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PhiN 32/2005:
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Eric A. Anchimbe (Yaounde/Cameroon)
The World Englishes in the American Tongue*
The World Englishes in the American Tongue
This paper discusses the place and impact of America (its English and culture) in the spread and use of the English language in the present. World War II and its aftermath projected America to the limelight as a political, economic, commercial, and technological power. This era also saw the further transformation of English (after the colonial expansion of Britain) from a reserve of the British Isles and their Queen to a code of international linguistic transaction. Today, English is not just spreading across the world but is also adopting a predominantly American touch, given the prestige of the American lifestyle and pop culture. This paper therefore observes that in a foreseeable future the World Englishes will gradually subordinate their heterogeneous identities into the sweeping current of the American variety of English. The facts in the paper are supported by a questionnaire administered in Yaounde, Cameroon on the choice of English and the exposure to foreign influence through the multimedia audiovisual network. This survey, which covered youths, adults and people of all influential walks of life, was quite revealing of the linguistic tastes and preferences of present-day society. It showed that the presence of the American tongue and voice (VOA, CNN, MTV, Peace Corps, etc.) in many situations of daily life creates a cultural presence that is difficult to resist.
Introduction
Globalisation and its concerns have become accepted as the central object of the world agenda, irrespective of whatever advantages and disadvantages that may accrue from it. This general acceptance is in some degree related to the spread of English as a medium of worldwide linguistic interaction, whose intra and international functions keep increasing everyday. In the conclusion of a survey of the role and vitality of English in twenty countries, Fishman (1996: 628) upholds that
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the world of large scale commerce, industry, technology, and banking, like the world of certain human sciences and professions, is an international world and it is linguistically dominated by English almost everywhere, irrespective of how well established and well-protected local cultures, languages and identities may otherwise be.
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The expansion of English into a world language with varied regional and national tongues takes precedence to none and leaves us with no genuine parameters for projecting what may happen to it in the future. Whether English would become more widely used around the world or would reach a peak in its spread and then fall into relapse is at the moment difficult to predict. Two events are accountable for this spread: the colonial expansion of Britain and the international presence of the U.S.A since World War I. This dual legacy, historical and contemporary, indicates how, as is the case today, English is no longer the exclusive property of the Queen (the Queen's language) or the British Isles but rather a no-man's-language in the world of trade, diplomacy, technology, education and law. The historical role played by Britain in this spread is, according Graddol (1997) gradually fading beyond the threshold of modern times into the shackles of a forgotten golden past. The Second World War was a determinant factor in passing the baton to the US, for not only did it bring the US to the limelight as a dominant world power, it also annihilated prospects of German becoming the lingua franca of the world. The stakes were quite high both for the economic and linguistic future, not only of Europe but the entire world. Eco (1995: 331) sums it up thus:
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Had Hitler won WWII and had the USA been reduced to a confederation of banana republics, we would probably today use German as a universal vehicular language and Japanese electronic firms would advertise their products in Hong Kong airport duty-free shops (Zollfreie Waren1) in German.
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This scheme was thwarted by the decisive appearance of US troops on the battlefield after 1941, which immediately turned the hitherto disastrous engagement for the Allied forces into series of victories. America’s ingenuity and human resource facilities then paved the way for its diplomatic, technological and economic dominance but above all laid a foundation for it to dictate a model for the English language. Graddol (1997: 7), cognisant of this turning point, affirms that "in the aftermath of World War II, the US became a global economic and cultural presence, making American English the dominant world variety". Having since then expanded its role as the world's police and keeper of the United Nations, the US presence is not simply "cultural" but also diplomatic and political. This presence is far-reaching in depth and extent, and it relies on English as a tool for dominating, assimilating or attracting those who do not have it as a first language and to some extent those who have it as first language (see figure 1).
