ENG501 Final Term Subjective Questions and Answers

Q. Varieties of English in South Asia Bangladeshi English Indian English Nepali English Pakistani English Sri Lankan English Q. Spread of English in South Asia? The worldwide spread of English is an unprecedented phenomenon for which we do not find any example in human history. English was brought to the subcontinent in the early seventeenth century by British colonialism. Today, it is spoken as a second language by 3 percent of the population of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. In numerical terms, we can safely say that there are approximately 33 million English speaking people. South Asian English is sometimes called ‘Indian English’ as British India included most of the region, but today, the varieties of English are usually divided according to the modern states. In India, there are 25 million users of English, even more than Australia. There are intra-national and intra-regional role of ‘link’ language among people of diverse linguistic backgrounds. After so many years of independence, the countries of South Asia still use English to varying degrees in the domains of government administration, law, the military, higher education, commerce, the media, and the arts. In Pakistan, English has the status of an official language alongside the national language, Urdu. In Sri Lanka, there are efforts to ‘peoplize’ English. In Bangladesh, despite strong Bangla movement, English enjoys importance. In South Asian countries, it plays the role of the international medium for communication with the global community of nations. Q. Features of South Asian English Indian English It has words of Indian vernaculars that have made their way into the English language. Examples include jungle, tank, bungalow, shampoo, verandah. It has political, sociological, and administrative terms of modern India: dharna, hartal, eveteasing, votebank, swdeshi, tiffin, hillstation, gymkhana. We need to notice its resemblance with Pakistani English. Vocabulary Our company lays great stress on technical training and knowledge ‘upgradation’. The Prime Minister greeted the presspersons with a ‘namaskar’ and a broad smile. I read the newspaper ‘matrimonials’ on Sundays, especially the ‘English-knowing’ intelligentsia. Spelling and Pronunciation Most Indian languages, unlike English, have a nearly phonetic spelling, so the spelling of a word is a highly reliable guide to its pronunciation. The word ‘of’ is usually pronounced with a /f/ instead of a /v/ as in most other accents. Pronunciation of <house> as [hauz] is prevalent for both noun and verb instead of [haus] as noun and [hauz] as verb. Q. Name 5 counties where Eng. Is spoken as 1st language? USA, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, several Caribbean countries. Q. What was swift’s proposal? By the beginning of the eighteenth century, grounds had been prepared and time was ripe for an authoritative plan for an academy. With the example of Richelieu and the French Academy, doubtless in his mind, Swift addressed a letter in 1712 to the earl of Oxford, Lord Treasurer of England. It was published under the title A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue. After the usual formalities, he then launches an attack against the innovations he had objected to in his paper, the Tatler, two years before. The remedy he offered was that a free sensible choice should be made of such persons, as are generally allowed to be best qualified for such a work, without any regard to quality, party, or profession. … ‘These, to a certain number at least, should assemble at some appointed time and place, and fix on rules, by which they design to proceed. What methods they will take, is not for me to prescribe.’ The work of this group, as he conceives it, is described in the following terms: ‘The persons who are to undertake this work will have the example of the French before them to imitate, where these have proceeded right, and to avoid their mistakes.’ He further added: ‘… Besides the grammar-part, wherein we are allowed to be very defective, they will observe many gross improprieties, which, however authorized by practice, and grown familiar, ought to be discarded. They will find many words that deserve to be utterly thrown out of our language, many more to be corrected, and perhaps not a few long since antiquated, which ought to be restored on account of their energy and sound.’ The publication of Swift’s Proposal marks the culmination of the movement for an English Academy. Swift’s proposal was objected and opposed by several people, mainly on political grounds. Swift’s proposal was not followed up properly and no serious effort was made to accomplish the purpose. Q. Progressive passive?

completed act. The construction the man is on laughing was capable also of apassive significance under certain circumstances. Thus, the house is on building cansuggest only that the house is in process of construction. This Q. Standardization of Spelling & Changes in Pronunciation in 19th There are a few differences between Addison’s punctuation and what would be considered correct today. For example, the use of capital letters and the apostrophe in the plural Opera’s. So, the so-called greengrocer’s apostrophe’ in plurals such as potato’s and tomato’sis a recent innovation - consequence of declining educational standards. Addison can be taken as an example of good style in the 18th century. His spelling is almost identical with ours. There are minor differences like carry’d and publick, but essentially the system of orthography is the one we use now. In Middle English and Early Modern English, there had been no standard spelling. However, it is varied from writer to writer and even within the work of one writer. Even proper names were not fixed, for example Shakespeare, in the three signatures uses two different spellings (ShakspereandShakspeare). Other variants: Shagspere, Shackespereand Shakespeare. A powerful force for standardization is the introduction of printing. By the middle of the 16th century, there was still no standard system but quite a number of widely accepted conventions. By the end of the early modern period, the spelling had become standardized in printed books’ though there is variation in people’s private writings. Q. Pronunciation One result of these inconsistencies is the prevalence of spelling pronunciations that have happened with universal education plus the wide dissemination of new words from books in printed form and this results in never heard/pronounced words in the home environment. Schedule began with /s-/, and was commonly spelt sedule or cedul; the spelling with sch dates from the mid-seventeenth century and has led to the presentpronunciations, /∫-/ and /sk-/. Q. Late Modern Period Perhaps the most important change has been the disappearance of /r/ before consonants and before a pause. Formerly, the /r/ was always pronounced in words like barn and person and father. Today, in England, /r/ is never pronounced in words like barn and personbut it is pronounced in words like father only if it occurs before a vowel (‘father and mother’).