtic speakers were pushed into Wales, Cornwall and Scotland. One group migrated to the Brittany Coast of France where their descendants still speak the Celtic Language of Breton today. The Angles were named from Engle, their land of origin. Their language was called Englisc from which the word, English derives.

An Anglo-Saxon inscription dated between 450 and 480AD is the oldest sample of the English language.

During the next few centuries four dialects of English developed:

Northumbrian in Northumbria, north of the Humber
Mercian in the Kingdom of Mercia
West Saxon in the Kingdom of Wessex
Kentish in Kent

During the 7th and 8th Centuries, Northumbria's culture and language dominated Britain. The Viking invasions of the 9th Century brought this domination to an end (along with the destruction of Mercia). Only Wessex remained as an independent kingdom. By the 10th Century, the West Saxon dialect became the official language of Britain. Written Old English is mainly known from this period. It was written in an alphabet called Runic, derived from the Scandinavian languages. The Latin Alphabet was brought over from Ireland by Christian missionaries. This has remained the writing system of English.

At this time, the vocabulary of Old English consisted of an Anglo Saxon base with borrowed words from the Scandinavian languages (Danish and Norse) and Latin. Latin gave English words like street, kitchen, kettle, cup, cheese, wine, angel, bishop, martyr, candle. The Vikings added many Norse words: sky, egg, cake, skin, leg, window (wind eye), husband, fellow, skill, anger, flat, odd, ugly, get, give, take, raise, call, die, they, their, them. Celtic words also survived mainly in place and river names (Devon, Dover, Kent, Trent, Severn, Avon, Thames).

Many pairs of English and Norse words coexisted giving us two words with the same or slightly differing meanings. Examples below.

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Norse --------------------English
anger --------------------- wrath
nay ----------------------- no
fro ------------------------ from
raise ---------------------- rear
ill -------------------------- sick
bask ---------------------- bathe
skill ----------------------- craft
skin ----------------------- hide
dike ----------------------- ditch
skirt -----------------------shirt
scatter -------------------- shatter
skip ----------------------- shift

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In 1066 the Normans conquered Britain. French became the language of the Norman aristocracy and added more vocabulary to English. More pairs of similar words arose.

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French----------------English
close-------------------shut
reply ------------------answer
odour -----------------smell
annual ----------------yearly
demand --------------ask
chamber--------------room
desire-----------------wish
power-----------------might
ire---------------------wrath / anger

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Because the English underclass cooked for the Norman upper class, the words for most domestic animals are English (ox, cow, calf, sheep, swine, deer) while the words for the meats derived from them are French (beef, veal, mutton, pork, bacon, venison).

The Germanic form of plurals (house, housen; shoe, shoen) was eventually displaced by the French method of making plurals: adding an s (house, houses; shoe, shoes). Only a few words have retained their Germanic plurals: men, oxen, feet, teeth, children.

French also affected spelling so that the cw sound came to be written as qu (eg. cween became queen).

It wasn't till the 14th Century that English became dominant in Britain again. In 1399, King Henry IV became the first king of England since the Norman Conquest whose mother tongue was English. By the end of the 14th Century, the dialect of London had emerged as the standard dialect of what we now call Middle English. Chaucer wrote in this language.

Modern English began around the 16th Century and, like all languages, is still changing. One change occurred when the th of some verb forms became s (loveth, loves: hath, has). Auxillary verbs also changed (he is risen, he has risen).

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The historical influence of language in the British Isles can best be seen in place names and their derivations.

Examples include ac (as in Acton, Oakwood) which is Anglo-Saxon for oak; by (as in Whitby) is Old Norse for farm or village; pwll (as in Liverpool) is Welsh for anchorage; baile (as in Balmoral) is Gaelic for farm or village; ceaster (as in Lancaster) is Latin for fort.

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Since the 16th Century, because of the contact that the British had with many peoples from around the world, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, many words have entered the language either directly or indirectly. New words were created at an increasing rate. Shakespare coined over 1600 words. This process has grown exponentially in the modern era.

Borrowed words include names of animals (giraffe, tiger, zebra), clothing (pyjama, turban, shawl), food (spinach, chocolate, orange), scientific and mathematical terms (algebra, geography, species), drinks (tea, coffee, cider), religious terms (Jesus, Islam, nirvana), sports (checkmate, golf, billiards), vehicles (chariot, car, coach), music and art (piano, theatre, easel), weapons (pistol, trigger, rifle), political and military terms (commando, admiral, parliament), and astronomical names (Saturn, Leo, Uranus).

Languages that have contributed words to English include Latin, Greek, French, German, Arabic, Hindi (from India), Italian, Malay, Dutch, Farsi (from Iran and Afganistan), Nahuatl (the Aztec language), Sanskrit (from ancient India), Portuguese, Spanish, Tupi (from South America) and Ewe (from Africa).

The list of borrowed words is enormous.

The vocabulary of English is the largest of any language.

Even with all these borrowings the heart of the language remains the Anglo-Saxon of Old English. Only about 5000 or so words from this period have remained unchanged but they include the basic building blocks of the language: household words, parts of the body, common animals, natural elements, most pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and auxiliary verbs. Grafted onto this basic stock was a wealth of contributions to produce, what many people believe, is the richest of the world's languages.