English is Everywhere: A Response to a Journalist (er, Prostitute)

My published response to “English Will Fragment Into ‘Global Dialects'”, by Laura Clout,The Telegraph, March 7, 2008:

English has never been standardized, even though a quasi-attempt has been made with Received Pronunciation. However, RP is simply an aural standard practice by an elite segment of the population and doesn’t apply to grammar or spelling.

Clout’s article makes a jump-cut of sorts, from British English to it’s implications for American English as a global standard:

“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.”

How does she or Dr. Crystal make this projection? This is irresponsible journalism.

As a TESOL educator with extensive travel experience, I can attest that most curricula in EFL classrooms is published in the UK, and foreign administrators still ignorantly associate the word “English” with “England”.

American English, while more traditional, is frowned upon. Eyebrows raise when I teach articulation of final r’s, aspiration in wh- words, and retention of the flat a sound in words like “can’t”.

American English was brought to the states a few hundred years ago. Our distinct dialect is a reflection of the old language. British English has modernized. Both have simplified over the years, note the changes above and the Great Vowel Shift in the United States. Both are valid and understandable, yet neither are the global standard.

It’s important to recognize the existence of differing World Englishes, however the examples provided are not exactly that. True, the Indian proclivity for present continuous tense with state verbs is a marked dialect of English. Singlish, Taglish, Chinglish,Spanglish, and so forth are not varieties of English, but evidence of linguistic code-switching and code-mixing among diverse cultures. I’m sure Dr. Crystal knows this, but the interviewer didn’t ask for clarification. That’s the irresponsible part.

Laura Clout has written about an interesting topic, but has failed to do her homework. The diversity of English dialects is old news, and the notion of a “Standard English” is an imperial myth.

English is everywhere, and noone owns it. That should be the main point.

My yankee two cents.