Eastern European Englishes

Eastern European Englishes Ina Shashkova, Nikelwa Theileis, Melanie Höhr, Ina Strasser English as a Global Lingua Franca

English as a Global Lingua Franca

Quiz: Where do the following people come from? • Croatia • Slovakia • Poland • Russia • Romania English as a Global Lingua Franca

A Brief Look at English in Eastern Europe. • Till the 19th Century, the teaching of English was restricted mainly to places which traded with Britain. • True competition with French and German started in the 1880s • Till World War 2, English little taught in Eastern Europe where German and French were firmly established • End of Stalinist period saw the re-introduction of English, requirement that Russian be learnt abandoned in the 1990s. • English as teaching language in primary and secondary education is frequent in East Europe English as a Global Lingua Franca

Even company languages are influenced by it; e.g. Alcatel, Aventis etc. - English seen as “working language” • E.U and European Commission officials: 63% French 33% English • In contact with member state experts in: Oral communication: 22% French 31% English Written comm.: 6% French 59% English • Haller (2001): No one listens to what you say if you do not speak English because English is the language of power and, by speaking another language, you show you have no power. • What gives English its function therefore is not so much its utilitarian function as the prestige attached to it and the social role attributed to it. English as a Global Lingua Franca

Sample Sentences • I’d rather drink Coca-Cola than Sprite • How do you do? I'm good - It’s kind that you ask. • Why do you think Caroline cried last night? • The dog went mad. What a freak. He’s so jealous. • Can you put this back into the basket? • I have my focus on this certain area! • He used to be my little boy. That’s so curious. • Wait! Bob is taking a shower. • Freeze! You are so mean. • I don’t really think this is easy. • Not at all. Lucky one. • It’s a strange questionnaire. • Quite good, actually. • Could you please read out chapter three, verse thirteen? • That’s extraordinary. • The zebra is black and white. English as a Global Lingua Franca

Coca-Cola Freeze! think actually extraordinary Sample AE cаυcΛ cаυlΛ fθi:z θınk æktƒαli: ekstra:č:deri: Russian1 coca:cola: fri:se tınk a:ktu:æle ekstraoαdenær:i: Russian2 caυla fri:z θınk æktƒeli: ekstrač:denæli: Russian3 coca:cola: fri:s θınk æktƒυ:li: ekstraordenα:ri: Russian4 coca:cola: fri:s θınk æktuæli: ekstra:č:deri: Russian5 coca:cola: fri:z sınk æktƒuli: ekstra:č:deri English as a Global Lingua Franca

Type of English in Russia Russian native speakers naturally speak Russian English instead of English, the variety being quite widely spread (about 100–150 million speakers). • It is basically closer to British than American English (since the majority of Russian mother-tongue speakers live in Europe). British pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and punctuation are educational standards in Russian schools and universities • Runglish (Ruglish, Russlish), is a neologism increasingly used to denote different interferences of Russian and English languages. It has distinctive pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar English as a Global Lingua Franca

Segmentals: vowels Inability to distinguish and produce pure English vowel qualities -> a lack of corresponding vowels -> 6 oral vowels -> implemented to realize 12 English vowels Short and long vowels (hit and heat) are not distinguished. Open and close vowels (pan and pen) are not distinguished. The diphthongs /aɪ/, /eɪ/, and/ɔɪ/ sound with the consonant [j] sound instead of the short /ɪ/. E.g. “high” sounds like [haj], rather than [haɪ]. /i:/, /ɪ/, and /j/ sounds make the preceding consonants palatalized. Consonants Voiced and voiceless consonants are not distinguished in final position (leave and leaf). Aspirated consonants are not generally aspirated. There is no /w/ in Russian and speakers typically substitute [v] Russian /r/ is an alveolar trill. This may carry over into English Absence of dental fricatives /ð/ and /θ/ sounds in Russian phonology Russian English PronunciationSelected phonological features English as a Global Lingua Franca

Runglish Grammar and Syntax Grammar • There is no distinction between a, the, and zero article. • Simple tenses are used instead of Perfect and Continuous tenses. • Different prepositions may be used (during instead of for, at or in, with thehelp of instead of by means of, in instead of at or on etc). • Inappropriate use of “he”/“she” when referring to animals or inanimate objects Syntax • Use of multiple negation (I didn’t do nothing). • Wrong tags are used (‘Didn’t you know that?’ ‘Yes, I didn’t’). English as a Global Lingua Franca

QuestionnaireStructure of interviewed people • Total number: 15 • Russian: 7 • Polish: 4 • Lithuania, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania: 1 • Students living in Germany: 9 • Exchange students: 3 • Students not living in Germany: 2 • Non-academic/ weak social background: 1 • Age: 19 - 33 English as a Global Lingua Franca

Some Results of the questionnaire • Regional differences in the influence of English (eg. Russia: Moscow vs. Siberia) • English is presented on TV, radio and in advertisements (eg. Background music, slogans, some English expressions – eg. Happy hour, subtitled films, news, broadcast) • More and more English loan words (Economics – corporation, manager; IT- hardware; food- hot dog, continental breakfast; other- bus, bank, live, show, film, concert...) • Weaknesses mainly in vocabulary (66,7%) English as a Global Lingua Franca

All interviewed people find that English is a good Lingua Franca English as a Global Lingua Franca

English in Russia • Although English in Russia has the status of a foreign language with a restricted functional range, it has already expanded into educational, business, and cross cultural domains. • The symbolic function of modernity and prestige is manifested in the use of English first of all in advertising, commercials, and brand names. • In TV commercials code switching and code mixing are a dominant feature, as 76 percent use English or an English Russian mix. • A correspondence exists between the type of product, and the language choice for the brand name: names of the Western products are presented totally in English, while Russian goods employ both languages in naming and labeling. English as a Global Lingua Franca

Convergence of English in Russian TV Commercials The following attention-getters are writtentotally in Englishand targetedto upper-middle-class Russians who are expected to be educated and proficient in English: • (1) I love my body (Ad for Nivea) • (2) Fa Freshness Control (Ad for deo Fa) In body-copies and slogans a bilingual mix is often used when English is embedded inthe Russian syntactic structures: • (3) Novyi Ford Mondeo prizvan byt’ pervym. • ‘New Ford Mondeo is determined to be first.’ In the TV commercial forthe chocolate bar Snickers, the mixing of English and Russian results in their blending, when the English rootpenetrates into the morphological structure of the Russian verb. • Snikers-ni! • ‘Have Snickers!’ Some slogans in Russian TV commercials can be word-for-word translations fromEnglish; thus, an American slogan for candy ‘‘M&Ms’’ has the exact correspondence inRussian: • (4) M&M’s taet vo rtu a ne v rukah. • ‘M&Ms melt in mouth, not in hands.’ English as a Global Lingua Franca

English definitelyfulfills socio-psychological functions The English usage in commercials is explained by functional, social, and psychological reasons: English serves as an external code to attract the attention of the customers, as a source of cross-cultural creativity and as a marker of Westernization, internationalism, modernization, innovation, and prestige. English as a Global Lingua Franca

Sources • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runglish • http://psychcentral.com/psypsych/Runglish • http://open-encyclopedia.com/Runglish English as a Global Lingua Franca

Eastern European Englishes