User:ChuaYT/World Englishes

Introduction
World Englishes refers to the emergence of localized or indigenized varieties of English, especially varieties that have developed in nations colonized by England or the United States. Indian English, Singapore English, and Philippine English are commonly referred to as examples of World Englishes, as each of these varieties has native speakers. This term is not to be confused with International English, also known as Global English or World English, which is used to refer to a standardised form of English and of a movement towards an international standard for English.

World English versus World Englishes
The notions of World Englishes and World English are far from similar, although the terms are often mistakenly used interchangeably. Within linguistics, there are two clear divisions :

1: Those who believe linguistics to be an autonomous discipline and language to be a homogeneous system independant of culture and society.

2: Those who believe that the notion of language as an autonomous, homogenous system is untenable; linguistics systems co-evolve with sociocultural conventions of language use and thus the context of use is as relevantas rules of usage.

World English is a term given for language used in business, diplomacy, media and other spheres. As Yamuna Kachru observes: "These labels deny the pluricentricity of the medium and misdirect the research efforts at standardization of an abstraction at the cost of understanding the phenomenon of wide distribution and deep penetration of the medium across cultures and deep penetration of the medium across cultures.".

TO BE EDITED

Classification of English
The English language includes at least three types of varieties:

1: Those that are used as the primary language of the majority population of a country, such as American or British.

2: Varieties that are used as an additional language for intranational as well as international communication in communities that are multilingual, such as Indian, Nigerian, and Singaporean.

3: Varieties that are used almost exclusively for international communication, such as Chinese and German.

Most of these Englishes developed as a result of colonial imposition of the language in various parts of the world.

Braj Kachru's Three Circles of English
According to Braj Kachru, the diffusion of English is best captured in terms of three Concentric Circles of the language: The Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle.

The Inner Circle refers to English as it originally took shape and later was spread across the world in its first diaspora. In this transplantation of English, speakers from England carried the language to Australia, New Zealand and North America, as well as to extended British Isles or UK. The Inner Circle thus represents the traditional historical and sociolinguistic bases of English in regions where it is used as a primary language: the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Malta, anglophone Canada and South Africa (South Africa is regarded as a special case), and some of Caribbean territories. English is the native language or mother tongue of most people in these countries. The total number of English speakers in the inner circle is as high as 380 million, of whom some 120 million are outside the United States.

The Outer Circle of English was produced by the second diaspora of English, which spread the language through colonization by Britain and the USA in Asia and Africa. This was accomplished via a relatively small number of users sent to parts of the world far removed from the societies where English was the medium of daily use. In these regions, English is not the native tongue, but serves as a useful lingua franca between ethnic and language groups. Higher education, the legislature and judiciary, national commerce and so on may all be carried out predominantly in English. This circle includes India, Nigeria, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Tanzania, Kenya, non-Anglophone South Africa, etc. The total number of English speakers in the outer circle is estimated to range from 150 million to 300 million.

Finally, the Expanding Circle encompasses countries where English plays no historical or governmental role, but where it is nevertheless widely used as a medium of international communication. This includes much of the rest of the world's population not categorised above: China, Russia, Japan, most of Europe, Korea, Egypt, Indonesia, etc. The total in this expanding circle is the most difficult to estimate, especially because English may be employed for specific, limited purposes, usually business English. The estimates of these users range from 100 million to one billion.

The inner circle (UK, USA,etc.) is 'norm-providing'. That means that English language norms are developed in these countries - English is the first language there. The outer circle (mainly New Commonwealth countries) is 'norm-developing'. The expanding circle (much of the rest of the world) is 'norm-dependent', because it relies on the standards set by native speakers in the inner circle.

???Research on English as a Lingua Franca in the sense of "English in the Expanding Circle" is comparatively recent. Linguists who have been active in this field are Jennifer Jenkins, Barbara Seidlhofer, Christiane Meierkord and Joachim Grzega.???

Variation and Varieties

 * categorisation below to be revised

African English
Cameroon English Liberian English

Nigerian Standard English

Malawian English

South African English

East African English

- Ugandan English

- Kenyan English

Globalisation and Implications

 * merger of sub-parts below may be considered

Netspeak
Netspeak is also known as chatspeak, leet, internet slang, internet short-hand and chatspeak.