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
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
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After the decolonsation most countries from the Brittish empire remained in the Commonwealth. Today the Commonwealth consists of 52 states.
All Commonwealth countries speak their own dialect or variation of the english language, called Patois. That includes Pigdin, Creole, dialects and vernacular language.
"Panglish" = the language of the future?
Pan meaning "Everything", a greek derivative
Singlish
Lay leo
Orling tsu
Gaument
To search for information about countries
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