English as a World Language

• American English and British English influence each other and cause change within the language, often by a slow process of diffusion, without any immediate or obvious consequences.
• Differences in spelling:

RULES: BRITISH AMERICAN

-re (centre) -er (center)

-our (favour) -or (favor)

-ogue (dialogue) -og (dialog)

-c- (defence) -s- (defense)

COMMON: BRITISH AMERICAN

cheque check

doughnut donut

grey gray

programme program

tyre tire

• There are also some more subtle prosodic differences, in pitch, pace and volume:

RP GA (General American)

address address

cigarette cigarette

controversy controversy

garage garage

inquiry inquiry

research research

• PIDGIN - Combines two or more languages enabling the members of different speech communities to communication with each other
• Form when circumstances (such as trade or colonisation) force different languages together, which creates a need for means of communication between groups of people with no common language, which is usually where the dominant language becomes adapted and simplified.

• CREOLE - A pidgin which has expanded over time in structure and vocabulary to serve the functions of a first language
• Most Creole languages are spoken by descendants of African slaves

Roots stretch back to the 17th and 18th centuries, and the use of West African slaves to work on the sugar plantations on the Jamaican island. The slaves would have spoken mostly African Bantu or Kwa language, and the language that resulted over the centuries shaped Jamaican Creole form.

After the abolition of slavery in 1833 Jamaica remained under British colonial rule until 1948.

Today, most Jamaicans speak a version of Creole with a varying degree of SE forms, owing to the preservation of SE as a prestige form in the country.

Different tones and aspects are shown by adding additional words or particles to the main verb:

PAST TENSE  - 'mi ben taak' -  I talked

PRESENT PROGRESSIVE ASPECT -  'mi a taak'  -   I am talking

PAST PROGRESSIVE ASPECT  - 'mi ben a taak' -  I was talking