15. Expansion of English

The English language of the early 17th century was the language spoken only on the British Isles. By this time due to the efforts of Queen Elizabeth and her predecessors the territory ruled by the English Crown was extended and included also Wales, Scotland and part of Ireland. The Normans managed to subjugate Wales only in part; it was not until the 16th century that the annexation was completed and the English language penetrated in it replacing the native Celtic dialect. In Ireland that was subjugated in the early 17th century the struggle against English power lasted through the 17th and 18th centuries, but linguistically it was anglicized. Scotland, always having a fair share of independence in spite of all became English-speaking, though this English was somewhat different. The Scottish dialect, or Scots is one of the oldest, richest and most interesting varieties of English that had a chance of developing into an independent language. However, in 1603, after tfw unification with England it was reduced to dialectal status.

Ireland's English dates back to the early 17th century after it was conquered by the English. The number of speakers grew up to eight million, but they all were concentrated on the North-Western island state.

So the British Isles were English speaking, but the language itself was unknown elsewhere. William Shakespeare in his play "The Merchant of Venice" mentions this:

NERISSA What say you, then, to Falconbridge, the young baron of England?

PORTIA You know I say nothing to him, for he understands not me, nor I him: he hath neither Latin, French, nor Italian, and you will come into the court and swear that I have a poor pennyworth in the English. He is a proper man's picture, but, alas, who can converse with a dumb-show?

The languages of intercultural communication were Latin, French, and, probably Italian. But the true expansion began with England's colonial expansion, and first and foremost with the penetration of English into the New World. The first expedition of the two ships sailed in 1584. the next year another expedition of 168 adventurers joined them. This however, did not mean colonization, for the settlement failed to hold. By the summer of 1586 after an uneven war with the Indians the colonists had to beg a rescue from Sir Francis Drake, returning from the Carribean Sea.

The first permanent settlement was established in Jamestown in 1607, and in 1620 the famous ship "Mayflower" brought a group of English settlers to what became known as New England. The Pilgrim Fathers, Puritan fugitives from various parts of England were representatives of higher classes, and brought on the American Continent the language of the educated English society of the early 17^lh century. Many traits of the language are preserved in the American variant of the language, whereas they were lost or changed in England itself.

The essential difference between current American and British English is probably in intonation-an elusive quality consisting of voice timbre, pitch, sentence rhythm and stress. Almost no syntactical differences are evident between American and British English, and comparatively few differences exist in vocabulary, pronunciation, or spelling.

Among the peculiarities of the American variant scholars often mention the use of Subjunctive I where the analytical forms with should becomes more common in England (see the plays of Shakespeare to see that he uses what now is called American); the predicative use of sick and I guess instead of / think/believe (how could Chaucer know the American - plenty of such cases are found in his works). The process of variation in transition from 4 basic forms of the verb to three was not yet over, and the American form gotten reflects but a stage in the language development. The phonetic processes also were going on and unfinished by that time vocalisation of r, is now the phonetic peculiarity of the American variant. It is well known that clerk and pass, class, ask etc. have American variants of pronunciation -that was how they were pronounced at the time of emigration, and puritans brought that variant to America.

The peculiarities of the American variant however, are not reduced to what can be called archaisms. New conditions of life, new phenomena of nature and the very fact that they were for centuries separated from England are reflected in numerous words: lift and elevator, underground and subway were the different nominations for new notions in material culture of the communities. The British say rubber where the Americans prefer eraser, and vest where the Americans use undershirt. The terms such as presidential, congress, and gubernatorial were applied to the newly established American political institutions. The sources of borrowings were also different - the American variant is richer in Spanish and French words taken from the neighbouring colonists from these countries, American Indian words were taken to name natural phenomena, animals, plants and so on.

Within American variant of the English language there exist regional (dialectal) differences, mainly in the sphere of pronunciation. Eastern, Southern and Western (or General) varieties, and they are in the degree of preservation of the sound r after vowels before the consonants, diphthong ju: and the sounds о and a in closed syllables. The Western type acquired the status of the generalized national standard.

