Introdungcing English language part 30 ppsx

160 EXPLORATION: INVESTIGATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE
The decision, which the council hopes will draw a line under decades of dispute,
follows a review to establish whether the possessive punctuation mark should be restored
to place names such as Kings Heath, Acocks Green and Druids Heath.
Councillor Martin Mullaney said the decision not to reintroduce apostrophes, which began
to disappear from Birmingham’s road signs in the 1950s, had been taken in light of several
factors, including the need for consistency and the cost of changing existing signage.
‘We are constantly getting residents asking for apostrophes to be put back in and as
a council we have got to make a decision one way or another,’ said the chair of the
city’s transportation scrutiny committee.
The ruling will also mean that Birmingham’s well-known St Paul’s Square, in the city’s
Jewellery Quarter, will soon be known as St Pauls.
But grammarians have attacked the decision as ‘dumbing down’.
John Richards, the founder and chairman of the
Apostrophe Protection Society
, said:
‘It seems retrograde, dumbing down really.
‘It is setting a very bad example because teachers all over Birmingham are teaching
their children punctuation and then they see road signs with apostrophes removed.
I think the council would be better advised to make sure the right apostrophes are in
rather than removing them.
‘It’s a bad example to children and teachers. It’s a simple rule and so many people
get it wrong.’
Alternate language history
Using your knowledge of what actually happened over the history of English, try to
speculate on what modern English in the world would look like if the following
historical moments had been different:
q The dominant Anglo-Saxon capital of Winchester remained the capital of England
after 1066, with the Normans deciding not to reinforce their hold on London.
q The European renaissance in arts and science in the Middle Ages drew more on
Arabic culture than the ancient Greek and Roman.

q The Spanish Armada initiated the first attack of a successful Spanish invasion of
England in 1588, establishing a Spanish-speaking court and restoring Catholicism
to the country.
q Britain lost the Seven Years’ War (1754–61) in North America against the French,
leaving Canada and the north wholly French-speaking and most of Florida, Texas
and the south Spanish-speaking.
q The Napoleonic Empire succeeded after 1814 in unifying the whole of Europe west
of the Urals, from the British Isles to Iberia, Russia to Greece and the Turkish
Ottoman region. French-speaking administrators and army officers were stationed
in the regions and French law was applied to the entire empire.
q China embarked on a mid-nineteenth-century period of exploration and expan-
sion, annexing much of Asia including India, and establishing Chinese protec-
torates along the entire east coast of Africa.
q The old science fiction favourite: Nazi Germany succeeds in defeating Britain
in 1940, and then together Germany and Japan, with the aid of a domestic
American fascist movement, overthrow the US government.
Activity 8.3
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IDENTIFY YOURSELF 161
IDENTIFY YOURSELF
Loyalties and stereotypes
The linguistic features that belong to Labov’s ‘stereotype’ category outlined in A9
are heavily indexed with regional and social identities, and thus data analysis of these
features will provide fruitful examples of how constructions from different language
varieties are used as overt in-group identity markers to signal language loyalty and
membership of particular speech communities.
We will start by focusing upon the burgeoning industry of consumer goods
emblazoned with language stereotypes, including clothing. Identity performance
through representations of the body – encoded by wearing particular forms of
merchandise decorated with regional language variants – provides clear evidence of

