Vel ázquez with a 'lisp,' and the center of English

[Harold Schiffman]

Velázquez with a 'lisp,' and the center of English

After an art-themed concert, some musings about how language changes
By Ruth Walker
from the May 30, 2008 edition


A concert of Spanish music of the Renaissance a few weeks ago has
gotten me thinking about whether the "center" of English has changed.
Hmm, I can see how that one needs some connecting of the dots, dear
reader. Please bear with me for a moment. I went to hear the
aforementioned concert, given by one of our many fine performing
ensembles in Boston in connection with a big exhibition at the Museum
of Fine Arts of paintings by Velázquez and El Greco. (I want to borrow
jargon from the news business here and say that the concert was
"pegged to" the exhibition.)

As the musicians introduced the pieces they played and talked about
the art, I was struck by the pronunciations of "Velázquez" and other
Spanish names. Oh, yes, more of a "lisp" sound (forgive me, but sort
of "Velathketh") than in the sibilant New World Spanish that is more
familiar on this side of the Atlantic. Folklore has it that one of the
Habsburg kings actually spoke with a lisp, and that others at the
court, and later, across Spain, picked up this pronunciation. That
story truly is folklore, but it does seem to be true that Spanish
pronunciation changed back in Madrid after the conquistadores set
forth for the Americas. And this phenomenon fits into a larger pattern
of the way languages evolve.

Here's the theory: When colonists leave their mother country to set
themselves up in a new place, they take their native language with
them (naturally) – as it is spoken at the time of their departure. It
tends not to change all that much once they get where they are going.
But meanwhile, back in the mother country, the language continues to
evolve.  Thus, broadly, broadly speaking, American English is an older
pronunciation than British English, Quebec French is older than
Parisian French, and New World Spanish is older than Castilian.

It may be counterintuitive, especially to Americans schooled in the
narratives of hardy pioneers making their way in wagon trains across
the prairies. Wouldn't one expect pioneers to be on the cutting edge
of language as well as of geography? Perhaps, but it doesn't work that
way. I think the idea is that colonists have enough on their plate,
building a new country, and that tinkering with language isn't a
priority.

That makes sense: A smaller group of speakers is "not going to be
pushing their language as much" as the larger population of speakers
back in the mother country," as Merriam-Webster lexicographer Emily
Brewster puts it. Isn't there a point, though, where the "colony"
becomes a center of the language on its own? Can't the 300 million
native speakers of English in North America give the British a run for
their money at this point?

The answer, according to an extremely informal survey of language
experts the other day, is "yes." David Wharton of the University of
North Carolina at Greensboro suggests that instead of a circle with a
center, English is more "an ellipse with two foci," the United States
and Britain, each exerting considerable influence over various "world
Englishes." The British universities are a very strong influence in
India, he observes.

American universities are particularly strong with the Chinese at this
point, he adds: "Lots of them are specifically being trained in
American English." There are also many "subcenters" of English, such
as South Africa, whose English diverges considerably from both
American and British English, and is influenced by Afrikaans. Phrases
from this Dutch-derived language have worked their way into the
vocabulary even of Anglophones.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0530/p18s02-hfes.html

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