worldenglishes

[worldenglishes]

Uglish (Ugandan English) : A Practical Guide

All languages change and evolve over time as they are used in different places. English is no different (lol there’s also Ugandan swahili, but that’s for another time).  However, Ugandanised English, or (Uglish) could be a bit of a culture shock to tourists and other foreigners. There are some phrases which have been “localised” from European or North American English that native speakers might struggle to understand (but should know) when communicating in Uganda.  Fail to learn them at your own peril. They have found their way into the common vernacular with such regularity that they can be heard in schools, parliament, you name it!

While English is the official language in Uganda remember that it is not most people’s native language and translation is still occurring which results in verb trouble such as, “Me I”,  or “Me am” or phrases like, “sometimes back”, “discuss about”, “meet me those ends”, or “how comes?”

We’ve compiled a small guide to help you find your way:

“Please extend”

When looking for a little space to sit down, Ugandans will say, “Please extend!” They are not wanting your hand, or assistance, but for you to move to create some space.

“Beep me”

Saying, “Flash me”, or “beep me” means to make an incomplete phone call. This generally happens when you want the other person to call you back at their expense. The person is not speaking of a ‘beeper’ and by no means should you disrobe or consider any other action.

“You are lost”

“Hi, you are lost,” is a classic greeting line in Uganda. This might be confusing since you don’t remember being lost or unsure of directions. However, this is simply a friendly means of saying, ‘Hey, I haven’t seen you in awhile.” Don’t worry. You are not lost.

“Well done”

This is based on the Luganda greeting ‘Gyebaleko’ which is translated, ‘thanks for your work’. It has nothing to do with achievement, real or imagined.

Read More

[worldenglishes]

This video, beyond being an excellent illustration of Nigerian English, reminds us not to take a single story as the only story of a people—and, in the same vein, we must also recognize that the single story centered on the inner circles of anglophones is not the only story of English.  English is pluricentric, and English tells the stories of so many more peoples beyond that inner circle.

Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story

This video is always relevant, especially right now.

[worldenglishes]

Permission To Write (excerpt)

IV Adrienne Rich: who watch for my mistakes in grammar,                            my mistakes in love Perhaps it’s a problem of syntax. I’m thinking of you on Zuma, nineteen and recovering from brain surgery, writing haikus in a private language. Merleau-Ponty: we move through language like a fish swims through water. I read Merleau-Ponty like any other poem; I might have made the line up; I’ve forgotten the rest of the essay but I love the economy of that line. We move through language, not language through us, or exactly that: we move through language and it moves through us. Locke thought that words were signs superimposed on ideas, ideas were the stuff of thoughts/of our minds, words take meaning from the ideas they overlay. Merleau-Ponty said (Saussure said) words take meaning from the relations between them. To see the edge of each word and not to fall into the space between them, we have to move like a fish swims through water. In its element. Of necessity. As a fish takes in air by filtering the water through its gills, keeping the water out. If we are to breathe underwater, if we are not to drown in language, if we are not to suffocate outside it. Coming back to language, after all. The fierce joy circling beneath the words. Whatever else is there. [This is the poem I was afraid to write: What happens after grief has dried up? You learn to breathe again.]

— Koh Tsin Yen [full text in QLRS]

[worldenglishes]

Aks for ask. ‘Ignorant’ (people say). Ain’t? ‘Lazy.’ Double negatives? ‘Sloppy.’ I, along with all my linguistic colleagues, will assert with full confidence that there is nothing grammatically wrong, in the descriptive sense, with these constructions. But people who are making these responses are not judging the constructions—they are judging the speakers who use them.

Anne Curzan, Who Says? (via punkass-book-jockey)

[worldenglishes]

The rise of Indian English

By Amrit Dhillon in Delhi 12:01AM BST 16 Sep 2007

It has taken decades of struggle, but more than half a century after the British departed from India, standard English has finally followed.

Young and educated Indians regard the desire to speak English as it is spoken in England as a silly hang-up from a bygone era. Homegrown idiosyncrasies have worked their way into the mainstream to such an extent that only fanatical purists question their usage.  Now Penguin, the quintessentially British publishing house, has put the nearest thing to an official imprimatur on the result by producing a collection of some of the most colourful phrases in use - in effect a dictionary of what might be called "Indlish".