stereotypes of particular lexical items and phrases. These items provide insight into
the indexes that individuals use to display and perform their regional identities. This
demonstration of group membership through written text, often in conjunction with
particular visual signs, gives insight into how bodily representations index particular
sociolinguistic group identities, often directly alongside the individual’s spoken
language style.
There are a number of T-shirt companies based in the West Midlands region of
England that take full advantage of the local lexical item ‘bostin’, which you have already
come across in C1 (meaning ‘good’, ‘great’ or ‘brilliant’). ‘Bostin’ is a typical example
of an obvious, stereotypical dialect feature.
One company produces T-shirts with ‘Bostin’ simply printed across the chest. As
well as neutral colours, they can also be purchased in colour-coded form to represent
the local football teams of the West Midlands (for example, there are gold and black
versions for supporters of Wolverhampton Wanderers, who play in these colours).
To be a legitimate wearer of such shirts individuals must firstly identify with the region
of Birmingham and the Black Country, encoded through language loyalty to the term
‘bostin’. They can then add an additional layer of regional identity encoded semioti-
cally through their football team’s colours.
Other phrases which appear on Black Country T-shirts include ‘Yowm saft yow
am’, which translates as ‘You are silly you are’. This includes use of eye dialect to
signal non-standard pronunciation of ‘soft’ as ‘saft’ [saft] and ‘yow’ for ‘you’, realised
as [jau], as well as elision between the pronoun and non-standard singular form of
the copula verb (the verb ‘to be’) realised as [jakem].
A further example is a long-sleeved variety with local phrases printed on each
arm: it has ‘Ow am ya?’ (‘How are you?’), a phrase which you have already come
across in the graphic novel example in C1 on one sleeve, and on the other sleeve is
‘Tara-a-bit’ (‘Goodbye’). The sleeve texts represent a conversational opening and closing,
providing good examples of well-known stereotypical phrases which imbue a sense
of solidarity and in-group identity when used in informal conversations between
members of the same speech community.

q Compile a similar list of particular words, phrases, symbols, signs and images
that are or might be found on consumer goods, including clothing merchandise,
to signify language loyalty from your own local regional area.
Activity 9.1
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162 EXPLORATION: INVESTIGATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE
q Consider how in-group solidarity is created but also how this simultaneously
creates social distance by contrasting with ‘out-groups’.
National identities
The performance of identities using language stereotypes and bodily representations
via clothing is by no means restricted to regional identities. There is a ‘Shamrock’ ‘Bostin’
edition, presumably targeted at the large number of individuals in the English West
Midlands of Irish heritage. The shamrock symbol represents the ‘o’ in ‘Bostin’ and
so the T-shirt producers have chosen to blend together semiotic and visual dialectal
representations of regional and national identities. In Canada there are numerous exam-
ples of T-shirts with the slogan ‘Canada eh’ or some variant on this theme, highlighting
the Canadian conversational tag. This text is practically always accompanied with an
image of the Canadian national flag.
Sociolinguist Miriam Meyerhoff (2007) draws attention to how Canadian and New
Zealand speakers often get offended if they are mistakenly referred to as American or
Australian respectively, due to accent similarities. Symbolic resources (such as flags
or other national identity symbols), in conjunction with language features specific to
these countries, are frequently used as tools for signalling social distance from the
American and Australian out-groups, whilst simultaneously displaying a positive
group identity for those who are legitimate members of the speech community.
In addition to Canada, use of the conversational tag ‘eh’ is also a very frequent
feature of New Zealand English. As with Canada’s direct contrast with the United States,
‘eh’ is a speech feature associated with New Zealand English and it is not found in
any Australian varieties. Although it can serve other functions, ‘eh’ in both countries

primarily invites supportive feedback. It can be seen as an interactive, solidarity-
building strategy that strengthens in-group membership (and emphasises contrasts
with out-groups), and is thus a key part of linguistic politeness (Meyerhoff 1992; Holmes
1995; see also B3 and C3).
q What kind of words, phrases, symbols, signs and images can be used to signify
language loyalty to your nation?
q How difficult is it to define the term ‘nation’ clearly?
q Again, consider how in-group solidarity is created but also how this simultane-
ously creates social distance by contrasting with ‘out-groups’.
Name-calling
Analysing the names of sports teams is an interesting way to assess identities encoding
through language. For instance, the National Hockey League in North America now
comprises teams in Canada and the United States, having been previously based in
Canada only. Three Canadian team names overtly signal their national identity in their
team’s name, though there are interesting differences between them:
q In Vancouver the ice hockey team is known as the ‘Vancouver Canucks’, with
‘Canucks’ being a slang term for ‘Canadians’.
q In Toronto, the ‘Toronto Maple Leafs’ get their national identity reference
from the maple leaf symbol. The team was renamed the ‘Maple Leafs’ in 1927
following the maple leaf symbol appearing on Canadian World War I uniforms
Activity 9.2
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Activity 9.3
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IDENTIFY YOURSELF 163
(the maple leaf did not become the emblem on the Canadian national flag until
1965).
q In Montreal, the ‘Montreal Canadiens’ adopt the French spelling to simultane-
ously signal language loyalty to French, the other official language of bilingual
(especially eastern) Canada.

