66 Antonio 2

66. Dimensión cultural de la anglofonia en el mundo actual. El inglés británico y el inglés americano.
Presencia de la
lengua inglesa en España. Los Anglicismos.
TEMA 66.
Dimensión cultural de la anglofonia

en el mundo actual. El inglés
británico y el inglés americano.
Presencia de la lengua inglesa en
España. Los Anglicismos.
Antonio Bodí
Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 0

C/ Rumbau. 1 -3°. 17a .46001 Valencia Tf. 963 51 9522 -963290 849. Fax. 963 94 33 05
http:l/www.cienciasdelhombre21.com E-Mail: ich-tyd@digitalmk.com
66. Dimensión cultural de la anglofonia en el mundo actual. El inglés británico y el inglés americano. Presencia de la
I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………….
II. ENGLISH IN THE WORLD
III. ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS………...………...

A. ORIGINS
B. MAIN LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH
IV. BRITISH ENGLISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH…….

A. BRITISH ENGLISH
1. RP
2. British dialects
3. Plans to regulate English
B. AMERICAN ENGLISH
1. Grammar differences:
2. Spelling differences:
3. Pronunciation differences:
4. Lexical differences:
C. THE BRITISH OPINION TOWARDS OTHER DIALECTS
V. OTHER VARIETIES OF ENGLISH………………………

A. AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND ENGLISH
B. THE ENGLISH OF INDIA, PAKISTAN AND
BANGLADESH
C. ENGLISH IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES
VI. ENGLISH ELEMENTS IN THE SPANISH LANGUAGE.

A. THE INFLUENCE OF ENGLISH UPON SPANISH FROM
SPAIN
B. CLASSIFICATION OF ANGLICISMS
C. SPANISH FROM LATIN AMERICA
VI. CONCLUSIONS……………………………………………..
VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………

I. INTRODUCTION
The British Empire, established over the course of three centuries, began in the late 16th
century with chartered commercial ventures in sugar and tobacco plantations, slave
trading, and missionary activities in North America and the Caribbean Islands. During
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the British Empire reached the height of its
power, ruling over large parts of Oceania, Africa, Asia, and North America.
Because of the historical legacy of the British Empire and the current relevance of
the United States as the first leading economic country in the world, English has
recently taken a very important position in the world. In fact, the 350 million native
speakers of English, and a further approximately 375 million people using it as a second
language, make it one of the most important and widespread international languages in
the world.
Furthermore, due to the great number of English-speaking countries across the world,
English has developed in many different ways and forms everywhere. All this has
decisively contributed to the great diversity and richness of English through its many
different dialects, accents and local vocabulary.

II. ENGLISH IN THE WORLD
Today, there is no doubt about the importance of the English language in the world. It is
not the most spoken language in the world (it is Chinese), but the second most spoken
language. However, it is the most widespread language around the globe, since it is one
of the few languages in the world spoken in all continents (Europe, America, Asia,
Africa and Oceania) –together with French and Spanish; and most importantly, it is the
most important international language, considering the financial and cultural importance
worldwide of some English speaking countries (namely the USA, United Kingdom,
Canada or even Australia) and also the extraordinary number of countries where English
is used on a regular basis by many people who may not speak it as their mother tongue.
Therefore, it is important to notice that English can be used in many countries:

1) As the native and official language (as is the case in the USA, United Kingdom,
Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or Canada);
2) As a second language or as an administrative language (usually a one of the official
languages) –especially within the so-called Commonwealth of Nations (Nigeria, Kenya,
Egypt, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Zambia, etc.);
3) As a mere foreign language learnt for purely professional, educational or practical
reasons (practically any country in the world, for instance, Spanish-speaking doctors
who must read a lot of medical documents in English either to keep up to date or to
carry on with some medical research, or French businessmen who keep continuous
commercial bonds with English-speaking countries).
In reality, English is the most important international language in the world, well
ahead of other important international languages such as French, Spanish, Russian,
Portuguese or German.
In short, however we want to look at it, the truth is that today English is a dominant
language in the world for historical and economic reasons (the UK and especially the
USA are two of the most important leading economic countries). Besides, English can
be very useful for travelling, because much travel and tourism is carried out in English;
it is also a sort of lingua franca for conferences, conventions and many international
journal articles dealing with scientific or technological advances; and finally, English
culture has become the culture in fashion for many people. Pop music in English
saturates the planet’s airwaves, at least in the Western world; besides, we have all learnt
many English words through such diverse sources as videogames, the Internet or
cinema.
III. ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS
A. ORIGINS
English belongs to the Indo-European family of languages, and is therefore related to

