Year 13 A Level English

Monday 26th October 2015LO: To develop an initial understanding of the A2 exam paper. To understand a range of concepts surrounding language change.

The exam layout and weightings:You will receive a question booklet and a data booklet.You will be required to answer one question from section A (acquisition) and one question from section B (change).You will be marked for AOs 1,2 and 3:

Language ChangeSection B

Overall breakdown – section B Language change (over time)

• Two questions , you choose one.

• The questions could ask you to compare two or more texts or it could just be a singular text to analyse.

• These texts will be taken from a different time period, regional location, global location, from speakers with different levels of English understanding (e.g. as a second language OR from a different cultural/Ethnic background).

Commenting on exam texts Always identify the form of the piece of writing before you start to

analyse it. This will allow you to ‘hit’ AO3 specifically.

The different pieces of writing you have in the exam will be linked by form (type/genre of writing).

They will be taken from different time places, global or regional places, or from English speakers of different cultural / linguistic backgrounds.

You will be expected to comment on key language constituents (grammar, lexis, phonology etc) and key differences, if asked to compare.

To refer to context, consider how writers use different conventions in the form / genre they are writing in, as well as stylistic differences and levels of formality of texts. Link to how they reflect the changing nature of readers.

Question types:

The Assessment Objectives Unpacked Assessment Objective How this applies to Section B of the examA01 Communicate relevant knowledge using appropriate terminology and coherent, accurate written expression

Communicate your ideas clearly Use technical terminology to express your ideas

A02 Demonstrate a critical understanding of a range of concepts and issues related to the construction and analysis of spoken and written language, using knowledge of linguistic approaches

When given a transcript, make sure you consider how the text type (genre) influences language; consider whether it is spoken/written language; who the intended audience is, their relationship to the audience (tenor); how the writer engages their audience, how texts change over time, consider function and purpose of the text too and how this influences language choices.

Ao3 Evaluate and analyse the influence of contextual factors on the production and reception of spoken and written language, showing knowledge of the key constituents of language

Refer to how context of the text – e.g. time, place/location and cultural/geographical background of the speaker influences language choices, e.g. second language speaker, someone from America, someone from an ethnic black back ground (e.g. black British), whether it is Creole or pidgin. Refer to a full range of key constituents – grammar, syntax, morphology, phonology, lexis, pragmatics.

An overview – English language http://

www.thehistoryofenglish.com/history_early_modern.html

Early Modern EnglishThursday 3rd November 2016LO: to develop an understanding of EME

Early Modern English In the exam, the earliest texts that you may be

asked to examine will be from 1700. But, it is worth noting what happened prior to this as you will want to comment on everything you see.

This comprises the early modern English period.

The early modern English period ends at about 1800.

The Renaissance falls within this period.

To be clear:The printing press

William Caxton, 1476.

Helped to standardise the English language.

Before the printing press, there were several dialects across England, meaning that there was great regional diversity between English speakers.

The language of print was based on the London dialect. Different regions began to write in this form. This meant that the written form of English language became standardized.

Spellings Spellings became standardized – this

meant that there were less variations between commonly used words.

However, inconsistencies in spellings still occurred between writers, and within texts. FYI

If you spot inconsistencies in internal spellings (spellings within the same text) then by all means comment on this – show your awareness of context by suggesting that due to

the introduction of the printing text, spellings became standardised; however, this was by no means yet a hard

and fast system, so there would have remained inconsistencies of spellings between texts and within the

same texts.

Social structure – in this period, literacy and production of texts was held primarily by the

higher classes

Monarchy

Nobles and gentry

Yeomen, merchants and professionals

Husbandmen and vagrants

Changing audiences of this period1500s 90% of male population were unable to read or write; only 1% of women

were counted as literate.

1600s There was an elite of aristocrats, gentry and rich merchants who were

almost totally literate – keep this in mind when considering who the writer was, and who they are speaking to in their writing

1680s 30% of men were literate; 10% female

1770s Shopkeepers were 95% literate. Most labourers could not read at all.