The Americans themselves, however, are very sensitive as to the status of their language. Noah Webster, a well-known lexicographer and a great adherent of the idea that American is a separate language, consistently showed the difference in pronunciation in his famous dictionary. He believed that words and usages should be evaluated on their own merits, not on the basis of their place of origin. His American Dictionary of the English Language (1828) included thousands of new words, old words with new meanings, new pronunciations, and new spellings-solely on the grounds that they were all used by educated American speakers. Later in the 1920, linguists like Henry Louis Mencken also propagated the idea. But besides the difference in the pronunciation, a few grammatical forms and a considerable but not essential number of lexical Americanisms it is rather difficult to prove that it was really a separate languaqes. However spelling reforms that were initiated (not altogether too radical) in America added to these. It was Webster who insisted on -or instead of -our in words like honour, who took the к off the end of words like nuisick and traffick: and who substituted the suffix -er for -re in words like centre.

With the growth of the American state, and what is more important, with the development of radio and television, the growth of the cinematographic industry the American variant starts the reverse process. Many Americanisms penetrate the language of the non-native speakers of English, even into the British English and is especially popular with the younger people in Britain. The American formula of greeting "Hi" is almost universal among students and teenagers:

And in many countries the all-engulfing advance of English threatens to damage or destroy much local culture. This is sometimes lamented even in England itself, for though the language that now sweeps the world is called English, the culture carried with it is American. On the whole the Brits do not complain. Some may regret the passing of the "bullet-proof waistcoat" (in favour of the "bullet-proof vest"), the arrival of "hopefully" at the start of every sentence, the wholesale disappearance of the petfect tense, and the mutation of the meaning of "presently" from "soon" to "now". But few mind or even notice that their old "railway station" has become a "train station", the "car park" is turning into a "parking lot" and people now live "on", not "in", a street.

The peculiarities of the Canadian variant were the same in the North American world. Its first permanent settlements made by the French from 1605; the country ceded to Britain in 1763 after a series of colonial wars; but during the American War of Independence Canadian colonists stayed loyal to Britain. The state was established as the Dominion of Canada in 1867. The peculiarities of this variant only slightly differ from the American variant. Probably, the proportional value of the words taken from the French is higher, and some borrowings from Indian languages are different from American. Khaki [karki] and vase [vez] are but a few words that are really pronounced in a unique Canadian way. There is no question of declaring it a separate language, and the influence of American English there is stronger than elsewhere.

Australia and New Zealand are English-speaking since the 18th century, when the English convicts were deported there. However, a flow of voluntary immigants followed in search of land, gold and fortune in the 19th and now they are listed among the English-speaking states. Some peculiarities - not so much archaisms, as it is with the American variant, but mostly dialectal can be mentioned. While the standard in America was set mainly by the wealthy educated people, more democratic Australians keep some cockney and other dialectal peculiarities of pronunciation. Flora, fauna and other natural phenomena of this part of the world are also reflected in the vocabulary.

In Asia the English colonists and their language first appeared in India -East India Trade Company was chartered by the English government in 1600 to carry on trade in the East Indies. Later the supremacy of the English Crown was established in some provinces. In the first half of 19 c. India became a colony. Then other Asian countries - naturally, with the English speaking authorities and spread of the language among the indigenous population.

British penetration into Africa is dated from the XIX century. Such countries as Sudan and Egypt fell under financial dependence of Britain; tropical and South Africa were conquered. This conquest is connected with the names of Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) and Horatio Kitchener (1850-1916) who undertook to extend British territories from Cairo to the Cape colony with a stretch of British land. In the course of the Anglo-Boer war (1899-1902) the supremacy of the English was established in South Africa.

Regional or territorial divergencies may be also traced in the English spoken in all former British colonies in Africa and Asia, but all these are not the subject-matter of the history of the English language nor are the peculiarities of the American, Canadian and Australian variants.