This view lays the future of the English language on that of the US. It confirms the prophecy that "any substantial shift in the role of the US in the world is likely to have an impact on the use and attractiveness of the English Language amongst those for whom it is not a first language" (Graddol 1997: 9). Less positive prophecies like this one, come up because American English seems to be pervasively replacing other varieties of the language. The American tongue, as it is referred here, is eating, through various ways (some studied below), into the heterogeneous environment in which English exists as a first, second and foreign language. Mazrui and Mazrui (1996: 284) regard the Americanisation of a heterogeneous, English-linked world and its gradual transformation into a homogeneous (American) world culture as "Coca-Colonisation". Phillipson (1999) from a similar perspective calls it "MacDonalisation". Although the Coca-Cola and McDonalds are economic institutions, they are viewed and interpreted as powerful vehicles of American political, social and linguistic policies. Given these homogenising tendencies and the present Amero-democratisation of the (Arab) world and the Uncle Sam-isation of other resistant regions, the shape of things to come is most evident in the wildfire spread of English and the prestige-loaded American culture that accompanies these developments. This phenomenon is expressed in the American tongue with an American iconography. The questionnaire discussed below addresses the extent to which the English spoken by Cameroonians is affected by these tendencies and how that determines their identity and outlook.
World Englishes and Americanisation
The American War of Independence (1775–1783), which created the new federation of states that expanded to become the country we have today, sparked a series of reforms aimed at producing and consolidating a national identity. There was a conscious attempt at establishing a national language together with the newly acquired national feeling and identity. Even though attempts to stabilise English on the British Isles had been unsuccessful (since English adapts easily to contexts, users and circumstances), the minor variations witnessed in America were immediately looked upon as markers of the new American identity. In this way, American English spread very quickly and was generally accepted. It gave Americans a solid dimension to drift as far away as possible from the colonial grip of Britain. Noah Webster (1789 qtd Graddol 1997: 6) calls for the reformation of faults and wrong spellings as the initial point of such drifting away. To him, then,
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[t]he question now occurs, ought the Americans to retain these faults which produced innumerable inconveniences in the acquisition and use of the language, or ought they at once to reform these abuses and introduce an order, and regularity into the orthography of the American tongue? ... A capital advantage of this reform ... would be, that it would make a difference between the English orthography and the American ... a national language is a band of national union. ... let us seize the present moment, and establish a national language as well as a national government.
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Today, American English is quite distinct both in its spelling and pronunciation patterns. It is the vehicle of American way-of-life easily reached through films, radio broadcasts, music and so forth. Similar efforts are being made today in former British colonies such as Nigeria, India, Cameroon, etc. to consolidate the English varieties (New Englishes) that erupted after colonialism, but, as the questionnaire below bears out, none, as of now, have acquired the extensive stability enjoyed by American English.
With its 260 million inhabitants, America ranks as the world's third most populous country and has the highest number of native speakers of English. If numbers were the sole criterion, this would give it an advantage in dominating the world of English and to dominate the world with English. But we must equally ask ourselves why, with its billions of native speakers, Chinese has not ruled the world? Numbers are therefore not the only criterion for the spread of a language beyond its national borders. If the spread of English has been so decisive, it has been thanks to a number of historical events. The aftermath of World War II, with the extension of American strength in technology, politics and social culture, was quite determinant to what English is today. Both the victors and the vanquished of the war looked to it as guide and mentor2. The scope of English, American English, of course, was bound to increase given that at this time, as Steiner (1975: 469) observes,
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English acted as the vulgate of American power and of Anglo-American technology and finance… English and American-English seem to embody for men and women throughout the world – and particularly for the young – the 'feel' of hope, of material advance, of scientific and empirical procedures. The entire world-image of mass consumption of international exchange of the popular arts, of generational conflict, of technocracy, is permeated by American-English ...
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From simply a "vulgate", American English today is the trademark of Amero-democratisation and Amero-assimilation of the world through structures such as the fight against terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, the deposition of tyrannical regimes, the American English-based TOEFL, TEWL, GRE (which tend to be accepted worldwide) exams, and the diversity immigration visa lottery.
That said, the extensive propagation of American English has not been accepted in all areas. Much resentment has been expressed against the pervasive strategy of this Americanisation process. The London Observer Review (27 June 1976, qtd Giles and Coupland 1991: 100) in an article about the Australian Renaissance reveal that the
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Americanisation of the [English] language is much more significantly pervasive than the high incidence of skate-boards and road-side fast food parlours ... The American invasion of the Australian stomach was always on the cards. But the invasion of the language is less easy to laugh off ...
