English Will Fragment into "Global Dialects"

By Laura Clout
Traditional English is set to fragment into a multitude of dialects as it spreads around the world, a language expert claims.

Professor David Crystal, one of the world's foremost experts on English, said people will effectively have to learn two varieties of the language - one spoken in their home country, and a new kind of Standard English which can be internationally understood.

	Chinese students in an English class. Traditional English could one day become a family of languages, just as Latin once did

The English spoken in countries with rapidly-booming economies, such as India and China, will increasingly influence this global standard, he said.

In future, users of global Standard English might replace the British English: "I think it's going to rain", with the Indian English: "I am thinking it's going to rain", Prof Crystal argues.

This could spell the end of the dominance of American English as the prevailing language of international affairs.

Prof Crystal said: "In language, numbers count. There are more people speaking English in India than in the rest of the native English-speaking world.

"Even now, if you ring a call centre, often it's an Indian voice you hear at the end of the phone. As the Indian economy grows, so might the influence of Indian English.

"There, people tend to use the present continuous where we would use the present simple. For example, where we would say: "I think, I feel, I see" a speaker of Indian English might say: "I am thinking, I am feeling, I am seeing". This way of speaking could easily become sexy and part of global Standard English."

Prof Crystal was speaking in advance of a lecture last night at the University of Winchester, on the growth and evolution of the English language.

He predicts English will become a family of languages, just as Latin did a thousand years ago.

"In much the same way as regional dialects developed, as English grows around the world it is immediately adapted to suit the local circumstances," he said.

"There are older varieties of English such as American, South African, Australian, and emerging varieties like Nigerian, Ghanaian and Singaporean."

However, some of the new dialects are so individual that speakers of British English would be at a loss to understand them, he said.

"In Singapore for example, 'Singlish' is used on the streets but it involves so much Chinese that you and I wouldn't understand it."

The language is in effect developing along two parallel tracks, Prof Crystal said, a phenomenon called diaglossia.

"These new dialects are expressing local attitudes which people feel very strongly about as a way of expressing who they are.

"But at the same time it is very important that there is full international intelligibility. That is fostering the development of what once upon a time we would have called Standard English - which is used in newspapers, textbooks and the like."

The lecture was held to launch the campaign for The English Project, which hopes to be the world's first living museum dedicated to the history and evolution of the English language.

The attraction, based in Winchester, Hants is set to open in Spring 2012, telling the story of the language from Anglo-Saxon times to the present.

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Varieties of standard spoken English

Indian: He’s a real enthu guy.

British: That guy is really enthusiastic.

South African: Jislaaik, china, I was in a bit of a dwaal.

British: Gosh, my friend, I was in a bit of a daze.

Australian: Bring your bathers, chuck some stubbies in the esky and we’ll have a barbie this arvo.

British: Bring your swimming costume, put some beers in the cool box and we’ll have a barbecue this afternoon.

Singaporean/Singlish: Dis guy Singlish damn powerful one leh.

British: This person’s Singlish is very good.

Nigerian Pidgin: I no know wetin u dey yarn.

British: I don’t know what you are talking about.

Islander Creole (from Colombian islands of San Andrés and Providencia): Da wan gud ting se di pikniny dem laan fi riid an rait.

British: It is a good thing that the children learn to read and write.

Cockney rhyming slang: She has such long bacons and lovely minces.

British: She has such long legs and lovely eyes.

Txt speak: "D gr8st booty of r heritage S d en lgn, n itz r gr8st gft 2 d wrld"

British: "The greatest treasure of our heritage is the English language, and it is our greatest gift to the world."

More at: www.telegraph.co.uk

English Will Fragment into "Global Dialects"