http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/218315/why-do-we-codeswitch Why do we code-switch? By MA. LOURDES S. BAUTISTA, Ph.D.

August 29, 2009, 9:07pm Tagalog-English switching is all around us. It is one of the things that exasperate visitors to Manila they hear English spoken and they think they understand whats going on and suddenly theres a stretch they cant understand. Then they realize theres this back and forth between English and Tagalog and thats why theyre lost in short, theyre being exposed to Taglish, or Tagalog-English codeswitching. There was a time, some 40 years ago, when Taglish was frowned upon. This was because Taglish was associated with a speakers inability to use either Tagalog or English in complete discourse. It was a sign of lack of proficiency in one of the two languages. This can be called deficiency-driven code switching. Thus, a young child who is just beginning to learn English will revert to Tagalog when she doesnt know the word in English. Another example: A young teacher just starting out to teach in English may get to a point where she is at a loss for words and thus continues in Tagalog. A further example, this time coming from the other end, and taken from the nationalistic 70s: Academics educated in English all their lives had to use Tagalog in public discourse because that was what the times demanded, and so they would begin their speech in Tagalog but give the rest of it in English (a kind of token lip service to Tagalog). But the more common kind of code switching now can be called proficiency-driven code switching. This is the kind used by people who are proficient in both languages and who code-switch for purposes of communicative efficiency. I believe that bilinguals (and most Filipinos are bilingual, even trilingual) have the strategic competence to calculate, in a sense, which language would provide the most expressive, most concise way of saying something. This kind of strategic competence is currently very evident in texting the texter can choose between English, Tagalog, or Taglish to state the message in the fastest, easiest way possible. Consider the following actual text messages between a friend and me. I was flying from Manila to a place in Mindanao where cases of kidnapping were rampant. She texted me: Dont get kidnapped. (The Tagalog alternative is: Huwag kang magpapakidnap much longer to type out.) And I replied: Walang magra-ransom. (The English alternative is: No one will pay ransom [for me] again, much longer to type out.) An extended example from a recent interview of Noynoy Aquino published in the Sunday Bulletin of August 16, 2009 (p. P-2) exemplifies the reasons for code-switching among Filipinos adept in both English and Tagalog: When we came out to Florida with our aunts, with its palm trees, siyempre naiisip mo yung Roxas Boulevard. Kahit yung kutsinta acquired a really big significance as far as I was concerned. There was only a small Filipino community in Boston and a family friend would make kutsinta for the whole

community. Eh sa dami, tigdalawang piraso lang. Before, every time kumakain ka ng kutsinta sa Pilipinas, one to sawa. Bigla sa Boston, dalawa lang. Lasapin mo yan! (laughs) Dahil the next time around, sa next Christmas season pa. Obviously, he had to use the Tagalog word kutsinta, just as we use content words like despedida, merienda, sawsawan, pakikisama, sayang! in English discourse. In another part of the interview, Noynoy said, My mom kasi doesnt relish being made kulit. And we know that kulit doesnt have an exact English equivalent. Noynoys use of the function words eh and pa constitutes another obvious reason for code-switching, just like the use of the Tagalog function words pala, naman, daw, nga, po, ba those little Tagalog words carry a lot of meaning and can be communicated in English only in a round-about way. And consider his use of one to sawa an idiomatic expression in Taglish thats graphic and funny. And it is difficult to imagine how Lasapin mo yan can be expressed in English with the same punch, unless one is a native speaker of English and at home in its idioms. At the same time we notice that its just happenstance that he uses kahit rather than even, before rather than dati, or dahil rather than because the words in Tagalog and English are practically equivalent. Its just the way it is that he uses one rather than the other. We also notice that the switching between the two languages is so natural and seamless. These examples highlight the flexibility provided by bilingualism. And we are left with the conclusion that bilingualism is a resource, and the switching between languages is an additional resource. And so it is good that the disparagement of code switching in general without distinguishing between deficiency-driven and proficiency-driven code switching is now a thing of the past.

http://allisayiscrap.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/bakit-ang-conyo-mo/ Bakit ang Conyo Mo?! 28MAR Hmm. Magsusulat (Oo na, magta-type nga sabi ko eh.) na naman ako. As usual, wala pa akong idea kung ano yung isusulat ko. Maraming idea na pumapasok sa isipan ko, pero hindi ko sila ma-organize. Parang lahat sila gustong kumawala. Gusto nilang pagkasiyahin yung sarili nila sa loob ng iisang post. Hindi maaari iyon, papangit itong post na ito at mawawalan ng sense pag hinayaan kong magsama-sama sila rito. Pero wala eh, hindi ko mapigilan, pilit silang kumakawala. Susubukan kong i-focus ang patutunguhan ng post na ito. Pero paaano? Ano ang tatalakayin ko rito? Iyon bang randomness ko (na kulang ang isang post para ma-discuss)? O iyong paggamit ko na lang kaya ng taglishbilang medium ng pagsusulat ko eh, ako ang magsusulat hindi naman kayo di ba? Haha. Bakit ko ba itinatanong sa inyo kung ano ang isusulat ko? Pwede namang tumigil na lamang akong magsulat at tumunganga rito sa bahay kaysa namomroblema tayong lahat, di ba?

Pero hindi, tinatawag talaga ako ngayon ng aking mga daliri para magsulat. Hindi rin ako hahayaan ng aking isip na pabayaan na lamang yung mga thoughts na manatili sa loob niya, gagawat gagawa ang isip ko ng paraan para kulitin ako at sa dulo, magsusulat din naman ako. So, ano na ba talaga ang topic nitong isinusulat ko ngayon? Hmm. Alam ko na! Iyong paggamit ko na nga lang ng taglish bilang medium ng pagsusulat ko. CONYO! Iyan ang una kong masasabi sa mga taga-school namin, kasama na ako roon. Pero ano ba talaga ang ibig sabihin ng conyo? Ang daming meaning ng salitang ito, ibat iba depende sa taong pagtatanungan mo. Ngunit para sa akin, yung taong palaging gumagamit ng taglish iyong conyo. Aminado naman ako, unti-unti na akong nagiging conyo magmula noong pumasok ako sa pamantasan namin. Dati, medyo-medyo lang yung paggamit ko ng taglish. Pero nang mapasok ako sa aming pamantasan, ayun na, conyo na rin ako. Noong una, galit ako sa mga conyo. Pero ngayon, medyo hindi na (hindi dahil conyo rin ako ah.). Narealize ko lang kasi, wala namang masama sa paggamit ng taglish kahit pa sabihing wala naman talagang ganoong klase ng wika. Alam ng nakararami sa atin na di pormal ang wikang ito pero wala namang masama kung hindi ka maging pormal sa pananalita mo di ba? Lalo na kung nais mo lang namang ihayag ang iyong mga saloobin. Sa paper works lang naman kailangang maging pormal. Ok, ganito na lang. Kapag ba kinakausap mo ang mga kaibigan mo, pormal ang pananalita mo? Hindi di ba? Kasi, higit mong naihahayag ang saloobin mo kung sino kang talaga kapag hindi mo kailangang maging pormal, pwera na lang kung ikaw yung tipong nabuhay sa panahon ni Rizal. Pero maging si Joe (Rizal) naman siguro nagawang makipag-usap kina Graciano (Jaena), Marcelo (del Pilar) at Mariano (Ponce) sa isang conyong pamamaraan. Sa personalidad na mayroon si Joe, imposibleng hindi (opinyon ko lang naman to). So ayun nga, kaya siguro taglish yung ginagamit ko kasi higit akong komportable sa paggamit nito. Mas naihahayag ko ang aking sarili sa paggamit ng taglish. O palusot ko lang ito? Na hindi talaga ako fluent sa pagsasalita ng tagalog at ng english. Naisip ko na rin yan dati. Pero napatunayan kong hindi iyon ganoon. Nakapagsulat na rin kasi ako ng blog dati na purong ingles ang wikang aking ginamit. Ayun, naging maayos naman. Mayroong kaunting grammatical errors, pero hindi naman ganoon katindi iyong pagkakamali, mapalalampas naman. Isa pa, english ang medium na gamit namin sa pagsusulat ng school works kaya sanay din naman akong mag-english. Pag dating naman sa tagalog, may namamaling spelling lang ako minsan kasi nasanay na ako sa manner ng pagi-spell pag dating sa text (pero hindi ako jejemon magtext ah conyo ako pero hindi jejemon. Haha.) Pero overall, maayos pa rin naman akong magsulat gamit ang wikang tagalog. Siguro, may ibang terms lang na mas magandang pakinggan sa ingles. Parang yung mga terms lang sa math gaya ng square root. Minsan naman wala lang talagang tagalog term, kagaya ng shampoo, toothpaste at basketball. Pero bakit ko piniling mas mamutawi ang tagalog sa pananalita ko? Kasi higit kong naihahayag ang aking sarili gamit ang wikang tagalog. Medyo awkward kasi para sa akin ang

pagsasalita gamit ang wikang ingles. Hindi ako sanay na naririnig ako ng iba na nagi-ingles. Kahit kausapin mo ako gamit ang wikang ingles, bastat alam kong nakaiintindi ka ng tagalog, tatagalugin kita! XD Uulitin ko, hindi naman kasi masamang maging conyo kung ito lamang yung paraan mo para mas maipahayag ang sarili mo (Kaya nga nagkaroon ng ibat ibang wika sa mundo eh, dahil dito sila higit na komportable.). Masama lang ang pagiging conyo kung ikaw yung tipong nagiinarte lang. Yung tipong just for the sake na masabing youre one of those rich kids pero ang totoo, mapagpanggap ka lang. Kasi Ang tunay na laking mayaman, walang arte sa katawan. :] Kaya yun, ipagpapatuloy ko lang ang ganitong manner ko ng pagsusulat. Conyo na kung conyo! At least alam ko sa sarili ko na hindi ako conyo nang dahil sa pagiinarte lang. Conyo ako kasi mas naie-express ko ang sarili ko sa ganitong paraan. One more thing, wala rin pala akong balak magsulat ng blog entry na purong english yung medium na gagamitin ko. Kung gagawin ko man yun, hindi dahil gusto kong maintindihan ako ng iba o dahil gusto ko silang ma-please para dumami ang likes ko at maging sikat. Gagawin ko iyon kasi yun ang nais ko, yun ang hinihingi ng isip ko at that time. :] http://rsa29.multiply.com/journal/item/20?&show_interstitial=1&u=%2Fjournal%2Fitem ano b ang konyo? for those friends who are asking from : http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Englog.htm Englog, in the Philippines, is an informal form of English infused with Tagalog words, a popular type of which is called Konyo English. Akin to this is Taglish, which in turn, is Tagalog infused with English words. 1 Konyo English A type of EnglogEnglish with some Tagalog wordsis called Konyo English. Konyo or conyo is a neologism that refers to certain stereotyped affluent sectors of society. These people are often considered to be the children of affluent families. They are often typically identified by their variant of English that introduces Tagalog words. The word konyo itself came from the Spanish coo (cunt). 1.1 Features of Konyo English The most common identifiable aspect of Konyo English is the phrase combining the English verb make with the base form of a Tagalog verb. This phrase replaces perfectly acceptable English equivalents. A classical example of Konyo English is the following sentence: MAY 31, FOR EVERYONE '09 8:32 PM

Let's make tusok the fishballs. Let's pierce [onto the stick] the fishballs. NOTE: Fishballs are a Filipino delicacy. Make cuento to me what happened... Tell me the story about what happened... NOTE: Cuento is a Spanish word meaning "account" or "story" which is also used in Tagalog. Sometimes, the Tagalog interjections na (or nah), e (or eh), and o (or oh) are interjected into the speech. Also some English words are sometimes replaced with their Tagalog translations. Some other examples are: I'm so init na; make paypay me naman o. I'm so hot; please fan me now. You make hintay here while I make sundo my kaibigan. You wait here while I fetch my friend. Hes so galing. Hes so competent. There is some stratification within the use of Konyo English, and at its core level, it is used primarily by members of the old Creole families, though this is often imitated by their non-Creole friends and people who aspire to circulate within their group. Evidence of this is in the use of many Spanish-derived words or Spanish-grammatical devices or participles. Examples: Tostado (Toasted) and Jamon (Ham) Keep my jamon on the grill... I want my jamon tostado. Bao (Bathroom) Where's the bao? Phonologically, Konyo English, as spoken by members of some Creole families and their close associates, takes a lot from Spanish pronunciation, as is evidenced in the pronunciation of certain words. The word "no" is often pronounced by speakers of "Konyo English" as "noh" which shows a substrate influence from Spanish.

The "gentle" stresses and mild sing-song intonations of Konyo English (as an Englog) are highly opposed to the slighly rougher sounds of Taglish as spoken by cab drivers. Konyo English is softer and less pointed, and to the ears of some people, may seem a tad bit on the effeminate side. On the other hand, in order to sound more plebeian (with the attempt to be socially-acceptable to them), many male Konyo English speakers tend to overuse the Tagalog corruption of the Spanish word for co-parent (which connotes a close friendship) compadre. The Tagalog corruption is kumpare or shortened to pare which roughly means pal or buddy. As a result, many males among them pepper their speech with Pare to start a sentence and to end it. Example: Pare, hes so malabo, pare. Dude, hes so unreliable 1.2 History of the term The origin of the term "Konyo" or "coo" to refer to the affluent members of Philippine society draws from an earlier (1800's) usage of the word coo to refer to Peninsular Spanish expatriates living in colonies such as the Philippines and Latin America. This, in turn, was a result of the ultra-excessive use of the word coo as a swear word and expletive on the part of Peninsular Spaniards beginning sometime in the 1800's and continuing today. Many Latin Americans and educated Filipinos of the late 1800's, while they spoke Spanish, did not always use the same oral expressions that Peninsular Spaniards from the "Mother Country" used. Aside from the "ceceo" (pronouncing the "Z" or the "C" in "ce" or "ci" as a soft "TH" sound), the over-used coo expression set the expatriate Spaniards apart from the native-born locals. Coo thus became a term that certain Latin Americans (as well as Filipinos of the late 1800's) used for Spaniards which was in analogous fashion to how New Zealanders and Australians continue to refer to the British (especially the English) as "Pommies." (Pommy derives from "POM", or Prisoner of the Motherland - which refers to the England-born English as not being "adventurous enough" to settle outside of the English Motherland.) The usage of coo as the favorite expletive for expatriate Spaniards therefore gave them the label. As these expatriate Spaniards, referred to colloquially as "coos, were at the top of the food chain in the Philippines and generally held the highest prestige, the term coo later on found itself being used on the broader creole andmestizo caste who may not necessarily have been of Spanish descent (some were of French, German, Lebanese, etc backgrounds). As time went by, the label's usage broadened further to include most members of the Philippine upper classes, regardless of their racial background. Today, rich people who are seen to have a very affluent standard of living, even if they are of Chinese-mestizo or native Filipino descent are sometimes referred to as being coo." The word coo often requires a certain Eurocentric orientation, since the richest members of Philippine Society - namely, the ethnic-Chinese Taipan class - do not even qualify for the label due to their non-

European orientation. That the word coo originally meant "cunt" and later meant "Spaniard" has surely gone a long way to becoming a word associated with a certain Euro-centric sector of the upper crust of Philippine society shows just how far a word's meaning can change.

Tags: konyo fashion, konyo Prev: help me pray Next: whose hotter?meagan fox or angelina jolie?? reply for a friend

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/co%C3%B1o Coo is a common Spanish idiom expression (somewhat vulgar) primarily used in Spain and the Spanish Caribbean. Its actual meaning differs according to use, but in Spain and several Latin American countries it is also used in its literal sense as slang for the female genitalia, the vulva. Coo has become a feature of speech to express emphasis or to stress a wide variety of emotions, actually drifting from any of its original sexual references, in a situation similar to that of "fuck" in American English. The context, speakers sex, pronunciation, and tone define the emotion conveyed, almost as identically done with the word "damn" in English. An interlocutor may insert coo as an interjection in a sentence whenever the desire arises, even though it may be regarded as somewhat offensive if not carefully used. It is widely used in the Hispanic Caribbean and Spain but is completely absent from the speech of many other Latin Americans. Its most noticeable appearance into mainstream American pop culture may very well be in the film Scarface, where it was frequently used among its fictional Cuban characters. Several examples: fear: low tone, short vowels, high-pitched: Coo, coo! Esta abeja va a picarme! (This bee will sting me!) anger: high tone, short vowels: Coo, ya te dije que no lo hicieras! (Hey, I already told you not to do that!) surprise: low tone, dragging out the "o": Coooo... Estn saliendo juntos? (Oh, really? Are they going out?) joy: dragging out the vowels, low-pitched: Coooo! Nuestro equipo gan! (Thank goodness! Our team won!) Other examples: Coo, qu buena est! (Damn she looks good!)

Coo! Mira qu pas! (Damn! look what happened!) Yo no s un coo de eso (I dont know shit about that) Dnde coo ests? (Where the fuck are you?) Coazo! (in Dominican Republic: a stronger expression, like "fuck!") Coazo! (in Venezuela: a hard hit, a punch) Qu se vaya pa'l coo de su madre (Venezuela, Cuba and Spain) (He can go to his mother's cunt, like "He can go to hell") Here it is used in its literal meaning. In Spain coazo is generally used to describe something that is boring, or a pain in the ass or tedious, etc. Philippine usage In the Philippines, coo (Tagalog: konyo) refers to a wealthy Anglophone person raised and/or living in a gated community, though the term originally referred to insular Spaniards, regardless of socioeconomic status. However, it is also likely that the term was used by people of high society to denote mestizos or half-breeds, particularly when in the olden times the natives, formerly called indios, were taunted as being children of women who marry peninsulares or insulares in order to elevate their social status. The word Coo therefore became slang for harlotry. The variety of English that these konyos informally speak among themselves is termed Konyo English, or simply Konyo, which is comparable but not similar to Valley Speak. Furthermore, the term coo in the southern part of the country, Zamboanga City, is a vulgar term for cunt, or the entirety of the female genitalia. Venezuelan usage In Venezuela, the word is generally used in the expressions coo de su madre (like, "motherfucker") and el coo de tu madre (lit., "your mothers cunt"). The former is an adjective and the latter an extremely offensive insult. It is also locally common as a diminutive, coito, in reference to unruly or nasty children. Cuban and Canary Islands usage In Cuba and in the Canary Islands, the contraction ooo frequently replaces co (stressed on the last syllable), but it is not offensive. It can mean darn or wow. For example: oooo! Qu barato! (Wow! How cheap!) oo! Hay un examen maana. (Darn, theres a test tomorrow.) Ya coo! !Yaa coooo! (Oh shit or Goddamn). Yaa coooo, me cojio la polica! (Oh shit, the police caught me.)

But also in Cuba and for Cuban-Americans in Miami, if you say "Me cago en el coo de tu madre" (lit., I shit in your mothers cunt), it is like saying the supreme North American insult of "fuck you". Youll make no friends with this. United States usage In the United States of America, unlike other Spanish words or expressions, the word coo is widely absent from English recognition. Amongst Cuban-Americans in Miami, coo is very common as a fairly mild expletive, equivalent to "damn" or "dammit." The same can be said for Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. With the main slang used for female genitalia being rather chocha / chocho (for Puerto Ricans).

http://www.usingenglish.com/weblog/archives/000157.html Code-switching refers to alternating between one or more languages or dialects. It also occurs within a particular language. We use different forms of expression depending on the person we are speaking to and where we are speaking to that person. There are different degrees of formality and informality. Would you say that the idea of code-switching exists in your first language? If so, would you consider yourself to be a "code switcher?? Many times in English there is more than one way of pronouncing. Some people whose first language is English decide how they are going to speak by the context within which they are speaking. What they take into consideration is the degree of formality or informality in a particular circumstance. People don't make too much of a conscious decision about this. It more or less just happens. Some people don't often use informal or colloquial forms of pronunciation; however, they are prevalent within the English language amongst people from all walks of life and backgrounds. Understanding informal and colloquial pronunciation as compared to more careful, formal and "standard? English pronunciation is part of obtaining a better understanding and awareness of the English language. As an English language learner, you need not feel obliged to speak using informal and colloquial pronunciation, but understanding this form of pronunciation better might help you to hear and comprehend English sounds better. "We were alert to the gap separating the written word from the colloquial." I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou (Chapter 29) Copyright 2005 Steven David Bloomberg questions.steve@verizon.net

Read more at http://www.usingenglish.com/weblog/archives/000157.html#aYUzduzLyHyIupgM.99 51 Comments

fleur-de-lys September 29, 2004 4:20 AM | Reply Code-switching: I am commenting quite late at night, so this, I will call "Part One", if you will be patient enough to wait for "Part two", soon to follow tomorrow.I am immediately attracted to your descriptive term. I understand it. I am reminded of Duty Officers in Embassies using decoders, scramblers and descramblers. It is all about the enhancement and conversely the prevention of communication. As language teachers we are the guides to communication, for even though other communicative guides exist, such as body language, voice, eye contact, our main reliance generally is on the spoken and written word : language. Most of us are code-switchers in our first language unless we are born, live and die in the same isolated village with no electronic or rare other exposure to other codes. In this case, there is no need for code switching. In most people's lives, code-switching is a necessity, and, as you say, an unconscious linguistic communication which we may use with ease and sophistication. It is significant that you make the point that code-switching travels on auto-pilot, that a person is aware but not self-consciously aware of its existence and can thus communicate in a rigidly formal appropriate way with one person, and with an easier familiarity and informality with another. I would not, for example, greet my boss with a "Yo!", and a "So, how're ya doin'?" I could, but my next performance evaluation would not be impressive.I would say, "Good Morning! How are you? That is a lovely brooch you are wearing, if you don't mind my saying so." This "code" is a personal one I have with my boss, and another term for it would be "sucking up to minimize aggravation." Other people's bosses might not need such delicate code handling;-) I could then, when she had passed out of earshot, see my Trini friend, and, on auto-pilot, we would "Yo!" and "dap", hug and fall very easily into "Trini" speech. He would keep his pronunciation, but our expressions and idioms would be the same. Code switching can be used as an enabler of communication, and also as an obfuscator of communication. On this last point and on others I shall elaborate tomorrow, since it is late and I must go up the wooden stairs to Bedfordshire. Part two, then, tomorrow. This does not preclude anyone else from commenting between now and then.

tdol September 29, 2004 10:52 PM | Reply I don't know if I go as far as code-switching, but I definitely change register. At what point does assimilation become code-switching?

X Mode September 29, 2004 11:13 PM | Reply Could you elaborate a bit on what you mean by "assimilation" here? Adapting? If you mean adapting, then I'd say code-switching would be just another word for it. I think code-switching can be likened to register. I don't think they would be entirely different.

Fleur-de-lys October 1, 2004 2:10 AM | Reply If we look at code-switching in its broadest, most all encompassing field, we cannot reduce it to terms of "assimilation", "adapting" or "register." It is all of these and yet it is much more. It is conscious, it is not conscious, it is on auto-pilot, and it is also a deliberate linguistic use to a means. I said "Part Two" of my comment would be yesterday or today, but my time was severely limited. I do have a lot more to say and write, and in the very near future, will do so.

X Mode October 1, 2004 3:34 AM | Reply It is conscious, it is not conscious, it is on auto-pilot, and it is also a deliberate linguistic use to a means. Hi Fleur, That's quite true. I agree.

tdol October 2, 2004 6:56 PM | Reply

What I meant was that I don't change completely, but I adopt features from the environment I'm in. Last night I met a Cockney friend and when I was with him, my speech took on some characteristics of Cockney English, which I don't do in the classroom. However, I don't go the whole hog. ;-)

X Mode October 2, 2004 9:06 PM | Reply I get the picture. I'd say I pretty much do the same thing here. However, I do switch back and forth in the classroom. I have no problem revealing what kind of a speaker I can be outside of the classroom. For the immigrants I teach, I believe this is actually quite useful. I model different styles of pronunciation for the benefit of the students/learners. They're aware of it, and I believe they appreciate it.

fleur-de-lys October 4, 2004 10:38 PM | Reply Hi, you guys! Tdol, my accent switches a little in the same way as yours did when talking with your cockney friend, but like you, I don't go the whole hog, either:-)) This "code-switching" could be likened to a paint sample, where the colours are very subtly graded, and I'm not really sure if it's an unconscious adaptation or a couple of other things. Cockney, like strong Brissol (Bristol to you, Captain x-mode) might be so strong as to dominate an R.P. accent. (Always supposing one could call R.P. an accent.....but that will be for another time). So how and why does this domination occur --and I add a fraffly fraffly accent to the dominant ones also. They have heavy leanings on the consonants and vowels. You can almost see the vocal cords of a Cockney or a Zummerset man being like cords of rope, twice as thick as those of the R.P. er. More manly , somehow, and very earthy, although of course it depends on the speaker.I know lots of manly (and womanly R.P.ers). But just imagine the effect! It also seems to me that with your non R.P.er the volume is turned up. Let's compare : "Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to Horfield?" (R.P. er) "Wot? 'Oarrfield? Oi dunno, me loverrrrrrr! 'ave ta arrsk summin else, won't ya! Cheerrrs." And then there's poor "Frightfully, frightfully," whose facial muscles twist and turn in the spitting out of his words, accompanied by rictuses (ricti?) horrible to behold, tempting me to say, "Watch it, if the wind changes, your face might stay like that." (All scrunched up).

So, a little like chameleons, and also to join with our friend, we take just a smidge of another's accent/register, whatever you want to call it, and then revert back to our "own" when we go and have tea at Mummy's. Then there's :to be or not be a pariah? When all your friends are "Yo-ing," and using words you have never heard before, they're cutting you out. You are rejected, and wander off home, a saddened, soggy (it's raining) linguistic outcast. And code-switching as an opportunity, or to be a mysterious femme fatale : Opportunity : A very attractive man gets on the bus, by his face and demeanor he is British. You tread on his feet, or he treads on yours, but you both exclaim, "Oh!! I'm terribly sorry!", thus betraying your common origins. A polite pause, while eye contact is broken, and then the conversation begins. Hanging on to the bus straps, buffeted by little old ladies, by the time you've reached the terminus, you now have a solid contact in Manchester, in the garment industry, with whom you can stay, and who has ordered three thousand saris from your factory in Karachi. The mysterious femme fatale : you'll see her looking disdainfully at you at the cosmetics counter not really "selling " Lancome or Vichy, she just happens to be there, with a totally indecipherable but attractive accent. "Are you Greek?" you boldly ask. Not a muscle moves, "No. I am not." She doesn't offer anything more, .........and so it goes. You're hooked after an hour, and it turns out she comes from Southampton. Now I must go and because I've just been to the desntist and it's raining, am taking a cab home, and will order it in regal tones (not to be confused with "frightfully frightfully" ones--------frafflies must use a lot of Botox-------"Yes. Diamond taxi? This is Doctor------, and I'd like a smoking taxi please." They zoom in at a fraction of the time if you had announced you were Edna Bloggs. Are we not all chameleons to an extent? And it's not adaptation. More on what I mean by that, next time.:-)))) And now it's good night from him and goodnight from me!

Fleur-de-lys October 7, 2004 1:52 AM | Reply Code-switching : Visually I can see the linesman on the railway track, switching the tracks so that two trains split as they run parallel to each other and then clatter off into the night , the communication and the collision(!) averted.Dialect is sometimes very difficult to understand unless you have had sufficient exposure to it, or, you learned it at your mother's knee. An Andean Indian will speak his own language,a proud tradition from his Mayan or Incan ancestors. Is this dialect or a separate language? In order to "get on" in life, he must, if he is lucky, learn Spanish.Just as a Haitian speaking creole in a dominantly French speaking country will speak impeccable French when he has to. And a heavy Joual speaker in Quebec will have great difficulties if his joual is so entrenched that he cannot code switch. I knew a

couple of Joual speakers who were so frustrated that other Quebecquois could not understand them that they gave up dispiritedly and went back up North or to another rural area. So the ability to "hear" another dialect or language, when it is close to your own, is important, for to able to "code-switch" means you find a common ground with others and your fields of communication are broadened. Why, in this instance, may one person have this ability and another, not? Is codeswitching dependent on innate linguistic skills, like having a "good ear" for languages? If you are tone deaf, is it then harder to jump onto the other train before the linesman changes tracks? I am taking this to a broader domain than perhaps X-mode intended : if you are from Taiwan and want to learn English, if you study English in depth using language labs. and all the tools and techniques at your disposal so that you become proficient, can this be called code-switching also, or am I carrying it too far? If you are fluent in Spanish, French and English, in the company of native speakers of all three, it is also on auto-pilot, sometimes without even noticing you are switching "codes" that you all communicate together. But I think I may be broadening and so confusing X-mode's thoughts into an area where even angels fear to tread;-))

Jose Santos April 6, 2005 2:26 PM | Reply I'll be teaching a unit on code-switching in a Linguistics Seminar for future English teachers. Can anyone suggest interesting projects, ways of getting corpora for analysis, reference books and articles. Thank you.

steph April 8, 2005 8:48 AM | Reply Hello I'm to write a dissertation on code-switching,types and functions and i would like to have more information on the subject. Thank u.

damian danladi April 25, 2005 8:38 AM | Reply i am not too clear with this topic code switching, i will like to have more explanation.

tdol April 26, 2005 4:38 AM | Reply Basically it's when people can change their language according to the place, situation, etc. If someone can speak both Standard English and Cockney English, say, and uses the Standard variety at work, in a more formal context, and the Cckney variety when socialising then this is code-switching. People with speaking regional varieties of a language often change according to whom they are speaking.

Lankysher August 20, 2005 5:50 PM | Reply Fleur-de-lyss mentions " frafflies " Does anyone remember a book written in the sixties titled " How To Speak Fraffly " and the author's name?

MARIE EGEA September 19, 2005 3:54 AM | Reply it can't be denied code swithching occurs in our everyday life... i think it is natural amongst us and even professionals code swithches from time to time...

Andrew October 6, 2005 8:12 PM | Reply I definitely code-switch whenever I have lived in England, which has been a few times. I have normally lived in Canada, where most of the vocabulary can be matched with British southern standard as well as colloquial sayings. But, where it is not similar one really does need to change when they move to Britain. Most importantly the reason I find the need to code-switch is so I can communicate properly with whomever I'm talking to and secondly is to just fit in without people taking 'the piss' out of you. As the ol' saying goes, 'When in Rome....'.

Interestingly though one coming from the UK to Canada doesn't necessarily need to code-switch as much as the other way around. This could possibly be due to obvious reasons that Canada was created by Britain, settled by Britain and has a large portion of it's inhabitants being of British stock. It's certainly not uncommon for any student in any school having at least one of their teachers being from Britain. Canadians are used to this and comfortable with this. As well, some of the most popular tv shows in Canada have been and are British. Canadians alot of the time try to do anything to differentiate themselves from being perceived as Americans but this is a whole other story.