London and its literacy rates: The highest literacy levels were in London: female literacy rose from

22% in the 1670s to 66% in the 1720s.

Male dominant societies Literacy was closely associated with social and economic

position and with gender.

Nobility, gentry and aristocrats comprised about 5% of the population; this elite was overwhelmingly male - as the producers and consumers of print culture, most authors came from these ranks.

Conventional views at the time assumed that women were at all points subservient to males; and this was reflected through culture, attitudes and education.

However, some women from higher positions in society produced notable writing, in the form of poetry; many other women who wrote produced devotional / religious works.

Elite Female writers Gender played a significant part in shaping the text. Most

female writers quite consciously chose to emphasise their feminine 'weakness' and 'frailty', judging correctly that the language of submission and humility was most likely to elicit a favourable response from male grandees.

Other letters were social, written to keep the writer in touch with family and friends, reinforce social bonds and pass on news that was often domestic or local, but might also include political, court and military news -subjects often regarded as essentially male.

Types of books read / produced

Religious tracts, such as those detailing the ideal Christian woman thrived, as did reports on criminals and their sentences

New genres such as the chronicle (a factual written account of important or historical events) and the autobiography (an account of a person’s life written by that person) also found popularity, whilst religious writings found new readership.

Other types of books read / produced Mythic tales

Popular stories to poems.

Phrasebooks, grammars

Devotional pieces (religious writing – where writers often express their love and selfless affection to God)

Religion in this period

If a text engages in religion / religious discussion = consider how this may reflect views and beliefs of the

time (links to context)

What is the tone of the writing (e.g. serious, prescriptive, didactic) – how does this connect to the

writer’s message/purpose?How might this compare with today’s society – where we live in a predominately secular society, with more

flexible beliefs?

Key constituents of language In the exam, you will need to

comment on the range of key constituents:

Grammar Phonology Graphology Morphology Lexis Semantics

The 15th century and the formation of past tense verbs:

Inflectional means the way the verb changes to show the tense.

“eth” as an inflectional ending to past tense verbs:

So instead of saying: “He was running”, the writer might use “He runneth”

He was dreaming; He dreameth.

This use of the “eth” inflectional ending was, however, a decaying tradition, but some writers still showed the past tense of the verb in this way.

Orthography – symbols

Another letter borrowed from the runic alphabet is wynn. Wynn is pronounced as /w/. The earliest Old English writings use the digraph uu to represent this sound, but soon the runic wynn came to replace that digraph.

Wynn was used throughout the Old English period, fading with the advent of Middle English and largely gone by 1300. It was replaced by its predecessor uu, which eventually became the modern letter W.

                                                                  

     Upper- and lower-case versions of the thorn character

Upper- and lower-case versions of the thorn character. This is the letter known as thorn. It has a /th/ sound and can be pronounced as a fricative, as in thick or as a voiced dental fricative, as in the. 

The second of these letters is Ð, ð. This is the letter known as eth. In Old English it is used interchangeably with thorn; a word written with a thorn will be written with an eth somewhere else on the page.

Exam TipsEarly modern English Letter symbols – thorn, eth, and wynn.

As the earliest text you will be given in the exam is from 1700 onwards, it is unlikely that writers will use these symbols as they are common to Old English texts.

However, some writer’s do use these, so in an exam, you could comment on the fact that it is an overhanging tradition from the Old English period, and show your understanding of the meaning of these symbols through commenting on them.

Spellings

Phonetics - spellings in early modern English period The letter “i” and “y” are used

interchangeably to represent the same phonetic sound - /I/

• Gyven given • Vylonce

violence

The final silent “e” on words • The final ‘silent’ -e was much more commonly

found, not only as a marker of a ‘long’ vowel in the preceding syllable (as in take)

• Often this had no phonetic function, and sometimes after an unnecessarily doubled final consonant.

Also it is to be noted that this crosse made & gyuen vnto the newecrysten man is the seuenth crosse & the laste that is sette on his body.

The letters U and V u and v were variations of the same letter. The form v was used at the beginning of a word and u in all other positions, regardless of whether the sound was a vowel or a consonant.