most other languages spoken in Europe and Western Asia. The so-called Proto-Indo-
European –which is the parent tongue from which all these languages stem (including
English), was spoken about 5,000 years ago by nomads believed to have lived in the
south-east European plains.

However, English belongs specifically to the sub-family of Germanic languages (like

today’s German, Dutch, Afrikaans, Danish, Frisian, Norwegian, Swedish or Icelandic),
and distinguishes itself from other Indo-European languages which come from other
sub-families (namely, the Romance family, the Slavic family, the Celtic family…). This
means, that at least in principle one could expect languages such as Russian or Italian
(which stem from the Slavic and Romance family correspondingly) to be considerably
different from English, as against German or Norwegian.
Nevertheless, it is important to highlight that English is rather a hybrid language
between a former variant of old English and old French (or to be more precise old
Norman French). Why is that? Because in the year 1066 (as a result of the Battle of
Hastings) Norman French (and later Central or Parisian French, the French language
used by the French Court) started to be used in England, especially by the then new
Norman nobility, and therefore had a decisive influence upon English.
However, later –when English recovered its predominance in England in the 15 th
century, the influence of French lingered for many centuries, because Central or Parisian
French was considered for long an important cultural or prestigious language (i.e.
during the Renaissance period, the age of the Enlightenment and even subsequent
times).
It is for this reason that English is a very interesting language for philological
reasons, given that much of the English language (e.g. according to some researches, as
much as 40/45 % of vocabulary), is drawn from French or Greco-Latin sources, despite
the fact that English belongs to the family of Germanic languages.
B. MAIN LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH
1) Simplicity of inflection:
Modern English is analytic or uninflected, compared to Proto-Indo-European, the
primitive tongue from which most modern European languages stem (German, Dutch,
Russian, Italian, Spanish, Greek…), which was a highly synthetic or inflected language.
This means that, from a grammatical point of view, English has become much simpler

than the highly inflected Proto-Indo-European language and simpler than other
Germanic languages. Let us compare this through the following example:
Chinese English Spanish German

jen the man, the man’s El hombre, Singular: der Mann (nomin.), den Mann
the men, the men’s Los (acus.), des Mannes (genitiv), dem Man
hombres (dativ).
Plural: die Männer (nomin./acus.), der

Männer (genit.), den Männern (dativ.)
Chinese is an uninflected language, and therefore has no additional grammatical

form (or declension) added to jen, since context makes it possible for speakers to work
out the grammatical relations between the different segments or words of a specific
utterance (in this case, in order to infer whether jen has the function of a subject,
direct/indirect object, noun complement, singular/plural…).
On the other hand, German is (and this is verified through the example above) the
most inflected language. Thus, we always know the grammatical function of Mann
without resorting to context, unlike in English or Spanish. That is why you could state
that the use of prepositions has turned out to be of utmost importance to clarify the
grammatical relations implied, at least in English and Romance languages such as
French, Spanish or Italian (e.g. to/for the man, al/para/del hombre).
2) Flexibility of function
Flexibility of function has become greater over the last five centuries, as a result of the
loss of inflections. Words formerly distinguished as nouns or verbs through inflected
forms which had to be added to these words are now often used as both nouns and
verbs, and even adjectives. For example: James Joyce’s work is extraordinarily prolific;
I like to work on my project; where do you have your workplace?
Although Spanish and French have also gone through a process of dramatic loss of
inflected forms, you could state that these languages have maintained many inflected
forms that English has lost: for instance, just think of the inflected adjective forms,

