The first linguistic task for the colonists was to find names for concepts that did not exist in Britain. New words were needed for places, plants, landscapes and wildlife. Hence Indian words, particularly words from the Algonquian, were adopted and assimilated into colonial English. About 300 American Indian loanwords are still being used today, such as ‘caribou, hickory, hominy’, and ‘moccasin’. However, these words had undergone radical change in the course of adoption into American speech. Since it was difficult for Europeans to pronounce these Indian words, some of the words were abbreviated or clipped. For example, ‘hominy’ from ‘rockahominy’, ‘squash’ from ‘asquutasquash’, ‘hickory’ from ‘pawcohiccora’. Others were changed by folk etymology in order to analyze a new word in terms of known words. For example, the Indian word ‘muskwessu’ or ‘muscassus’ became ‘muskrat’, a musky-smelling rodent. Asides from this, there are also many expressions in American English which are derived from features of Indian life, such as ‘on the warpath’, ‘happy hunting grounds’, ‘war paint’ and ‘to bury the hatchet’.
In areas on the east coast, which maintained close cultural and trade links with England, speakers were influenced by British English and the /r/ was not pronounced in words like ‘cart’ and ‘far’. While in more inland areas where connection with England was weak, the pronunciation of /r/ was a common practice.
The largest single immigrant group in North America were the slaves brought from Africa. They were the sources of labour for the plantations in the southern areas of North America. Under the influence of African languages, a new form of English was spoken by the slaves there. A few words of African origin still remain today such as ‘gumbo’ (a stew, soup), ‘hoodoo’ (a curse or spell) and ‘okra’ (a kind of vegetables).
As far as the influence of later immigrants is concerned, American English borrowed some words from Italian such as ‘pizza, pasta, spaghetti’, German such as ‘hamburger, delicatessen, lager, kindergarten, seminar, semester’, Japanese such as ‘hara-kiri, jujitsu’, and of Yiddish/Hebrew origin such as ‘kosher, kibitzer, schnozzle’.
Other influences resulting from cultural contact were words borrowed from the French as in ‘bureau, prairie, pumpkin, rapids’ and the Spanish as in ‘cockroach, Creole, mustang, patio, rode’. The present New York was once the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. Among words borrowed from Dutch are ‘boss, dumb, Santa Claus and waffle’.
As a result, the English used in North America developed a character of its own and gained some features which make it different from British English.
Australia
The Anglophone Australia is one of the youngest nations in the world. Convicts from England took their residence in Australia when it was founded as a penal colony in 1788. It was followed by the second important group of immigrants, the Irish. Until now, the Australian with British ancestor are the predominant part of the population.
As the earliest settlers came mainly from England, the vocabulary used by them was largely derived from English local dialects with minor variations in meaning. Besides, Australian pronunciation was very close to Cockney. The vowel in words such as ‘after, grasp, dance’ was lengthened as the way it was in England at that time.
There was also influence from Hiberno-English, as Irish was another important group of immigrants. The most noticeaable is the pronunciation of the letter 'h' as /heItS/ rather than the unaspirated /eItS/ found in most of Britain and North America. Others include the plural of 'you' as 'youse', /ju:z/ and the expression 'good on you.
Some elements of Aboriginal languages were incorporated into Australian English, mainly as names for places, flora and fauna, such as ‘dingo’ and ‘kangaroo’. Beyond that, very few words were adopted into the language.
A vocabulary was coined by the colonists to name new colonial identities and distinguish themselves from the pre-colonial Aboriginal population. For example, ‘currency’ meant a non-Aboriginal born in Australia and ‘native’ Australian meant a white Australian actually born in the country.
In this way, Australian English began to diverge from British English and the native born Australians spoke with a distinctive accent and vocabulary.
Australian English reflects the composition of the immigrant population and experience which while in part distinctive was in part common to other British colonies. (Ramson, 1988)
Nigeria
At the end of the 15th century, the Portuguese were the first Europeans who traded pepper and slaves from the Nigerian coastal area. In the mid 16th century, people from the British Isles took over as the major trading partner. Nigeria became a British colony. There was no substantial settlement and the population remained overwhelmingly Africans.