The nicknames of football teams in the UK often have clearly traceable regional asso-
ciations, as in the following:
q West Ham United’s nickname ‘The Hammers’ originates from the fact that the
team started life as ‘Thames Ironworks’.
q Motherwell is named ‘The Steelmen’, due to the steelworks located just outside
the ground.
q Stoke City, nicknamed ‘The Potters’, is so named after the pottery industry based
in Stoke-on-Trent.
q The ‘Saddlers’ nickname of Walsall Football Club originates from industry, with
Walsall historically being a centre for the manufacture of saddles.
Consider the official names and unofficial nicknames of sports teams, clubs or any other
sporting and non-sporting associations of which you are a member or which exist in
the area where you live. Also consider specific terms of address which are used to refer
to people from the different regions around where you live.
q Research the etymologies of these names and address terms to find out how they
have originated.
q Explain how sociolinguistic identities have been encoded through such naming
strategies over time.
Online identities
The recent explosion of a range of websites which promote themselves as ‘social net-
working’ sites poses some interesting questions for sociolinguists in terms of defining
and redefining how individuals interact with one another in groups. Whilst most inter-
action on these sites takes place via the medium of written language, the hybrid form
of online discourse and the dialogic aspects of discussion boards, blogs and forums
have led to many of the linguistic features of spoken language, including those asso-
ciated with collective group identities, being seen online.
With more and more individuals spending huge swathes of time interacting
on these virtual ‘social networking’ sites, it is interesting to consider how collective
sociolinguistic identities manifest themselves, particularly in terms of how group
memberships emerge online.

The following examples from ‘Facebook’ illustrate how individuals who share
particular interests join groups which demonstrate how they are unified by sharing
the same speech norms. Members can thus be classified as belonging to the same speech
communities, according to Labov’s definition outlined in A9.
The first example of group membership relates to one very specific feature of lexical
variation. In England, different regional lexical items are used to refer to a certain type
of bread. Shared speech norms within regions have led to the development of a range of
groups that members can join on this particular topic. These groups name themselves
Activity 9.4
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164 EXPLORATION: INVESTIGATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE
according to the particular lexical variant they use. They then rival one another in
terms of arguing about which is the ‘correct’ term. Some examples of group names are:
q It’s called a COB!!!! Currently 23,372 members from the Midlands.
q It’s a barm cake! Currently 70 members in Manchester and Central Lancashire,
though there can be variation within a region and an additional layering of
identity.
q It’s not a cob, roll, barm cake or anything else it’s a BATCH! Currently 1,347
members from Coventry in the West Midlands, proving that there is variation
within the Midlands region.
The second example is a selection of ‘test’ statements for individuals to use to assess
whether they share the language norms of the online groups. There are several of these
groups and they tend to be identified by their group name following the pattern of: ‘You
know when you’re from X when . . .’ Again, there is clear evidence of speech commu-
nities in existence here, with shared language norms, often at the level of stereotypes,
explicitly highlighted. These groups draw attention to sociolinguistic regional language
features, language attitudes, and specific cultural knowledge, often utilising deictic expres-
sions with local reference. Selected examples of some of these listings are as follows:
You know you’re from Nottingham when:
q You know what a cob is and love mushy peas and mint sauce