definite articles or possessive forms, or the highly inflected verbal forms (which are so
difficult for English-speaking people). Therefore, in contrast, it seems as though
languages such as French or Spanish have not developed such a degree of flexibility of
function, since there is a higher use of inflected forms:
work = trabajo (noun), trabajar (verb), de trabajo (adjective);

travail (noun), travailler (verb), de travail (adjective).
3) “Openness” of vocabulary
Due to the afore-mentioned flexibility of function, English adopts foreign words or

borrowings more easily than many other languages (French, Spanish, German). In other
words, English usually takes borrowings from foreign languages usually without
making any alterations of the original spelling, or if any, they are just minimal. (e.g.
cafeteria, prairie, sombrero, siesta, tortilla). In languages like Spanish, however,
foreign words may be gradually accepted through a natural process of adaptation to the
genuine or typical forms of Spanish words. For instance: meeting → mitin; football →
fútbol; leader → líder.
Moreover, it is important to notice that English is a language which has always been
in contact with several or many foreign languages (from those of “invading nations”
–Scandinavian languages or the French language, from “invaded nations” –Aboriginal
languages– or others –Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch...). This means that somehow
English-speaking people have usually been familiar with (words of) foreign languages,
and this has decisively contributed to the adoption of many of these words, usually in
the simplest possible form, as said above.
IV. BRITISH ENGLISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH
A. BRITISH ENGLISH
1. RP

Traditionally, schools and universities in Europe –and in many other parts of the world–
have taught that variety of English often referred to as British English. This means that,
as far as vocabulary and grammar are concerned, a standard variety –that of British
English– has traditionally been learnt by educated people of Wales, Scotland, Northern
Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and elsewhere.
As far as pronunciation is concerned, this statement is more restrictive, since the
Received Pronunciation, the RP accent or standard British pronunciation is only used by
perhaps only 3-5 percent of the population of England. The RP accent has its origins in
the south-east of England, but is currently a social accent associated with the BBC, the
Public Schools of England, prestigious English universities (Oxford, Cambridge...) and
of course with members of the British upper-middle and upper class (including
especially the Queen and Her “Gracious Family”). For this reason, this accent is a social
or prestigious accent, rather than a dialect or linguistic variety located in a particular
region, and it is for this reason too that RP is taught around the globe for teaching the
pronunciation of English.
2. British dialects
Even though the United Kingdom is relatively small, as against countries such as the
USA or Canada, the truth is that there is a great deal of distinct and “conspicuous”
dialects within the United Kingdom: the accent of the lower or working class of London
(also known as Cockney), the accent from Northern England, that of Scotland (from the
Highlands and the Lowlands), that of Northern Ireland or even that of Wales.
Even though today, through education in schools, so-called British English has
decisively contributed to the homogeneity of English throughout the United Kingdom,
as said above, there are significant grammatical features which characterise every
regional variety (not to mention the extraordinary differences in pronunciation). For
example, in the dialect of Northern England, it is frequent to hear the old past-tense
singular forms band, brak, fand, spak instead of the modern standard forms (bound,
broke, found and spoke).
In short, there is such a range of differences between British dialects (especially as
far as pronunciation is concerned) that for instance it is fairly difficult for some native

English speakers (Americans, Canadians...) and extremely difficult for non-native