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For his part, Bamgbose (2001: 359) argues against an eventual Americanisation or homogenisation of English because, first, English, he claims, has "in-built mechanisms for adaptation and change", second, other languages for commerce and trade are rising to a status similar to that of English, and three, English no longer enjoys monopoly in media even on CNN, BBC and so forth. As will be seen below, responses to the questionnaire reveal varying degrees of acceptance of American English in Cameroon. The mechanisms of the spread and non-spread of American English are complex. They are complex because a language does not spread to other regions in isolation. It is vehiculated by many factors that facilitate its indigenisation in foreign areas. These include people who speak it, for instance, soldiers, educators, humanitarian volunteers (American Peace Corps); life patterns, for example, the cuisine embodied in the 'Australian stomach' quoted above or the Coca-Cola, burger and McDonalds; the arts (especially cinema and pop-culture). The in-built mechanisms referred to by Bamgbose (2001) tend to be accommodative enough even in the adoption of American speech forms in foreign contexts.
World Englishes and Global Realities
The first issue the questionnaire addressed was how much contact Cameroonian speakers of English (Outer Circle English, Kachru 19863) had with foreigners in general and Americans (Inner Circle English, Kachru 1986) in particular. The essence of this was to judge the extent to which the World Englishes come into contact with one another and the possibility of cross-linguistic and cross cultural influences. 92 % of the 100 respondents had at least come into contact with a foreigner – a significantly high percentage that raises chances for linguistic influences and changes cultural perception. The number of English speakers and range of its functions in the Outer Circle and the Expanding Circle increases every single day. In 1986, Kachru (1986) estimated there might be some 700 million speakers in these Circles, as opposed to 300 million for the Inner Circle. These statistics must have increased tremendously in the last decade and a half. The progress of the American economy, from which many people, especially those of the Outer Circle wish to benefit, its convivial pop culture and its explosive yet enticing cinema have also fuelled the unquenchable thirst or the "indecent passion" (Cooper 1985) for American English.
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Foreign versus Local Models of English
It is true that within linguistic debates, much attention is being paid to the New Englishes, their hybrid origins, lexical innovations and semantic concepts. However, many speakers of the New Englishes continue to rely on the norms of the native or older or the more established Englishes. The common belief that the foreign or native variety is more prestigious certainly accounts for this. According to Sey (1973), Bamgbose (1971), Passé (1947) and Llamzon (1969) those Ghanaians, Nigerians, Sri Lankans and the Filipinos respectively who would want to sound foreign (i.e. native English-speaking) are scorned and snubbed. Similarly, "Cameroonians who insist on sounding like Britons are ridiculed rather than admired" (Mbangwana 1987: 423). In spite of all these resentments, and as attested by responses to the questionnaire, present-day tendencies show a rapid drift towards the native varieties, especially American English. It is seemingly an international drift affecting a large set of countries. Bamgbose (2001) remarks on the degree to which Nigerian local FM radio announcers in Lagos and tele-evangelists carry on with their American accents and Americanisms, taking cues from their American models. The popularity, pride and prestige of the American tongue are achieved through its availability in the mass media worldwide. American culture and speech easily spread through – pop music, Hollywood cinema, cable television (CNN, MTV, MCM), Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts, American Peace Corps, and American Language Centres. These facilities are present in many countries of the world. With the degree of homogenisation involved in cultural contact and imitation, this paper presents the notion that most of the regional and national varieties of English (epitomes of the unity of English in diversity) would one day submerge their models into the sweeping current of the American tongue.
Politics and the World Englishes
The ongoing presence of Americans on foreign soil is a reality that can neither be denied nor contested. The political and military hegemony of America, which was reposted by Vietnam some decades ago, has resumed with a sophistication that is beyond any identifiable present-day resistance. Afghanistan, the trauma of the Red Army of Russia and the British forces during the reign of Queen Victoria, crumbled like a sand-dune edifice, while Iraq, home of the "beast of the desert" saw its own horror-face unmasked with less resistance than expected. The immediate outcome of this has been the creation of more American military bases worldwide and the deployment of American forces in conquered and allied or coalition territories. Hundreds and thousands of such forces are in Saudi Arabia, Japan, Qatar, Germany, South Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan and so forth. Besides simply carrying out military duties, these soldiers interact with inhabitants of these areas, creating an idiolectal contact situation that facilitates the further spread of American English.