With at least 390 indigenous languages spoken in Nigeria, the linguistic situation was quite complicated. A small number of Africans learned English at schools while the majority of them used English-based pidgin in addition to their own language.
Some distinct features found in pronunciation were influenced by the Nigerian languages. On the other hand, some were due to widespread usage by teachers and pupils who have passed through the same schools. For example, the pronunciation of /jua/ or /ja/ for the word ‘your’.
The usage of English was also influenced by the Nigerian languages. For example, there was no lexical distinction between ‘lend’ and ‘borrow’ in‘Borrow me your pen’(i.e. Lend me your pen). Besides, there is no distinction between countable and uncountable nouns in the word ‘equipment’.
New idioms and expressions were created. For example, in the expression ‘She has been to Britain’, ‘been to’ was created to describe someone who has travelled overseas, particularly to Britain.
New lexical items were coined from existing lexical items, such as ‘barb’ from ‘barber’and‘invitee’ from ‘invite’. Some words were borrowed from the local languages when there was no exact equivalent lexical items in English, such as ‘akara balls’(beancakes) and ‘bush meat’ (game).
Barbados and Jamaica
In 1627 Barbados ws colonized and settlers from British Isles landed on the island. The early settlers were convicts, political undesirables and the poor from the British Isles. In the 1640s as the sugar industry developed, slaves were brought from Africa and they eventually outnumbered the British population.
According to Ligon, slaves came from different parts of Africa. They spoke several different languages. Many linguists have taken the view that the policy of slave traders was to bring people of different language backgrounds together to make it difficult to plot rebellion. If that was the case, pidgin would have been the only form of communication among slaves. On the other hand, they also learned the local English from the English-speaking convict and servant population.
Since Barbados was small and flat, there was ‘close daily interaction’ conducive to the formation of a relatively ‘focused’ Barbadian English. This would produce more homogeneous varieties. Creolization was unlikely to have occurred. (David Graddol et al. 1996)
In Barbadian English, there were features associated with Hiberno-English. Evidence for this was the typical Irish pronunciation of ‘thing’ with initial /t/, and the forms of verbs in ‘do’ as in, for example, ‘she do tell me’ instead of ‘she tells me’.
In 1655 the British captured Jamaica from the Spanish. English-speakers from Barbados and other Caribbean islands as well as convicts from Britain came and settled on this island. As sugar production began to flourish, more and more slaves were brought from Africa. By 1746 the slaves outnumbered the English-speakers there.
Jamaican Creole was developed. There was influence of African languages as seen in words like ‘adru’(a medicinal herb) from Twi and ‘himba’ (edible wild yam) from Ibo. Other sources of lexis reflected the history of the island. It included words from Portuguese (‘pikni’ meant a small child), Spanish (‘bobo’ meant a fool), French (‘leginz’ meant a bunch of vegetables for a stew), Hindi (‘roti’ meant a kind of bread), Chinese (‘ho senny ho’ meant how’s business?) and even Arawak.
The ‘maritime’ speech of English seamen also influenced the language. It was shown in the nautical terms such as ‘berth’(office), ‘windward’(east) and ‘leeward’(west).
Since the 19th century, there was increased access to education and standard English was taught at schools. De-creolization occurred. Jamaican Creole gradually converged with standard English. However, accesss to the prescribed linguistic model, especially in relation to speech, was limited. New varieties of more standard Jamaican speech evolved alongside Jamaican Creaole. Jamaicans moved along a continuum with creole at one end and more standardized English at the other. (David Graddol et al. 1996, P. 211)
Conclusion
Through colonial activity, English spread across the world in the past few centuries. English no longer existed as a monolithic language, rather, it evolved into new varieties with distinctive features in vocabulary, grammar or pronunciation.
These changes were shaped by the contact with other languages and the contact between the varieties of English used by the settlers. (David Graddol et al. 1996) The way in which English arrived in a country, and the demographic distribution of speakers of other languages were the determining factors in the formation of the new variety of English in these countries.
(About 1850 words)
References
The Open University of Hong Kong (2005) ‘Study Guide’ in ES 371 The English Language: Past, Present and Future, Hong Kong: OUHK
Graddol, Leith and Swann (1996) English history, diversity and change, London: the Open University
David Crystal (1995) Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language,
