English as a lingua franca

[Beverly Flanigan]

English is not just a lingua franca in India; along with Hindi, it's the
official language of the country and has been since independence (well
established, of course, since colonial times).  It's been studied
extensively as a "nativized" variety of English (see work by Braj Kachru,
among others), as have other such long-established varieties.  But I
wouldn't call the English of new immigrants to the U.S. a lingua franca;
it's simply their emerging second language, and it will be the first
language of their children and grandchildren--just as it has been for my
family and, most likely, yours.

Incidentally, I always hostel when I go to Europe (yes, hosteling is for
adults and even seniors now, and it saves a bundle), and the English I
inevitably hear all around me is learned English with either a British or
an American accent, with some slippage in morphology and word order but
with a fairly broad lexicon.  I really doubt that a highly divergent
"European English" is going to emerge any time soon.

At 09:21 PM 4/27/01 -0500, you wrote:
>In India, I believe, English is well-established as a lingua franca.  A
>nonexpert reading of The Times of India shows that Indian English isn't
>exactly identical with British or American English.
>
>And it has been used as a lingua franca among immigrants in parts of
>the US.
>
>As for use in Europe -- I would like to see the English used in youth
>hostels and other places where backpackers congregate studied.
>Dan Goodman
>dsgood at visi.com
>http://www.visi.com/~dsgood.html
>Whatever you wish for me, may you have twice as much.


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm