The spread of English since the late 16th century

Verze z 7. 4. 2015, 20:50, kterou vytvořil Magdalena.Cislerova (diskuse | příspěvky) (Založena nová stránka s textem „==5. Characterize the spread of English in North America and Australia with regard to the dialectal and social status of the immigrants.<ref>GRAMLEY STEPHA…“)
(rozdíl) ← Starší verze | zobrazit aktuální verzi (rozdíl) | Novější verze → (rozdíl)

5. Characterize the spread of English in North America and Australia with regard to the dialectal and social status of the immigrants.[1]

  • turbulent situation in 17th century England – suppression of religious dissenters → immigration
    • up to the Civil War: new middle class, better educated than average, familiar with the emerging standard
    • with the outbreak of the Civil War: poorer, less well educated people, uprooted from rural life, became part of the urban proletarian class = less affected by the written standard, but giving up their regional varieties in favour of the new spoken urban varieties (esp. London, to become GenE)
  • North America
    • early settlers were the better-educated separatists and Puritans that settled in New England, and the genteel classes that were to become planters of Virginia and the Carolinas
    • new waves of immigrants: from London, the Home Counties, the North of England, Scotland, Ulster = largely speakers of non-standard general English
  • Australia
    • officers in charge of the administration – closer to StE
    • transported prisoners – lower classes, non-standard English
  • the contact between the various dialects, the different environment, and different native languages English came into contact with caused changes to the language → new local standards developed and spread across the territory (North America, Australia, ...)

References

  1. GRAMLEY STEPHAN. The History of English: An Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2012, xxv, p. 164-165.