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M February 20, 2008 What do the terms Caribbean Standard English and Internationally Accepted English mean? How are the two related? Provide arguments and clear examples in your discussion.

English is one of the most widely spoken languages today; seven hundred and fifty million people speak it as either a first or second language (Crystal, 360). With such a large number of speakers spanning different continents the question of what is Standard English arises. Caribbean Standard English (CSE) and Internationally Accepted English (IAE) are two varieties of the English language in existence today. Both varieties have similarities and differences. While CSE has a distinct phonology, lexicon, syntax and phonology, it shares with the artificial IAE core features that make both varieties of English and mutually intelligible.

Caribbean English is a collection of sub-varieties of English distributed over a large number of non contiguous territories (Allsopp, Introduction). The process involves taking the standards of different Caribbean territories and finding the core features of them. Each territory has a standard. According to Romaine a simple definition of a standard is that it is a highly codified variety of a language, which has been developed and elaborated for use across a broad range of functions (231-232). In addition it is as a result of conscious and deliberate planning (232). As a standard is specific to a certain area it cannot be termed the English language.

Standard English is thus not the English language but simply a variety of it (Trudgill, 118). The lexicon of CSE is influenced by French Creole; in addition there exists several allonyms. Allonyms are simply different names for the same lexical item, in Trinidad there is the fruit chenette while other Caribbean territories have canep and chenep. Though CSE may share the core features that comprise IAE the main difference lies in pronunciation which is not the focus of IAE. However the differences in pronunciation as opposed to Received Pronunciation were taken into account when creating the CSE. For example according to Allsopp there is more lung pressure and mouth pressure in articulation (Introduction). There is a reduction of diphthongal glides and the platalisation of [k] and [g], so girl would be gyrl. Therefore the standards of each1
HASSAN BASARALLY 806007430 LING 2402 WED. 3-4P.M February 20, 2008 territory were compared to produce the core features, while allowing regionalisms such as allonyms and pronunciation.

Due to the fact that several standards exist the IAE was created to account for the question of what is English. This variety takes the core features of all standards to create a variety that is acceptable to the educated speakers of all. This may be deemed as elitist but according to Crystal two thirds of the worlds scientists write in English (360), which makes this group a useful source of core grammatical features. Therefore the CSE, British Standard English and Canadian Standard English etc. would be intersected to produce the core features that

represent English. These features include: 1. Standard English fails to distinguish between the forms of the auxiliary forms of the verbdo and its main verb forms. This is true both of present tense forms, where many other dialects distinguish between auxiliary I do, he do and main verb I does, he does or similar, and the past tense, where most other dialects distinguish between auxiliarydid and main verbdone, as in You done it, did you? 2. Standard English has an unusual and irregular present tense verb morphology in that only the third-person singular receives morphological marking: he goes versus I go. Many other dialects use either zero for all persons or -s for all persons. 3. Standard English lacks multiple negation, so that no choice is available between I dont want none, which is not possible, and I dont want any. Most nonstandard dialects of

English around the world permit multiple negations. 4. Standard English has an irregular formation of reflexive pronouns with some forms based on the possessive pronouns e.g.myself, and others on the objective pronouns e.g. himself. Most nonstandard dialects have a regular system employing possessive forms throughout i.e. hisself, theirselves.

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5. Standard English fails to distinguish between second person singular and second person plural pronouns, havingyou in both cases. Many nonstandard dialects maintain the older English distinction betweenthou andyou, or have developed newer distinctions such asyou versusyouse. 6. Standard English has irregular forms of the verb to be both in the present tense (am, is, are) and in the past (was, were). Many nonstandard dialects have the same form for all persons, such as I be, you be, he be, we be, they be, and I were, you were, he were, we were, they were.

7. In the case of many irregular verbs, Standard English redundantly distinguishes between preterite and perfect verb forms both by the use of the auxiliaryhave and by the use of distinct preterite and past participle forms: I have seen versus I saw . Many other dialects have I have seen versus I seen. 8. Standard English has only a two-way contrast in its demonstrative system, withthis (near to the speaker) opposed tothat (away from the speaker). Many other dialects have a three-way system involving a further distinction between, for example,that (near to the listener) andyon (away from both speaker and listener) (Trudgill, 124).