Its title, Entry From Backside Only, refers to a phrase commonly used on signposts to indicate the rear entrance of a building. Binoo John, the author, said young Indians had embraced the variant of the language as a charming offspring of the mingling of English and Hindi, rather than an embarrassing mongrel.

"Economic prosperity has changed attitudes towards Indian English," said Mr John. "Having jobs and incomes, and being noticed by the rest of the world, have made Indians confident - and the same confidence has attached itself to their English."

The 50-year-old journalist said he was inspired by the success of Lynn Truss's guide to punctuation, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, and by years of reading newspaper reports of politicians "air-dashing" to a destination, "issueless" couples (those without children) and people "preponing" (bringing forward) meetings.

But such phrases are entrenched. A driver, when asked what he does, may refer to his occupation as "drivery". He keeps his "stepney" (spare tyre) in the "dicky" (boot).

Housemaids on their way to buy vegetables tell their employers they are going "marketing". Receptionists ask callers, "What is your good name?" before informing them that the boss has gone "out of station" (out of town) with his "cousin-brother" (male cousin). A government official urged farmers in Rajasthan to grow "herbs in their backsides" (backyards).

"Everyone is breaking the rules and being creative about how to use English," said Rukmini Bhaya Nair, a professor of English at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. "It is finally being claimed by Indians as their own, instead of a relic of the Raj."

Despite the changes, English has enjoyed phenomenal popularity over the past few decades. Good English can transform the lives of the impoverished - leading to a better job, a rich spouse, a more exciting social life, and social superiority.

Couples who live on less than 25p a day will skip a meal to pay for their children to attend a school where they will be taught in English. The English-teaching industry is estimated to be worth £150 million.

For the better off, fluent English and a "good" accent convey status faster than titles, names, addresses or offshore bank accounts.

A 1997 survey by India Today magazine estimated that about a third of the country's population of more than one billion could carry on a conversation in English.

The columnist Anjali Puri said pride in Indian English also stemmed from the success of writers such as Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth and Salman Rushdie: "These writers have used English to portray Indian reality and it has given people the confidence to try out new words and play around with the language without being scared about whether they are correct."

If spoken English can be curious, the written form is even more so. In railway offices, a standard opening line in correspondence is: "Dear Sir, with reference to your above see my below."

As in Britain, employers complain that the standard of English is so abysmal that recruits cannot write a sentence without three grammatical mistakes. One call centre executive in Bombay said a new recruit wrote an email that began: "I am in well here and hope you are also in the same well."

A glossary of the latest lingo as spoken on the streets of India

Dear sir, with reference to your above see my below - popular opening line in official letters.

Teachress - a female teacher.

Timepass - a trivial activity that passes the time.

She freaked out last night - she had a good time.

Your lyrical missive has enveloped me in the sweet fragrance of our love - from a book advising lovers on how to write to girlfriends.

How often do you take sex? - question from doctor to patient.

Pritam Singh has left for his heavenly above - a death notice.

Hue and Cry notice - title of police missing person newspaper advertisement.

Don't do nuisance in public - government admonition against urinating in public

I find the last two paragraphs of the article before the glossary to be questionable (in that there's a sudden shift in tone that seems to place a value judgment on the variety), but the rest looks good.

[worldenglishes]

There have been several previous efforts to compile lexicons of Singlish, some for scholarly purposes, most for entertainment. This Dictionary differs from them in that it attempts, as the Oxford English Dictionary does, to record actual usage in published material. In this respect the Singapore newspapers, particularly their lifestyle sections, have been a remarkably rich source. It is my hope that, someday, a proper reading programme will enable each word and phrase to be traced to its first appearance in a published work, transforming this Dictionary into one truly organized according to historical principles. I have also tried to provide the etymology of the entries, but am handicapped in this regard by my lack of facility in other languages. Again, other more qualified persons will need to take on this task.

Singlish has had a bad rap in recent years. Its use in locally-produced television programmes such as the sitcom Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd was criticized as likely to affect the standard of English among the impressionable, and measures such as the Speak Good English Campaign have discouraged its use. I agree wholeheartedly that everyone should develop a competent command of proper English for use in business and official circles. At the same time, Singlish is economical, expressive and emotional. It is something home-grown that reflects Singaporeans’ multi-racial roots. It is how we talk to our families, our friends, the people that live with us on this Little Red Dot whom we come into contact with. Allowing it to wither away would be a real shame.

— Jack Tsen-Ta Lee

[worldenglishes]

Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman, read in Jamaican Patois/Patwa by Xavier Murphy.

