The Story of English

1
The Story of English

• By Don L. F. Nilsen
• Based on The Story of English
• By Robert McCrum, Robert MacNeil
• and William Cran (Penguin, 2003)

2
Introduction to The Story of English (xi-8)

• Google Ali G
• Borat from Kazakstan
• Snoots
• Syntax Nudnicks of Our Time
• People who have watched The Story of English more
  than once (McCrum xii)

3
Language Variation

• Language
• Dialect
• Accent
• Variety
• VARIES Model (McCrum 4)

4
Varieties of English

• Denglisch
• Ebonics
• Franglish
• Indian English
• Japlish
• Spanglish (McCrum 5)

5
Global LanguagesExplain politics cultures
creating

• Farsi The language of the Persian Empire
• Greek The language of the Greek Empire
• Latin The language of the Roman Empire
• English The global language of today

6
The Bible in Vernacular Languages

• In Aramaic
• Translated into Greek
• Translated into Latin (Roman Catholic Church)
• Translated into German by Martin Luther
  (Guttenberg Bible) (cf. McCrum xvi)

7
Translations of the Bible into English

• 1380s John Wyclifs translation
• William Tyndales translation
• 1534 Henry VIIIs Translation for Anglican Church
• King James Is Translation (about 8,000 words)
• Took Six Years
• Translators from Cambridge, Oxford, London
• Modern Translations into everyday English (McCrum
  111-114)

8
Global English

• Poll Everyone should speak English
• 70 of Britons agreed.
• 82 of Dutch agreed
• 76 of Italians agreed.
• Even 66 of French agreed (McCrum xiii)

9
Early 1990s Eclipse of Soviet Union

• This meant that rather than two superpowers there
  was one superpower, and
• English became more important in such countries
  as China and Brazil.
• English became more important in Russia,
  Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania other
  East European countries. (McCrum xvi)

10
English Only

• Queen Elizabeth
• King James (and the Bible)
• Today in Arizona etc.
• Cf. French-Only movement in France (outlawing
  Franglish)
• CF. German-Only movement in Germany (outlawing
  Denglisch)
• Cf. Spanish-Only movement in Spain (outlawing
  (Spanglish)
• Cf. Portuguese-Only movement in Portugal (McCrum
  xvi-xvii)

11
English as a Global Language I

• 75 of European children learn English in School
• The default language for e-mail in the European
  Union is English
• There are 180 delegates in the UN for whom
  English is their second language
• In many countries, English words are acquiring
  new meanings. In Germany, handy means mobile
  phone. Do you know of other examples? (McCrum
  xvii)
• There are now about 2 billion speakers of English
  (about 1/3 of the worlds population (McCrum
  xviii)

12
English as a Global Language II

• American Culture (Movies, Ads, Television)
• Internet (80 of all web pages are in English)
• Many multilingual web sites English for reach
  local language for identity
• Trade and Tourism
• ABC, NBC, CBS, BBC, CBC, CNN
• Science Technology (including military) (McCrum
  xix)

13
!The Three Waves of Alvin Toffler The Fourth
Wave of Milton Friedman

• 1. Independence (rural)
• 2. Assembly line Manipulation of things (Ford)
• 3. Computers Manipulation of language (Gates)
• 4. The Flat Earth Combination of the 2nd and 3rd
  Waves (Milton Friedman)
• NOTE We need a global language to operate in
  the 4th wave. (cf. McCrum xix)

14
!!Important English Authors

• William Shakespeare (playwright)
• Charles Dickens (vernacular)
• Mark Twain (vernacular)
• George Bernard Shaw (Pygmalion and Lerner and
  Lowes My Fair Lady) (McCrum 2)

15
!!!Works Cited

• McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil.
  The Story of English. New York, NY Penguin,
  1986. (source of map citations)
• McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil.
  The Story of English Third Revised Edition. New
  York, NY Penguin, 2003. (source of text
  citations)