And we defende the that thou be not so hardy for euer to do vyolencevnto the holy token of the crosse the whiche we put in his forhede.

j and i  j was an extended form of i.

 i was generally used for both vowels and consonants.

However, the capital form, J, was beginning to be used at the start of words, when the sound is a consonant.

by the whiche they ben Justely adiuged

T and c

Instead of t in the ending now usually spelt -tion the letter c was frequently used.

He is very lorde by creacyon by redempcyon &

for ye resurreccyon

Stylistic features of EME writing In terms of writing styles, many writers used

complex, convoluted syntax patterns, whereby we may see many clauses embedded into a single sentence, which represented digressions of thought, making the meaning of a text difficult to grasp.

Tips:1.Spot the number of clauses / phrases in a single

sentence2.Discuss the length and complexity of sentences3.Look out for multiple subordinating clauses, or

comment on how different clauses are connected together

4.Comment on unnecessary words / phrases, and how these create an ornate style of writing. Be precise in identifying types of phrases – if you can, identify whether it’s an adverbial phrase, noun phrase, prepositional phrase etc.

5.Look out for uses of language which create a formal / academic writing style, and uses of the passive voice.

Lexis: Inkhorn words – Latin words used by writers for prestige In Early Modern English, to appeal to an intellectual audience, some writers would ‘awkwardly’ borrow Latin words, and use these in their writing in an elaborate fashion; usually in formal or academic writing. These have now fallen out of usage from the language we use today (become obsolete). Some writer’s would do this in an attempt to consciously change / improve the English language.

Inkhorn words that have not survived today:

fatigate, deruncinate, subsecive, nidulate, abstergify,arreption, suppeditate, eximious, illecebrous, cohibit, dispraise .

Reasons for / against use of inkhorn words

As some writers sought to change the English language by introducing Latin “inkhorn” words into the English language, other writers came to the ‘defence’ of the English language, and reacted in writing to the changes. This may reflect in some of the content of the passages chosen for the exam if an academic text is chosen .

.

Tips:If you see a writer using “inkhorn” words, comment on the

writer’s perspective of the English language, and how they are consciously attempting to reshape it with Latin

borrowings.

However, if there is a writer that is extremely against these changes, discuss what ideas and issues the writer is

raising about the changing English language; even how they are presenting their message to the reader.

Part 2 – the 16th and 17th Centuries

16th Century The Renaissance and

Scientific writing The Renaissance was a time of social and cultural

developments.

Previously, before the Renaissance, Latin was used as a scientific lingua franca. This means that Latin was used to communicate scientific ideas to countries in Europe that did not have English as a first language.

However, in the Renaissance, as a nation, England began to produce scientific texts in its own language: English.

The Renaissance was……a cultural movement, it encompassed innovative flowering of Latin and vernacular literatures:• began with the 14th century resurgence of learning based on

classical sources, which contemporaries credited to Petrarch• the development of linear perspective and other techniques of

rendering a more natural reality in painting; and gradual but widespread educational reform.

• In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, and in science to an increased reliance on observation and inductive reasoning.

• Although the Renaissance saw revolutions in many intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval, it is perhaps best known for its artistic developments and the contributions of such polymaths as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who inspired the term "Renaissance man".

Specific changes to the English language

Lexis: Specialist terms were developed.

Syntax The need for a clear, less ornate style of writing

was needed. Exam tips:1. Look out for specialist terms; comment on the

semantic field of words and how these are relevant for the content of the piece of writing (e.g. if the writer is communicating scientific ideas that require specialist vocabulary).

2. Look out for clear sentence structures, clauses and phrases; less use of subordinating connectives, or conjunctions – make note of how punctuation helps to contain meaning within sentences.

3. Look out for precision in writing – words which convey precision – words which indicate quantities, measurement or number.

Latin words

1500–1650, some 10,000 to 12,000 new words came into the language.

LME (1700-present day)LO: to complete an understanding of the timeline of change

Tuesday 1st November 2016

Late Modern English (1700 – present) The changes to English since this

final period have been less far reaching. The movement towards a stable, standardized language has continued.

