What is English? (Part III)

MLS — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 23:23:03 +0000

Part of what has caused English to evolve so much is its spread around the world. The language’s diversity is shown by the existence of colloquial phrases such as the Jamaican “I and I” (meaning “we”), and “fixin’ to” (implying “planning to” or “about to”) in the southeastern United States. In fact, certain letters and words have ended up with different pronunciations. An example is the word “advertisement”: in England, the stress goes on the second syllable, but in the United States, it goes on the third syllable. Also, when a word in English ends in an R sound, the R sound is replaced with a mid-central vowel sound (represented by the symbol ə) in much of the eastern United States, as well as in England and several former British colonies.

Some of the neologisms in English are based on people’s names. Gerrymander comes from the name of a Massachusetts governor who redrew the state’s districts to favor his party in 1812, while the Diesel engine is named after its inventor. More often, the doctrines and policies of particular statesmen lend their names to words ending in –ism, like Leninism and Thatcherism.

Sometimes, certain words in English can take on new meanings, whether alone or in combinations. This occurs often in popular culture, as shown by the music genres blues, folk and rock ‘n’ roll, along with the movie genres comedy and horror.

Clearly, this tongue that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England is now one of the ultimate mixtures in the world, and simply continues to evolve. In fact, many languages have entities that regulate them, such as the Bangla Academy, which regulates Bengali; English has no official regulation. In a way, English is no longer a sufficient name for the language. It nowadays needs a name that emphasizes its fascinating mélange of words from around the world.

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What is English? (Part III)