1 English-the Working Tongue of the Global Village 1
English is spoken in circles 2
The Inner Circle 3
The Outer Circle 4
The Expanding Circle 5
Do we need a world language? 5
Why English? 6
One or two explanations 8
Part Ⅰ History of an Island Language 13
2 The First 500 Years 13
Roman Britain 14
Ships are sighted with English in embryo on board 17
Christianity in the Isles 19
The Viking age 22
What was Old English like? 27
The Lord's Prayer 27
Beowulf 30
Two translations into Modern English 32
3 1066 and All That 33
Middle English 36
An influx of French words 36
Grammatical endings disappear 39
Geoffrey Chaucer and William Caxton 40
4 Modern English in the Making 46
The Three'Rs'-Renaissance,Reformation,Restoration 47
English and Latin 48
The Elizabethan period 50
Shakespeare's language 54
The King James Bible-a milestone in the history of English 58
Restoration and reaction 60
English gains a new domain-the language of science 63
'Dictionary Johnson' 64
The'End of History'? 65
Codification of the standard language 67
Part Ⅱ The Spread of English around the World 69
5 English Goes to the New World 71
English takes root in America 72
The Pilgrim Fathers 75
The first Americanisms 76
Linguistic variety and uniformity in the United States 78
The American Revolution 82
The frontier moves further west 85
New Americans 89
English goes to Canada 90
Cartier and Canada 91
Loyalists'influence 93
Canadian English 95
6 English Transplanted 98
Australia:the First Fleet 99
Kangaroo,koala,kookaburra become English 101
Australian English 104
New Zealand-Aotearoa 105
New Zealand English 108
English in Africa-the Inner Circle 110
English comes to South Africa 112
English in Africa-the Outer Circle 115
English in South Asia 117
'The jewel in the crown' 117
English in Southeast Asia 119
New Englishes 121
7 English Varieties in the British Isles 124
RP(Received Pronunciation) 125
Cockney 128
Estuary English 130
The North 132
The West Country 133
Vernacular grammar 134
English in Wales 135
English in Scotland 136
Scottish varieties 140
English in Ireland 144
8 American and British English 150
'Divided by a common language'? 152
Americanisms and Americanization 157
Persistent transatlantic differences of vocabulary 159
American and British pronunciation:comparing GA with RP 163
American vs.British grammar 166
AAVE-Black English-Ebonics 169
9 From Caribbean English to Creole 174
Pidgins and creoles 176
Jamaican creole 179
Sranan 181
The life cycle of a creole 183
The Atlantic creoles and their characteristics 185
Tok Pisin 187
Part Ⅲ A Changing Language in Changing Times 191
10 The Standard Language Today 191
Standard English-the written language 193
Vocabulary-combining the North Sea and the Mediterranean 197
A spectrum of usage-from speech to writing 199
Is spoken English grammatical? 203
11 Linguistic Change in Progress:Back to the Inner Circle 206
Grammaticalization 206
Colloquialization 207
Liberalization? 209
Americanization 210
Is English becoming a more democratic language? 211
Is English becoming a non-sexist language? 215
Electronic English 219
12 English into the Future 222
One English or many Englishes? 222
World English 225
The globalization of English 227
English as a lingua franca 232
'Reports of the death of the native speaker have been exaggerated' 235
What is happening in the heartland of English? 237
Changing American voices:Northern Cities Shift 239
The English juggernaut? 241
And where is it all going? 246
Notes:Comments and References 247
References 266
Index of People 274
Index of Topics 276
Pronunciation 286
List of Figures 2
1.1 The three concentric circles of English worldwide 2
1.2 The mushroom of English 8
2.1 Diagram of Germanic and Celtic languages within the Indo-European family 14
2.2 Map of the British Isles 16
2.3 Map of the main Anglo-Saxon kingdoms 20
2.4 Map of the Danelaw and Scandinavian settlement-names,showing the paths of Viking incursions and settlements 26
2.5 Runes 28
2.6 The first page of the sole surviving manuscript of Beowulf 30
3.1 A scene from the Bayeux tapestry 34
3.2 The opening lines of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales,from Caxton's early printed version(1478) 41
3.3 The oldest known representation of a printing press(1507) 44
4.1 The title-page of Shakespeare's First Folio 51
4.2 An early sketch of an Elizabethan theatre 53
5.1 Early expeditions to America by Engl ish speakers,and the thirteen original states(with their present boundaries) 73
5.2 Main accent areas in the United States 81
5.3 Map of the United States 84
5.4 South-eastern Canada 93
6.1 The Endeavour 99
6.2 Map of Australia 101
6.3 Map of New Zealand 107
6.4 Map of South Africa 111
7.1 The pyramid of standardization 127
7.2 Map of England and Wales 131
7.3 An engraving of the four sides of the Ruthwell Cross 137
7.4 Map of Scotland 139
7.5 Robert Burns 142
7.6 Map of Ireland 145
8.1 The spread of English in the world 151
9.1 The Caribbean and Central America 175
9.2 Map of Jamaica 178
9.3 Scene from a Caribbean wedding 179
9.4 Map of Suriname,Guyana and French Guiana 181
10.1 A spectrum of usage linking speech with writing 200
12.1 A model of world English 226
12.2 Dialect areas in the United States with the Northern Cities Shift 240
12.3 Northern Cities Shift 241