Varieties of English within the British Isles (Scottish English)

Varieties of English within the British Isles (Scottish English)

Global English

We live in a world of languages, where English has become a global language, by saying this we mean that it is used to connect the world on a global scale. English is a West German language that was first spoken in England. But now it is the most widely used in the world as it is spoken everywhere and nearly by everyone. The language is so widely used that it won’t be wrong to say that it’s a ‘world language’, or as it is more proper to say ‘lingua franca’.

Lingua franca is the common language used by different nations and communities across the world. ‘Lingua franca’ is used to make communication possible between people who are not sharing the same native language. As a rule ‘lingua franca’ is always distinct from both native languages of those to people. ‘Lingua franca’ carries the function of so called ‘bridge’ between nations. It is also called ‘trade language’ or ‘vehicular language’. Different lingua francas have developed around the world throughout human history for commercial reasons, for administrative and diplomatic convenience, for the information exchange between scientists or other scholars of different nationalities.

The spread of English language

English was spread by the British and the Americans with help of language planning policies, in order to gain control over the other countries. English is the language of colonizers and it may even cause the extinction of other languages if everyone speaks it. There is a great variety of so called ‘englishes’ and these varieties appeared because in different parts of the world people adapted English according to their pronunciation rules. With the growth of the speakers of English, nowadays the language is one of the most widespread languages in the world with more than 400 million native speakers and approximately the same number who speaks it as a second language. It is taught in most of the countries and is continuing its spread across the world.

English is spoken on all five continents, and one of the main reasons for it is the colonial expansion during the last four centuries. Now obviously that colonial era is over, however, the consequences of it are still continuing to seep into light. As a result, nowadays English is often the official or the native language of the countries, which happened to be colonies.

Another legacy of colonialism is that English carries the role of lingua franca, as mentioned above lingua franca is the language used for general communication. In many countries, like for example in Nigeria, English is used as a general means of communication as there are many different and mutually unintelligible languages, so the existence of a lingua franca is a necessity.

From the 17^th century the English began to expand their language all over the world. This happened due to some important factors, such as the power of British Empire, the industrial revolution which was taking place in England for the first time or the supremacy of America in all over the world. In the range of other factors here should be mentioned that English is used by the international and multinational companies and industries, it is the official language of huge, influential countries and above all it’s the language of Internet.

English happens to play a central role as an international language. Kachru has discussed the power of English in many of his works. According to Kachru the language power is certainly connected with societal power. There are two hypotheses concerning language power: the intrinsic-power hypothesis and the acquired-power hypothesis. The first hypotheses claims that English would intrinsically possess certain linguistic characteristics which would make it a preferred language for international purposes. This position can seem similar to claims of racial superiority. The second hypothesis emphasizes the ways in which a language acquires power, and thus it is also easier to understand.

The fact is that English has spread as a result of exploitation and colonial expansion. In many former colonies of Britain, English is still the language of exclusive social elite. In their time the colonizers wanted to introduce their literature to the natives, but they themselves remained ignorant towards the literature and language of aborigines, in fact, this was a demonstration of control and domain of knowledge and information.

The most important reason for the success of English is the historical role as a colonial power. For example, in India the political power attributed a power to the language of the Raj, and it has also become a symbol of political power. English became a language of higher education, science, technology, commerce, etc. Gradually it became the main language of education and later it entered into people’s everyday life.

As it is mentioned above one of the most important factors for the expansion of English was industrial revolution. Britain was the leader of this revolution. A large number of manufacturing and production machinery were just some of the major technical advancements being pioneered there. The countries which wanted these advancements and needed new knowledge about them should have had basic knowledge of English, and this made the language internationally more powerful.

The other factor was American economic superiority and Political leadership. Though Britain had great political, economic and industrial power in the 18^th century, by the end of 19^th and at the beginning of the 20^th centuries the USA gained a greater economic and political superpower. During this time, the countries began to be involved in international organizations, and they needed to be able to communicate. So they decided that English would be the language used in their international interactions. The influence of United States was huge as it has 70 per cent of all native speakers of English in the world.

The next factor is the American technology leadership. After the World War II, mainly in 1980s and 1990s, the computer revolution began across the world. The first computers were invented in the US on purpose of defense. So it is logical that the language of computers should be English, besides the designing of computers with other languages was very expensive.

There were a number of other factors for the spread of English, such as:

· Advertising: From the 19^th century in many industrialized countries the use of advertisements in publication increased. It brought much money and more people were interested in it. Along with the growth of international market, the media spread in all parts of the world and became a global manifestation of English, especially American English.

· Broadcasting: The invention of the telegraph gave a great chance to English language. Britain was one those countries where telegraphs were widely used, naturally all the communications were made in English.

· Motion pictures: The development of cinema was made initially by France and England. Though after the World War I, America began to develop this film making industry and it is still dominant in this sphere. Later when sound was added to the films, it was spoken English which came to the movies.

· Popular music: The other important factor was the recording industry and here again English language was dominant. All the major recording companies had English - speaking origins, and when the popular music arrived, it was mostly in English. The music groups of English speaking nations, such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, dominated the music world. No other source has spread English around the world so rapidly as music did.

· International travel and safety: The medium in transportation accommodation is English. Equally, instructions about emergency procedures are in English.

· Education: Internationally, areas as science and technology have medium of English language to spread over the world their ideas. It is the main reason why many countries have adopted English as the chief languages in school. People all over the world should know English, especially if they are students, as most of the important words and information in the field of education are written in English.

Types of English pronunciation in British Isles

National language has two material forms:

· written – literary language

· spoken – speech of nation

The written form of a national language is generally accepted standard and is the same throughout country. The spoken form of the language is not uniform in all parts of the country, it may vary from locality to locality. Such distinct forms are called dialects. So along with the diversity of these accents and dialects, it is accepted to distinguish three large forms of pronunciation in England.

· RP southern English pronunciation

· Northern English pronunciation

· Standard Scottish pronunciation

RP is the abbreviation (Received Pronunciation) an accent which is described as ‘typically British’. Other terms for this accent are ‘the Queen’s English’, ‘Oxford English’ or ‘BBC English’, and they are a little misleading. The queen herself, for instance, speaks a unique form of English, while Oxford University English is not the same as BBC English. RP is an accent, not a dialect, since all RP speakers speak Standard English. RP is probably the most widely studied through the world, though only two per cent of the UK population speaks it. It is present even in Scotland and Northern Ireland but it is losing its prestige status in Wales. Therefore it is described as English, rather than a British accent.

RP is a young accent in linguistic terms. Like any other accent, RP has changed in the course of time. For example the pronunciation with early BBC announcements, now sound old fashioned. RP is constantly evolving, consequently our attitude towards the accent changes too. For a long period of time, RP represented the language of education, authority, wealth, social status and economic power. It was the period after Second World War, when education and social advancement became a possibility for many more people. Those who could take advantage of possibilities felt under the pressure to adopt RP accent or at least modify their speech according to it. This process submitted some changes in RP accent.

Northern English pronunciation

Northern England’s English is usually called Northern English, which is the pronunciation of those who was born and brought up in the regionbetween Birmingham and the border of Scotland. This is the pronunciation spoken in cities like Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool. It includes the North - East England dialects, such as Cumbrian, Yorkshire, etc. Northern English is one of the major groups of English dialects, other groups are East-Anglian English, East and West Midlands English and Southern English.

The most marked differences in the distribution of vowels are:

· The "short a " vowel of cat, trap is normally pronounced [a] rather than the [æ] found in traditional Received Pronunciation.

[a] for RP [ æ]

· The accents of Northern English generally don’t use [a:]

[æ] for RP[a:] e.g. cast is pronounced [kast] rather than [ka:st], and in some forms it is pronounced with the sound [æ].

· Northern accents don’t have [ʌ ] they use [u] for RP[ʌ]

e.g. look and luck, so this pair may be distinguished [lu:k] and [lʊk], respectively.

· [e] [e:] for RP [əɪ]

· [aː] for RP [ɑː]

e.g. words like palm, cart, start, etc.

· The vowel in dress, test, pet, etc. is slightly more open, transcribed by Wells as [ɛ] rather than [e].

· The phonemes [eɪ] (as in face) and [oʊ] (as in goat) are often pronounced as monophthongs (such as [eː] and [oː]).

However this differences and varieties in distribution of vowels, varies in different regions, and it is considered an indicator of a speaker’s social class.

Scottish English

Of the three Celtic areas left in present-day Britain, Scotland is definitely the one with the oldest tradition of English, both written and spoken. In Ireland literature in Irish developed only during the period of the Old English, and that had an influence even on the continental Europe. Writing in English only developed at the end of Middle English period. In Scotland, however, English was strongly established during the early period of Middle English, later it spread northwards from the Northumbrian dialect area. It is the area lying north of the river Humber and south of Cheviot mountains, which form a natural boundary between England and Scotland.

The term Scotland comes from the Latin word Scotti, which was originally a term for Irish people. These people settled in the western coast of Scotland and spread Christianity before England was converted from the south with the mission of Saint Augustine at the end of the 6^th century. The adjective ‘ Scottish ’ has two variant Scots and Scotch, which may be used with different meanings, for example the first one is used to refer to the particular variety of English spoken natively in Scotland. And the second one Scotch nowadays is referred to the country’s type of whiskey.

Scottish English refers to the varieties of English spoken in Scotland. The formal language in which people speak is the Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English. Standard Scottish English can be defined as “the characteristic speech of professional class and the accepted norms in schools.”

The type of English spoken in Scotland is much more difficult to define than anywhere in the UK. From the time of the Union of Parliaments in 1707, the official written language of Scotland mixed, and came to one level with that of England. So, Standard English has been used as the language of religion, education and government, gradually it became the socially prestigious form adopted by the middle class. So, during the following centuries Standard English continued to be spoken with a variety of local accents.

Nowadays, however, many Scots speakers separate Scots and Scottish English as different registers depending on social circumstances. In practice, the distinction between those who speak Scots and those who speak Standard Scottish English is rather blurred. One minute we can immediately differentiate a person according to which variety he or she speaks, and one moment it becomes difficult and even impossible. Especially in urban areas, speakers usually speak in both forms of the language. In other words, they speak Standard English mixed with the local accent.