Ingrid October 18, 2005 1:51 PM | Reply I'm teaching about code-switching. In that connection I'm looking for examples on code-switching by teenagers (a small dialogue, a sentence,...). Can anyone help me?

dennis October 25, 2005 3:34 AM | Reply Code-switching is not just from one variety of a language to another. If it was, it would be hard to distinguish from register-switching. The term is often used when speakers of two or more languages alternate. For example: I'm just off to the supermercado to get some frutos secos cos we've run out, mi amor. Well, I met Juan on the puente aereo last week and he was going on about the mercado continuo and so forth... Of course, there are times when laisser faire can turn into laisser aller, n'est ce pas? A mi no me va todo eso del happy hour sabes, yo prefiero beber sensibly como diria mi amigo James. Would somebody please dun an doras, its freezing in here, an-fuar ar fad. Nao gosto de caminar, ficou tired, cansada. We sit down a little ok, and later we go home. Quero voltar a casa. Voce nao quer?

carmen November 4, 2005 2:03 AM | Reply Can anyone tell me if Spanglish is an offficial language or a dialect...please...

tdol November 9, 2005 4:13 AM | Reply We don't have an official body for the English language, so it's hard to say a term is official or not, but Spanglish, Singlish, Chinglish, etc, are commonly used terms for these varieties of English. I'd say they were dialects and not languages.

Saran Andrews November 22, 2005 8:38 PM | Reply I am studing English Language with the OU at the moment and the conclusion I have come to is that Code Changing is all to do about the use of a second language within a matrix (main) language either knowingly or unknown. Style shifting is a spefic study of how one changes a matrix language through dialect to achieve a common ground and acceptance or achieve a status within a group. As in how you would speak to a friend in contrast to how you would speak in an interview. Any thoughts? Saran

Mark November 24, 2005 8:01 AM | Reply An official language is commonly one that has been codified: there are dictionaries, grammar books etc available to study. Hence, American English, British English, Australian English, Indian English etc. However, most language varieties, especially the dialectal language varieties such as Spanglish, Singlish etc are not codified so cannot be refered to as official in anyway.

Irina December 5, 2005 6:50 PM | Reply

There's some information on bilingualism code switching. But there's nothing on code switching in one language...Could someone add something about switch code phenomenon only in one language?

ngozi February 3, 2006 11:13 PM | Reply hi my name is ngozi from a nigeria am working on the use of code switching in a project work can u pls send research works on it thank u

Patty February 7, 2006 12:50 AM | Reply I'm doing a presentation on how teenagers, adolescents, and adults, use code-switching. How they communicate, can you help me please, on giving me some information (facts). Thank-you.

reagan February 24, 2006 12:36 PM | Reply thanks

kaduru chioma March 11, 2006 4:14 PM | Reply hi please i'm writing a thesis on code switching can you pls give me some informations on how it works.

thank chioma kaduru

you.

Abir Wachem April 7, 2006 10:23 AM | Reply I am working in the use of code switching when ordering on a project work the problem is that i didn't find any research about this subject plse i need help thank you

Tom T June 4, 2006 12:34 PM | Reply 2 educators offer alternative approach to teach grammar By PHILIP WALZER, The Virginian-Pilot June 4, 2006 NEWPORT NEWS A student says, "Janae need a marker." How does a teacher respond? Usually this way: "We don't say, 'Janae need a marker.' We say, 'Janae needs a marker.'" What the teacher needs is a new approach, according to two local educators promoting an alternative way of teaching grammar . "I would say, 'We're in school right now. We're speaking formal English. How would you say that formally?' " said Rachel Swords, a third -grade teacher at Newsome Park Elementary School in Newport News. Swords and Rebecca Wheeler, an associate professor of English at Christopher Newport University, have co-written a new book, "Code-Switching." They advocate a shift in teaching standard English to speakers of what is known as African American vernacular English - or what they prefer to call "informal English." The old approach "demoralizes the child, and it's not effective," said Wheeler, who is on leave from CNU to work as a research scientist for Old Dominion University's Darden College of Education . Instead, they said, teachers should recognize that those students speak a valid language at home and must learn how to translate "informal English" into "formal English." "We don't correct," Wheeler said. "There's no reason to correct," Swords said. "We move from correcting to contrasting," Wheeler said. The book includes several charts, many created by Swords, that illustrate the difference between informal and formal English in areas such as subject-verb agreement and past tense. One chart hanging in the back of Swords' classroom last week covered "possessive patterns," such as "The dog name is Jack" versus "The dog's name is Jack."

"I'm still teaching standard English," Swords said, "but I'm going about it in a way that respects the language of every child in the classroom." The traditional techniques damage self-esteem, she said, and "put the child in a horrible situation where he has to choose between 'the teacher is right' or ' the parent is right.' " Even more important, the educators said, the "code-switching" approach works better. Since she adopted it, Swords said, the racial gap in her students' test scores has disappeared. However, the educators acknowledge that their technique is slow to catch on, both locally and nationally. "People are very resistant to going against the traditional way" of teaching English, Swords said. Karen Aita , an eighth-grade teacher at Northampton Middle School on the Eastern Shore, has used the new technique for nearly two years. Early indications show that 97 percent of her students passed the state Standards of Learning writing exam this year, the highest ever at her school, she said. "The thing I like about it is, it gets us away from the textbook," Aita said. "Instead of just hearing rules they don't retain, they can visually learn to recognize patterns in their writing. ... They're much more engaged in learning." Althea Joyner , the senior coordinator of English for Norfolk Public Schools, has met with Wheeler and observed Swords' class. She said she came away impressed and wants to introduce their philosophy in the city's classrooms. "This is starting in the earlier grades," Joyner said, "and is giving students confidence and an understanding of why they speak certain ways at certain times." Two Virginia Beach school officials said Friday that they could not comment on Wheeler's and Swords' strategies until they read the book. Rhonda "Nikki" Barnes , a former English teacher in Chesapeake who now serves as a senior liaison to minority communities for the National Education Association, expressed a mixture of praise and hesitancy. "It shows that they are culturally sensitive to the students," Barnes said. "... But I think an English teacher should be able to say, 'This is wrong in terms of grammar.' " Colloquial terms such as "cat" and "big man" are not incorrect, Barnes said, but phrases such as "We be" or "I is" are ungrammatical. Wheeler's response: "Yes, it's not standard English. It's something else." She and Swords emphasized that they are not teaching students African American vernacular English and that they ask them to translate only from informal to formal English - not the other way around. The approach, Wheeler said, also benefits students already fluent in standard English . They sharpen their critical thinking skills, she said, and erase misconceptions that their black classmates are uneducated. Their book was recently published by the National Council of Teachers of English . The subtitle is "Teaching Standard English in Urban Classrooms," but Wheeler said the strategy could just as well apply to "Appalachian-speak or Brooklyn-speak or Pennsylvania Dutch." And it doesn't take longer to teach. "I would say it takes much less time," Swords said, "because now my kids get it." Reach Philip Walzer at(757) 222-5105 or phil.walzer (at) pilotonline.com.

Babadiya Shola July 18, 2006 6:12 PM | Reply In Nigeria,there is a predominant use of 'pigeon English'or broken English,as it is most commonly known.Now, in the course of my little observation,I discover that it serves mainly as the lingua-franca for most parts in Nigeria.Also, it was quit interesting to discover that an average child tends to express himself better and also assimilates better and quicker in 'broken',as fondly refered to by most Nigerians.I think I quite agree with Swords& Rebecca in the shift method of teaching Gammar.But beyond that,if you have a knowlege of 'Broken English' in Nigeria,don't you think it should officially become Nigeria's lingua-franca and language of instruction in schools? OR WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHOLA BABADIYA,FUNTUA, NIGERIA.

mary ann September 29, 2006 10:57 AM | Reply i am so thankful that i went at this website because this is really my last resort. now, i`m starting on my paper and i will include all your comments here. i will put your comments in the POINT OF VIEW part of my research paper. thank you for everything... i knew you`d help me...

COFFI October 10, 2006 7:39 PM | Reply I'm from Benin Republic West Africa. I followed my study in English Linguistics, and after my fourth year study, I am about to write something on Code-Switching. But what matters is that I wonder if there are illustrating books which could help me or I derectly part from what I could see people practicing? I need refernce books and articles on this subject

paz October 1, 2007 11:55 AM | Reply

Hello im doing a research A Level study into code switching and bilingualism . I am a bilingual myself (English and Punjabi) however i am finding it difficult to explain it all. Im trying to establish how,when and why codeswitching occurs. So please could you give me some information etc, as i need to do my project. Help would be appreciated such as studies theories etc, anything will do even personal experiances. Thanks

redaco August 11, 2008 1:52 PM | Reply Hi, Ill give a introduction on code-switching in a small university course in a couple of days. I am quite familiar with the issue but I would like to start out with a nice example of spoken code switching style. If someone has maybe a minute of real material that someone could send me to present. I would be very thankfull. Of course I would mention the source :0) (a CS including spanish would be top). Thanks. redaco

redaco August 11, 2008 1:54 PM | Reply Hi, Ill give a introduction on code-switching in a small university course in a couple of days. I am quite familiar with the issue but I would like to start out with a nice example of spoken code switching style. If someone has maybe a minute of real material that someone could send me to present. I would be very thankfull. Of course I would mention the source :0) (a CS including spanish would be top). Thanks. redaco

Mathias November 16, 2008 11:57 PM | Reply

when i had read about code switching,i am so interest to study it,because the topic i will take to make a thesis of undergraduated in Flores university.may you are would like to help me plase.i waiting for your comment or some advise to help me.thank you very much.

tina December 9, 2008 6:28 AM | Reply Hi! I'm going to present a thesis on code switching and i'm badly in short of information.i would be very thankfull if you help me and send some related materials.

raja January 11, 2009 8:00 PM | Reply i want just to say that am working on the use of english in tunisia and code switching is the focus of my research, i'll be gratful if u write something in this vein thank u.

shirley January 24, 2009 6:16 AM | Reply well,i really want to study further about code-switching..it the topic of my research and i don't where to start.I'm quite confused on how to do the conceptual framework on my thesis. anybody could help?

jose January 27, 2009 11:18 PM | Reply CS is an option one speaker has to express his or her ideas freely in a particular situation and in an especific place as emi bilingual contexts

geesty April 9, 2009 11:09 AM | Reply well, I am preparing my thesis about code switching in songs. anybody could help me? please!!!!!!

adeosun June 18, 2009 11:15 PM | Reply Always try and give proper amd full details of any intormation you are trying to give out. Thanks

wafaa July 14, 2009 11:11 PM | Reply hi every body im a jordanian student, im still studying english, i have a presentation about codeswitching reasons pls can u help me in this mutter

fb August 31, 2009 6:00 AM | Reply hi everyone its important to note that academic papers on topics such as code switching, dialects etc, especially ones relevant to how language is changing in todays society- are not common at all. In fact, it is up to all of you studying these areas to come up with information and publish papers that others can use.

OJO OLUWAFUNMILAYO March 29, 2010 5:03 PM | Reply with ten example for each differenciate between codeswitching and codemixing.

rawan April 17, 2010 4:09 PM | Reply hi I am an Algerian student of English.please help me to find a specific area of study in code switchinng.

Ayanna August 4, 2010 1:18 AM | Reply I'm looking gor studies on code switching or contrastive analysis to cite in my thesis. Please forward and info.. Peace

Ilvi March 31, 2011 5:19 AM | Reply hii.i am a english department students, now i am in process of writing my thesis about perception about code switching,. please help me to find any article or journal that related to my topic.thanks..

Tdol

replied to comment from Ilvi

March 31, 2011 11:33 AM | Reply You'll find loads of articles on code switching in http://scholar.google.com/

belle April 7, 2011 11:11 AM | Reply hello everyone! I'm from South Korea. My thesis is about CS. And I'm short of recent articles. I need your help if you have any. Thank you very much..

Tdol

replied to comment from belle

April 8, 2011 1:48 PM | Reply We delete emails from comments for security purposes as they will be farmed by spammers if we leave them displayed. Please follow the Google Scholar link- it has more than enough material for a thesis on code-switching.

Read more at http://www.usingenglish.com/weblog/archives/000157.html#aYUzduzLyHyIupgM.99

http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/codeswitchingterm.htm Examples and Observations: "Code-switching performs several functions (Zentella, 1985). First, people may use code-switching to hide fluency or memory problems in the second language (but this accounts for about only 10 percent of code switches). Second, code-switching is used to mark switching from informal situations (using native languages) to formal situations (using second language). Third, code-switching is used to exert control, especially between parents and children. Fourth, code-switching is used to align speakers with others in specific situations (e.g., defining oneself as a member of an ethnic group). Code-switching also 'functions to announce specific identities, create certain meanings, and facilitate particular interpersonal relationships' (Johnson, 2000, p. 184)." (William B. Gudykunst, Bridging Differences: Effective Intergroup Communication, 4th ed. Sage, 2004)

"In a relatively small Puerto Rican neighborhood in New Jersey, some members freely usedcodeswitching styles and extreme forms of borrowing both in everyday casual talk and in more formal gatherings. Other local residents were careful to speak only Spanish with a minimum of loans on formal occasions, reserving code-switching styles for informal talk. Others again spoke mainly English, using Spanish or code-switching styles only with small children or with neighbors." (John J. Gumperz and Jenny Cook-Gumperz, "Introduction: Language and the Communication of Social Identity. Language and Social Identity. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1982)

African American Vernacular English and Standard American English "It is common to find references to black speakers who code switch between AAVE [African American Vernacular English] and SAE [Standard American English] in the presence of whites or others speaking SAE. In employment interviews (Hopper & WIlliams, 1973; Akinnaso & Ajirotutu, 1982), formal education in a range of settings (Smitherman, 2000), legal discourse (Garner & Rubin, 1986), and various other contexts, it is advantageous for blacks to have code-switching competence. For a black person who can switch from AAVE to SAE in the presence of others who are speaking SAE, code switching is a skill that holds benefits in relation to the way success is often measured in institutional and professional settings. However, there are more dimensions to code switching than the black/white patterns in institutional settings." (George B. Ray, Language and Interracial Communication in the United States: Speaking in Black and White. Peter Lang, 2009)

"A Fuzzy-Edged Concept" "The tendency to reify code switching as a unitary and clearly identifiable phenomenon has been questioned by Gardner-Chloros (1995: 70), who prefers to view code switching as a 'fuzzy-edged concept.' For her, the conventional view of code switching implies that speakers make binary choices, operating in one code or the other at any given time, when in fact code switching overlaps with other kinds of bilingual mixture, and the boundaries between them are difficult to establish. Moreover, it is often impossible to categorize the two codes involved in code switching as discrete and isolatable." (Donald Winford, An Introduction to Contact Linguistics. Wiley-Blackwell, 2003)

Code Switching and Language Change "The role of CS, along with other symptoms of contact, in language change is still a matter of discussion . . .. On the one hand the relationship between contact and language change is now generally acknowledged: few espouse the traditional view that change follows universal, language-internal principles such as simplification, and takes place in the absence of contact with other varieties (James Milroy 1998). On the other hand, . . . some researchers still downplay the role of CS in change, and contrast it with borrowing, which is seen as a form of convergence." (Penelope Gardner-Chloros, "Contact and Code-Switching." The Handbook of Language Contact, ed. by Raymond Hickey. Blackwell, 2010) Also Known As: code-mixing Alternate Spellings: code-switching

