The varieties of the English language

In this blog entry I will try to give some examples of the varieties of English used in other areas then Anglo-American core areas. I will compare Nigerian Standard English, South-African English and Singapore English.

In Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-American ) they define South-Africa as one of the Anglo-American languages, but I chose not to look at South-Africa as one of the "core Anglo-American languages" because of the big differences the language has compared to the other Anglo-American languages.

To start with, Nigerian Standard English is based on British English and is mainly spoken in the urban areas, mostly in Lagos which is the biggest city in Nigeria. Even though the language is based on British areas, there are big differences when it comes to the intonation and rhythm. The vowel reductions are less pronounced then in British English, and the pronunciations have a syllable-timed rhythm instead of stress-timed rhythm.

Furthermore, South-African English is spoken with a non-rhotic accent. This means that the "r" is often excluded from the words, except when it's followed by a vowel sound in the same phrase. This is like the British people as well. Instead of saying "are" they say "aaa". One of the special things about the South-African English, is that some of the words have entered the English language. These are words such as apartheid, commando, veld and impala. In one of my pervious blog entries I wrote a little about the movie Invictus. A while ago when we were working on South-Africa (http://englishnz.blogspot.com/2011/01/this-two-couple-of-weeks-weve-been.html ), we watched a movie called "Invictus" with Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman in the lead. If you watch that movie, you can get a closer look on how the South-Africans speak.

In Singapore however, there are two different languages; one of them is the Standard Singapore English, the other one Singlish. 42 % of the population in Singapore are foreign born, and almost 50 % of the population speaks mandarin at their home. Therefore, the English fluency level of the country is varieted. The Standard Singapore English follows the British spelling and grammar. For example, shopping centers are named "shopping centres". Singlish on the other hand, borrows words from not only Mandarin, but also Hokkien and Malay.

English is one of the mostly spread languages in the world. Whenever people are in a foreign country, they always start a conversation by saying: "Excuse me, do you speak English?". Still, there are incredibly many varieties of the language. Not only American, British and Australian, but Spanglish, Singlish, Chinglish etc. And some of these different varieties of English can be quite differe

nt from the "original" English, so perhaps we need to make sure to learn about the different varieties in English so that we can all understand each other better...

Sources:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Differences_between_British_English_and_Nigerian_English

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_English

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-rhotic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Standard_English

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_English

Pictures:

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/small_continents_map.htm

http://classifieds.justlanded.com/en/Poland/Classes_Language-classes/Private-English-Language-Lessons-5

Gran Torino

Today we watched a movie called Gran Torino. The director and one of the main characters was Clint Eastwood. This film was about an old man who recently lost his wife. He didn't have a good relationship with his two sons and his grandkinds, so when a hmong family moves in besides him, they turn out to become his "second family". But the relationship between them isn't very easy. Thao, the son of the house has a cousin that is a member of a gang. This gang tries to recrute Thao, but Walt (Clint Eastwood) encourages Thao to get a job and get away from the gang. But when Sue, the older sister gets violated, things change. Thao wants revenge, so does the rest of the town including Walt. However, Walt has other plans and this is when you see the old, grumpy man's soft side. I really think people should see this movie, so I won't spoil the end, but I can deffinately say that the movie has a happy, yet sad ending…

I think the main themes in the movie are challenges, loyalty and friendship. To start with everything is a challenge for Walt and for the hmong family. They have just moved in besides a grumpy and lonely old man. Even when they try to get to know this man, they are met with predjudicm and anger. But after they push really hard, they connect. Sue and Thao looks up to Walt. They look at him as a fatherfigure, and respect him. They listen to him, and are consurned about him when they see that he is sick. When the shooting episode happens, Walt really begins to figure out a plan to get back to the gang. And he truly finds a way of saving Thao and Sue from the destiny that they would have without Walt.

The way I see it, the moral of this movie is that it's never too late to do good. Even if it doesn't make up for everything you didn't do or should have done, you can still change someone elses life by doing the right thing. All in all, I liked the movie. I think it was a good storyline, good actors and finally a good ending.

Picture:

http://www.dagsavisen.no/kultur/filmer/article406966.ece

To Kill a Mockingbird

The book I have chosen to read is "To kill a mockingbird". I chose this book because I've heard much about it before, and I think it's important to read the classics that have been written.

To be honest, I haven't got that far in my reading to start giving a big description of what I've read, but so far I can say that this is a heavy book to read. It’s a little boring, but I think as soon as I get to read some more, it will become exciting. The writer is Harper Lee, and she has only written one book her entire life. The book is about a lawyer’s advice to his children as he defends a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. The theme in the book is mostly racism. I'm looking forward to read some more, and I'll make shure to make a blogpost later...