Besides this political empire, we also have the philanthropic and educational presence. In the heart of Africa, Asia and Latin America, the American presence is felt physically through its multitude of Peace Corps volunteers for various humanitarian or philanthropic purposes. Cameroon, for instance, has a total of 120 resident (2003 facts) American Peace Corps Volunteers (see Cameroon Peace Corps office) who teach English, mathematics and the sciences in secondary and high schools, lead dairy and mixed farming projects, counsel local authorities on bee-keeping, animal rearing, pipe-borne water projects, agro-forestry, health care, HIV/AIDS prevention and so forth. On scenes of natural catastrophes, the American voice is among the first to be heard and felt. Proof to this presence is the extensive contact some of the Cameroonians who responded to this questionnaire have had with Americans. It was administered to people from a cross-section of the society. These included teachers, lecturers, students, journalists and businessmen. It sought to know the respondents' choices of television channels, the variety of English they speak or would like to speak and projections for the variety of English mostly likely to dominate the world in the future. Sample responses were provided from which respondents had to choose but they were also given the opportunity to propose other possible responses.
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Eligible respondents for the questionnaire were selected on basis of their contact with speakers of other languages or varieties of English. Question 2 therefore sought to know if the 100 respondents had met foreigners before. 92 % ticked yes, confirming they had met foreigners, while 8 % said no. Interestingly, 60 % of those (of 92 %) who said yes had met with Americans, 25 % with British and 15 % with French or Canadian or Turkish, etc. It therefore becomes difficult to escape the path of American English since its speakers are actually found in many parts of the world.
The Diversity Immigration Visa and the Impact of the Media
The American Diversity Immigration Visa scheme, which brings approximately 55.000 foreign nationals yearly to the US, is an absorptive policy that cements the American tongue worldwide. Billed as a dreamland for everybody, contemporary opinion shows that practically few people would turn down the chance of visiting or living in America. Barber (1996: 84) observes the cultural outcome of globalisation to be favourable to America and especially American English. He sums up the place of American English in the world as follows:
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The global culture speaks English or better American ... the Queen's English is a little more today than a high-falutin dialect used by advertises who want to reach affected high scale American consumers. American English has become the world's primary transitional language in culture and the arts as well as science, technology, commerce, transportation and banking ...
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Since the world is highly multilingual, many other languages will obviously be used for daily interaction. The thousands of indigenous languages in Africa will continue to serve as unchallengeable tools of phatic communication and ethnolinguistic identification but will hardly assume roles that are at the service of education, technology, administration, law, and trade. These roles are performed by the official languages among which, in the case of Africa, is English.
From another perspective, American English is heard in areas where national varieties or the official language of certain countries are not. For instance, the radio station, Voice of America, is received clearly and distinctly in most areas where even national radio signals emitted within the country are not received. So the "cock-crow" of VOA in the news slot Day Break Africa, for example, is heard across many African countries that are thousands of miles away from the borders of the US. The CNN also goes this far, is free on many satellite discs and cable networks and presents the world of information, trade, finance and sports from an overwhelmingly American perspective. The recent Afghan and Iraqi wars were viewed live through not only the Amero-democratization gas mask but also heard through the American tongue. The media is a powerful tool that eases homogenisation, creating not only "global teenagers" (Schwartz 1996: 120) in the way MTV is seemingly doing in Europe by recruiting young presenters with distinctive French, German, Italian, etc accents but with predominantly American behaviour (Graddol 1997: 49), but also a global citizen. The US through its open immigration schemes is also creating a global citizen seen in such phrases as Filipino-American, Chinese American, French American, and so forth.
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This influence is borne out in the results of the questionnaire administered in Cameroon in connection with this paper. For news and other current information, 64 % of the 100 respondents indicated they watch CNN, 20 % BBC, 10 % Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV)4 and 6 % Euronews. For those who had access to satellite images, they said CNN is always available as opposed to BBC for which additional payment is required. Furthermore, 92 % of those who indicated they watch the local CRTV were either those who do not have television sets at home but can watch CRTV in bars, with neighbours, etc. or those who cannot afford the cost of satellite images. So the availability of American English is made possible by a worldwide and less expensive media network.
