Language Ideologies in America

2.4.2 Language Ideologies in America

American social and linguistic history and linguistic historiography presents even to the casual reader a very different picture from the dominant one in Britain. In the early twentieth century we find both a parallel and a contrast to the British situation. The parallel lies in the widespread but intemperately expressed fear of engulfment. However, the groups which are seen to threaten the social fabric are not an urban proletariat speaking varieties of English rooted in historically established dialects, but immigrants who are speakers of languages other than english. While the United States is inherently a multiculturaland multilingual nation, the historical roots of an ideological focus on monolingualism and assimilation run as deep as the corresponding British focus on class and rank. In this section, I will attempt to pull together several different starnds of relevant sociohistorical information, referring freely to Crawford’s 1992 comprehensive collection of readings on the official English controversy. I shall consider later the issue of African-American Vernacular English AAVE, which seems to be underpinned by a rather different but sometimes interacting set of sociohistorical developments. Before the nineteenth century, national multilingualism and personal bilingualism were generally accepted in the United States as a fact of life, for several compelling reasons. First, there are two colonial languages other than English in the United States: Spanish has been spoken in the South West and Florida for more than 400 years, and antedates English speaking settlements in these areas; French was spoken in the eastern areas formerly held and populated by the French and is still Universitas Sumatera Utara spoken in parts of the North East particularly Maine and the South. Second, a large number of indigenous American languages were spoken. Finally, the large Cerman population of the United States has a particularly long history of effective mother- tongue maintenance. Universitas Sumatera Utara 2 .5 Punctuation Quotation The most obvious punctuation difference between the two versions in the way quotations are marked. The original American version uses quotation marks “xx”, while the British version employs inverted commas ‘x’. American and British English also uses inverted commas and quotation marks differently, respectively, when marking a quotation within another quotation. For example: • U.S’’Oh, is that your suit?’’ I said. ‘This is the first I ever heard about it’ • U.K’ Oh, is that your suit?’ I said. ‘This is the first I ever heard about it’ Commas In general, the British version had more commas than the American one, as can be seen in the table below The British Version The American Version 1.Broke off, ceasing to compel my attention 2. Days, under sun and rain 3. afternoon, and when 4. went toward the little office, mingling immediately 1.Broke off ceasing to compel my attention 2.Days under sun and rain 3. Afternoon and when 4. went toward the little office mingling immediately Universitas Sumatera Utara 5. Discussing, in impassioned voices, whether 6. The evening too would be over 5. Discussing in impassioned voices whether 6. The evening, too, would be over Hypens Another noticeable difference is the use of hypens The British Version The American Version 1. Anti-climax 2. Upstairs 3. Weather-proof 4. downstairs 5. To-morrow 6. Countryside 7. Rough-neck 8. To-night 9. Good-bye 10. A seventeen year-old boy 1. Anticlimax 2. Up-stairs 3. Weatherproof 4. Down-stairs 5. Tomorrow 6. Country-side 7. Roughneck 8. Tonight 9. Good-by 10. A seventeen-year-old boy Universitas Sumatera Utara

CHAPTER 3 STANDARD ENGLISH AND DIALECTS

3.1 Standard English and Dialects in British

Dialects and accents vary between the four countries of the United Kingdom, and also within the countries themselves. There are also differences in the English spoken by different socio-economic groups in any particular region. The Major divisions are normally classified as English which comprises Southern English dialects, Midlands English dialects and Northern English dialects, Welsh English and Scottish English. The various British dialects also differ in the words that they have borrowed from other languages. The Scottish and Northern English dialects include many words originally borrowed from Old Norse and a few borrowed from Gaelic, though most of the structure and common words are conservative Anglo-Saxon. Following its last major survey of English Dialects 1949-1950, the University of Leeds has started work on a new Project. In May 2007 the Arts and Humanities Research Council awarded a grant to a team led by sally Johnson, Professor of Linguistic and Phonetics at Leeds University, to study British regional dialects. Johnson’s team are sifting through a large collection of examples of regional slang words and phrases turned up by the “Voices project” run by the BBC, in which they invited the public to send in examples of English still spoken throughout the country. Universitas Sumatera Utara