The first great dictionary compiled by Samuel Johnson, was published in 1755. This made an important contribution to the standardization of word meanings and spellings.

TaskWith the help of a good dictionary or

tinferweb, investigate the origins of the following words:

Courtesy Ill Exaggerate Romance Citizen Belittle Amusement Quotation Anger Movie

The late modern English periodFrom 1700 – Present Day English (now!) Key events that influence the

English language:

1. The Industrial Revolution.

2. Rise of the British Empire.

The Industrial Revolution – early 1800’s.

New machines were invented which replaced human labour

New energy sources were created

New uses of metal

The Industrial Revolution

Transport improved

Steam ships Trains Automobiles

English people could now travel more freely from the city to countryside.

The Industrial Revolution

Communication improved

Telegraph Radio Telephone

Bourgeouise Development of a

capitalist society

New growth of the middle class

This means a growing number of wealthy people and a growth of new writers and readers.

Social changes Improved status of women

Increasing female literacy rates and female reading audiences

Increase in leisure time

Science and research stimulated

Expansion in democracy

Consider how these external factor might reflect in the

content of the writing you are asked to study.

Intellectual inquiry Weakened superstition

Greater knowledge of the world

Scientific inquiry

New questioning and learning and communication about the world in written texts

Consider how these external factors might reflect in the

content of the writing you are asked to study.

Printing Revolution Newspapers became much cheaper to produce

Cost of a newspaper plummeted.

Number of newspapers increased.

A larger audience could now access newspapers – growing readership. Exam tips:Consider how a wider audience

is engaged through writing – comment on writer’s style and

technique.

Types of writing – writers, readers and content Journals – Articles

Medical Farming Estate management, home management, cooking, science, Navigation Travel Recreation Biography

Exam tips – referring to context:

Any of these types of texts could come up in an exam; always start with questioning the

type of text it is, what type of information it

is communicating (purpose of the text), who the writer is

writing for (audience), and how the language

of the text engages their reader and

communicates these ideas.

Global growth

Britain increased their power and growth across the globe

Increased geographic knowledge

New colonies in America and Asia

Global growth Vast numbers of

ships could transport raw materials and finished goods to and from England’s colonies, and to and from different countries

Exam tips:How might this new

expansion in travel affect ideas in a piece of writing?

Implications of global growth As English speakers

travelled to new parts of this world, the English language interacted with the language of other countries through direct encounters with people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

What do you think may have happened to the English language here?

What do you think might happen to the English language?

Blend with other languages

Diversify / develop different varies of spoken English in places

where English speakers could freely colonise

Assimilate / take on new

words for overseas products

(expanded lexicon)

Dominate other

languages

The British Empire Empire = An extensive group of states

or countries under a single supreme authority.

British Empire = Colonies of overseas

territory controlled by the British Government or organisations (or even individuals) coming from Britain. 

Horrible histories – The British Empire https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm9NlYfjqXw

Make notes on what the British Empire was, and how it gained global dominance.

The British Empire The British Empire was the greatest empire the

world has ever seen, and for more than a century Britain was the foremost global power. It began in the 15th and 16th centuries when global exploration sanctioned by the English and Scottish people began to establish overseas colonies.

There are many reasons why these colonies were established, but one of the principal reasons was trade and financial benefit. Initially many colonies were established in North America and the Caribbean, but spread to Africa and Asia.

The British Empire

British Colonial power The years 1815 to 1914 are referred to as Britain's

imperial century, and at this time, the Empire included over 14 million square miles of territory and 450 million people.

It included more than a quarter of the world's population and it was said that the sun never set on the British Empire. With supremacy at sea, Britain took on the role of global policeman, sometimes called the Pax Britannica.

As well as having formal control over its own colonies, with a dominant position in world trade Britain could effectively control the economies of many countries including China, Argentina and Siam.

British colonial power

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/minority-ethnic/

Homework stop! Search the internet for the above link.

Read through, and make notes on the case study. You could use this to support your points in the exam!

English as a global language Britain became a global language

through this process of colonisation – travelling and settling to different parts of the world.