English speakers to understand some or many of these regional varieties.
3. Plans to regulate English
In the 17th century many scholars began to worry that English had nothing similar to the
French Académie française, that is, a national institution with authority as to the use of
the English language. That is why some renowned grammarians set out to write
compiled manuals which were supposed to be descriptive (stating what people used to
say), prescriptive (stating what people must say) and even proscriptive (stating what
people must not say). They somehow regarded Latin as a language superior to English
and thus claimed that Latin embodied universally valid patterns of logic. These
grammar books did not really catch on, since you could not really force anyone to speak
in a particular way, you could just try to influence people. In other words, you could just
“advise them” about some particular grammatical, phonological... aspects or trends, for
a language is above all a practical tool of communication, not a precise and predictable
machine.
At any rate, today you could say that there is no equivalent to the French Académie
française or to the Spanish Real Academia de la Lengua Española. Of course, this does
not mean that there is no authoritative source to determine what is right and what is
wrong. We could mention the work of prestigious universities, be it through
dictionaries, grammar books, etc. (Oxford, Cambridge [from the UK], or Webster [from
the USA]).
B. AMERICAN ENGLISH
In spite of the great size of the United States, there are only three distinct different
dialects or accents according to most scholars:
1) North-eastern English: in Eastern New England and in New York City;
2) Southern English: in the inland Southern and Lower Southern regions of the USA;
3) and General American: in the other parts of the States.
This means that approximately in two thirds of the United States, people speak one
variety of so-called General American. That is why, it is said that the Standard

American English is General American, as against the North-eastern English and the
Southern English, which are somewhat closer to British English (especially North-
eastern English).
It is interesting to notice the great degree of homogeneity of American English,
considering the vastness of its territory. The thing is that this phenomenon is by no
means a matter of luck. One should bear in mind US History: indeed, the United States
has always been a country of immigrants, and we should keep in mind that it is in
schools that immigrants most frequently pick up the language, and thus are most
influenced by the standard English variety taught by teachers.
On the other hand, one should not neglect the importance of today’s media as a way
to level out dialectical differences across the States (television, radio, newspapers,
magazines, etc.).
Let us now analyse in detail some of the most important differences between British
and American English:
1) Grammar differences:
D. American English E. British English

“He just went home” or “He’s just gone “He’s just gone home.”
home.”
“Do you have a problem?” or “Have you got a “Have you got a problem?”
problem?”
“I’ve never really gotten to know her.” “I’ve never really got to now
her”
“It’s important that he be told.” “It’s important that he should be
told”
“Will you buy it? I may.” “Will you buy it? I may (do).”
“It looks like it’s going to rain.” “It looks as if/like it’s going to
rain.”
“He’s real nice.” (adjectives are often confused “He’s really nice.”
with adverbs, especially in speech)
2) Spelling differences:
USA spelling tends to be more intuitive, logical and straight-forward than British
spelling, which in contrast is rather conservative.

Noah Webster’s work The American Spelling Book (1783) became a household
reference wordbook throughout the United States because of its American origin
and emphasis and its simplification of English spelling. Later on, his An American
Dictionary of the English Language (1828) would become the largest and most
comprehensive dictionary of its day. It would also be the first dictionary to present
distinctly American usage of English.
USA English UK English USA UK English USA UK English

English English
armor armour fetus foetus catalog catalogue
color colour maneuver manoeuvre program programme
flavor flavour defense defence (noun) jewelry jewellery
center centre license licence traveled travelled
meter metre offense offence analyze analyse
(=length)
anesthesia anaesthesia dialog dialogue check cheque
3) Pronunciation differences:
There are quite a lot of phonological differences between British and American English,
so this aspect cannot be properly analysed in this unit; suffice it to say that they are
quite noticeable to English native speakers, as can be somehow reflected through this
modest sample, which illustrates to some extent some of the most notable differences
(see phonological transcription below):
Oh, that dog’s really quick. I couldn’t possibly stop it, no matter how fast I was.
/ou, "D&t "dA:gz "ri:@li "kwIk aI "kUd0nt "pA:s@bli "stA:p It, nou
"m&d@r haU "f&st aI "wA:z/ (standard pronunciation of the US or General
American)
/@U, "D&t "dQgz "rI@lI "kwIk aI "kUd0nt "pQs@blI "stQp It, n@U
"m&t@ haU "fA:st aI "wQz/  (standard pronunciation of Britain or RP)
4) Lexical differences:
One could classify “Americanisms” in four categories, namely:

a) Words which have “survived” in the USA, but not in Britain (or at least they have
become rare or infrequent words in the United Kingdom):
USA UK USA UK USA UK USA UK