[worldenglishes]

Singlish is crude precisely because it's rooted in Singapore's unglamorous past. This is a nation built from the sweat of uncultured immigrants who arrived 100 years ago to bust their asses in the boisterous port. Our language grew out of the hardships of these ancestors. And Singlish is a key ingredient in the unique melting pot that is Singapore. This is a city where skyscraping banks tower over junk boats; a city where vendors hawk steaming pig intestines next to bistros that serve haute cuisine. The [Speak Good English Movement]'s brand of good English is as bland as boiled potatoes. If the government has its way, Singapore will become a dish devoid of flavor. And I'm not talking cock.

— Hwee Hwee Tan, "A war of words over Singlish"

[worldenglishes]

Ghana calls an end to tyrannical reign of the Queen’s English

© Afua Hirsch, reporting from Accra for the Guardian

Voice of colonialism gives way to local form of English that’s ‘flexible and fun’ as opposed to giving language ‘a good beating’

Question: “Have you eat?” Reply: “No I go eat after small small.” This is just one of the turns of phrase Ghanaians employ, in the words of one local commentator, “to give the Queen’s English a good beating”.

But as Ghanaians join their west African neighbours – following the examples of Nigerian Pidgin and Sierra Leonean Krio – in speaking their inherited colonial tongue with growing creative licence, a row is breaking out about what really is the proper way to speak English.

On one side of the fence are the old-school Ghanaians who were taught throughout their education to mimic received pronunciation – or BBC English, as it is popularly known – with varying degrees of success.

On the other side, a backlash is growing against the old mentality of equating a British accent with prestige. Now the practice has a new acronym, LAFA, or “locally acquired foreign accent”, and attracts derision rather than praise.

“In the past we have seen people in Ghana try to mimic the Queen’s English, speaking in a way that doesn’t sound natural. They think it sounds prestigious, but frankly it sounds like they are overdoing it,” said Professor Kofi Agyekum, head of linguistics at the University of Ghana.

“There has been a significant change now, away from those who think sounding English is prestigious, towards those who value being multilingual, who would never neglect our mother tongues, and who are happy to sound Ghanaian when we speak English.”

Ghana has nine indigenous languages that are officially sponsored by the government, including Akan languages spoken widely in the south. A further 26 languages are officially recognised and at least double that number are also spoken. Unlike its francophone neighbours, which were forced under colonialism to teach only in French, Ghana has alwaysmaintained the use of African languages in its primary school education.

But the idea that sounding “British” carries prestige also has a long history in Ghanaian society, manifesting itself in the country’s struggle for independence in the 1940s and 50s, when an ideological difference emerged between an Oxbridge-educated Ghanaian elite and more radical, left-leaning leaders.

Now, more than 50 years later and more than 200 years after the abolition of the slave trade saw an influx of Christian missionaries imposing British language and literature, Ghanaians are embracing a new standard: Ghanaian English.

“The idea that intelligence is linked to English pronunciation is a legacy from colonial thinking,” said Delalorm Semabia, 25, a Ghanaian blogger. “People used to think that if you speak like the British then you are as intelligent as the British. But now we are waking up to the fact that we have great people here who have never stepped outside the borders.”

“The best example of Ghanaian English on the international scene is [former UN secretary general] Kofi Annan’s clear diction,” said Ghanaian columnist Kofi Amenyo. “The man maintains the Ghanaian features in his pronunciation and yet succeeds in being easily understood by the peoples of the world.”

For Ghana’s younger generation, though, the move towards Ghanaian English is less about elder statesmen, and more about music and technology.

“In the 90s many local artists wanted to sound like Usher or Jay-Z, but now they are taking local names and branding themselves locally,” said Semabia. “Little by little, people are embracing the use of our own languages – for example, now we can Google in Akan.

“For us, English is our language – we want to break away from the old strictures, to personalise it, mix it with our local languages, and have fun with it. The whole point of language is that it’s supposed to be flexible and it’s meant to be fun.”

[worldenglishes]

"All that I've gathered since coming home about a month and a half ago is that I'm supposed to speak standard English like a native speaker.  But nobody specified—native to where?"

— Ruby Pan, TalkingCock in Parliament: We, the Citizens

Brilliant cycling through varieties of English (General American English, BBC English, Standard Singapore English, Colloquial Singapore English/Singlish, and Philippine English) to drive home her point: "We all speak English, but some English is more English than others."

