 #2 (permalink) Thu Nov 09, 2006 20:08 pm English: What do you think of this? |
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Hi Alan, that's a very interesting article. Scanning the first paragraph, one thing strikes me as odd though. According to Mr. Anchimbe the "American tongue", as he calls it, is present in "multimedia audiovisual network" and he refers to CNN as one of the examples. However, if you watch CNN Europe you will be exposed to all kinds of English -- Irish, Australian, British, Bulgarian, you name it. Have you ever heard Richard Quest speak? How much of his language is influenced by the "American tongue"?
Also, it's probably a good idea to examine how the "American tongue" itself is constantly being transformed as it is influenced by a great variety of different languages and cultures. The term "Americanisation" really doesn't make much sense and should be replaced by "Internationalization".
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Torsten
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| #3 (permalink) Sat Nov 18, 2006 14:41 pm English: What do you think of this? |
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I don't know if the English language is under threat from America, but I know that English is under threat from this guy! Look at this horrible sentence!
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| If the World Englishes were to become a replica of American speech and culture, it would mean annulling the current conscious and unconscious adaptation of varieties of the language to local colours as well as defeating the extensive range of functions for which each variety of English is used at these levels. |
I only skimmed the article (it didn't seem worth my time), but I noticed some things to comment on.
One is that he seems to assume that American English developed as a departure from that elusive entity foreigners like to call "British English", whatever it is. I didn't notice him acknowledging the fact that several forms of British English were originally planted on the American continent. He also didn't acknowledge that the British/American distinction now exists not simply because English changed in America, but also because English changed in England. Some of the differences exist because British English started to deviate, and America, being a backwater in the old days, retained the older forms and expressions.
This article exhibits a mentality that is common in various forms of elitist babble. It goes like this: Ordinary, natural cultural diffusion is a form of colonialism. Ordinary people are too stupid to resist it, and they will be brainwashed in some subtle way, everything will be standardized, and the world will be ruined.
People who write papers like this apparently don't comprehend the fact that people are smart enough to take what they want and can use from another culture or language -- no matter how dominant -- and reject what they don't want. Along the way, everything is adapted, so that what this author thinks is American influence might not even be recognizable to Americans who stumble abroad and witness it. People are smarter than the elites give them credit for being.
As a native speaker of General American, my language is full of words and concepts from Spanish, German, Japanese, several kinds of French and even African languages, including African forms of English. Only a moron (perhaps even an intellectual moron) would assert that my language and culture are under threat from this. |
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Jamie (K)
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