Question 1.2 of the questionnaire sought to know which television channels respondents watched for music. 52 % indicated they watch MCM5 (a predominantly American-inclined pop-music channel), 31 % ticked Channel O and 16 % went in for CRTV. Just two respondents (1 %) acknowledged they watch Canal 2 (a now defunct local music channel which broadcast mostly old and contemporary Cameroonian music). Apart from Canal 2 and CRTV, the other channels are based on American models both in the choice of music and ways of speaking.
In judging the place of American English and culture in the future, the respondents were asked to evaluate their attachment to one of the varieties of English. To this, 62 % of the 100 respondents indicated that they would like to speak like Americans, 46 % felt they dress like Americans, 24 % believed that they have no choice but to copy American speech and dress patterns. Only 18 % claimed it meant nothing to them. Significantly, only 20 % of those who indicated they had never met Americans before also said that they either feel drawn to speak or dress like Americans. It therefore means that American culture and English have tremendous effects on Cameroonians as well as others who are exposed to them through the media, the arts, humanitarian missions and so forth. This exposure makes the process of Americanisation quite realistic.
Outer Circle Englishes and Native Pride
As indicated earlier, the bulk of research on the New Englishes (Outer Circle) does not indicate that these varieties have been attitudinally and emotionally accepted, both by their speakers and the speakers of the Inner Circle varieties, as authentic varieties of English. They have not been treated as having evolved in ethnolinguistically complete environments in ways similar to other Englishes, like the American, Australian, etc. Although the evolutionary patterns of the Englishes, whether termed native or non-native, were the same (Mufwene 2001), the New Englishes are still considered as improper replicas of the older native varieties. Originally, English was an asset of the British. It was later institutionalised and spread by the economic, political and social activities of the Americans. Since America is generally referred to as a place of many opportunities and of hope, many people want to speak American English, if not as an object of pride then as a bridge to success and progress in the international race. In reaction to this (see question 3.1 of questionnaire), 64 % of the respondents explained that they would most like to speak American English because it is prestigious and is used worldwide, 32% indicated they would like to speak British English because it is easy to articulate and is also internationally known, and 4 % chose Cameroonian English, saying frankly that it is the one they know. This rush for American English, even by those who will never go to America to use it, emanates from what Steiner (1975) refers to as the belief that "... American-English ... embod[ies] for men and women throughout the world – and particularly for the young – the 'feel' of hope, of material advance, of scientific and empirical procedures".
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Heterogenisation versus Homogenisation
The concept of World Englishes presupposes English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) communities are united in the diversity and heterogeneity of English. The spread of the language to many parts of the world both as an emblem of colonial supremacy and as a tool of international integration brought with it a wide range of indigenised and regionalised elements. Far from creating a worldwide confusion of intelligibility, they have given it a heterogeneous identity. It is now the tool of various communities that apply it for scores of different functions. This heterogeneity, different from the homogeneity of French or Spanish regulated by academies of standard usage, is what the seeming American homogenisation of English would certainly destroy. It is a form of "linguistic imperialism" similar to the resentments expressed by Tsuda (1994), Widdowson (1997) and Bamgbose (2001). Bamgbose (2001: 359), for example, exhorts that the "major challenges for globalisation of English is the maintenance of culturally determined varieties of World Englishes in the face of pressures to achieve viable international communication. The quest for this viable medium privileges the native and better institutionalised varieties". The question therefore is, will this homogeneity that rests so much on the irresistible spread of American English be reached? Although English itself easily adapts to change, several circumstances, some studied here, show that a significant leaning towards American English is already introducing a broad base homogenisation.
Much of what has been said in this paper revolves around the hegemony of English and of American English within it. A perfect example of this dual process can be seen in the scientific world. It has witnessed a shift from publication in other languages towards publication in English. Gibbs (1995) demonstrates this shift in the publication of scientific journals using the example of the Mexican Medical Journal Archivos de Investigacion Médica which systematically shifted Spanish to English by "first publishing abstracts in English, then providing English translations of all articles, finally hiring an American editor, accepting articles only in English and changing its name to Archives of Medical Research" (Graddol 1997: 9, my italics). The pull of English as a global-functional and global code is great but the pull of the American tongue appears greater. On the website of the Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, the vulgarisation of American English, like the hiring of an "American editor", (see above) is foregrounded. The guide for submission of articles states "contributions are welcome from all countries. They should be written in English, using American spellings" (my italics). In terms of the style of the paper it is further recommended that "all manuscripts should follow the style sheet of the American Psychological Association (APA)", (my italics). Webster's 19th Century appeal for the institution of a (American) national linguistic identity together with a national government is today transcending the bounds of America to the limitless thresholds of the entire world.
