Samenvatting Aspects of the E S W
Chapter 7
World English
The New World
The first permanent settlement was Jamestown (in Chesapeake Bay) in 1607. The second
important settlement was at Cape Cod Bay in 1620 when the Mayflower ship arrived with its
pilgrim fathers (the group was mixed) and is now called Plymouth, Massachusetts. They
wanted to begin a new religion and soon (in 1640s) 25.000 immigrants had come.
Dialect Differences:
The Southern colonists, mainly from England’s ‘West Country’ pronounced the z s
for an and
pronounced the r [R] strongly. Their accents are called tide water accents and didn’t change
rapidly because of the speakers lived in (relatively speaking) isolation. These accents are the
Shakespearean English
closest to . The eastern accents (from Plymouth) lacked the –r sound
and the /a/ vowel was long [a:] → [da:nce] becoming the RP variant. The tendency to not
pronounce the –r is still a feature of speech in New England. The British people don’t use
liprounding while speaking when the Americans do. Also the lexis is different: fall
(U.S) vs.
autumn century immigrants came and the division of accents began to blur
(U.K). In the 17th
century immigrants came namely from Northern Ireland. They were
(melting pot). In the 18th
seen as frontier people and their accent was typed ‘broad’. It can now be heard from Virginia
to Southern California (Sunbelt) → presentday American speech.
Myles Standish (1584 – 1656)
Soldier in the Netherlands later governor and colonist. He reviewed the history of each
colonist + accent.
David Crockett (1786 – 1836)
Legendary frontiersman from Tennessee, soldier and politician who was known for his
humorous speeches (he was ScotsIrish).
Linguistic Diversity
The Spanish settled in the West & Southwest. The French in the northern and middle regions.
The Dutch in New York and Africans came into the South because of slavery. Therefore the U.S
has a multilingual history (and names).
Give me your tired
Europeans fled from poverty, famine and religious prosecution to America to seek a better life.
They were examined on the Island before the U.S before they were allowed to come in. The
Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French.
Dialect Areas
There are many mixed dialect areas. However, there are 3 divisions.
, ➢ North (New England people + immigrants) ; the Great Lakes.
➢ Midland (immigrants + French) ; Mississippi + California.
➢ South (immigrants + Africans + Spanish); Gulf coast + Texas.
Canada
When John Cabot reached Canada, it first came in contact with the English language in 1497.
Jacques Cartier from French was at Canada since 1520s but the French were overruled by the
century in:
English in the 18th
➢ Queen Anne’s War (1702 – 1713)
➢ French & Indian War 91754 – 1763)
The migrants replacing the French came from England, Ireland and Scotland. Another group of
migrants (the late loyalists) left after the publication of the Declaration of Independence
(1776) to cheaper lands (upper Canada: above Montreal & the north of the Grand Lakes).
Despite the similarities between Canadian and U.S. English, there is no identity between them.
People from other areas find it hard to distinguish Canadian English from U.S English.
Maritime Provinces
Many people migrated from New England to the Maritime provinces. They wanted to sound
different and in contrast to the –rless accent from the English, the –r was voiced. Later on, this
characteristic loses its value because the U.S. sounds the –r as well.
Lakeland
Most of Canada’s lakes have been named according to the English Pattern: (Elliot Lake). The
French pattern is seen in e.g. Quebec (Lac Dumont) because the influence of the French during
the exploration is great and also seen in some (French) vocabulary.
Black English
In the Islands of the West Indies and the southern part of the mainland a new form of English
was spoken by the incoming black people because of the American settlement. The first
African slaves were transported by the Spanish in 1517. By 1776 they were with half a million
(slaves) and were with 4 million when slavery was abolished (U.S Civil War 1865). Slave
traders wanted to make communication between slaves difficult and put slaves with different
(linguistic) backgrounds together to prevent the plotting of rebellion. The first black pidgin
was created to let (Englishspeaking) sailors and slaves communicate. In the C aribbean this
pidgin became the mother tongue of the new generation and the first creole was created. This
creole spread fast through the south and the islands as well as creoles of Spanish, French &
Portuguese in the Caribbean Islands. British English became a prestige and less used variety of
English. West India speech spread from the Caribbean Islands to the U.S Canada and Britain.
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