q It’s a personal attack when northerners call you southern and southerners call you
northern
q You call everyone ‘duck’ or some form of the word ‘duck’
q Meeting place is the lions and always the left one [in Market Square].
You know you’re from Canada when:
q You know what a touque is [it’s a winter hat]
q ‘Eh’ is a very important part of your vocabulary and more polite than ‘Huh?’
q You know that the last letter of the English alphabet is always pronounced ‘Zed’
not ‘Zee’
q You pity people who haven’t tasted a ‘beaver tail’ [a fried dough pastry]
q You pay your bills in ‘loonies’ and ‘toonies’ [one and two dollar coins]
q You know that ‘eh’ is the 27th letter of the alphabet.
Unless you are from Nottingham or Canada or you have spent time living in either
of these locations it is unlikely that these defining characteristics of group member-
ship will apply to you.
q Compile a list of similar categories of language usage and language attitudes for
your own region/nation.
q How inclusive/exclusive are your categories?
q Search online within social networking sites for similar groups and compare and con-
trast your own examples of language stereotypes, again considering how solidarity
and social distance are established through notions of in-groups and out-groups.
INFLUENCING LANGUAGE 165
INFLUENCING LANGUAGE
In our consideration of World Englishes so far we have spent a good deal of time exam-
ining how new varieties can be described, catalogued and standardised. This tends to
lead to a focus upon how the emergence of one World Englishes variety comes to be
associated with one country or nation. However, as soon as one variety establishes itself,
other varieties begin to emerge. We will now explore how a range of different English
varieties co-exist within one location by looking at language data. We will then
explore real-life World Englishes data from the mass media.

Singlish
Singapore provides a good case study for examining different varieties of English. Within
Singapore, these varieties exist along a continuum. Standard Singaporean English (SSE)
sits at the most prestigious end of the continuum, and is often referred to as the acrolect
or ‘educated’ variety. The mid-point on the continuum is known as the mesolect, or
‘general’ variety: Singapore ‘Dialect’ English. At the other end of the continuum is the
least prestigious category, furthest from the standard. This referred to as the basilect,
or the ‘broad’ category, known as Singlish. Singlish contains mixing of English with
other official and local language varieties, including Hokkien, the dominant Chinese
regional language, Cantonese and Malay.
In 2000 the Singaporean government launched a ‘Speak Good English Movement’,
which continues to exist today. It is a prime example of an official language planning
campaign (there has also previously been a ‘Speak Mandarin Campaign’, aimed at erad-
icating different dialectal varieties of Chinese in the 1980s). The aim of the Speak Good
English campaign is to rid Singapore of Singlish.
In response, a pressure group known as the Society for the Preservation of
Authentic Singlish (SPAS) has emerged. The society aims to celebrate and preserve Singlish
as a legitimate variety. One of the key principles of SPAS is that Singaporeans are well
aware of how to communicate appropriately in different contexts – they do not need
the government to tell them how to do this.
Singlish is perfectly acceptable in informal, casual contexts with friends, intimates
and family. Speakers will switch from Singlish towards Standard Singaporean English
in more formal situations as and when required, such as when interacting within the
workplace or writing a formal letter. This argument is fully supported by empirical
sociolinguistic evidence and directly accords with Labov’s findings, discussed in B9,
that all speakers will shift styles towards the standard variety when contexts become
more formal.
Below are textual extracts from the Manifesto of the Society for the Preservation
of Authentic Singlish. Analyse the language used and the arguments given in favour of
Singlish as a legitimate variety. Consider the following:

q What does your analysis reveal in terms of the linguistic construction and the lin-
guistic creativity of Singlish as a variety of World Englishes?
q How is humour used in the text?
q What does the text reveal in terms of language attitudes and resistance to lan-
guage planning from proponents of Singlish?
Activity 10.1
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