A survey of English-language borrowings among Mexican consumers

This study explores how learning English among one subset of English learners, Asian female international students at US colleges, contributes to the larger project of advancing gender equality. Using their narratives, we ask why Asian female international students invest so much of their identities and effort into learning English. We discuss the ways in which their endeavours may even silently promote the development of English as a gender-neutral language. The population of Asian students offers a compelling case of how the English language is potentially transformed via its spread to this English learner population and how it presents new avenues for identity formation for the growing number of female English users worldwide (cf. Brutt-Griffler, 2010: 232).

One of the major achievements of Braj Kachru's (1991) ‘liberation linguistics’ is that it has squarely placed Outer Circle varieties such as Indian English, Nigerian English and Singaporean English on a par with Inner Circle varieties such as American English and British English – in the face of negative attitudes, ranging ‘from amused condescension to racist stereotyping’ (Bruthiaux, 2003: 160). Following in Kachru's footsteps, many scholars have demonstrated that these Outer Circle Englishes are legitimate varieties of English, with distinct characteristics and with growing numbers of native speakers (e.g. Deterding, 2007; Jowitt, 1991; Sailaja, 2009). Indeed these Outer Circle English varieties are increasingly used, in respective countries, not only as the major or default medium of communication but also in the context of important domains such as education, media, government, literature and popular culture. The Kachruvian perspective has also given rise to the ‘egalitarian’ view that Inner Circle English speakers are no longer the only ones who can lay claim to the ownership of English. Outer Circle English speakers are now thought to be as much custodians of English as Inner Circle English speakers are.

Do uses of who and whom, among other things, point to two distinct registers at work in the language?

A consideration of the mixed usage that has arisen in this West African country between English and the indigenous languages

Some consider that Scots is simply a northerly dialect of English. Others assert that it is a language in its own right, as distinct from English as Dutch is distinct from German, with its own oral and literary heritage. What is the truth of the matter?

Only A couple of decades ago, few could imagine that one of the most powerful countries in the world – the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) – would collapse, and Russian – the most prestigious and predominant language of the Soviet people – would be overtaken by English, the language once considered ‘the language of Western imperialism’ (Dushku, 1998:372). Today, because of both its unique international role and the fall of the Iron Curtain, English has become the most popular foreign language taught in schools and other educational institutions in former Soviet republics. The present paper will focus on the teaching and learning of English in Uzbekistan – a Soviet republic until 1990. In addition, issues related to foreign-language curriculum innovations, to teacher training, and to teaching resources will be discussed.

Irish English (IrE) was initially learned as a second language as a result of the successive colonizations of Ireland by speakers of English and Scots dialects that began in the Middle Ages and reached a peak during what is termed ‘The Plantation Period’ of Irish history. The scheme persuaded English and Scottish settlers to colonize the island of Ireland, hailing from urban centres like London as well as more rural areas like Norfolk and Galloway. This intensive colonization process created the possibility that a novel type of English could emerge. This new variety is characterized by: (i) innovative forms; (ii) the incorporation of features drawn from Irish, the indigenous language prior to colonization, and (iii) other characteristics caused by the mixing of Irish with the regional Scots and English vernaculars of the new settlers. Interestingly (and not uncommonly when migratory movements of these kinds arise), modern varieties of IrE still retain this mixed heritage. Moreover, the colonization is preserved culturally – particularly in the north of Ireland – by ethnic divisions between the descendants of the migrant and indigenous populations. Thus, Catholics, who reflect the latter group, celebrate events like ‘St Patrick's Day’ while their Protestant neighbours commemorate ‘The Glorious Twelfth’ each July, celebrating the day in 1690 when King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne ensured the ultimate success of the Plantation scheme in which their forefathers participated. The linguistic consequences of this contact permeate all aspects of the speech used within these communities (accent, grammar and vocabulary). Moreover, some of the grammatical features that are the focus of this article have travelled to regions that have been intensively settled by Irish migrants. Hence, these features also have important implications for the study of transported dialects, which has recently become very topical and is the focus of a new strand of research in English variation studies typified by the publication of Hickey (ed. 2004).

An expansion on some grammatical points raised by Alan S. Kaye in ‘Is English diglossic?’ (ET28, Oct91).

The times and the language are a-changin'. But how much and in how many ways?