Varieties of English Chinese English Spanglish Hinglish Language Basics What Is Language? Common Myths About Language Language Family Language Varieties Dialect Regionalism Idiolect Related Articles pidgin - definition and examples of pidgin languages contact linguistics - definition and examples of contact linguistics contact language - definition and examples of contact languages Business English Attitudes Overview - Function Register Domain and Urgency ... natural language - definition and examples of natural language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching Code-switching From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the use of more than one language in speech. For the use of multiple languages in writing, see Macaronic language. Sociolinguistics

Areas of study Accent Dialect Discourse Language Linguistic Pragmatics Variation Related fields Applied Historical Linguistic Sociocultural Sociology of language Key concepts Code-switching Diglossia Language Language Language Multilingualism Prestige People Sociolinguists Category:Sociolinguistics Portal:Linguistics v linguistics linguistics anthropology linguistics

analysis varieties description

change ideology planning

e In linguistics, code-switching is switching between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation. Multilingualspeople who speak more than one languagesometimes use elements of multiple languages in conversing with each other. Thus, code-switching is the use of more than one linguistic variety in a manner consistent with the syntax andphonology of each variety. Code-switching is distinct from other language contact phenomena, such as borrowing, pidgins and creoles, loan translation (calques), and language transfer (language interference). Borrowing affects the lexicon, the words that make up a language, while codeswitchingtakes place in individual utterances.[1][2][3] Speakers form and establish a pidgin language when two or more speakers who do not speak a common language form an intermediate, third language. On the other hand, speakers practice code-switching when they are each fluent in both languages. Code mixing is a thematically related term, but the usage of the terms codeswitching and code-mixingvaries. Some scholars use either term to denote the same practice, while others apply code-mixing to denote the formal linguistic properties of said language-contact phenomena, and code-switching to denote the actual, spoken usages by multilingual persons.[4][5][6] In the 1940s and 1950s, many scholars considered code-switching to be a sub-standard use of language.[7] Since the 1980s, however, most scholars have recognised it is a normal, natural product of bilingual and multilingual language use.[8][9] The term code-switching is also used outside the field of linguistics. Some scholars of literature use the term to describe literary styles which include elements from more than one language, as in novels by Chinese-American, Anglo-Indian, or Latino/a writers.[10] In popular usage code-switching is sometimes used to refer to relatively stable informal mixtures of two languages, such as Spanglish, Franponaisor Portuol.[11] Both in popular usage and in sociolinguistic scholarship, the name code-switching is sometimes used to refer to switching among dialects, styles or registers, such as that practiced by speakers of African American Vernacular English as they move from less formal to more formal settings.[12] Contents [hide] 1 Social motivations for code-switching 1.1 Markedness Model 1.2 Sequential analysis 1.3 Communication Accommodation Theory

1.4 Code-switching and diglossia 2 Grammar 3 Types 4 Examples 4.1 Spanish and English 4.2 French and Tamil 4.3 Hopi and Tewa 5 See also 6 References [edit]Social motivations for code-switching There may be many reasons that people code-switch. Code-switching relates to, and sometimes indexes social-group membership in bilingual and multilingual communities. Some sociolinguists describe the relationships between code-switching behaviours and class, ethnicity, and other social positions.[13] In addition, scholars in interactional linguistics andconversation analysis have studied code-switching as a means of structuring talk in interaction.[14][15][16] Some discourse analysts, including conversation analyst Peter Auer, suggest that code-switching does not simply reflect social situations, but that it is a means to create social situations.[17] [edit]Markedness Model The Markedness Model, developed by Carol Myers-Scotton, is one of the more complete theories of code-switching motivations. It posits that language users are rational, and choose (speak) a language that clearly marks their rights and obligations, relative to other speakers, in the conversation and its setting.[18] When there is no clear, unmarkedlanguage choice, speakers practice code-switching to explore possible language choices. Many sociolinguists, however, object to the Markedness Models postulation that language-choice is entirely rational.[19][20] [edit]Sequential analysis Scholars such as Peter Auer and Li Wei argue that the explanation of the social motivation of codeswitching lies in the way code-switching is structured and managed in conversational interaction; in other words, the question of why code-switching occurs cannot be answered without first addressing the question of how it occurs. Using conversation analysis (CA), these scholars focus their attention on the sequential implications of code-switching. That is, whatever language a speaker chooses to use for a conversational turn or part of a turn has implications for the subsequent choices of language by the speaker as well as the hearer. Rather than focusing on the social values inherent in the languages the

speaker chooses (brought along meaning), the analysis should try to concentrate on the meaning that the act of code-switching itself creates (brought about meaning).[14][19] [edit]Communication Accommodation Theory The Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), developed by Howard Giles, professor of communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara, seeks to explain the cognitive reasons for code-switching, and other changes in speech, as a person seeks either to emphasize or to minimize the social differences between him- or herself and the other person(s) in conversation. Prof. Giles posits that when speakers seek approval in a social situation they are likely to converge their speech with that of the other person speaking. This can include, but is not limited to, the language of choice, accent, dialect, and para-linguistic features used in the conversation. In contrast to convergence, speakers might also engage in divergent speech, with which an individual person emphasizes the social distance between him- or herself and other speakers by using speech with linguistic features characteristic of his or her own group. [edit]Code-switching and diglossia Main article: Diglossia In a diglossic situation, some topics and situations are better suited to one language over another. Joshua Fishman proposes a domain-specific code-switching model[21] (later refined by Blom and Gumperz)[22] wherein bilingual speakers choose which code to speak depending on where they are and what they are discussing. For example, a child who is a bilingual Spanish-English speaker might speak Spanish at home and English in class, but Spanish at recess.[23] [edit]Grammar Linguists also study the grammatical properties of code-switching. Linguists have made significant effort toward defining the difference between borrowing (loanword usage) and code-switching. Generally, borrowing occurs in the lexicon, while code-switching occurs at either the syntax level or the utterance-construction level.[1][2][3] In studying the syntactic and morphological patterns of language alternation, linguists have postulated specific grammatical rules and specific syntactic boundaries for where code-switching might occur. Historically, research on the grammar of code-switching has focused on constraint-oriented approaches and constraint-free approaches.[24][25] Attempts to formulate grammatical constraints on code-switching include the Free-morpheme Constraint, which stipulates that a code-switching cannot occur between bound morphemes,[26] and the Closed-class Constraint, which posits that closed class items (pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, etc.), cannot be switched.[27] The Equivalence Constraint suggests that code-switching can occur only in positions where "the order of any two sentence elements, one before and one after the switch, is not excluded in either language." Thus, the sentence: "I like you porque eres simptico" ("I like you because

you are nice") is allowed because it obeys the syntactic rules of both Spanish and English.[26] The Functional Head Constraint is another constraint-based theory. It holds that codeswitching cannot occur between a functional head (a complementizer, adeterminer, an inflection, etc.) and its complement (sentence, noun-phrase, verb-phrase).[28] Although constraint-based theories are widely discussed, linguists continue to debate apparent counterexamples to each proposed constraint.[4][29] The constraint-free approach views explicit reference to code-switching in grammatical analysis as tautological, and looks to explain specific instances of grammaticality in code-switching in terms of the unique contributions of the grammatical properties of the languages involved in the construction of interest. Jeff MacSwan characterized this approach with the research program refrain, "Nothing constrains codeswitching apart from the requirements of the mixed grammars."[24] This approach focuses on the repudiation of any rule or principle which explicitly refers to codeswitching itself.[25] Working within a speech production framework advocated by Willem Levelt, Carol Myers-Scotton has proposed the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model of code-switching which distinguishes between the roles of the participant languages.[30] Carol Myers-Scotton and MacSwan debated the relative merits of their approaches in a series of exchanges published in 2005 in Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, issues 8(1) and 8(2). Some theories, such as the Closed-class Constraint, the Matrix Language Frame model, and the Functional Head Constraint, which make general predictions based upon specific presumptions about the nature of syntax, are controversial among linguists positing alternative theories. In contrast, descriptions based on empirical analyses of corpora, such as the Equivalence Constraint, are relatively independent of syntactic theory, but the code-switching patterns they describe vary considerably among speech communities, even among those sharing the same language pairs. [edit]Types Scholars use different names for various types of code-switching. Intersentential switching occurs outside the sentence or the clause level (i.e. at sentence or clause boundaries).[31] It is sometimes called "extrasentential" switching.[32] Intra-sentential switching occurs within a sentence or a clause.[31][32] Tag-switching is the switching of either a tag phrase or a word, or both, from language-B to language-A, (common intra-sentential switches).[31] Intra-word switching occurs within a word, itself, such as at a morpheme boundary.[32] [edit]Examples [edit]Spanish and English

Researcher Ana Celia Zentella offers this example from her work with Puerto Rican Spanish-English bilingual speakers in New York City.[11] In this example, Marta and her younger sister, Lolita, speak Spanish and English with Zentella outside of their apartment building. Lolita: Oh, I could stay with Ana? Marta: but you could ask papi and mami to see if you could come down. Lolita: OK. Marta: Ana, if I leave her here would you send her upstairs when you leave? Zentella: Ill tell you exactly when I have to leave, at ten oclock. Y son las nueve y cuarto. ("And its nine fifteen.") Marta: Lolita, te voy a dejar con Ana. ("Im going to leave you with Ana.") Thank you, Ana. Zentella explains that the children of the predominantly Puerto Rican neighbourhood speak both English and Spanish: "Within the childrens network, English predominated, but code-switching from English to Spanish occurred once every three minutes, on average."[11] [edit]French and Tamil This example of switching from French to Tamil comes from ethnographer Sonia Das's work with immigrants from Jaffna, Sri Lanka, to Quebec.[33] Selvamani: Parce que nimporte quand quand jenregistre ma voix a laire dun garon. (*in French+ "Because whenever I record my voice I sound like a guy.") Alors, TS, je me ferrai pas poign ("So, you know, Im not going to be had.") [laughter] Selvamani: ennat, ennat, enna romba cirit? ([in Tamil] "What, what, what's so funny?") Alors, quest-ce que je disais? ([in French] "So, what was I saying?") Selvamani, who moved from Sri Lanka to Quebec as a child and now identifies as Qubcois, speaks to Das in French. When Selvamani's sister, Mala, laughs Selvamani switches to Tamil to ask Mala why she is laughing. After this aside, Selvamani continues to speak in French. Selvamani also uses the word ts ("you know") and the expression je me ferrai pas poign ("I will not be handled"), which are typical of the working-class Montreal dialect Joual and not standard French.[33] [edit]Hopi and Tewa Researcher Paul Kroskrity offers the following example of code-switching by of three elder Arizona Tewa men, who are trilingual in Tewa, Hopi, and English.[34] They are discussing the selection of a site for a new high school in the eastern Hopi Reservation:

Speaker A: Tututqaykit qanaanawakna. ([in Hopi] "Schools were not wanted.") Speaker B: Wdtknkegenaadi imb akhonidi. ( *in Tewa+ "They didnt want a school on their land.") Speaker C: Naemb eeyae nelemo dbtmm kay wdimu::di. (*in Tewa+ "Its better if our children go to school right here, rather than far away.") In their two-hour conversation, the three men primarily spoke Tewa; however, when Speaker A addresses the Hopi Reservation as a whole, he code-switches to Hopi. His speaking Hopi when talking of Hopi-related matters is a conversational norm in the Arizona Tewa speech community. Kroskrity reports that these Arizona Tewa men, who culturally identify themselves as Hopi and Tewa, use the different languages to linguistically construct and maintain their discrete ethnic identities. [edit]

http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/pidginterm.htm Etymology: From Pidgin English, perhaps from a Chinese pronunciation of English business

Examples and Observations: "At first a pidgin language has no native speakers, and is used just for doing business with others with whom one shares the pidgin language and no other. In time, most pidgin languages disappear, as the pidgin-speaking community develops, and one of its established languages becomes widely known and takes over the role of the pidgin as the lingua franca, or language of choice of those who do not share a native language." (Grover Hudson, Essential Introductory Linguistics. Blackwell, 2000)

"Many . . . pidgin languages survive today in territories which formerly belonged to the European colonial nations, and act as lingua francas; for example, West African Pidgin English is used extensively between several ethnic groups along the West African coast." (David Crystal, English As a Global Language. Cambridge University Press, 2003)

"A creole comes into being when children are born into a pidgin-speaking environment and acquire the pidgin as a first language. What we know about the history and origins of existing creoles suggests that this may happen at any stage in the development of a pidgin." (Mark Sebba, Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles. Palgrave Macmillan, 1997)

An example of early Hawai'i Pidgin English (HPE) spoken in Honolulu in the late 19th century: What for Miss Willis laugh all time? Before "Why does Miss Willis often laugh? Fraulein used to always cry." Fraulein cry all time.

(cited by Jeff Siegel in The Emergence of Pidgin and Creole. Oxford University Press, 2008)

"Againye tried to be a good nurse, attentive but not cloying, fetching me a stool to use while I bathed from a bucket and petting my head as I napped, saying, 'Pain you well well' in soothing pidgin." (Mary Helen Specht, "How Could I Embrace a Village?" The New York Times, Feb. 5, 2010) Pronunciation: PIDG-in

http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/linguafrancaterm.htm Etymology: From the Italian, "language" + "Frankish"

Examples and Observations: "Where a language is widely used over a relatively large geographical area as a language of wider communication, it is known as a lingua franca--a common language but one which is native only to some of its speakers. The term 'lingua franca' itself is an extension of the use of the name of the original 'Lingua Franca,' a Medieval trading pidgin used in the Mediterranean region." (M. Sebba, Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles. Palgrave, 1997)

English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) - "The status of English is such that it has been adopted as the world's lingua franca for communication in Olympic sport, international trade, and air-traffic control. Unlike any other language, past or present, English has spread to all five continents and has become a truly global language." (G. Nelson and B. Aarts, "Investigating English Around the World," The Workings of Language, ed. by R. S. Wheeler. Greenwood, 1999)

- "Even though everybody around the world speaks English--sort of--in their dealings with American media and business, politics, and culture, the English that is spoken is a lingua franca, a Bodysnatched English to be carefully scrutinized as to its meanings when it is used by a foreign culture." (Karin Dovring, English as Lingua Franca: Double Talk in Global Persuasion. Praeger, 1997)

- "But what do we mean by the term English as a lingua franca? The term lingua franca is usually taken to mean 'any lingual medium of communication between people of different mother tongues, for whom it is a second language' (Samarin, 1987, p. 371). In this definition, then, a lingua franca has no native speakers, and this notion is carried over into definitions of English as a lingua franca, such as in the following example: '[ELF] is a 'contact language' between persons who share neither a common native tongue nor a common (national) culture, and for whom English is the chosen foreign language of communication' (Firth, 1996, p. 240). "Clearly, the role of English as the chosen foreign language of communication in Europe is an extremely important one, and one that is on the increase. . . . It is important to note that this means that both in Europe as well as in the world as a whole, English is now a language that is mainly used by biand multilinguals, and that its (often monolingual) native speakers are a minority." (Barbara Seidlhofer, "Common Property: English as a Lingua Franca in Europe."International Handbook of English Language Teaching, ed. by Jim Cummins and Chris Davison. Springer, 2007)

Globish as a Lingua Franca "I want to draw a distinction between a language which is spread through nurture, amother tongue, and a language that is spread through recruitment, which is a lingua franca. A lingua franca is a language that you consciously learn because you need to, because you want to. A mother tongue is a language that you learn because you can't help it. The reason English is spreading around the world at the moment is because of its utility as a lingua franca. Globish--a simplified version of English that's used around the world--will be there as long as it is needed, but since it's not being picked up as a mother tongue, it's not typically being spoken by people to their children. It is not getting effectively to first base, the most crucial first base for long-term survival of a language."