From these features it is evident that IAE is only an artificial variety of English. It is artificial as it is not specific to a geographical area and pronunciation, which gives rise to a regional accent, is not dealt with. It is not formal or Standard English, it is as a result

of the norms associated with educated people, which in fact can be subjective and prescriptive. From this Allsopps definition of English can be used:

It is an analytic language with a morphology strongly characterised by adaptive features , the sense of any continuous utterance being governed by and dependant on a strong traditional word order (subject+ verb+ complement) as its

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international structural base, which can accommodate a number of distinctive national features at all linguistic levels, chiefly in the field of lexicon (Introduction). In conclusion, CSE is the core linguistic features of English spoken in the

Caribbean territories. IAE takes CSE along with all other standards to produce variety encompassing all. The process of arriving at the respective varieties are similar, the major difference being IAE does not focus on accents.

How do YOU say these words?! Tootsie Roll comfortable orange both tour

toilet sure Nevada roof chocolate route drawer coupon Ramen Noodles pecan caramel milk again Carribean wash New Orleans crayon envelope coffee Reese's Pieces data

Caribbean English
Introduction author: Alfred Jean-Baptiste " Caribbean English and the Literacy" (a manual) He was born on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. Jean-Baptiste worked as the General Secretary of the St. Lucia Teachers Union between 1979 and 1985. He visited all English-speaking Caribbean islands. In that time Jean-Baptiste had responsibility for teaching profession and education issues. He wrote handbooks, articles in newspapers and organized workshops on educational, pedagogical, social and political issues.

Location of the Caribbean The Caribbean islands are situated south of Florida to the northwest corner of Venezuela in South America. 7000 islands, islets, reefs and cays belong to the Caribbean region. Resources in the Caribbean area are sugar, tobacco and cotton. Social history The history and social structure of the Caribbean had an important influence on their language. The history, depending on the colonizer, divided the Caribbean today into Englishspeaking, Spanish-speaking, French-speaking and Dutch-speaking countries. English-speaking Caribbean Jamaica Bermuda St. Vincent & the Grenadines The Bahamas Antigua and Barbuda Montserrat The Cayman Islands Dominica Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos St. Kitts and Nevis Guyana U.S. Virgin Islands St. Lucia Belize Anguilla Barbados British Virgin Islands Spanish-speaking Dutch-speaking French-speaking Caribbean Caribbean Caribbean Cuba Curacao* Haiti Dominican Republic Aruba* Martinique Puerto Rico Bonarie* Guadeloupe St. Marteen* French Guyana Saba* St. Eustatius*

Suriname * All part of the Netherlands Antilles Many European languages influenced the Caribbean (from the 17 th century to the 19 th century): First: Spanish Second: English Then: French and Dutch. owners poor whites indentured workers field slaves This pyramid structure shows the society and their linguistic structure on the plantation system. The European languages dominate at the top of the social structure. The different varieties of speaking English in the Caribbean There are five variations of English (Creole E., Erudite E., Foreign E., Rasta E. and Standard E.) in use in the Caribbean speaking. "The British insisted Creole languages had no place in schools in their colonies." Creole English People who have lower education speak Creole. Erudite English The most well-read people speak and write Erudite English. They impress their knowledge by sound, length of words, many words in Latin and Greek and biblical phrases. Erudite English is used in biblical and proverbial English ( a proverb: "Out of sight, out of mind" "Aus den Augen, aus dem Sinn.").

The Bible has a great influence in the Caribbean. It is a tool of general education. The extensive knowledge of the Bible shows the people of a higher educated level. Foreign English British, American and Canadian English have an important influence on the English-speaking countries in the Caribbean. Rasta English The Rastafarians speak Jamaican Creole. They have a very strong pronunciation. The speech of Rastafarians reflects the belief system (a combination of African cultural issues, Old Testament of the Bible and elements of Marcus Garvey s preaching) of these people.

Standard English Standard English means English without Creole. The spoken Standard English differs in the pitch, stress and general tone from the spoken English in Canada, Great Britain and the United States. Example: calypso normal: ca-lyp-so (primary stress and high pitch on the second syllable) typical in Caribbean: ca-lyp-so (primary stress on the first two syllables high pitch on the last syllable)

There are some peculiarities of pronunciation, vocabulary and style in each Caribbean Country. For example: Guyana: These people speak a instead of o in words like job jab, dog dag, got gat. Antigua: There are many similarities between the speech in Antigua and Jamaica.