The use of English loanwords in different languages has been discussed from various perspectives by several scholars (e.g. Takashi, 1990; Kay, 1995; Takashi Wilkerson, 1997; Smead, 1998; Friedrich, 2002). Although this phenomenon has been regarded as enriching and/or creative by some (e.g. Crystal, 2003; Friedrich, 2002), it has encountered opposition in many parts of the world. Phillipson (1992: 7), for instance, views it ‘as a phenomenon that has offended users of other languages for more than a century.’ He explains how some governments (in France and Slovenia, for example) have adopted measures to prevent the use of loanwords from English. This issue of whether or not the incorporation of loanwords is offensive to the borrowing language became a topic of much debate in Brazil after Projected Law #1676/1999, which aims to limit the use of foreign words (mainly from English) in Brazilian Portuguese (hereafter, BP). As Rajagopalan (2005) explains, many popular movements, politicians, and traditional grammarians have expressed concern that BP is ‘under an imminent threat from English’ (101).

Several linguists (e.g. Faraco, 2001) have opposed the proposition, based on issues such as linguistic prejudice and the lack of language expertise of the proponents and supporters of the projected law. Still, the proposition was approved by the Brazilian Senate in 2003. It now awaits further approval by the Chamber of Deputies before a final decision is made. One possible way of investigating whether loanwords are offensive to BP is to approach it from a linguistic perspective. Hence, in the present study, I explore the issue of borrowing by BP speakers through a linguistic analysis of loanwords from English that are currently used as slang in Brazil. The definition of slang used here is that proposed by Eble (1996: 11): ‘an ever changing set of colloquial words and phrases that speakers use to establish or reinforce social identity or cohesiveness within a group or with a trend or fashion in society at large.’

Who speaks Standard English? Do all the people on our cover use it, only some of them, or only one of them? Are these even reasonable questions to ask in 1985? What is the standard language and what are language standards anyway, towards the end of the 20th century?

A proposal for a standard script for Cameroonian Pidgin English

FOR SOME time, a growing chorus of voices has been expressing concern over the way in which English is promoted by English-speaking countries, primarily the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (cf. Phillipson 1992, Pennycook 1994 & 1998, Canagarajah 1999, Skutnabb-Kangas 2000). Identified by Kachru (1985) as the ‘inner circle’ countries, these make vast profits from linguistic sales to ‘outer circle’ countries such as Singapore and India – despite the fact that the latter have largely developed their own Englishes – and even more so to the ‘expanding circle’ of countries which require access to the default international lingua franca.

The English language has developed and spread around the world as a global language. As a variety of English in China, it has also formed some distinct features. This paper first introduces the status quo of the English language in China, and then by analysing the use of four Chinglish idioms on the Internet, argues that the use of Chinglish idioms can be more expressive in some settings. The Internet use of Chinglish idioms shows the actual state of language diversity and creativity, and more significantly, it reflects Chinese identity.

In China, most universities have a school of foreign languages, where students majoring in English, German, French, Japanese, and other languages study the language for the first two years, and take introductory courses in the linguistics and literature of the language concerned, and then progress to higher-level linguistic and literary courses, as well as translation studies. English is the most popular foreign language in China, and, with the improvement of English teaching in high schools, the average student entering university now has a higher level of English proficiency than previous generations of students. However, students with high scores in English often choose to study ‘practical’ subjects other than English, such as business studies, computer science, economics, medicine, etc. Increasingly, a number of programs at universities in China are even being taught through the medium of English. Consequently, English majors have less and less advantage over non-English majors, and departments of English have had to restructure their syllabi to cope with the situation. Courses in translation studies, intercultural communication and applied linguistics have thus gained greater recognition because of their functional importance in the real world (see Qu, this issue).

All of the contributions in this special issue respond to a somewhat paradoxical situation: lexis (or vocabulary) is probably the area of linguistics that is most accessible and most salient for a non-specialist audience, but at the same time it presents some uniquely difficult challenges for systematic scholarly linguistic analysis. This is especially the case for approaches that focus on statistics or quantification of data, such as are typical of modern work in sociolinguistics. For this reason, it often seems that lexis is the Cinderella that is excluded from the ball, a topic that modern sociolinguists tend to steer clear of because of the methodological difficulties. This special issue will try to investigate the background to this problem, and suggest some possible solutions.

In the description of such usages as argue away, measure up and zonk out, a venerable orphan comes in from the linguistic cold

An account of how lexical items once confined to one gender have begun to be used for both in American English