fall autumn maybe Perhaps quit/stop stop guess suppose
b) Foreign words taken into the English language in America, which are rather peculiar
to the American dialect, be they from Spanish (Sombrero, hombre, amigo, fiesta),
from French (prairie, rapids), from Indian languages (tomahawk, squaw, moccasin)
or from others. It is important to realise that many of these words which have found
their way into the American dialect have also reached Britain (tomato, potato [from
aboriginal languages], cockroach, tune, mosquito, marihuana, bonanza, cafeteria,
tornado [from Spanish], voodoo [from African languages] or waltz [German]).
c) Words with a new meaning or sense developed in the USA: there are many words in
the States which continue to be used but with a different or additional meaning or
sense from that of the original.
USA ENGLISH for UK ENGLISH for

bad (naughty/nasty), stingy, cereal (seeds of
mean, corn, mad,
maize, angry, insect, any), crazy, bedbug,
bug, pants trousers knickers
d) USA Coinages: words which have been invented in the United States and are
consequently used in the USA, although in many cases, these words are understood
by British or even used by themselves. They can be compounds (cocktail, jackpot,
know-how [all these are known to most English-speaking speakers]), abbreviations
–especially contractions (gas from gasoline [American for petrol], tux from tuxedo
(American for dinner jacket), fan from fanatic [this one is known to all English-
speaking communities], sis [informal for sister], bro [informal for brother], fed
[informal for federal agent], Jap [informal for Japanese], limo [informal for
limousine]).
C. THE BRITISH OPINION TOWARDS OTHER DIALECTS

Famous Anglo-Irish writer George Bernard Shaw used to say, "England and America
are two countries divided by a common language”. In fact, what he said about this
dialect is what many British think about “American English”. The British used to look
upon other dialects as awful deviations of the “original tongue” (especially upon those
dialects from the US). Today, thanks to a major change of attitude of the British, one
could say that most British consider other varieties of English acceptable to them, at
least insofar as they can understand them.
Why is that? First of all, one should bear in mind the work of many notable linguists,
who defended the right of people to speak with their own peculiar features. Although
they did affirm the importance of the use of a standard variety, they thought it wrong to
eliminate all dialect traces. After all, if one could make oneself understood despite one’s
specific accent, why should it be so important to have a perfect “BBC accent”,
especially if one is most proud of one’s origins? In fact, today, it only takes to listen to
the BBC to realise that it is not infrequent to see some correspondents or TV presenters
with a strong regional pronunciation (from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Northern
England...), albeit always with a perfectly intelligible accent.
On the other hand, it is important to notice that today –thanks to the mass media and
television– it is extremely easy to become familiar with the different accents of the
different English-speaking countries of the world (especially British, American and
Australian accents). Therefore, it is relatively easy to develop a high degree of
understanding and tolerance towards other foreign linguistic varieties.
V. OTHER VARIETIES OF ENGLISH
A. AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND ENGLISH
At the time of the British colonisation around the globe, from the 19 th century onwards,
Britain had set out to establish new colonies across the world to carry on with its
expansionist policy and to continue contributing to “the glory of Great Britain and His
Gracious Majesty”. Ever since the British started colonising the almost virgin and
untouched Australian and New Zealander territories, it was quite obvious that they were
to spread their language around the new territories. Therefore, thousands and thousands