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In response to question 4 of the questionnaire about the variety of English that could be most internationally used in the 21st century, 73.5 % of the 100 respondents ticked American English while 26.5 % proposed the British. The New Englishes (Cameroonian, Indian, Nigerian, and Singaporean Englishes) and some of the native varieties (Canadian, New Zealandan and Australian Englishes), were not tipped by any of the respondents as attaining international strength in the 21st century. Within the context of the above circumstances, there are therefore many pointers to an extensive homogenisation of English not only in the American tongue but also with an American iconography – dominating world culture. Figure 1 below captures such a process.
Fig. 1: Americanisation of World Englishes and culture (Statistics from Kachru 1986)
In figure 1 above, American English and culture (1) find comfortable places among other native Englishes (Australian, New Zealandian, Canadian, etc.), outer circle, and expanding circle Englishes through the force of its prestige, pop-culture and strength in trade, technology and tourism and its representation in the media. As these Americanisms are copied, the other Englishes tend to subordinate their individual heterogeneous identity (3) into a broad-base homogenous variety built on the Americanisms (4). This therefore predicts a strongly American-based World English and culture.
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Conclusion
If the World Englishes were to become a replica of American speech and culture, it would mean annulling the current conscious and unconscious adaptation of varieties of the language to local colours as well as defeating the extensive range of functions for which each variety of English is used at these levels. Widdowson (1997: 29) considers it self-defeating if a global norm had to be set for English on the grounds that
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... if English is to be an international means of communication, the evolution of different and autonomous Englishes would seem to be self-defeating ... The very adaptations which make the language suited to local communal requirements disqualify it from service as a global means of communication.
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Widdowson's (1997) concern is well justified, but with the present rush for American English and culture, it is actually no less possible to have a world that thinks, feels and speaks American. The American presence is felt everywhere and in every major field – technology, commerce, politics, and diplomacy. Moreover the rate of migration to the US, facilitated by the Immigration Diversity Visa Lottery, reached alarming point in the last decade. As such, the rapid spread of American English in step with American culture presupposes the subsuming of regional, national varieties and cultures into greater American-determined ones. Such a process does not imply a complete implantation and perfect replication of American English around the world in the manner dreaded by Widdowson (1997) (not even if that were feasible) but rather a significant tilt towards it.
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Notes
* I am grateful to Richard Manson for making suitable suggestions to the initial draft of this paper.
1 This is the German expression for Duty Free Goods.
2 The overall victory of the Allied forces was realised through American intervention. So the Allied owed much allegiance to the US for this. The vanquished were automatically occupied and had to operate according to rules set down by the victor. This state of affairs aided the rise of American power and the deployment of American troops on foreign soils.
3 Kachru (1986) segments the English-speaking world into three concentric circles following the ways in and functions for which English is used in these areas. Inner Circle refers to the native varieties: British, American, Canadian, Australian and New Zealandan; the Outer Circle refers to the New Englishes or postcolonial or non-native varieties; and the Expanding Circle has to do with English as a Foreign Language contexts. All of these make up what is generally referred to as World Englishes.
4 The Cameroon Radio and Television Corporation (CRTV) broadcasts in both English and French. Many people prefer the foreign channels available on satellite discs but not all can afford it. So many of those who indicated they watch CRTV were those who could not afford the costs of satellite images. Although this might suggest a further segmentation of those who are exposed to American English through the media, it does not in any significant way limit the number of those attracted to American English only to those exposed to the media. Even those who had not heard American English before indicated they would like to speak like Americans.
5 Although MTV is mentioned earlier, it actually does not broadcast on most satellite images in Cameroon. That is why it was not proposed on the questionnaire. Rather there is MCM and Channel O that broadcast mainly American and American-influenced music and programmes.
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