Countries that speak English as a mother-tongue

These countries speak English as a dominant language:

USA Canada Britain Ireland Australia New Zealand South Africa Several Caribbean countries

American English First English settlement in Virginia

1607

British English was spoken by the newcomers.

However, over a period of time, key changes began to emerge.

American vocabulary Over centuries, settlers have come

from different groups – Germans, Italians, Irish and Jewish groups.

Read this link for lexical differences between British English and American English

http://www.slideshare.net/arielmlee/british-english-vs-american-english

Orthography / spelling differences

Some of the forms that now serve to distinguish American from British spelling:

Deleting the ‘u’ from ‘–our’ endings e.g. color for colour, 

“er” and “re” reversal: center for centre, as "centre" and "center", "theatre" and "theater", and "metre" and "meter").

Dropping of some double-consonants - traveler for traveller

Suffix endings in British we use “-ise” for ”-ize” as in pluralise not pluralize

Case endings, for example, programme for program, manoeuvre for maneuver, skilful for skillful, cheque for check, etc.).

Make sure you press F5 to view the next screens in full screen.

See if you can correctly identify the grammatical differences between American

English and Standard British English.

Press down for the answer.

Make sure your responses use accurate technical terminology.

Grammar Grammar differences are not always

obvious, so you will have to look hard to spot these:Peace talks haven’t gotten anywhere.

In Standard English we would write “got” instead of “gotten” -

Additional suffix ending “en”

Grammar I am available

Monday through Friday.

Deleted preposition “to”

the word “through” is used when Standard English speaker

might use “until”: “I am available Monday until

Friday.”

Grammar

The shed is in back of the building.

Missing definite article “the”

Grammar

It is five after seven.

Use of “after” instead of

“past”

Grammar

I looked out the window.

Missing preposition “of”

Morphology – compound wordsCompound words = two words

combined to make a new word

The American language makes use of different compound words.

Examples on the next slides of two nouns being combined to create a new idea/concept.

American compounds

A low hill at the base of a mountain or mountain range.

Noun

Foot

hill Foot hill

American compounds

A moneylender who charges extremely high rates of interest

Noun

Loan

shark

Loan shark

Others include:  foothill, flatlands, badlands, landslide (in all senses), overview (the

noun), backdrop, teenager, brainstorm, bandwagon, hitchhike, smalltime,deadbeat, frontman, lowbrow and highbrow, hell-bent, foolproof, nitpick, about-face (later verbed), upfront (in all senses), fixer-upper, no-show; 

Many of these are phrases used as adverbs or (often) hyphenated attributive adjectives: non-profit, for-profit, free-for-all, ready-to-wear, catchall, low-down, down-and-out, down and dirty, in-your-face, nip and tuck; 

Many compound nouns and adjectives : happy hour, fall guy, capital gain, road trip, wheat pit, head start, plea bargain; some of these are colorful (empty nester, loan shark, ambulance chaser, buzz saw, ghetto blaster, dust bunny), others are euphemistic (differently abled (physically challenged), human resources, affirmative action, correctional facility).

Noun and preposition compounds Americans frequently create new

compound words using a noun and a preposition.

Examples on the next slide.

American compounds

Visit, come by someone’s place, especially

overnight.

Noun

Stop

Over

Stopover

American compounds

Something that has lost-value, poor condition

Noun

Run Down Rundown

American compounds

Something that has improved it’s value from

being done up

Noun

Make over Make-over

Others include… Many compound nouns have the form

verb plus preposition: add-on, stopover, lineup, shakedown, tryout, spin-off, rundown ("summary"), shootout, holdup, hideout, comeback, cookout,kickback, makeover, takeover, rollback ("decrease"), rip-off, come-on, shoo-in, fix-up, tie-in, tie-up ("stoppage"), stand-in. These essentially are nouned phrasal verbs;

British VS American English

Some short clips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP3XANzvNpY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_english

Australian English

Bit about Australia: http://

www.authorstream.com/Presentation/smcgree-123591-australia-presentation-travel-places-nature-ppt-powerpoint/

The British Empire Abroad

Tuesday 8th November 2016Year 13LO: To gain further understanding of the British Empire’s significance towards language change.