(Nicholas Ostler quoted by Robert McCrum in "My Bright Idea: English Is On the Up but One Day Will Die Out." The Observer, Oct. 31, 2010)

Cyberspace English "Because the cyberspace community, at least at the moment, is overwhelmingly English speaking, it is appropriate to say that English is its unofficial language. . . . "The colonial past, imperialistic stealth, and the emergence of other language blocs in cyberspace as it grows will minimize in due time the preeminence of English as the de facto language of cyberspace. . . . "[Jukka] Korpela sees another alternative to cyberspace English and a constructed language. He predicts the development of better language machine translation algorithms. Such algorithms will result in efficient and sufficient quality language translators, and there will be no need for a lingua franca." (J. M. Kizza, Ethical and Social Issues in the Information Age. Springer, 2007) Pronunciation: LING-wa FRAN-ka Also Known As: trade language, contact language, international language, global language Varieties of English

http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/creole.htm Definition: A language that developed historically from a pidgin and came into existence at a fairly precise point in time. Decreolization is the process through which a creole language gradually becomes more like the standard language of a region. See also: African-American Vernacular English Contact Language Contact Linguistics Dialect

Koineization Post-Creole Continuum West African Pidgin English Zero Copula Examples and Observatyions: "A pidgin is the combination of two or more languages which sometimes occurs in trade contact, multiethnic or refugee situations, where participants need a functioning common language. . . . Sometimes the pidgin becomes stable and established and comes to be spoken as a mother-tongue by children: the language has then become a creole, which quickly develops in complexity and is used in all functional settings. The process of turning a pidgin into a creole is called creolization." (Robert Lawrence Trask and Peter Stockwell, Language and Linguistics: The Key Concepts. Routledge, 2007)

"A creole has a jargon or a pidgin in its ancestry; it is spoken natively by an entire speech community, often one whose ancestors were displaced geographically so that their ties with their original language and sociocultural identity were partly broken. Such social conditions were often the result of slavery." (John A. Holm, An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles. Cambridge University Press, 2000)

"The English variety spoken by descendants of Africans on the coast of South Carolina is known as Gullah and has been identified as a creole. Of all the vernaculars associated with African Americans, it is the one that diverges the most from (White) middle-class varieties in North America." (S.S. Mufwene, "North American Varieties of English as Byproducts of Population Contacts," in The Workings of Language, ed. by R. S. Wheeler. Greenwood, 1999)

Disagreements Over the Creole Roots of Black English in the U.S. "[A]s for various arguments that Black Englishdisplays African or creole roots because of the role that aspect plays in its grammar (e.g., DeBose and Faraclas 1993), the issue is in fact not yet sufficiently examined to stand as an accepted fact. For one,tense plays a much more central role in Black English

grammar than in Creoles or the West African languages of the 'Upper Guinea' region, underlyingly marking the past and future as obligatorily as any Indo-European grammar (cf. also Winford 1998: 116). Second, typical of Creolist Hypothesis advocates' generally insufficient attention to English dialects, the aspect arguments do not address the role that aspect innonstandard British dialects may have played. This gap in argumentation alone renders the linkage of Black English aspect to Africa and creoles seriously incomplete, which is all the more significant given that there is indeed evidence that nonstandard British dialects are more aspect-focused than standard English (Trugdill and Chambers 1991)." (John H. McWhorter, Defining Creoles. Oxford Univ. Press, 2005)

http://geography.about.com/od/culturalgeography/a/linguafranca.htm Lingua Franca An Overview of Lingua Franca, Pidgins, and Creole From Amanda Briney, Contributing Writer See More About: cultural geography languages lingua franca english

English is fast becoming the lingua franca for world commerce, especially due to its use on the Internet. Mario Tama/Getty Images Ads Natural Resourceswww.IndustryWeek.comNatural Resources articles at IndustryWeek Haiti Water Expertswww.northwaterconsulting.comDeep Geophysics & Hydrogeology, Water & Wastewater Engineering

Do You Know Islamwww.edialogue.orgWould You Like to be a Muslim? Join us in private live chat.. More Geography Ads Portuguese Language Arabic Language Learn a Language French Language English Second Language Ads Go with GmailMail.Google.comFree Email by Google Switch to Gmail, Sign up now! Study English in Canadawww.lsbf.ca/EnglishFor all levels. Increase your confidence and fluency! Throughout the course of geographic history, exploration and trade have caused various populations of people to come into contact with each other. Because these people were of different cultures and thus spoke different languages, communication was often difficult. Over the decades though, languages changed to reflect such interactions and groups sometimes developed lingua francas and pidgins. A lingua franca is a language used by different populations to communicate when they do not share a common language. Generally, a lingua franca is a third language that is distinct from the native language of both parties involved in the communication. Sometimes as the language becomes more widespread, the native populations of an area will speak the lingua franca to each other as well. A pidgin is a simplified version of one language that combines the vocabulary of a number of different languages. Pidgins are often just used between members of different cultures to communicate for things like trade. A pidgin is distinct from a lingua franca in that members of the same populations rarely use it to talk to one another. It is also important to note that because pidgins develop out of sporadic contact between people and is a simplification of different languages, pidgins generally have no native speakers. The Lingua Franca The term lingua franca was first used during the Middle Ages and described a language created as a combination of French and Italian that was developed by the Crusaders and tradesmen in the Mediterranean. At first, the language was considered a pidgin as it consisted of simplified nouns, verbs, and adjectives from both languages. Over time the language developed into an early version of todays Romance languages. Arabic was another early lingua franca to develop because of the sheer size of the Islamic Empire dating back to the 7th Century. Arabic is the native language of the peoples from the Arabian Peninsula but its use spread with the empire as it expanded into China, India, parts of Central Asia, the Middle East,

Northern Africa, and parts of Southern Europe. The empires vast size exhibits the need for a common language. Arabic also served as the lingua franca of science and diplomacy in the 1200s because at that time, more books were written in Arabic than any other language. The use of Arabic as a lingua franca and others such as the romance languages and Chinese then continued worldwide throughout history as they made it easier for diverse groups of people in different countries to communicate. For example, until the 18th Century, Latin was the main lingua franca of European scholars as it allowed easy communication by people whose native languages included Italian and French. During the Age of Exploration, lingua francas also played an enormous role in allowing European explorers to conduct trade and other important communications in the various countries in which they went. Portuguese was the lingua franca of diplomatic and trade relations in areas like coastal Africa, portions of India, and even Japan. Other lingua francas developed during this time as well since international trade and communication was becoming an important component to nearly every area of the globe. Malay for instance was the lingua franca of Southeast Asia and was used by Arab and Chinese traders there prior to the arrival of the Europeans. Once they arrived, people like the Dutch and British used Malay to communicate with the native peoples. Modern Lingua Francas Today, lingua francas play an important role in global communication as well. The United Nations defines its official languages as Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. The official language of international air traffic control is English, while multilingual places like Asia and Africa define several unofficial lingua francas to facilitate easier communication between ethnic groups and regions. The Pidgin Although the first lingua franca that developed during the Middle Ages was first considered a pidgin, the term pidgin itself and the language that term describes originally developed out of contact between Europeans and people in the countries they visited from the 16th to the 19th Centuries. Pidgins during this time were usually associated with trade, plantation agriculture, and mining. In order to create a pidgin, there needs to be regular contact between the people speaking different languages, there needs to be a reason for communication (such as trade), and there should be a lack of another easily accessible language between the two parties. In addition, pidgins have a distinct set of characteristics that make them differ from the first and second languages spoken by the pidgin developers. For example, the words used in a pidgin language lack inflections on verbs and nouns and have no true articles or words like conjunctions. In addition, very few pidgins use complex sentences. Because of this, some people characterize pidgins as broken or chaotic languages.

Regardless of its seemingly chaotic nature though, several pidgins have survived for generations. These include the Nigerian Pidgin, the Cameroon Pidgin, Bislama from Vanuatu, and Tok Pisin, a pidgin from Papua, New Guinea. All of these pidgins are based mainly on English words. From time to time, long-surviving pidgins also become more widely used for communication and expand into the general population. When this happens and the pidgin is used enough to become the primary language of an area, it is no longer considered a pidgin, but is instead called a creole language. An example of a creole includes Swahili, which grew out of Arabic and Bantu languages in eastern Africa. The language Bazaar Malay, spoken in Malaysia is another example. Lingua francas, pidgins, or creoles are significant to geography because each represents a long history of communication between various groups of people and is an important gauge of what was taking place at the time the language developed. Today, lingua francas especially but also pidgins represent an attempt to create universally understood languages in a world with growing global interactions.

http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/langmyths6.htm Six Common Myths About Language "There was no Golden Age" By Richard Nordquist, About.com Guide See More About: english language

"Language Myths," edited by Laurie Bauer and Peter Trudgill (Penguin Group USA) Ads Italian Languagelearnitalianfast.infoLearn to Speak Italian Language Fluently. Do try out now!

English Class in Torontowww.lsbf.ca/EnglishCourses for all levels. Improve your vocabulary and fluency! Facebook - Official Sitewww.Facebook.comKumonekta sa Kaibigan, Kapamilya at Kaklase. Gumawa ng Profile Ngayon! More Grammar & Composition Ads Speech and Language Second Language French Language Language Translation Language Grammar Ads General Englishwww.etc.ac.nzStudy English in New Zealand Join our courses! Study in Czech Republicen.brnocentre.czPre-university training in Prague or Brno. Courses of Czech language In the book Language Myths, edited by Laurie Bauer and Peter Trudgill (Penguin, 1998), a team of leading linguists set out to challenge some of the conventional wisdom about language and the way it works. Of the 21 myths or misconceptions they examined, here are six of the most common. Myth #1: The Meanings of Words Should Not Be Allowed to Vary or Change Peter Trudgill, now an honorary professor ofsociolinguistics at the University of East Anglia in England, recounts the history of the word nice to illustrate his point that the "English language is full of words which have changed their meanings slightly or even dramatically over the centuries." Derived from the Latin adjective nescius (meaning "not knowing" or "ignorant"), nice arrived in English around 1300 meaning "silly," "foolish," or "shy." Over the centuries, its meaning gradually changed to "fussy," then "refined," and then (by the end of the 18th century) "pleasant" and "agreeable." Trudgill observes that "none of us can unilaterally decide what a word means. Meanings of words are shared between people--they are a kind of social contract we all agree to--otherwise communication would not be possible." See also: Introduction to Etymology: Word Histories Myth #2: Children Can't Speak or Write Properly Any More

Though upholding educational standards is important, says linguist James Milroy, "there is in reality nothing to suggest that today's youngsters are less competent at speaking and writing their native language than older generations of children were." Going back to Jonathan Swift (who blamed linguistic decline on the "Licentiousness which entered with the Restoration"), Milroy notes that every generation has complained about deteriorating standards of literacy. He points out that over the past century general standards of literacy have, in fact, steadily risen. According to the myth, there has always been "a Golden Age when children could write much better than they can now." But as Milroy concludes, "There was no Golden Age." See also: The Endless Decline of the English Language Myth #3: America Is Ruining the English Language John Algeo, professor emeritus of English at the University of Georgia, demonstrates some of the ways in which Americans have contributed to changes in English vocabulary, syntax, andpronunciation. He also shows how American English has retained some of the characteristics of 16th-century English that have disappeared from present-day British. American is not corrupt British plus barbarisms. . . . Present-day British is no closer to that earlier form than present-day American is. Indeed, in some ways present-day American is more conservative, that is, closer to the common original standard, than is present-day English. Algeo notes that British people tend to be more aware of American innovations in language than Americans are of British ones. "The cause of that greater awareness may be a keener linguistic sensitivity on the part of the British, or a more insular anxiety and hence irritation about influences from abroad." See also: Standard American English Myth #4: TV Makes People Sound the Same J. K. Chambers, a professor of linguistics at the University of Toronto, counters the common view that television and other popular media are steadily diluting regional speech patterns. The media do play a role, he says, in the spread of certain words and expressions. "But at the deeper reaches of language change--sound changes and grammatical changes--the media have no significant effect at all." According to sociolinguists, regional dialects continue to diverge from standard dialects throughout the English-speaking world. And while the media can help to popularize certain slang expressions and catchphrases, it's pure "linguistic science fiction" to think that television has any significant effect on the way we pronounce words or put together sentences.

The biggest influence on language change, Chambers says, is not Homer Simpson or Oprah Winfrey. It is, as it always has been, face-to-face interactions with friends and colleagues: "it takes real people to make an impression." Myth #5: Some Languages Are Spoken More Quickly Than Others Peter Roach, now an emeritus professor of phonetics at Reading University in England, has been studying speech perception throughout his career. And what has he found out? That there's "no real difference between different languages in terms of sounds per second in normal speaking cycles." But surely, you're saying, there's a rhythmical difference between English (which is classed as a "stresstimed" language) and, say, French or Spanish (classed as "syllable-timed"). Indeed, Roach says, "it usually seems that syllable-timed speech sounds faster than stress-timed to speakers of stress-timed languages. So Spanish, French, and Italian sound fast to English speakers, but Russian and Arabic don't." However, different speech rhythms don't necessarily mean different speaking speeds. Studies suggest that "languages and dialects just sound faster or slower, without any physically measurable difference. The apparent speed of some languages might simply be an illusion." Myth #6: You Shouldn't Say "It Is Me" Because "Me" Is Accusative According to Laurie Bauer, professor of theoretical and descriptive linguistics at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, the "It is I" rule is just one example of how the rules of Latin grammar have been inappropriately forced on English. In the 18th century, Latin was widely viewed as the language of refinement--classy and conveniently dead. As a result, a number of grammar mavens set out to transfer this prestige to English by importing and imposing various Latin grammatical rules--regardless of actual English usage and normal word patterns. One of these inappropriate rules was an insistence on using the nominative "I" after a form of the verb "to be." Bauer argues that there's no point in avoiding normal English speech patterns--in this case, "me," not "I," after the verb. And there's no sense in imposing "the patterns of one language on another." Doing so, he says, "is like trying to make people play tennis with a golf club."

http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/historytimeline.htm Key Events in the History of the English Language Timelines of Old English, Middle English, and Modern English By Richard Nordquist, About.com Guide See More About:

english language Ads English Class in Torontowww.lsbf.ca/EnglishCourses for all levels. Improve your vocabulary and fluency! A Soldier's Journeywww.gervais-laekas.comThis story honours young French Canadians during WW II at Dieppe Facebook - Official Sitewww.Facebook.comKumonekta sa Kaibigan, Kapamilya at Kaklase. Gumawa ng Profile Ngayon! More Grammar & Composition Ads English Language Schools Language Grammar Speech and Language English Grammar Exercises Learn a Language Ads General Englishwww.etc.ac.nzStudy English in New Zealand Join our courses! Free English Exerciseswww.alison.com/English-ExercisesVideo/Audio English Courses w Cert Completely Free -Start Course Now ! The story of English--from its start in a jumble of West Germanic dialects to its role today as aglobal language--is both fascinating and complex. This timeline offers a glimpse at some of the key events that helped to shape the English language over the past 1,500 years. To learn more about the ways that English evolved in Britain and then spread around the world, check out one of the fine histories listed in the bibliography at the end of page three. The Prehistory of English The ultimate origins of English lie in Indo-European, a family of languages consisting of most of the languages of Europe as well as those of Iran, the Indian subcontinent, and other parts of Asia. Because little is known about ancient Indo-European (which may have been spoken as long ago as 3,000 B.C.), we'll begin our survey in Britain in the first century A.D. 43 The Romans invade Britain, beginning 400 years of control over much of the island. 410 The Goths (speakers of a now extinct East Germanic language) sack Rome. The first Germanic tribes arrive in Britain.

