The English Language Outside Europe

471. In the course of the last few centuries the English language spread over various parts of the globe.

In the 18th century the English penetrated into Indi^ and it came under English power, In this huge territory, which since 1947 is divided between two states, India and Pakistan, English has not, however ousted the local language. Its sphere is limited to large cities and to a certain social layer.

In India to-day the English language is a state language alongside the native languages Hindi and Urdu.

In the course of the Seven Years' War (1756—1763) the English conquered Canada, which had been a French colony. ГА few decades later English settlers appeared in Australia. During the 19th century the whole of Australia, and also New Zealand and many islands in Oceania were colonized. In the early years of the 20th century the English penetrated into South Africa and made themselves masters of the Cape Colony and of the Transvaal. J

In all of these territories the English language had to compete with other colonizers' languages and with those of the local populations. In some cases a compromise was the result. Thus, in Canada English did not entirely supersede French. The French Canadian dialect, which shows a strong influence of English, is still used in several regions of Canada. In the Republic of South Africa the Dutch dialect, called Afrikaans, has survived and enjoys equal rights with English.

According to data published in 1964, there are about 270,000,000 English speakers on the globe, including 195,000,000 in the United States, 54,000,000 in the British Isles, 8,000,000 in Canada, and 11,000,000 in Australia.

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN AMERICA

472. As the English language was spreading over the globe, it was but natural that local peculiarities should arise, depending on conditions of each country and of its population. '

¹ Territorial varieties of English are discussed in the following works: E. Partridge and L. W. Clark. British and American English since 1900. London, 1951; Т. М. Беляева и И. А. Потапова. Английский язык за пределами Англии. Л., 1961.

The Vowel Shift

f⁴"

506.ПЪе most significant phonetic change of this period was the Great Vowel Shift, beginning in the 15th century.} It left its imprint on the entire vowel system of the MnE period.

The essence of the shift was the narrowing of all ME long vowels, and diphthongization of the narrowest long ones; [i: >[ai], [u: > au].

The shift can be represented by the following diagram!
aN—i: i: r. u: u:— > au

t-t t

e: e: ei ou o:

1 t t

507.-The chronological frame of the shift remains somewhat doubtful. The well-known English scholar Henry Sweet (1845—1912) and the Danish scholar O. Jespersen (1860—1943) thought that the shift was only completed in the 18th century and that the pronunciation of the 16th and 17th centuries was something intermediate between the ME and the modern pronunciation. O. Jespersen represented this view in the following manner:

Spelling Chaucer's Shakespeare's Present-day pronunciation pronunciation pronunciation

abate

foul

bite

[a'ba:t] [fu:l] ' [bhtj

[foul] [beit]

fc'beit]

[faul]

[bait]

Investigation undertaken by Prof. H. C. Wyld led to a different result. H. C. Wyld studied all sorts of documents of the 15th and 16th century: private letters, diaries, etc., and reached the conclusion that the shift was completed by the late 16th century and that the pronunciation of Shakespeare's time basically coincided with present-day pronunciation.

SOS^JThe separate items of the shift may be presented in the following way:

a: > ei

e: > e: > i: o: > ou
e: > i: o: > u:

i: > ai u: > au J

In the 16th century the vowel [e:] from ME [e:] differed from the vowel [i:] from ME [e:], and the words speak, beat, mean did not rhyme with the words meek, meet, keen. In the late 17th century [e:] changed into [i:] and the difference between the two vowels disappeared.

Modern English pronunciation [teik] neim] greiv] sem] be:t] > [bi:t] kle:n]

Spelling Middle English pronunciation

1 take ['taika]
name ['па:тэ]
grave ['gra:v3]
sane ['sa:na]

2 beat [be:t]
clean [kle:n]

CHANGES IN DIPHTHONGS

518. \The diphthongs [ai] and [ei] were towards the end of the ME period merged in [aei], as in day, way, etc. Eventually this [ aei] developed into [ei]: [dei], [wei], etc.

The diphthong [ei] merged with [ei] from ME [a:]. A few pairs of homophones resulted from this: ail — ale, fain — feign-fane, lain — lane, maid — made, pail — pale, plain — plane, sail — sale, tail — tale, veil — vale.

ME [eu] (spelt eu, ew) developed through [iu] into [ju:], as in dew [dju:]. This change also affected French,words in which French [u] had been substituted by [iu], as pure, nature, etc.

In MnE the ME sounds [ou] and [6] were merged into one. This brought about several pairs of homophones: grown — groan, no, mown — moan, row — roe, rowed — road, rode, soul —