of British citizens set off for the “New World”, only this time the New World was not in
America, but in Australia and New Zealand.
However, as they reached these “remote and strange lands” they found that they did
not know how to refer to many things which were very different from those of “the old
continent” –in particular, to the reality of the new fauna and flora, or just did not exist.
Therefore, they just coined new words (e.g. boomerang, dingo, Kangaroo, Koala [from
aboriginal languages] or outback [area far away from cities and towns especially in
almost deserted lands). But they also used English words with a new meaning or sense:
paddock (Standard English for redil, prado cercado, but Australian English for field of
any size for farming), bush (field full of natural bushes or small trees in almost deserted
lands) or (sheep) station (granja o lugar para la cría de ovejas).
Finally it is interesting to know the Australian expression G'day /g@"deI/, which is
colloquial Australian English for hello, and is well known as a stereotypical Australian
greeting. It is worth noting that g'day is not synonymous with the expression good day,
and is never used as an expression for farewell.
It is curious to notice that a very important part of these immigrants were made up of
low-class or working class people from London (in fact, Australia was for long “the
land for British convicts”), which probably contributed decisively to today’s
phonological features of Australian and New Zealand English. This is so true that in fact
no scholar of the Australian dialect would hesitate to state that Cockney (a social variety
of London) is curiously extremely similar to broad Australian and New Zealand accents.
In fact, if one had to describe the main features of these two accents, it would be
interesting to say that they might be at times a little bit complicated to understand, even
for Americans, Canadians... (at least, if faced with a strong Australian or N. Zealand
accent), and hardly intelligible for a non-native English speaker who may not be
accustomed to non-standard varieties of English.
In other words, in Australia and New Zealand there seems to be a significant element
of linguistic variation related to social class: cultivated people are bound to have an
accent which is closer to standard British English, but uncultivated people are bound to
have an accent which is more distant from standard British English, and thus far more
difficult to understand.
Let us illustrate this through the following phonological transcription of an utterance
supposed to be given with a very strong Australian accent and with an RP accent:

My father was driving on the road the other day, when he suddenly hit a motorbike.
/mi "fa:D@ w@z "drOIvIn Qn D@ "r&ud DI "VD@ "daI, wen hI

"sVd0nli "hIt @ "m&ud@%bOik/  (very strong Australian accent)
/maI "fA:D@ w@z "draIvIN Qn D@ "r@Ud DI" VD@ "deI, wen hI
"sVd0nlI "hIt @ "m@Ut@%baIk/  (standard British pronunciation or RP)
On the other hand, Australian and New Zealand English are extremely similar.
Therefore, foreigners can find it hard to distinguish the New Zealand dialect from the
Australian; however, there are significant differences in the pronunciation of vowel
sounds, which are considerably more clipped in New Zealand English (curiously,
Canadians face a similar problem, frequently being mistaken for U.S. Americans by
non-North Americans).
In this way, the main distinguishing sounds are /I/ and /e/, as well as words like
"chance" (with the phoneme /A:/, and not /&/, as occurs in Australian English). Thus:
1) /I/ in New Zealand English is typically pronounced as a schwa [ə]. This means that
an Australian may think to hear “fush and chups” when a New Zealander is actually
saying fish and chips; 2) /e/ in New Zealand English has moved to fill in the space left
by /I/, and typically sounds like /I/ itself to other English speakers. For example, you
may hear New Zealanders talk about having “iggs for brickfast”; 3) The New Zealand
pronunciation of words like "dance" uses /A:/, i.e. /dA:ns/. The most common
Australian pronunciation rhymes however with ants, i.e. /dæns/ (like US English).
B. THE ENGLISH OF INDIA, PAKISTAN AND BANGLADESH
The status of the English language in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is different from
that of countries such as the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada, or Australia, since
English is the native language of the vast majority of the populations in these countries,

but in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh English it is a second language (albeit not a mere
foreign language).
Therefore, English is an indispensable language of communication for educated
people: it is used as an administrative language and even as a frequent language of
spoken communication, as a sort of lingua franca. Why is that? It is essential to
understand that a great deal of languages are spoken in India and Pakistan. Besides,
even speakers of the same language may sometimes struggle to communicate with one
another, because dialects of the same language may be dramatically different.
In short, even though today, English is less and less used in education, the truth is
that everyone accepts in these countries that English is very useful in business, in
scientific research, in international relations, for official purposes, and so on.
C. ENGLISH IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES
Africa is the most multilingual and multicultural area in the world. Thus, there is a large
number of indigenous languages, which “live together” with prestigious international
languages, namely English, French, Portuguese or even Spanish. The status and
situation of the English language in former British colonies is very similar to that of
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. No one doubts today that the use of English as a second
language (not a mere foreign language) is essential for the development of these
countries, for it contributes to facilitating or improving communication within
multilingual or multiethnic countries and even abroad, and even to giving access to
education and culture. Indeed, to many Africans their own aboriginal languages are just
familiar languages, whereas English is regarded as a prestigious language which
facilitates social progress.
Finally, it is interesting to remember the situation of South-Africa, which is
somewhat similar to that of Canada –where two languages are official, namely French
and English. In the former there are two prestigious official European languages
(English and Afrikanns or Cape Dutch) –together with a great deal of aboriginal
languages.
VI. ENGLISH ELEMENTS IN THE SPANISH LANGUAGE

