Sociolinguistic variables in the "degeneracy" of English in postcolonial ("non-native") contexts

Titelangaben

Anchimbe, Eric A. ; Anchimbe, Stella A.:
Sociolinguistic variables in the "degeneracy" of English in postcolonial ("non-native") contexts.
In: Anuario del seminario de filología Vasca "Julio de Urquijo". Bd. 39 (2008) Heft 2 . - S. 13-31.
ISSN 0582-6152

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Abstract

This paper tackles from a broad historical perspective the attitudes, media and strate-gies of transmission, and the interplay of English and identity in the world today. It traces the negative tendencies towards non-native Englishes resultant from British colo-nialism to the hangovers and strategic linguistic schemes adopted during colonialism. Here the appellations non-native, postcolonial, indigenised, New Englishes are used in-terchangeably without purporting to make a profound evaluation of the bias linked to them, especially the non-native. The paper concludes with the note that the claim of de-generacy of the New Englishes was ignited by colonial linguistic projects and later fuelled by social prejudices built basically on colonial skeletons. It has less linguistic evidence and if any exists its roots are strongly founded in colonialism.