The Antiguans speak tr as ch. three chee truck chuck They change dr in j. drink jink drunk junk The Antiguans use the word min in the past tense. You min eat. You ate.

Sources http://www.eleaston.com/world-eng.html (08.07.02) http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/caibb (08.07.02)

Caribbean English
From Pidgin to Creole
The varieties of English spoken in the West Indies give us a fascinating insight into the way languages emerge and evolve when people from different cultures come into contact. From the early 1700s, thousands of people were transported as slaves to the Caribbean, particularly from West Africa. As a result a number of pidgin languages developed. A pidgin language is a linguistically simplified means of communication that emerges naturally when speakers of two or more languages need to understand each other. Initially workers on the colonial plantations in the Caribbean would have spoken a variety of ethnic languages, but the language imposed on them by slave owners was English. Among the workers themselves, however, a pidgin language would have been used, based on the sounds, vocabulary and grammatical structures of all the contributing languages.

From pidgin to creole

Crucially a pidgin language is not a mother tongue. This means it has no native speakers. But if the pidgin remains the main means of communication within a community for a significant length of time as, for example, on the plantations of the Caribbean - then it becomes the first language of children within the community. At this point it begins to increase in complexity as it is spoken in a wider range of contexts and adapts to serve the purposes of a fully-fledged language. This process produces what linguists call a creole. A creole is a pidgin that has expanded in structure and vocabulary and has all the characteristics of other languages. This means it demonstrates two important factors:

Regional variation hence the difference between, say, Jamaican Patois (often called Patwa locally) and Barbadian Creole (known locally as Bajan) Social variation so we can define one speaker as using a broader variety of patois than another.

Crucially, however, this creole generally competes with a closely related language that has more prestige within the community. Therefore it often has an ambivalent status even among its own speakers. Throughout the Caribbean, for instance, Standard English, albeit a Caribbean version, is the language of education, although Jamaicans, Barbadians and others are rightly proud of their local patois as an important expression of their cultural identity.

Caribbean creole
In its most extreme form, a Caribbean Creole can appear unintelligible to outsiders. As with dialects there are fine shades of differences between speakers, although there are a number of elements that characterise most forms of Caribbean English. The lack of the verb to be in statements such as she dreaming, where Standard English requires shes dreaming, is typical of the type of structure that occurs in a creole. Similarly, pronouns may not be marked for subject/object distinctions and verbs might not always carry a tense marker as in

the statement him tell me dat yesterday for he told me that yesterday. The meaning is always clear, despite the apparent simplification - in fact creoles are just as rule-governed as dialects and languages. Finally, there are common elements of Caribbean vocabulary, such as pickney, meaning young child. This word is particularly intriguing, as it is known to exist in several pidgin and creole languages across the world. It is thought to originate from the Portuguese word pequeno, meaning small, and perhaps illustrates the role played by Portuguese sailors and merchants in the early trade routes down the West African coast at the time when The Slave Trade was at its height. The table below gives several examples of speakers using a number of pronunciations and grammatical constructions that are typical of speech in the West Indies and among speakers in the UKs Caribbean communities. All the audio clips are taken from recent BBC interviews and come from spontaneous conversation. They therefore reflect the natural reflexes of Caribbean English. The left hand column lists each feature, while the second column gives an explanation. The list is by no means comprehensive, but by clicking on the sound file you can hear an extract from a recording of a speaker using the target feature.

Minority Ethnic

Asian English Caribbean English

Caribbean English Phonology

feature explanation sound file so with me having, getting that bit of knowledge, things comes easy to me they were in the process of, uhm, finding homes for people that just arriving, new arrival in this country and, uh, helping them settle down and

<th> in words such as think and three is TH-stopping pronounced using a <t> sound and in words such as this and that using a <d> sound