Early 5th century With the collapse of the empire, Romans withdraw from Britain. Britons are attacked by the Picts and by Scots from Ireland. Angles, Saxons, and other German settlers arrive in Britain to assist the Britons and claim territory. 5th-6th centuries Germanic peoples (Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians) speaking West Germanicdialects settle most of Britain. Celts retreat to distant areas of Britain: Ireland, Scotland, Wales.

500-1100: The Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) Period The conquest of the Celtic population in Britain by speakers of West Germanic dialects (primarily Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) eventually determined many of the essential characteristics of the English language. (The Celtic influence on English survives for the most part only in place names--London, Dover, Avon, York.) Over time the dialects of the various invaders merged, giving rise to what we now call "Old English." Late 6th century Ethelbert, the King of Kent, is baptized. He is the first English king to convert to Christianity. 7th century Rise of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex; the Saxon kingdoms of Essex and Middlesex; the Angle kingdoms of Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumbria. St. Augustine and Irish missionaries convert Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, introducing new religious words borrowed from Latin and Greek. Latin speakers begin referring to the country as Anglia and later as Englaland. 673 Birth of the Venerable Bede, the monk who composed (in Latin) The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (c. 731), a key source of information about Anglo Saxon settlement. 700 Approximate date of the earliest manuscript records of Old English.

Late 8th century Scandinavians begin to settle in Britain and Ireland; Danes settle in parts of Ireland. Early 9th century Egbert of Wessex incorporates Cornwall into his kingdom and is recognized as overlord of the seven kingdoms of the Angles and Saxons (the Heptarchy): England begins to emerge. Mid 9th century Danes raid England, occupy Northumbria, and establish a kingdom at York. Danish begins to influence English. Late 9th century King Alfred of Wessex (Alfred the Great) leads the Anglo-Saxons to victory over the Vikings, translates Latin works into English, and establishes the writing of prose in English. He uses the English language to foster a sense of national identity. England is divided into a kingdom ruled by the Anglo-Saxons (under Alfred) and another ruled by the Scandinavians.

10th century English and Danes mix fairly peacefully, and many Scandinavian (or Old Norse)loanwords enter the language, including such common words as sister, wish, skin, and die. 1000 Approximate date of the only surviving manuscript of the Old English epic poem Beowulf, composed by an anonymous poet between the 8th century and the early 11th century. Early 11th century Danes attack England, and the English king (Ethelred the Unready) escapes to Normandy. The Battle of Maldon becomes the subject of one of the few surviving poems in Old English. The Danish king (Canute) rules over England and encourages the growth of Anglo-Saxon culture and literature. Mid 11th century Edward the Confessor, King of England who was raised in Normandy, names William, Duke of Normandy, as his heir. 1066 The Norman Invasion: King Harold is killed at the Battle of Hastings, and William of Normandy is crowned King of England. Over succeeding decades, Norman French becomes the language of the courts and of the upper classes; English remains the language of the majority. Latin is used in churches and schools. For the next century, English, for all practical purposes, is no longer a written language.

1100-1500: The Middle English Period The Middle English period saw the breakdown of the inflectional system of Old English and the expansion of vocabulary with many borrowings from French and Latin. 1150 Approximate date of the earliest surviving texts in Middle English.

1171 Henry II declares himself overlord of Ireland, introducing Norman French and English to the country. About this time the University of Oxford is founded. 1204 King John loses control of the Duchy of Normandy and other French lands; England is now the only home of the Norman French/English. 1209 The University of Cambridge is formed by scholars from Oxford.

1215 King John signs the Magna Carta ("Great Charter"), a critical document in the long historical process leading to the rule of constitutional law in the English-speaking world. 1258 King Henry III is forced to accept the Provisions of Oxford, which establish a Privy Council to oversee the administration of the government. These documents, though annulled a few years later, are generally regarded as England's first written constitution.

Late 13th century Under Edward I, royal authority is consolidated in England and Wales. English becomes the dominant language of all classes. Mid to late 14th century The Hundred Years War between England and France leads to the loss of almost all of England's French possessions. The Black Death kills roughly one-third of England's population. Geoffrey Chaucer composes The Canterbury Tales in Middle English. English becomes the official language of the law courts and replaces Latin as the medium of instruction at most schools. John Wycliffe's English translation of the Latin Bible is published. The Great Vowel Shift begins, marking the loss of the so-called "pure" vowel sounds (which are still found in many continental languages) and the loss of the phonetic pairings of most long and short vowel sounds. 1362 The Statute of Pleading makes English the official language in England. Parliament is opened with its first speech delivered in English. 1399 At his coronation, King Henry IV becomes the first English monarch to deliver a speech in English. Late 15th century William Caxton brings to Westminster (from the Rhineland) the first printing press and publishes Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Literacy rates increase significantly, and printers begin to standardize English spelling. The monk Galfridus Grammaticus (also known as Geoffrey the Grammarian) publishes Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae, the first English-to-Latin wordbook.

Continued on page two

Key Events in the History of the English Language (page two) The Early Modern English Period By Richard Nordquist, About.com Guide See More About: english language Ads English Class in Torontowww.lsbf.ca/EnglishCourses for all levels. Improve your vocabulary and fluency! Facebook - Official Sitewww.Facebook.comKumonekta sa Kaibigan, Kapamilya at Kaklase. Gumawa ng Profile Ngayon!

Reach Cambridgewww.reachcambridge.comSummer school for teens in Cambridge, UK. Apply now & Save! More Grammar & Composition Ads English Grammar Exercises Key Words Study English Language English Pronunciation Language Grammar Ads english bible studywaynelampe.podbean.com/Daily Podcast's in Multi-Language Get the Podcast Today! Premier Business Collegewww.raffles-design-institute.com.ph24 months advanced diploma in Business with specialization (Continued from Page 1) 1500 to the Present: The Modern English Period Distinctions are commonly drawn between the Early Modern Period (1500-1800) and Late Modern English (1800 to the present). During the period of Modern English, British exploration, colonization, and overseas trade hastened the acquisition of loanwords from countless other languages and fostered the development of new varieties of English (World English), each with its own nuances of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Since the middle of the 20th century, the expansion of North American business and media around the world has led to the emergence of Global English as a lingua franca. Early 16th century The first English settlements are made in North America. William Tyndale's English translation of the Bible is published. Many Greek and Latin borrowings enter English. 1542 In his Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge, Andrew Boorde illustrates regionaldialects. 1549 The first version of the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England is published. 1553 Thomas Wilson publishes The Art of Rhetorique, one of the first works on logic and rhetoric in English. 1577 Henry Peacham publishes The Garden of Eloquence, a treatise on rhetoric.

1586 The

first grammar of

English--William

Bullokar's Pamphlet

for

Grammar--is

published.

1588 Elizabeth I begins her 45-year reign as queen of England. The British defeat the Spanish Armada, boosting national pride and enhancing the legend of Queen Elizabeth. 1589 The Art of English Shakespeare Poesie (attributed writes to George the Puttenham) majority of is published. his plays.

1590-1611 William

his Sonnets and

1600 The East India Company is chartered to promote trade with Asia, eventually leading to the establishment of the British Raj in India. 1603 Queen Elizabeth dies and James I (James VI of Scotland) accedes to the throne. 1604 Robert Cawdrey's Table Alphabeticall, the first English dictionary, is published. (See The Earliest English Dictionaries.) 1607 The first permanent English settlement in America is established at Jamestown, Virginia. 1611 The Authorized Version of the English Bible (the "King James" Bible) is published, greatly influencing the development of the written language. 1619 The 1622 Weekly 1623 The first News, First African the Folio slaves first edition in English of North America is arrive published plays is in in Virginia. London. published.

newspaper, Shakespeare's

1642 Civil War breaks out in England after King Charles I attempts to arrest his parliamentary critics. The war leads to the execution of Charles I, the dissolution of parliament, and the replacement of the English monarchy with a Protectorate (165359) under Oliver Cromwell's rule. 1660 The monarchy is restored; Charles II is proclaimed king.

1662 The Royal Society of London appoints a committee to consider ways of "improving" English as a language of science. 1666 The Great Fire of London destroys most of the City of London inside the old Roman City Wall. 1667 John Milton publishes his epic poem Paradise Lost.

1670 The Hudson's Bay Company is chartered for promoting trade and settlement in Canada.

1688 Aphra Behn, the first woman novelist in England, publishes Oroonoko, or the History of the Royal Slave. 1697 In his Essay Upon Projects, Daniel Defoe calls for the creation of an Academy of 36 "gentlemen" to dictate English usage. 1702 The Daily Courant, the first regular daily newspaper in English, is published in London. 1707 The Act of Union unites the Parliaments of England and Scotland, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain. 1709 The first Copyright Act is enacted in England.

1712 Anglo-Irish satirist and cleric Jonathan Swift proposes the creation of an English Academy to regulate English usage and "ascertain" the language. 1719 Daniel Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe, considered by some to be the first modern English novel. 1721 Nathaniel Bailey publishes his Universal Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, a pioneer study in English lexicography: the first to feature current usage, etymology,syllabification, clarifying quotations, illustrations, and indications of pronunciation. 1715 Elisabeth 1755 Samuel Elstob publishes his the first grammar of of the Old English English. Language.

Johnson publishes

two-volume Dictionary

1760-1795 This period marks the rise of the English grammarians (Joseph Priestly, Robert Lowth, James Buchanan, John Ash, Thomas Sheridan, George Campbell, William Ward, and Lindley Murray), whose rule books, primarily based on prescriptive notions of grammar, become increasingly popular. See What Is Grammar? 1762 Robert Lowth publishes his Short Introduction to English Grammar.

1776 The Declaration of Independence is signed, and the American War of Independence begins, leading to the creation of the United States of America, the first country outside the British Isles with English as its principal language. 1776 George 1783 Noah Campbell publishes The Philosophy of Spelling Rhetoric. Book.

Webster publishes

his American

1785 The Daily Universal Register (renamed The Times in 1788) begins publication in London. 1788 The English first settle in Australia, near present-day Sydney.

1789 Noah Webster publishes Dissertations on the English Language, which advocates anAmerican standard of usage. 1791 The Observer, the oldest national Sunday newspaper in Britain, begins publication.

Concluded on page three (Continued from Page 2) Early 19th century Grimm's Law (discovered by Friedrich von Schlegel and Rasmus Rask, later elaborated by Jacob Grimm) identifies relationships between certain consonants in Germanic languages (including English) and their originals in Indo-European. The formulation of Grimm's Law marks a major advance in the development of linguistics as a scholarly field of study. 1803 The Act of Union incorporates Ireland into Britain, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 1806 The 1810 William 1816 John British occupy New Cape and Colony Grammar first in of the South English Africa. Language.

Hazlitt publishes A Pickering

Improved the

compiles

dictionary

ofAmericanisms.

1828 Noah Webster publishes his American Dictionary of the English Language. Richard Whateley publishes Elements of Rhetoric. 1840 The 1842 The native Maori London in New Zealand cede sovereignty Society to is the British. founded.

Philological

1844 The telegraph is invented by Samuel Morse, inaugurating the development of rapid communication, a major influence on the growth and spread of English. Mid 19th century A standard variety of American English develops. English is established in Australia,South Africa, India, and other British colonial outposts. 1852 The first edition of Roget's Thesaurus is published.

1866 James Russell Lowell champions the use of American regionalisms, helping to end deference to the Received British Standard. Alexander Bain publishes English Composition and Rhetoric. The transatlantic telegraph cable is completed. 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone, thus modernizing private communication. 1879 James A.H. Murray begins editing the Philological Society's New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (later renamed the Oxford English Dictionary). 1884/1885 Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn introduces a colloquialprose style that significantly influences the writing of fiction in the U.S. (See Mark Twain's Colloquial Prose Style.) 1901 The Commonwealth of Australia is established as a dominion of the British Empire. 1906 Henry 1907 New and Zealand Francis is Fowler publish as the a first edition of of The the King's British English. Empire.

established

dominion

1919 H.L. Mencken publishes the first edition of The American Language, a pioneer study in the history of a major national version of English. 1920 The first American commercial radio station begins operating in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1921 Ireland achieves Home Rule, and Gaelic is made an official language in addition to English. 1922 The British Broadcasting Company (later renamed the British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC) is established. 1925 The New Yorker magazine is founded by Harold Ross and Jane Grant.

1925 George P. Krapp publishes his two-volume The English Language in America, the first comprehensive and scholarly treatment of the subject. 1926 Henry Fowler publishes the first edition of his Dictionary of Modern English Usage. 1927 The 1928 The 1930 British first "speaking Oxford linguist C.K. motion picture," The English Ogden Jazz Singer, is released. published. English.

Dictionary is introduces Basic

1936 The 1939 World

first

television

service War

is

established II

by

the

BBC. begins.

1945 World War II ends. The Allied victory contributes to the growth of English as a lingua franca. 1946 The Philippines gains its independence from the U.S.

1947 India is freed from British control and divided into Pakistan and India. The constitution provides that English remain the official language for 15 years. New Zealand gains its independence from the U.K. and joins the Commonwealth. 1949 Hans Kurath publishes A Word Geography of the Eastern United States, a landmark in the scientific study of American regionalisms. 1950 Kenneth Burke publishes A Rhetoric of Motives.

1950s The number of speakers using English as a second language exceeds the number ofnative speakers. 1957 Noam Chomsky publishes Syntactic ofgenerative and transformational 1961 Webster's Third New Structures, a key document in the study grammar. published.

International

Dictionary is

1967 The Welsh Language Act gives the Welsh language equal validity with English in Wales, and Wales is no longer considered a part of England. Henry Kucera and Nelson Francis publishComputational Analysis of Present-Day American English, a landmark in modern corpus linguistics. 1969 Canada officially becomes bilingual (French and English). The first major English dictionary to use corpus linguistics--The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language--is published. 1972 A Grammar of Contemporary English (by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik) is published. The first call on a personal cell phone is made. 1978 The 1981 The 1985 A first Comprehensive Linguistic issue of of Atlas the the of journal World English Language is England is Englishes is published by published. published. Longman.

Grammar

1988 The Internet (under development for more than 20 years) is opened to commercial interests. 1989 The second edition of The Oxford English Dictionary is published.

1993 Mosaic, the web browser credited with popularizing the World Wide Web, is released. (Netscape Navigator becomes available in 1994, Yahoo! in 1995, and Google in 1998.) 1994 Text 1995 David messaging is Crystal introduced, and the first modern of the blogs go online. Language.

publishes The

Cambridge

Encyclopedia

English

1997 The first social networking site (SixDegrees.com) is launched. (Friendster is introduced in 2002, and both MySpace and Facebook begin operating in 2004.) 2000 The Oxford English Dictionary Online (OED Online) is made available to subscribers. 2002 Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum publish The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Tom McArthur publishes The Oxford Guide to World English. 2006 Twitter, a social networking and microblogging service, is created by Jack Dorsey. 2009 The two-volume Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary is published by Oxford University Press. 2012 The fifth volume (SI-Z) of the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE ) is published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Bibliography Algeo, John. The Origins and Development of the English Language, 6th edition. Wadsworth, 2009.

