Of New Englishes and and New Literacies

Englishes and New Englishes

It may be important to preface this section with the words of the eminent English linguist, David Crystal who acknowledges the fact that “no one can now claim sole ownership of English” although as he explains, “the loss of ownership is of course uncomfortable to those, especially in Britain, who feel that the language is theirs by historical right’ (Crystal, 2003, p.158). Earlier on in 1964, Halliday, McIntosh & Strevens (1964) had boldly declared that
English is no longer the possession of the British, or even the Americans,
but…exists in an increasingly large number of different varieties…But the
most important development of all is seen in the emergence of varieties that are
identified with and are specific to particular countries from among the
former British colonies. In West Africa, in the West Indies, and in Pakistan and
India…it is no longer accepted by the majority that the English of England,
with RP as its accent, are the only possible models of English to be set before
the young. (p.293-294).

These assertions underscore the fact that no one owns English and English is owned by all those who speak English. However, scholarship in the study of new varieties of English as a sub-discipline of English studies dates back to the early 1980s. Although the term, ‘Englishes’ is credited to the late British English scholar, Babara M. H. Strang who first used it in her book, A History of English, the popularization of the categorization, ‘New Englishes’ is attributed to Braj B. Kachru when he spoke of the Indianization of English. While Englishes is used as a term to refer to ‘varieties of English’ across the world or the plurality of English languages globally, ‘New Englishes’ specifically refer to ‘non-native varieties or nativized varieties of English. In this lecture, we shall note the pejorative nuance of the term ‘nativized’ which tends to delegitimize the right of new Englishes as well as the concept of ‘native and non-native’. I will address the question of ‘native speaker’ later.

Nonetheless, the transportation of English from main land Britain through the activities of settlers, explorers, military adventurers, merchants and missionaries marked the gradual and steady movement of English from the British Isle across oceans and continents and the birth of plurality of English languages worldwide. While the interest at this point is not to recount the history of English from its Anglo-Frisian birth of the 5^th century through the Norman Conquest (1066) to the modern time, what is important to note is the movement of English from the end of the 16^th Century to the present which has produced what we know as ‘Englishes’ and ‘New Englishes’. In terms of the movement therefore, the transportation of English started from within the British Isle to Scotland, Wales and Ireland. This was followed by external Diaspora transcontinental re-rooting of English to America (1584), Canada (1497), The Caribbean (early 1660s), Australia (1770), New Zealand (1769), South Africa (1795), South Asia (1600s), former African British colonies (late 1600s), South East Asia and the South Pacific countries (1770s). Because of the large number of English-speaking settlers in these countries - USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa-, the English spoken in these countries are not considered part of the discourse of ‘New Englishes’. Generally speaking therefore, what constitutes ‘New Englishes’ are those varieties which fall under the Outer-Circle Diaspora outside the Inner-Circle Diaspora.
To fall within the classification of new Englishes, Platt, Weber & Ho (1984) and Wenfang (2011, p.6) identify the following features:

1. 
   The English was developed through the education system. (This is now not necessarily so because in some Nigerian families, English is developed and is being developed as a home language and as a first language, that is, children use the language at home before encountering it in school.)
   
2. 
   English is developed in an area where majority of the people do not speak a native variety of English. (Again the question of who is a native speaker is contestable and questionable. See discussion of who is a ‘native speaker’ in this lecture. )
   
3. 
   English is used for a range of functions by those who speak and write it.
   
4. 
   The English has become localized and nativized (note the nuances in the term ‘nativized’) while still retaining some language features of the native variety in terms of sounds, intonation patterns, sentence structures, words and expressions.
   

Haven acknowledged these four core characteristics defining ‘New Englishes’, I shall now examine the paradigms and models for describing New Englishes.