World Englishes

A lingua franca

Bessemerbiblioteket

A lingua franca is a also called:

a bridge language

a common language

trade language

Modern day lingua francas are

English, Spanish, French and Arabian.

In ancient times the lingua franca was greek and latin.

Lingua francas are spoken by people with various native tongues or dialects.

80% of the English speakers of the World do not speak English as their first language.

"Treaty of Penn with Indians" by Benjamin West

The opposite is vernacular (inländskt) language.

English is the Vernacular language of Great Britain but the lingua franca in for instance

the Philippines and India.

English has become the Lingua franca of the World because of cultural, economic, religious, diplomatic and administrative reasons.

Fur traders in Canada in 1777

Colonialism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTduy7Qkvk8

What is colonialism?

Countries that had to search for natural resources, such as oil, timber, gold, jewels and human labour etc, in other countries became colonizers.

There was an idea of white western supremacy and a will to "save" the indigenous people by converting them to christianity and civilize them.

The greatest colonizers where Great Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

In 1800 the western powers claimed 55% of the earths surface.

In 1878 they claimed 67% of the earths surface

In 1914 ca 85% of the earths surface

Combined, the western powers, had about 35% of the earths surface as their own lands.

Tactics of the colonizers

Enforcing new laws, language, culture and religion

Inflict self-loathing by slowly changing ideals and attitudes towards the indigenous culture and language.

Was Sweden a colonizer?

North America (Nya Sverige)

Carribean (Saint-Barthélemy and Guadaloupe)

Africa (Cabo Corso)

India (Porto Novo)

Nordic Countries (Finland)

Commonwealth countries

Text

After the decolonsation most countries from the Brittish empire remained in the Commonwealth. Today the Commonwealth consists of 52 states.

Member states of the Commonwealth have no legal obligation to one another. They are united by language, history, culture and their shared values of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. These values are enshrined in the Commonwealth charter.

All Commonwealth countries speak their own dialect or variation of the english language, called Patois. That includes Pigdin, Creole, dialects and vernacular language.