English as a Killer Language - Essay Example

TOPIC: ENGLISH AS A KILLER LANGUAGE (NAME) (COURSE NAME) (INSTITUTIONS NAME) 15TH APRIL, 2009 English as a Killer Language Introduction English has achieved the status of a world language since the colonial period (Barber, 2000). During this period, the language was imposed on the native people so as to enable the colonial leaders gain more power over their subjects. Most countries that were colonized by Britain are today English speaking nations. Britain also established education systems in these countries that would only use English as a way communication. Globalization that immediately followed the end of the Second World War, further promoted the spread of the English language, as it was used as the language of technology, science and trade. Since the English language is widely used in international relations, air-traffic control and even music it is necessary to identify it as the world language. Today, migration enhances and promotes the growth of different varieties of English as the language gets into contact with other languages. Contact between two languages may result in the birth of a new language as well as the possibility of death of one of the languages. In most cases, it is the other languages that come into contact which die and not English. This paper seeks to agree with the fact that English is the world's most important killer language and that English language teachers are complicit in language murder. It is essential to define some terminologies and explain some of the ways in which a language can be murdered. First language (L1) Mother tongue also known as L1 is the first language that one learns. It is basically the language of ones parents or nanny under whose care the child is placed. The L1 has been seen to have significant effect on the child's lingual development. With language dominance as a characteristic of English across societies, the L1 of any particular child is poised to be affected. Sometimes whenever parents speak different native languages, they decide to teach their children English as an L1. Bilingualism This is a situation where an individual (a bilingual) is able to communicate in two or more languages effectively. Another closely related terminology has been multilingualism, a situation where a person is fluent in many languages (Bastardas-Boada, 2007). It has been observed that most English speakers can also converse in other languages. The effect is that the English language interacts with the other languages and an individual has to make a choice between advancing in English or other languages. Language dominance This is a situation where one language is prevalent in an area than others. The dominating language is also known as Lingua Franca that is a language commonly used. This can be in a market place during transactions or in institutions. Closely related to Lingua Franca are formal and official languages. Each country of the world has an official language which is used for formal transactions. Others have in addition to their official language what is called a national language that is used to unite the various groups in a country. It should be noted that the world can be categorized into regions that are based on the major languages of the world. For instance Africa can be categorized into English speaking, Francophone and Portuguese countries. The English language is not only popular but also widely spoken across the globe. Whereas the Chinese language boasts of being spoken by very many people in a single country, the English language is spoken across continents and the islands of the world (Dalby, 2003). It is worth noting that English through its dominance has had an impact wherever it is spoken on other pre-existing languages. These pre- existing languages are also known as local or native languages. The effect of English language on others has been language shift and change. Language change and shift A language is said to have shifted if it is altered in form and structure due to the effect of a dominating language. The language may shift its structure and be inclined towards another. This may be due to borrowing the vocabulary and grammar of the 'pirate' language. When a language shifts, it may lead to it being changed and if the alteration is great it may lead to its ultimate death. Various native languages of the world have been altered as a result of associating with English leading to their change in form and structure(Mair, 2002). Language death A language is said to have died after going through the various processes of language change until it is extinct or spoken no more. As seen earlier a language is first altered in form and then changes. A language which has been so much altered that it lacks its original vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation may be considered endangered (Abley, 2003). Just like living species, an endangered language is likely to die and be extinct if efforts are not made to salvage it. The English language has been known to cause a slow but steady death and extinction of other languages in space and time. The next section describes how the English language has killed other languages and examples involved. A case study: Pidgins and creoles (island languages) Pidgins and creoles are languages that are mixed. In these mixed languages, the vocabulary is always taken from the dominant language also known as a superstrate while the grammar for the language is taken from minor, native or local languages also known as the substrate language. A good example of mixed language is the Tok Pisin a language that resulted from the interaction between English and an indigenous Papua New Guinea Hiri Motu language. When Papua New Guinea got independent in the year 1975, Tok Pisin was made a national language together with English and Hiri Motu. The dominance of Tok Pisin in the island nation has endangered the existence of native languages. The language has also led to the death of many indigenous languages. English language has played a major role in the disappearance of the many local languages. In their bid to speak the English language, the natives began to speak the Tok Pisin language. They would pronounce some English words and construct sentences in English but that had the grammar of their native languages. As a result the pidgin was born and the other native languages disappeared or died. The pidgin language developed into a Creole that is a more developed language and was used by many children in urban areas as they grew up. Top Pisin became a lingua franca in market places and debates were ignited on whether it should become the national language. The language was nevertheless granted the same status as English. In urban environments there was a high exposure of Tok Pisin to English which led to the modification of the pidgin language making it a Creole a process known as decreolisation. More and more English words were being loaned to Tok Pisin. Tok Pisin had also adopted the phonology creating a more anglicised variety of Tok Pisin. The process often occurs under circumstances in which a Creole is used alongside its dominant language and finally led to its own death. Social factors affect