That point is in itself problematic and touches upon a number of issues, including (1) who has the power to set linguistic norms?, and (2) who has the power to determine the validity of a variety of English as being "more" English than another?  I may address these questions in a post later; if you have any questions (whether related to that point or to a different topic), feel free to ask.

Update: theheartlands has kindly provided a transcript of the Singlish portion (4:44–5:56); hover over italicized phrases for notes:

But actually ah, I think that's not true lor.  

You know ah, a lot of those Singaporeans who speak very good English right, a lot of them cannot speech leh.

Like, they open mouth only ah, like, everybody know that they jiak kantang one.  They talk amongst themselves right, they talk English very good very good.  Then they expect everybody to talk like them leh.  But they never ask themself right, how good is their Singlish?  Obviously tā bú huì jiǎng dialect de lor!  Right or not?  And their Chinese, either very good, or cannot make it one.

Aiyah, Singlish is a lot of language combineded!  You think put a 'lah' here or a 'lor' there is Singlish meh? No what!  It's not easy to speak Singlish one okay.  Like all those ang mohs stay here very long right, they also cannot speak right?

That's why we are the ones, who has to jiak kantang, and talk good English for them to understand.  But now Singapore got a lot of foreigner. Not just ang moh.

[worldenglishes]

Several attempts have been made to model the spread and diffusion of English as a global language (Kachru 1988, Görlach 1991, McArthur 1987, Crystal 1997).  Kachru’s (1988) concentric circle model (Figure 1) captures the historical, sociolinguistic, acquisitional, and literary contexts of the spread and diffusion of English.

In this model, the inner circle refers to the traditional bases of English, where it is the primary language, with an estimated 320–380 million speakers (Crystal 1997).  The outer circle represents the spread of English in nonnative contexts, where it has been institutionalized as an additional language, with an estimated 150–300 million speakers.  The expanding circle, with a steady increase in the number of speakers and functional domains, includes nations where English is used primarily as a foreign language, with an estimated 100–1000 million speakers (Crystal 1997).

The impact and extent of spread is not easily quantifiable because many varieties of English are used for both inter- and intranational functions.

(Bhatt 530)

Works cited

Bhatt, Rakesh M. 2001. World Englishes. Annual Review of Anthropology 30, 527–550.

Crystal, David. 1997. English as a global language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Görlach, Manfred.  1991.  Englishes: Studies in varieties of English.  Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Kachru, Braj B. 1988. The spread of English and sacred linguistic cows.  Language spread and language policy: Issues, implications, and case studies, ed. by Peter H. Lowenberg, 207–28.  Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

McArthur, Tom. 1987. The English languages? English today 3.3, 9–13.

I would also add that inner circle Englishes are norm-providing and associated with the first diaspora of English; outer circle Englishes are norm-developing and associated with the second diaspora of English (i.e., British colonialization); and expanding circle Englishes are norm-dependent and not associated with any particular historical period.  Additionally, there is some shift towards English as a native language (that is, the first language an individual acquires) in outer circle nations.

This tumblr focuses on outer circle Englishes, although I may venture at some points into inner circle and expanding circle Englishes.

[worldenglishes]

Countries where English is an official or de facto official language

[worldenglishes]

Language changes with space as well. As Widdowson (2003: 45–6) writes, a disease spreads from one country to another and, wherever it is, it is the same disease, but language is not transmitted without being transformed. When English is brought to new environments, it takes in indigenous languages, beliefs, views, values, traditions, attitudes and ideologies. It transforms itself to meet and accommodate the local needs of expressions and identities. English has been transformed to many varieties of Englishes, in North America, the South Pacific and further in Asia and Africa. As B. Kachru (this volume) describes, 'we have *one* language and *many* voices.'

Yasukata Yano

Works cited:

Kachru, Braj B. 2009. Asian Englishes in the Asian age: Contexts and challenges. In Kumiko Murata & Jennifer Jenkins (eds.), Global Englishes in Asian contexts: Current and future debates (pp. 175–193). Houndmills, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Widdowson, Henry G.  2003.  Defining issues in English language teaching.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Yano, Yasukata. 2009. The future of English: Beyond the Kachruvian Three Circle Model? In Kumiko Murata & Jennifer Jenkins (eds.), Global Englishes in Asian contexts: Current and future debates (pp. 208–225). Houndmills, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.