Baugh, Albert C., and Thomas Cable. A History of the English Language, 5th edition. Prentice Hall, 2001.

Bragg, Melvyn. The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language. Hodder & Stoughton, 2003.

Crystal, David. The English Language. Penguin, 2002.

Gooden, Philip. The Story of English: How the English Language Conquered the World. Quercus, 2009.

Hogg, Richard M., and David Dennison, editors. A History of the English Language. Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Lerer, Seth. Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language. Columbia University Press, 2007.

McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford University Press, 1992.

Millward, C.M., and Mary Hayes. A Biography of the English Language, 3rd ed. Wadsworth, 2011.

Mugglestone, Linda. The Oxford History of English. Oxford University Press, 2006.

Nist, John. A Structural History of English. St. Martin's Press, 1966.

http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/standengterm.htm Definition:

A controversial term for a form of the English language that is written and spoken by educated users. Abbreviation: SE. See also: What Is Standard English? Standard American English Standard British English Nonstandard English Spoken English Usage World English Written English Examples and Observations: "We need to know Standard English, but we need to know it critically, analytically, and in the context of language history. We also need to understand the regularity of nonstandard variants. If we approach good and bad grammar in this way, the study oflanguage will be a liberating factor--not merely freeing learners from socially stigmatized usage by replacing that usage with new linguistic manners, but educating people in what language and linguistic manners are all about." (Edwin L. Battistella, Bad Language: Are Some Words Better Than Others? Oxford Univ. Press, 2005)

"[T]he conventions of linguistic usage are tacit. The rules of standard English are not legislated by a tribunal but emerge as an implicit consensus within a virtual community of writers, readers, and editors. That consensus can change over time in a process as unplanned and uncontrollable as the vagaries of fashion. No official ever decided that respectable men and women were permitted to doff their hats and gloves in the 1960s or to get pierced and tattooed in the 1990snor could any authority with powers short of Mao Zedong have stopped these changes. In a similar manner, centuries of respectable writers have shrugged off long-forgotten edicts by self-appointed guardians of the language, from Jonathan Swifts denunciation of banter, mob, and sham to Strunk and Whites disparaging of to personalize, to contact, and six people (as opposed to six persons)." (Steven Pinker, "False Fronts in the Language Wars." Slate, May 31, 2012)

"[Standard English is that] particular variety of English which is regarded by educated people as appropriate for most types of public discourse, including most broadcasting, almost all publication, and virtually all conversationwith anyone other than intimates. . . . . "Standard English is not entirely uniform around the globe: for example, American users of standard English say first floor and I've just gotten a letter and write center and color, while British users say ground floor and I've just got a letter and write centre andcolour. But these regional differences are few in comparison with the very high degree of agreement about which forms should count as standard. Nevertheless, standard English, like all living languages, changes over time. . . . "It is important to realize that standard English is in no way intrinsically superior to any other variety of English: in particular, it is not 'more logical,' 'more grammatical,' or 'more expressive.' It is, at bottom, a convenience: the use of a single agreed standard form, learned by speakers everywhere, minimizes uncertainty, confusion, misunderstanding and communicative difficulty generally." (R.L. Trask, Dictionary of English Grammar. Penguin, 2000)

Origins of Standard English "By far the most influential factor in the rise of Standard English was the importance of London as the capital of England. . . . London English took as well as gave. It began as a Southern and ended as a Midland dialect. By the 15th century there had come to prevail in the East Midlands a fairly uniform dialect, and the language of London agrees in all important respects with it. We can hardly doubt that the importance of the eastern counties . . . is largely responsible for this change. Even such Northern characteristics as are found in the standard speech seem to have entered by way of these counties. The history of Standard English is almost a history of London English." (Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable, A History of the English Language, 5th ed. Prentice Hall, 2002)

"Half-way through the 17th century, the lexicographer Thomas Blount declares that the 'Babel' of the vernacular made England a 'self-stranger' nation--one growing alien to itself through this diversity of available forms. He dedicates his dictionary of 1656 to the cause of having 'English Englished.' Arguably, in this context it is not the rise of a standard variety of language, but a new awareness of dialect and variability of discourse--the 'self-stranger' English of the Renaissance--that best defines the linguistic

culture of early modern England." (Paula Blank, "The Babel of Renaissance English." The Oxford History of English, ed. by Lynda Mugglestone. Oxford Univ. Press, 2006)

"[T]here is no such thing (at present) as a Standard English which is not British or American or Australian, etc. There is no International Standard (yet), in the sense that publishers cannot currently aim at a standard which is not locally bound." (Gunnel Melchers and Philip Shaw, World Englishes: An Introduction. Arnold, 2003)

http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/stamenglishterm.htm Standard American English (SAE) By Richard Nordquist, About.com Guide See More About: english language

Do You Speak American?(PBS, 2005) Ads English Class in Torontowww.lsbf.ca/EnglishCourses for all levels. Improve your vocabulary and fluency! Duke Young Writers' Campwww.learnmore.duke.edu/youth/A Writer's Retreat! Enroll today General Englishwww.etc.ac.nzStudy English in New Zealand Join our courses! Ads Discount Proofreadingcopyproofed.comCopy Proofed Cheap rates, quick turnaround Free English Practicewww.alison.com/English-PracticeVideo/Audio English Practice Course Completely Free -Start Course Now !

Definition: The variety of the English language that is generally used in professional writing in the United States and taught in American schools. Also known as General American. See also: American English African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) American Spelling Nonstandard English Prescriptive Grammar Standard British English Standard English What Is Standard English? Examples and Observations: "The notion of a widespread, normative variety, or 'standard dialect,' is an important one, but it is not always easy to define in a precise way, especially for English. . . . "In the United States, we don't have a language academy, but we have many grammar and usage books that people turn to for the determination of standard forms. The key words in this definition are 'prescribed' and 'authority' so that the responsibility of determining standard forms is largely out of the hands of most speakers of the language. . . . "If we took a sample of everyday conversational speech, we would find that there are virtually no speakers who consistently speak formal standard English as prescribed in the grammar books. In fact, it is not unusual for the same person who prescribes a formal standard English form to violate standard usage in ordinary conversation." (Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling-Estes, American English: Dialects and Variation, 2nd ed. Blackwell, 2006)

"Standard American English usage is linguistic good manners, sensitively and accurately matched to context--to listeners or readers, to situation, and to purpose. But because ourlanguage is constantly changing, mastering its appropriate usage is not a one-time task like learning the multiplication tables.

Instead, we are constantly obliged to adjust, adapt, and revise what we have learned." (The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Columbia Univ. Press, 1993)

"Edited American English is the version of our language that has come to be the standard for written public discourse--for newspapers and books and for most of the writing you do in school and on the job. . . . "Where did this description of Edited American English come from? It is the work through the years of many grammarians, many authors of textbooks and dictionaries, many editors who have taken it upon themselves to describe--and sometimes toprescribe--the version of English used by the influential writers and speakers of their day. Those writers and speakers don't say 'I don't have no money' and 'He don't like me' and 'I ain't going'--at least not in their public discourse. They say 'I don't have any money' and 'He doesn't like me' and 'I'm not going,' so those forms are the ones that get included in the grammar books and usage manuals as the standard." (Martha Kolln and Robert Funk, Understanding English Grammar. Allyn and Bacon, 1998) Also Known As: SAE, Edited American English, American Standard English, General American

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~weyrbrat/codeswitching.html

Codeswitching and Context Linguistics 314 Term Project December 9, 1996

Introduction

Since you are reading this document, you must have accessed it in one of two ways: you found the link here from my home page or you opened it directly from the address I posted on the Linguistics 314 confer. Already this means that some of you will be reading the words I type in different contexts. Those of you who came directly to this URL are perhaps picturing me as you know me from class. On the other hand, for those who came via my home page, my high school graduation photo is fresh in your mind, and you may even have paused to read about some of my other interests, so you have a slightly different image of my identity. Depending on how long this page exists, you may even be a complete stranger who found your way here by surfing, in which case the information presented on my home page may be all you know about me. This leads to a dilemma on my part: How do I present myself, if I cannot be certain of your perception of me? Do I launch into a scholarly lecture, appropriate for those who know me only in the context of the classroom? Do I continue in the informal tone established on my home page? Or do I take extra care to avoid or define any technical terminology, for those websurfers who may not have a background in linguistics? The situation becomes even more complex when I consider other possibilities. If you are one of my friends from Forever Knight fandom who knows me informally as Pod the NatPacker and views me in reference to FK activities, should I pepper my examples with French and Spanish, as is seen on the show? If you are a member of my Society for Creative Anachronism acting troupe who is accustomed to seeing me in Medieval garb, should I quote from the plays we have performed? If you are a fellow Due South fan who last saw me at the RCW 139 convention in Toronto and remembers me posing with the Riviera, should I bring up the subject of Canadianisms? Context can be a tricky business under normal circumstances; here on the Web, where there are few (if any) of the common cues, it is even more so. Codeswitching--changing from one language or lexicon to another--is highly context dependent. [For further discussion of the definitions and uses of codeswitching, see this page on codeswitching and interlanguage in bilingual development.] Codeswitching Codeswitching is generally defined as the phenomenon wherein a bi- or multilingual speaker shifts from one language to another in the course of a conversation. As with many definitions, however, there is considerable flexibility (or, depending on how you look at it, ambiguity). To begin with, how strict is the definition of "language"? Do dialects count? What about technical jargon? How much is a matter of style and presentation? Second, how extensive must the shift be to distinguish codeswitching from the closely related practice of borrowing? Does one foreign word suffice? Two? An entire phrase? [For information on this point, there is an interesting abstract about lone nouns.]

For a concrete example of codeswitching in action, I will use my household. All the members of my immediate family are native English speakers, but my mother is of Mexican descent and speaks Spanish fluently, and my father speaks adequate Spanish. While my brothers and I were growing up, we were constantly exposed to Spanish words and phrases in the course of everyday conversation. When one of the children dropped something, causing it to break or spill, and reported the event tearfully, our parents would prompt us not to say, "I dropped it." That heaps blame on the child, who is already upset. Instead, we were supposed to say, "Se cay." We could just as easily have said "it fell," the English translation, but using the Spanish gave it an extra shade of meaning--the knowledge that our parents did not blame us for the accident. When we were sitting down to supper, food that had just come off the stove could receive one of two warnings: the English-derived "hotsy totsy" ["in the potsy," if they wanted to go overboard], meaning it had a high temperature, or the Spanish-derived "pico pico," in case it was spicy. Now, "spicy" is a perfectly good word to differentiate the two ways a child could burn himself on his supper. However, if we ever ate spicy food, it was almost without exception a Mexican meal, and so the context made the Spanish more appropriate. [Ironically, I am typing this document using the "pico" text editor, which really messes with my mind.] When my mother is in the mood to refer to us by endearments, she will sometimes say that we are "My mijos." Mijo is a contraction of "mi hijo," which means "my son" or "my child." This does not make sense as a straight borrowing, because what she is really saying is the redundant "my my children," yet as a codeswitch it conjures up the feelings of the extremely close bonds of our Mexican extended family. She is not simply choosing a word, she is evoking a tradition. This should give you some idea of the reasons people might codeswitch. There are many others, including politeness, a need to convey precise information, humor, as a shortcut to lengthy explanations, and to establish solidarity. Context To switch or not to switch? As I pointed out in the introduction, if I wanted to target this document toward a particular--known--audience, I would use a characteristic style and vocabulary. I am currently using a format that I believe to be the most accessible to the widest possible variety of readers. Elsewhere on my home page I expect specific audiences, and so I alter my technique accordingly. The following is an excerpt that deals with language in a quite different way: She can speak any language. If it's foreign to Earth, it might take her a few seconds to locate and learn it. To contact her, just talk into the air. She cannot communicate where she has no speakers (this includes telepathy), and a person would need to stand in front of one of her cameras to communicate using sign

language of any form--and would have to be in the Imaging Chamber or holding a handlink to receive a nonverbal response. She can change her voice, if she wishes, though she's rather vain and so far has only done this to emulate Tron. [Source: "NatPackers' Guide to the Universe"] As you can see, if you are not a member of the target audience, some of the vocabulary might as well be from a foreign language. [BTW, if you find that you are part of the target audience for the excerpt, feel free to drop me a line about it.] Taking speech out of its intended context can be mystifying, but it can also be entertaining. I demonstrated in class the practice of compiling quote lists, using Professor Lawler as a subject. If you would like to refresh your memory, you are welcome to visit the page of Professor Lawler's Pearls of Linguistic Wisdom. That list of quotes, of course, was collected in a classroom setting. If you are interested in seeing what kinds of lists can be generated in other situations, try my NatPack Page. I hope this has proved properly enlightening. And now, in conclusion... To Professor Lawler: Hasta luego. To all my classmates: Good luck on finals, and have a happy holiday break. To any anonymous websurfers: I hope you enjoyed this romp through the realm of linguistics. To FK fen: I've got places to go, people to dissect... To the Bedlam Players: My boy, how do you think I came to be king? To DueSers: Thank you kindly!

http://missindependentmind.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-take-on-konyo-talk.html My Take on "Konyo Talk" There is always this "mentality" that people who use the english and tagalog language interchangeably is "konyo." I am, of course, referring to the infamous "make tusok-tusok the fishball" talk. Not, of course, referring to just one school, or one bunch of people-- I am referring to the whole practice in general.

I, for one, do not agree with it. Why? Well, the use of tag-lish or tagalog-english interchangeably is less than a reflection of financial stature and more of a: (1) indication of how the human brain functions and (2) a manifestation of where the Philippines is in terms of language education.

First let's tackle Konyo. What is "Konyo"? Coo is, of course, the spanish word for cunt this is no where near the meaning of the colloquial filipino use for konyo. Konyo, in the Philippines, refers to people in the middle to upper class. These are people who talk, act, behave in a certain way-- that resembles "good living." As compared to the majority of the people in poverty in this country. In short, the word Konyo is used to describe people who are well-off/rich (or at least in appearances). Kindly note the spelling and definition difference before we proceed. ;-) (hahaha) Now, there is this popular interrelation between taglish speaking people and konyopeople. Where most people assume that just because people like using english and tagalog words in the same sentence and in certain patterns that they are alreadykonyo.

I guess this assumption is popular because usually people who are able to speak both english and tagalog are people who have been educated in a english-speaking schools (that also uses tagalog/filipino language interchangeably). English speaking schools are usually private-schools and popular through out the middle class to upper middle class society. Hence, I guess, the somewhat "validity" of the interrelation between "konyo" and "taglish"

But

then,

that's

where

think,

the

interrelation

is

flawed.

Why?

Well, basically because the use of two or more different languages at the same time is less than a reflection of financial stature but more of a reflection of how the human brain works. See, taglish or the use of tagalog and english words in one sentence is actually the brain's solution to expression. It reflects the inability or challenged-ability to express oneself's via the use of JUST one language hence the use of another or two or more languages at the same time.

See, our human feelings and thoughts are vague, they are abstract-- language is a tool that we use in order to "express" and "communicate" these vague "emotions" and abstract "thoughts"

But then, the question is-- how do we acquire "language." Language is imparted to us via education and social interaction. We learn language, accent, and verbal expressions through our homes, our social interactions, and the schools we've been enrolled to. SEE, the key thing is to realize that language is not just learned in SCHOOL-- SOCIAL interaction is a BIG part of how we learn language.

Imagine being educated in english but raised in a tagalog household; or being raised in a tagalog household and educated with english only by our teen years. Usually, in the philippine setting: english is a strong second language and an increasingly popular first-language but filipino dialects are all over the place. Hence, imagine being a child who is taught to speak english but external influences still adhere to filipino dialects.

Language is not solely confined to book-bound education. Language is also instinctively picked up. This means regardless if it's just hearing the maid talking to the driver or watching TV or even as simple as listening over a Filipino dialect conversation-- we're gonna pick it up. That's how the brain learns, that's how we're built.

Hence I guess this is the great mistake most people make-- to impart a language to their kids that they themselves or their environment have yet to master. Thus producing kids who are language-confused.

I have nothing against people who speak this way-- I know that it's just their way of "expressing" themselves and generally speaking -- it's not their fault. What they do is the just a reflection of the society that condone this type of language use and education.

This is also why I do not find teaching Filipino kids that live and are being raised in the Philippines to speak english as their first language an admirable practice. Because like it or not, kids will pick up Filipino. Just bringing in a nanny from the province is enough influence for them to mimic the language. Hence why not just teach it to them PROPERLY and in effect raise kids who have high-regard for both languages. Acknowledging English as the universal language being practiced by globally competitive people BUT still recognizing the value of the filipino language. The Language which our forefathers spoke, the language that most people in the Philippines speak, and the language that our race built.

Now, unless you're in a foreign country that mainly uses english-- then so be it but then, if you're in the Philippines and live amongst Filipinos, then just self-reflect on what it means for your kid to speak a foreign language first and only be acquainted with a filipino dialect second. But then again, who am I to question how parents bring up their kids. Like everything else in life, language is imparted/influenced but how we use it in our day to day lives is no less than a choice. We are not confined to the flawed practice that society (not saying just parents) condones-- at the end of the day it's our choice.

Hence this is why I find it admirable when people talk to me in straight english or straight Filipino. I find it admirable because I know that they are in the right mind-set in terms of language use. More so the good use of language and the high-respect of it reflect a type of eloquence that supersede any financial

stature. It reflects good upbringing and is reflective of the language-respecting education they could have had.

This is why I find it humorous to interact with people who condones and practices this Konyo talk. It sound funny and also it is a funny social phenomenon. It reflects the filipino society, how we adore globalization but at the same time we're confined to the influences and roots of our being Filipino.

I also find it funny when I get to talk to kids who have no clear direction in the type of language they use to express. Kids are, after all, a reflection of their parents. If a kid talks to you in a "tusok-tusok the fish ball" way, then just immediately look at their parents not to poke blame but rather to just try and make sense of the funny phenomenon.

This same thinking will also explain why kids who interchangeably use filipino/english have bad grammar. Introduce yourself to their parents and nannies and that's the need-to-know-explanation there.

Filipino is my first language, English came after. I was educated in english speaking schools-- 95% of the books I have read and 90% of the lesson taught to me were in english. Hence, my frequent use of the language. BUT, my parents and grandparents always taught me the language of the people, I am filipino hence I should speak Filipino, I am tagalog, hence I should speak this dialect with respect and reverence. If it's tagalog, just speak tagalog-- if it's english then go straight straight english.

The lines of english and tagalog in my life are pretty clear but even sometimes, I fall prey in expressing myself in both languages in the same sentence especially if there is no direct translation of the word i want to use in either tagalog or english.

It has always been my personal choice to use each language separately and I've admired people who choose the same. Why? simply because it's a reflection of the type of respect they have for each language.

This is also why I don't see the use of taglish as a social-status symbol. It just reflects a type of language confusion a person experiences when they are trying to express themselves. But then, again, it's really not their fault, that they're limited by language that way.

Ow

well.

;-)

Posted 23rd October 2011 by Miss Independent

http://xarmain.multiply.com/journal/item/32?&show_interstitial=1&u=%2Fjournal%2Fitem Konyotic Study: An In-depth Observation on the Conyo Language. Oct 20, '09 1:15 AM for everyone

Ahaha... I was scanning my mail and I saw this study I made back in College. I just want to share it and maybe leave it stuck here in my Multiply account. OBSERVATIONAL NOTE

Based on Milroy and Muyskens work, code- switching is the alternative use by bilinguals of two or more language in the same conversation. They use code- switching as a cover term under which different forms of bilingual behavior are subsumed. The term intra-sentential is used to refer to switching within the sentence. From this definition, the structure of the Konyo English language falls under the system code- switching. Another, it may appear heavily as an Enggalog language (English infused with Tagalog words) rather than as Taglish (Tagalog infused with English words). There is no definitive clarification why some people use this corrupted form of English, and why only a certain sector of society predominantly uses it. One plausible hypothesis has been proposed regarding the origins of Konyo English, namely, an attempt by younger members of the affluent and highly prestigious Creole caste (people of noticeable European / Caucasian descent) of Manila to assimilate or be accepted into mainstream Tagalog speaking society. Konyo English (as an Enggalog) has been analyzed to have primarily arisen as an attempt by English- dominant people of physically foreign looking physiognomy to assert their Filipino identity through the heavy use of Tagalog words. However, due to the general prestige and respect that the Creole caste and other elitists or rich students still commands, many other Manila- based Filipinos of non- Creole backgrounds have slowly begun to copy Konyo English, since it strangely connotes class. Usually these people are classmates or close friends of the originally rich core group of Konyo English. Konyo English is an English based pidgin, which uses an underlying English structure and draws from a Tagalog lexicon. Filipino English, which is primarily American English spoken with a slight Filipino accent and uses English words that have been indigenized for local Filipino use, is a largely middle class phenomenon and is used by the educated class. Taglish, on the other hand, is the pidgin that is essentially Tagalog but merely uses English nouns and verbs, yet

retains Tagalog grammatical function words for the most part, and is used by the broadest range of people (especially students) in the country. The issue here is that the kind of Konyo English existing today greatly affects the structure of the Filipino and English language system and the proficiency of many students who imitate this language without a clear understanding and apparent knowledge about the system and mechanism of the true Konyo English. As a result, many students have the problem in the proper usage of words especially verbs and pronoun in the sentence. For example: This example is taken from one college student in

Dude, narito na me now in our house. It is so traffic in Espana. (Rephrasing in Tagalog) Pare, narito na ko sa bahay namin. Napakatrapik sa Espana. (Translation in English) Dude, I am here now in our house. It is so traffic in Espana.

From this one example, we can see that the use of the pronoun me in the first sentence does not correspond to the use of the pronoun I in the third sentence. The pronoun in the first sentence functions as object of the sentence whereas the pronoun I in the third sentence functions in the subjunctive nominative case. If the student knows the difference in the grammatical systems of the two languages, he will not integrate the two systems in one sentence. HYPOTHETICAL NOTE

According to the study of Dr. Alfonso Santiago, both Filipino and English language system murdered when one language system integrates to another language system without the consideration of the systems features and own grammatical system. Between these two systems, much deterioration is in the English structure. The affixation system of the Filipino language remained firm and unshakable despite of the integration of the two systems.

In this sense, many students who do not have the knowledge in the language structure and system of English are engaged to use and imitate the Konyo language. They rampantly insert a single lexicon item from other language system in another language scheme without the consideration if the grammar and sentence structure is correct.

Other students fail in the proper usage of words in the sentence and in the structural constraints of the English language. Another, others do not care and do not give much emphasis whether the usage of word is right or wrong when they compose a sentence due to their exposure in this language system. As a result, many students failed in English competency. Because the society tolerates this informal form of language, students tend to use it and allow a Tagalog term or phrase to be used in English conversation. Another, the use of Konyo English does not help the students to study more the English language system and grammatical structure due to this phenomenon.

The effects of the usage of informal form of language in daily conversation greatly affect negatively the proficiency of the students in English language. One of the reasons why the country decline in the English proficiency is because of the integration of two different language systems in one language scheme.

INTRODUCTION

Based on the current records of the Department of Education to the proficiency in the English language of the students in National Capital Region, the level of the proficiency in the English language of the high school and college students decline. One of the reasons is the vogue use of Taglish (Tagalog infused with English words) and Enggalog (English system infused with Tagalog words) in the school even in television and other forms of media. Many Filipino students especially those who are studying in private exclusive schools in Metro Manila are elegantly and rampantly speaking one certain language, which seems informal in its structure yet accepted by the society. This language is commonly refers to the Konyo English language- an informal form of English language infused with Tagalog words that falls under code- switching of two languages. It is often refer to as Enggalog rather than Taglish. Other students adopted and imitated it without a clear and apparent understanding of the result when single lexical item from one language occurs into a structure from the other language or in the other way when the rules of two languages integrate to one system. Given this predicament among the Filipino students, research on the effects of Konyo English language to the proficiency of the students in English language is of crucial importance and has significance for educational study.

As one of most important dimension of Sociolinguistic and bilingual speech, Konyo language is a highly accepted and stigmatized form of daily conversation most commonly exists in high classes of society today. It would be of great value to clearly distinguish and identify the kind of language structure appears in that version of language and to know the effects of this language dilemma in the proficiency of the students in the English language. It is an important issue to take note that beside the students from exclusive schools and from high-class society today other Filipinos use this kind of language for the sociolinguistic purposes. For example, Dr. Alfonso Santiago in his interviews in the Philippine Normal University (PNU) discussed the formation of the variety of language happened here in the society. His emphasis was in the structure the language that he have heard from the group of the students in exclusive school:

Let us make pa-cute na lang. You make tawad naman o. Why are you ganyan, you dont make usap to me. Hey Dude, magstarbucks tayo. Let us go out na.

While it may be true that this kind of conversation are shaped by the social conditions beyond the classroom, equally important is the need to consider the effects of this language in the part of many students and Filipinos who do not know its impact on the proficiency of students in the English language. In that sense, teachers and students from different schools especially in the exclusive schools has a lot to benefit from research on the nature of Konyo English language and its effects to the students English proficiency.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The study of the variety of two or more languages used in the same conversation faces in two distinct but connected instructions: Structural and Sociolinguistic. The structural approach to Konyo English language is primarily concerned with its grammatical system. On the other hand, the sociolinguistic approach views the Konyo language as a phenomenon focusing its ground on factors such as social factors. The structural approach tries to provide the structural features and system of the Konyo language, whereas the sociolinguistic approach shows the reason why many Filipinos especially the students speak the way they do.

This paper first discusses the brief history of the formation of the Konyo language. It then presents the linguistic research related to the structure of the Konyo language in order to analyze and to identify its language system. The paper also provides the effects of the usage of the Konyo English language by many Filipinos especially those exclusive school students to their proficiency in the English language and the result of the said language to the system of English and Filipino languages. Finally, recommendations and reminders are discussed in order for the students to see apparently the importance of proper language use to them.

DECLINING ENGLISH PROFICIENCY IN THE PHILIPPINES

I've read several news articles that have reported on the alleged declining English proficiency of the younger generation of Filipinos (especially high school and college students). However, I have yet to read a scientific study or evidence on this allegation. Many private schools still conduct their classes in English, and there is no law (as far as I know) that requires ALL schools to teach in Filipino. Even in the University of the Philippines, the best that the administration can do is to "encourage" faculty members to teach in Filipino (and I was not convinced). English proficiency in public schools may be "declining", but I think this is due to a number of factors. For one, Taglish is fast becoming in vogue, even on TV and other forms of media. The other factor is the popularity of texting (or SMS on cellphones) among younger people in urban centers in the Philippines. There is also the factor of teachers' competence and English proficiency as well, apart from low salaries and inadequate incentives to improve their teaching skills in English. But I also think that there are many government officials and legislators in the Philippines who have come to realize that this "declining" English proficiency poses a real problem, especially for the country's global competitiveness. (A number of American and foreign companies have used the Philippines for their "backroom" customer service operations because of Filipinos' English proficiency -- e.g., America Online, Lucent Technologies, etc.). So, I think that the government is addressing this issue of English proficiency right now. I don't think that Philippine laws will be written in Tagalog/Filipino any time soon. Most non-Tagalog speaking legislators are more comfortable with English than Tagalog/Filipino. (Most law schools in the Philippines use English as medium of instruction, and the bar exams are also conducted in English.) Filipino as a national language is still "evolving" and is still in search of a form. As I've previously stated in past comments in this forum, Filipinos in general have a very pragmatic approach to language. Most Filipinos working in Japan, for example, acquired fluency in spoken Japanese even without formal language training. They did so through constant interaction with Japanese-speaking people. The same is true in other parts of the world where there are many Filipino overseas workers (Middle East and Europe). Filipinos are basically natural polyglots, exposed as they are to so many languages back home. Thus, learning a new language skill is not difficult, even simply for functional purposes.

I personally don't think that the English proficiency of Filipinos will totally be lost. Filipinos are still fond of American movies, TV shows, etc. And I am talking here of Filipinos who have at least a high school level of education. College education is still very much highly valued in the Philippines, and English is still very much accepted as an important tool for many students who want to land a decent job at home or abroad. Highly educated Filipinos who want to pursue graduate studies in the US (or other English/non-Englishspeaking countries) will continue to see the practical importance of English and other foreign languages as well for their personal and professional development, which could redound to the country's development as well. When they go back to the Philippines, they will be appointed or elected to top government posts. These highly educated Filipinos will of course continue to support the use of English in the country's educational system. They will encourage their children to learn English and send them to the best schools as well, preferably where English is used as medium of instruction. In fact, most urbanized families (and even some of those from the rural areas) want to send their children to the best schools (mostly in Manila), and prefer that they get quality English language education as well. (Some ultra-nationalist Filipinos would term this as the "colonial mentality" of the Filipino BURGIS (the Tagalog slang for bourgeois). But then again, who would not want quality education, burgis or not? One is not less patriotic because he or she is educated in English instruction.) Tagalog movies are usually B movies, with some exceptionally good ones that get exhibited once in a while. Cable television is also popular in Manila and other regions of the country, which show documentaries in English, and other foreign movies as well. Given all of the above, I think that English will still be a widely accepted tool of communication among Filipinos in the Philippines (and abroad), notwithstanding strong feelings of nationalism of some sectors in the country. Even leaders of rebel groups like the Abbu Sayyaf speak English well, their anti-Western and anti-American views aside. They know that English is a good tool for their international propaganda, especially in this age of globalization. I personally think that having both English and Filipino (mostly based in Tagalog) as official languages are good for the Philippines. There are particular areas of communication where one is better than the other. As far as poetry, songs, music, movies, and literary works are concerned -- and for foreigners to understand the soul of Filipino culture -- it is much better to use Filipino/Tagalog. For official communication and formal business transactions, English is still preferred by most Filipinos in general because it is efficient, precise, and practical. I would argue that Filipino/Tagalog is not as efficient in this sphere primarily because ALL laws and government transactions in the Philippines are written in English. If ever an attempt is made to translate ALL of these in Filipino/Tagalog, it will just be superfluous, for now. Sometimes the debate about national language in the Philippines is lost when some groups put too much emotion or "ideology" into the discussion. I personally think that the issue should be seen in its larger context, which includes economic, political, and cultural dimensions. As I've been saying before, a language does not exist in a vacuum.

Tags: language, konyo, conyo Prev: Rainbow Next: Fuck you 2009 in an Oily Film