The advance of English in Scotland was at the cost of Gaelic, which was pushed out of the Lowlands into the Highlands. The variety of English established itself at this early stage, developed into what is called Lallands (lowlands) and kept its identity up to the present- days. The speaker of English in the early period were usually the English settlers, they had been invited by the Scottish king to settle down there to live and to render the arable plain of the Lowlands. In the course of time and due to the mixed marriages and gradual assimilation of the Gaelic speaking community, Gaelic became weaker and weaker. And it finally disappeared in 18^th century.

In the 20^th century there could be distinguished at least four distinct varieties of Scottish English.

· Lallands: the most original of all varieties of Scottish English.

· Contact English: spoken by speakers of both Scottish Gaelic and English.

· Standard Scottish English: the flavored version of mainland British English (derived from RP)

· And 4^th: recently developed urban varieties spoken chiefly in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Phonology

In the area of phonology Scottish varieties show strong deviations from Southern British English. Syntactic peculiarities are found in the contact varieties of English and some syntactic characteristics have been retained from contact speech. The most archaic varieties of Scottish English have not gone through the Great Vowel Shift. The diphthong which nowadays we have in words like down is still represented by a monophthong [u:], while but sound is still an unshifted [u]. So, a number of Scottish characteristics are found. Most noticeable of those are in the area of phonology:

· A strongly retroflex [r]

· Lack of vowel length contrasts so that words like full and fool are homophones.

· Sound hw in words with the initial diagraph (which, what)

· The presence of [ei] for English [o:] in Scottish words like home, ghost.

· There’s a distinction between front and back short vowels before [r] as in germ [džɛrm] and burn [bʌrn].

· The inherited sound [x] is still found in traditional varieties and initial [h] as well as [ʍ] for [hw].

· [or] and [ur] are contrasted so that shore and sure are pronounced differently, as are pour and poor.

· [r] before [l] is strong

· [p], [t] and [k] are not aspirated in more traditional forms, but in current forms they a slightly aspirated.

· In most varieties there is no distinction [æ] – [a:], therefore the words like bath, trap, palm have the same vowel.

· [θs] is used in plural nouns (baths, youths, etc.)

Vowel length is generally regarded as non-phonemic, however the distinctive part of Scottish English is the Scots vowel length rule. Some vowels are generally long, but they are shortened before nasals and voiced plosives.

Grammar

Different types of Scottish English show different degrees of grammatical deviation from southern British English. For example the modal will stands for both shall and will and in passive form it is used with get. It is often used for compulsion.

e.g. I got told off. / You’ve got to speak to her.

Must is used to show uncertainty in both positive and negative sense.

e.g. She mustn’t be Scottish. Instead of She can’t be scottish.

The pronoun with – self is not used non-reflexively.

e.g. Himself isn’t at home yet. This means: The man of the house is not at home yet.

We have the abbreviated form of am + not is amn’t.

e.g. Amn’t I right?

Generic pronominal references tend to use – one rather than –body.

e.g. Someone has to do the work.

The future negation is formed with independent not.

e.g. She’ll not go home.

Lexis

Often, lexical differences between Scottish English and Southern Standard English are just differences in the distribution of shared lexis, for instance the use of ‘stay’ instead of ‘live’: (e.g. where do you stay?)

Scottish English inherited a number of lexical items from Scots, which are quite rare in form of Standard English.

Those items are wee, which is a Scots word for small child, bonnie for pretty, attractive, good looking, braw for fine, muckle for big, pinkie for little finger and other words from different parts of speech. The diminutive ending ‘ie’ is added to nouns to indicate smallness,

e.g. laddie and lassie for a young boy and young girl.

Other examples are peirie, sweetie, etc. this ending can be added to many words willy-nilly, for example a small shop can be wee shoppie.

The other item is the use of “how” meaning “why”, it is distinctive of Scottish, Northern English and Northern Irish English. So, “How no?” is used instead of “Why not?” and it has the same meaning.

In Addition to the differences mentioned above, Scottish English has distinctive vocabulary. This distinction has its factors, one of which is the Church of Scotland, local government, education and legal system.

The vocabulary of Scottish English is also rich in loanwords, which come from both Gaelic and Old Norse. From Gaelic we have words like loch - lake, burach - mess, cailleach – old woman. As for Old Norse I shouls mention the above mentioned examples: wee - small child, bonnie - handsome, braw - fine and so on.

Along with Standard Scottish English, Scots, a dialect inherited from Old English and closely related to Northumbrian dialects has kept its influence especially on rural communities. There have been heated debates among linguists for many years about the question whether Scots is a dialect or a distinct language in its own right. And it has recently been classified as a ‘traditional language’ by the Scottish Executive and recognized by the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages, but even in Scotland experts remain divided over the issue. But whatever its status is (language or dialect) the large numbers of speakers claim to speak Scots, not English. Scots has a sort of great value and literary tradition, as it dates back long before Robert Burns in the 18^th century and shows the contemporary authors.

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