H-dropping

initial <h> is deleted in words such as happy and house

finding jobs complex strings of consonants are often you realise how a detached consonant simplified by deleting the final sound, so that house is, semi-detached and cluster best becomes bes, respect becomes respeck reduction and land becomes lan I start working as a conductor I was one of the the <r> sound is pronounced after a vowel in first black person to, uhm, rhoticity words like hard, corn and nurse start it on the Sheffield Tramway

explanation sound file vowels in unstressed syllables are not reduced, so that speakers use a comparatively strong and then you just automatic, unreduced vowel on words such as about, bacon or vowel in arrival and on grammatical function words, automatically got into the swing and accept what you've weak such as in the phrases lot of work, in a few syllables days and in the kitchen - a very subtle feature seen here that contributes to the characteristic rhythm or lilt of Caribbean English a similar vowel sound as that used by speakers back home in Jamaica each in Scotland, Wales and the North East of individual have their own FACE vowel England on words such as game, tray, plain, home and spaces reign, they and great a similar vowel sound as that used by speakers we all have our own home in Scotland, Wales and the North East of nice little home and we have GOAT vowel England on words such as home, show, boat great deal of land and toe

feature

Caribbean English Grammar

feature explanation zero the indefinite article, a or an, is occasionally indefinite omitted article verbs are left unmarked for tense, although other zero past signals (adverbs of time, such as yesterday, last tense marker week etc.) often give linguistic clues about the timing of an event zero plural nouns are left unmarked for plurality marker sound file in _ couple of days I foun, I got my own, I got a job I work_ on that job for a few months my relative_, they were involve in this Community

Association business http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/minority-ethnic/caribbean/

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29CARIBBEANENGLISH.html Pronunciation
(1) The varieties of JAMAICA, BARBADOS, and GUYANA are rhotic; the varieties of the BAHAMAS, BELIZE, Trinidad and Tobago, and the lesser Antilles are non-rhotic. (2) Rhythm tends to be syllable-timed. (3) There are fewer diphthongs than in RP: the distinction /i/ versus // is neutralized in most varieties, so that beer/bare, fear/fare share the same vowels; in most acrolects, the equivalent of RP /eI/ in face is /e/, but in Jamaican and the varieties of the Leeward Islands it is /ie/; the vowel in such words as goat is generally /o/, but in Jamaican is /o/. (4) Final consonant clusters tend to be reduced in all but the most careful speech, as in han for hand. (5) There is a preference for a clear /l/ in such words as milk, fill, rather than the dark /l/ of RP.

Grammar
The syntax of CarE approximates fairly closely to general mainstream English. Special features include: (1) Would and could are common where BrE has will and can: I could swim I can swim; I would do it tomorrow I will do it tomorrow. (2) Where BrE has a simple past there is often a past historic: The committee had decided The committee decided. (3) Yes-no questions with a declarative word order and rising intonation are much commoner than the inversion of auxiliary and subject: You are coming? Are you coming?

Vocabulary
Regional usages include: (1) Local senses of general words: (Trinidad) fatigue, as used in to give someone fatigue to tease or taunt someone with a mixture of half-truths and imaginative fabrications; (general, as a noun) galvanise corrugated metal sheeting coated with zinc and used as roofing or fencing material; (Trinidad) lime to hang around, loiter without intent, be a casual observer of an event; (Trinidad and elsewhere) miserable mischievous; (Jamaica) tall hair long hair. (2) Local words: (Trinidad) catspraddle to send sprawling with a blow, to fall in an indecorous way; (Trinidad) jort a snack; (Trinidad) touchous touchy, short-tempered. (3) Loans from French Creole: lagniappe (shared with Southern AmE) something extra given by a vendor to a buyer for the sake of goodwill, a bonus; (Trinidad, SAINT LUCIA) macafouchette leftovers; (Trinidad) ramajay to warble, twitter, make an extravagant display. (4) Loans from local Spanish: (Trinidad, Barbados, and elsewhere) alpargat(a) a sandal with uppers made of woven rope-like material, canvas, or of intertwined leather thongs; (general) parang a term for a number of different musical rhythms, song types, and festivities associated with Christmas in Trinidad and parts of Venezuela (from paranda); (Jamaican) fruutapang breadfruit (from fruta fruit, pan bread); (Jamaican) mampala an effeminate man (from mampoln a common cock, not a fighting

cock); (Jamaican) scaveeched fish (from escabeche pickled fish). (5) Words from West African languages: (general) bakra, bukra, buckra a white person; (widespread) cotta, kata a head-pad used under a load carried on the head; (widespread) fufu a dish made by pounding boiled plantains, yams, or cassava in a mortar to form a smooth, firm mass that may be cut and served. (6) Loan translations from West African languages: sweet mouth flattery, a flatterer; eye-water tears; hard-ears stubborn; door-mouth doorway, entrance to a building.