the process of pidginisation and creolisation in an area. When a language of a superior country is used in a less powerful society, the local population may view the language from a powerful nation as having a high-status than their indigenous language. It was perceived that conversing in English was good; communicating in Tok Pisin was bad and yet communicating in Tok Ples (indigenous language) was worst. The nation’s native language was in the meantime deserted or integrated into the foreign one. This led to the ‘minority’ language being less used in many contexts, until it was completely overtaken by the foreign language. This language Shift and change has been seen as the act of dying which has occurred progressively over a number of generations. In case Tok Pisin language eventually will get consumed in the English language, a situation that is likely to occur, then it will be said to have been killed by the English language. Colonial factors and lack of official written procedures for the local languages led to their murder and the English acted as a killer language. How the English language has killed other languages Students who come from a family background that is not elitist when they attend school they have to learn a second language. Since the students associate the English language with the English man’s civilization of which they admire. The pupils begin to view their own language and their culture as being inferior to the English culture and try to desert their language on this ground. The English language is being used widely in academic institutions in the world. Even in countries which have well established languages, some of the courses at the university can only be offered in the English language. There are cases of language loss in many of the educational institutions of the world. Most universities in the United States of America, Africa and parts of Asia only use English as their mode of study (McCarty, 2002). In some countries English is used in all levels of academic spheres and yet the society has other languages that are local. The exclusion of native languages from formal institutions of learning contribute to their under development and eventually die and the cause for this has been seen to be English. The socio-political factors play a major role in determining language death. The more recognized and influential the indigenous language is, the more likely the people will still use it. In such a situation, both languages simply influence and alter each other, but none of them dies. Whenever the English language has interacted with other tongues and found them to have weaker cultures, then they contribute to the death of such languages. An important attribute which has made English to be a dominant language is globalisation. With the world becoming a single village where events and information are shared, it is essential to have one common language that can ease communication (Crystal, 2004). The English language had already curved itself a niche as a world language prior to the globalisation concept. It therefore easily passes a test of becoming the world’s global language. It has also dominated many global fora and as a result denied other languages to feature. In the eyes of the global community, some languages have just ceased to exist (died). This means that they can not be used to transact business during global events. For instance most popular art and music have been performed in the English language and where people cannot comprehend then it has been necessary to have translations into other languages, but the original master piece is in English. It is true that English language borrows terminologies from other languages in explaining phenomena but such borrowing has not diluted it and shifted it. For instance, whereas English borrows words from Greek and Latin to explain science and philosophy, its originality, grammar and phonology remain unchanged (Görlach & Busse, 2002). The role of English teachers Teachers have participated in the process of murdering of other languages. It has been observed that some teachers train some technical skills to their students in the English language when in fact they could have effectively taught them in native languages. The developing world, for example, imports ideologies from the West in English, try to decipher them and then pass on to the students in the same foreign language. Consequently, learners strive to understand the English language first before they can now understand the concepts being taught. An illustration where teachers have contributed to the process of killing other languages involves a teacher who is a writer. The teacher may intentionally write about the aspects of a community in English and yet he can communicate in the native language fluently. Conclusion The English language has dominated the various spheres of the world such as education, technology and commerce. In some instances, English has led to the total desertion of the local languages which were weaker. This is the case where a more impressive language (English) is adopted by a community who then opt to do away with native languages. Whenever such a case happens, then English is said to have murdered the other languages. Another case is where a native language borrows many features of a more prestigious language to the point that the two languages are the same. The native language dies but in this case it is considered a suicidal move and not necessarily a murder case. Nevertheless whenever a language commits suicide by interacting with English, the latter is still considered to have played a role in the suicide act which still makes English a killer language. In some cases, individuals and not the community have abandoned their native languages and taken English as their language. These are persons who may leave their home country to go and study in English speaking countries. The individuals usually spend more time communicating in English and less in their native languages. As a result, they can hardly speak in their native languages and to them, their L1 has died and the killer is the English language. Apart from English killing society’s language, it has also killed other aspects of culture like names of individuals. It is not surprising to find a family that has given their members English names only. References Abley, M. 2003, Spoken here: Travels among threatened languages, Heinemann, London Barber, C 2000, The English Language: a Historical Introduction, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Bastardas-Boada, A 2007, "Linguistic sustainability for a multilingual humanity", An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 2, no. 2. Crystal, D 2004, Language revolution, Polity Press, Cambridge Dalby, A 2003, Language in danger: The loss of linguistics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Görlach, M & Busse, U 2002, English in Europe, Oxford, University Press Oxford Mair, C 2002, The continuing spread of English: Anglo-American conspiracy or global grassroots movement, Schwabe, Basel McCarty, T, 2002, Between Possibility and Constraint: Indigenous Language Education, Planning, and Policy in the United States, Erlbaum, New Jersey Read More