Creolization? Or Globalization?

[John McCreery]

I have mentioned in a reply [on Anthro-L] to Ron Kephart that I would like
to hear moreabout his work on creolization. What I'd really like to hear is
something about the ideas that inform current discussions among linguists
about
creolization. I'm looking, in particular, for ideas that might give me a
handle on an always fraught issue here in Japan, the relationship of
Japanese to English.

Recently, a high-level government panel on Japan in the 21st century
included in its report the recommendation that English be made Japan's
second official language.

This report recalls a Meiji-era (late 19th century) proposal that Japanese
be replaced completely by English, to facilitate Japan's incorporation in
global society (which in those days meant being numbered among the
empire-building, advanced Western nations). The rational for the Japan in
the 21st century report's proposal is similar. Being monolingual in Japanese
is seen as a barrier to success in a global economy increasingly dominated
by entertainment, software, the Internet and e-commerce.

The context in which the proposal is made includes

(1) a continuing and increasingly pervasive penetration of Japlish
(Japanese-English) in advertising and popular culture;

(2) an often remarked inability of Japanese to speak and write English
fluently, despite schooling in the language that begins in junior high
school and continues in high-school, college and a huge English conversation
school industry. Speaking and writing, i.e., production, are the primary
issues; many Japanese do, in fact, read English quite fluently.

(3) the central role of the Japanese language in Nihonjinron, "discourses on
Japaneseness", in which language, soil, and race are perceived as forming a
mystical whole that can only be partly understood by outsiders.

 (4) a written language that combines Chinese characters with local
syllabaries in a manner that clearly suggests a previous process of
creolization, not unlike that which produced modern English by fusing Norman
French and Anglo-Saxon.

What is now going on in Japan is clearly part of a large and complex
historical process often labeled globalization. I am wondering if linguists'
ideas about creolization might help us understand the process more clearly.



John McCreery
c/o The Word Works
15-13-202 Miyagaya
Nishi-ku, Yokahama
JAPAN 220-0006

Tel +81-45-314-9324
Fax +81-45-316-4409
e-mail mccreery at gol.com

"Making Symbols is Our Business"

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John McCreery
c/o The Word Works
15-13-202 Miyagaya
Nishi-ku, Yokahama
JAPAN 220-0006

Tel +81-45-314-9324
Fax +81-45-316-4409
e-mail mccreery at gol.com

"Making Symbols is Our Business"