Australian English Britain Established a penal colony in

Australia in 1678.

This means that convicts were sent over to Australia.

1868 was the last year convicts were sent over. 1.7 million found themselves there!

Convicts sent over

Australian English – lexis

Use of Litotes - this means a word which suggests understatement for effect.

"not bad", "not much" and "you're not wrong"

Australian slang:  arvo (afternoon), barbie (barbecue), s

moko (cigarette break), Aussie (Australian) and pressie(present/gift).

Australian English – loves informality

Idiom – figurative phrases / expressions

There are lots of lively / playful idioms in the language:

“Scarce as rocking horse manure!”

“Bald as a coot.”

“She'll be apples” (Everything will be okay)

Rising Intonation:

We have a rising intonation for questions

However, Australians have a rising intonation at the end of statements.

Canadian English  Canadian English contains elements of British English and American English in its vocabulary, as well as many distinctive Canadianisms. 

What is pidgin?The defining characteristic of a pidgin is that it is no one's native language: it is a second language for all its speakers

A pidgin is a language that is invented by adults who speak different languages in order to communicate between themselves. It has historically happened mostly in colonial situations (i.e. situations in which people of country colonise / settle within another country)

The grammar of the language is different for different speakers, and seems to be based mostly on the grammar of the native language of the individual speaker. The lexicon of the language consists of loan-words from the various languages in the society.

 

To make a pidgin language, you need:

1. Native 2. Foreign settler

To make a pidgin language, you need:

1. Native 2. Foreign settler

To communicate simple ideas,

basic language patterns will be

used.

To make a pidgin language, you need:

1. Native 2. Foreign settler

What is pidgin?

The language they speak will:

1. Have a short-life 2. Be a blend between the

two languages 3. Likely follow the grammar of the dominant language 4. Have a clear and definite

use (to help to sell trade etc)

If a pidgin language is formed between two adults, and then a child inherits it, it becomes creole.

Common features of pidgin (similar to how young children may talk) Since a pidgin language is a fundamentally simpler form

of communication, the grammar and phonology are usually as simple as possible, and usually consist of:

Uncomplicated clausal structure (e.g., no embedded clauses, complex sentence structures etc.)

Simple sentence structures Simple connective use Reduction or elimination of some syllables Reduction of consonant clusters Basic vowels, such as [a, e, i, o, u] Use of separate words to indicate tense, usually coming before

the verb Use of reduplication to represent plurals, superlatives or anything

to show increase example: “That bibig [bigbig]” A lack of morphophonemic variation

TASK Apply these to the next slide

Connecting Knowledge: Child-Language Acquisition and Creole – similarities

Creole language – what is it?

A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, with the result that they have features of natural languages that are normally missing from pidgins.

The vocabulary of a creole language is largely supplied by the parent languages, particularly that of the most dominant group in the social context of the creole's construction.

Where can you find Creole languages? Geographic distribution As a consequence of colonial European trade patterns,

most of the known European-based creole languages arose in the equatorial belt around the world and in areas with access to the oceans, including the coastal regions of the Americas, western Africa, Goa and along the west coast of India, and along the coast of Southeast Asia up to Indonesia, Macau, the Philippines, Malaysia,  and Oceania.

Many of those creoles are now extinct, but others still survive in the Caribbean, the north and east coasts of South America (The Guyanas), western Africa, Australia (see Australian Kriol language), and in the Indian Ocean.

Where can you find Creole languages?

Creole languages – how might they start? Some hypothesises as to how a creole language

might begin:

1. A trader may settle in a new country, and intermarry with one of the locals. They may at first start speaking a form of pidgin, which is then passed onto their children as a creole.

2. In the time of the slave trade, slaves from different parts of the world would find themselves in close and prolonged contact with each other; a new language (pidgin) would gradually stabilise and become the shared language by which a new generation of children would communicate with each other.

Examples of creole language:Hawaii Creole English

So when you pray, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, we pray that your name will always be kept holy. We pray that your kingdom will come, and that the things you want will be done here on earth, the same as in heaven. Give us the food we need for each day. Forgive the sins we have done, the same as we have forgiven the people that did wrong to us. Don't let us be tempted, but save us from the Evil One.Translation

Task – make notes of the key differences between the Hawaiin Creole text and standard English Key constituents of language

Key differences between the two texts

Lexis – word choice

Grammar / syntax – sentence structure Phonology and spellings

Formation of negatives

Any other observations?

Examples of analysing creole language:Hawaii Creole English

Double use of pronoun:

singular and

collective

The definite article “the”

is written phonetically

“da” – reflects

differences in

pronunciation – the  /ð/

voiceless dental

fricative is sounded as

a dental stop “d”

Examples of creole language:Hawaii Creole English

Grammar – absence of

prepositions in this

sentence, for example absence of the word

“to”

The word “peopo” –

simplification of the

phoneme “le” of the standard English word :

“people”, to the

easier “o” vowel -

reflecting the

pronunciation of the

word

Simplified lexis –

feature of creole

Ways of discussing context The text is Hawaiian Englis Creole– the dominant lexis in the text is English; however, there are words that would be unrecognisable to an English native speaker. The word “jalike” and “huhu” are presumably features of the native spoken Hawaiian language, which are adapted and embedded into this form of Creole language.

Task – apply key constituents to the Hawaiian Creole

Example of discussing creole features

FAQ – when does Pidgen become a Creole language?

Creolisation definitely does not happen to all pidgins. Some pidgins just go on being pidgins for a long period or even a short period, and then die out because there is no further use for them.

Creolisation is the process whereby a pidgin becomes a creole. For this to happen there has to be a stable community (i.e. one where children are born and grow up) where the creole is spoken. The pidgin becomes a creole at the point where children grow up speaking it as their first language (usually because their parents have no other language in common, and sometimes because the whole community already use the pidgin as their main language, even though they also know other languages.) For example, in Papua New Guinea, there are now urban communities of people who originally came from villages in different parts of the country.

Pidgin is the main language in these communities because the original languages of the adults are completely different from each other. While the adults are still pidgin speakers (because for them, it's a second language) the children who grow up with the pidgin as their first language are actually creole speakers, and the pidgin has turned into a creole. If they have children, the children will learn the creole as their first language and so it will go on, just like any other language passed from generation to generation.

Interesting facts. From Pidgen to Creole

5. Most of the Caribbean creoles have a similar history. Europeans traded goods for slaves along the African coast for several hundred years. A pidgin form of the European language (for example, English) was spoken by the traders on both sides of the transaction. The slaves were divided up into groups without a common language (there are many hundreds of different languages in West Africa, and slaves were taken from all over the region). This was a deliberate strategy to prevent rebellion. The slaves learnt the pidgin in order to communicate with each other (and with their masters, although this was probably less important.) After a time, the slaves had chidren who grew up in a pidgin‑speaking environment and learnt the pidgin as their first language. Thus the pidgin became a creole.

Trinidadian Creole language – Example http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqHZ7Nul-g0

Pidgen VS Creole

Glossary of terms: create your own based on some of the terms learnt so far Key term Definition When to apply Inflection

This refers to the way that a word changes form to show tense or number. For example, “To run” becomes “running” in the present tense. The noun “man” becomes a “men” to show more than one.

This is a very useful term to have at hand, as you can apply it to almost any transcript. If a verb is indicated in an unusual way, comment on its unusual inflection.

Inkhorn In Early Modern English, to appeal to an intellectual audience, some writers would ‘awkwardly’ borrow latin words, and use these in their writing in an elaborate fashion. These will have now fallen out of usage from the language we use today. Words that have not survived include: fatigate, deruncinate, subsecive, nidulate, abstergify,arreption, suppeditate, eximious, illecebrous, cohibit, dispraise .

If you come across words used in an Early modern English transcript that fit this latin description, you can hypothesise that they are “inkhorn” words.

Excellent phonetics website!

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html