It was the British Empire that originally spread the use and prestige of the English
language around the world. But the British Empire weakened after World War II, and
the American power succeeded that of Britain in world presence.
Through its predominant position in world politics and economy, English has
become a language of reference for many people. But English is also the international
language of scientific research. Likewise, the increasingly powerful English mass media
helps English spreading. Today, it is little wonder that virtually hundreds of English
words have founds their way into most languages of the world; of course, Spanish is no
exception to this strong tendency.
Despite the warnings of linguistic purists, new words of foreign origin are constantly
being coined and usages modified to express new concepts. Spanish vocabulary is
constantly enriched by linguistic borrowings, particularly by words from American
English. Because it is capable of infinite possibilities of communication, the English
language has become the chief international language.
A. THE INFLUENCE OF ENGLISH UPON SPANISH FROM SPAIN
Over the years, English has taken thousands of words from foreign sources. In reality,
this is no strange thing: practically all the languages of the world have been in contact
and are in contact with words from other languages; still, this influence is usually
reciprocal, and comes as a result of a natural process, during which the vocabulary of a
language is constantly being renovated, modified or created (that is, enriched),
especially in order to refer to new things, new realities, for which there was no previous
denomination.
Today, it is unquestioned that English is the language that most influences other
languages. Words such as fútbol, túnel, whisky, mitin, estándar, ignorar (with the
meaning of “overlooking or taking no notice of somebody) are such typical Anglicisms
that no Spaniard really thinks of them as foreign words.
We have all heard sometime comments against these Anglicisms, which people
tend to associate with “forbidden words”, with words to be avoided, and whose use is
often harshly criticised by the Real Academia de la Lengua Española.

Therefore, following this conservative vision, why use English words, if there is a
Spanish word for the same concept? Why make a text difficult to understand with
foreign words which are usually unintelligible for many other people?
So why say things like: “Hazme un back-up”, “¿Has oído hablar del affair de...? or
“No me va bien el business.”. Is it because “Eso suena cool”? Why not say: “Hazme una
copia (de seguridad)”, “¿Has oído hablar del lío de...?, “No me van bien los negocios.”
or “Eso mola/está guay.”
Probably it is not a question of being for or against Anglicisms (they should probably
be accepted as long as they are really necessary). However, a language is first of all a
pragmatic tool of communication. This means that if native speakers developed a taste
for Anglicisms, academicians from la Real Academia de la Lengua Española should
probably accept it sooner or later (they have to accept the evidence ultimately). That is
the reason why academicians from the RAE eventually have had to accept English
words such as golf, hockey, rugby, fútbol, estándar or mitin. This is because
acknowledging actual use of the language is more important than prescribing it.
On the one hand, it seems clear that the problem is partly due to the fact that many
people have not truly developed a “taste for a good use” of the language, and thus are
not really very much concerned about “a proper use” of the language. Yet, instead of
thinking: are Anglicisms good or bad?, we should probably ask ourselves which
Anglicisms are really appropriate or necessary for communicative purposes. Because
sometimes words of foreign origin are necessary to fill the linguistic vacuum of Spanish
(i.e. to talk about certain new concepts), it seems illogical to reject this enriching source.
On the other, a great part of the problem has to do with the fact that, many people are
influenced by what they read in English (journalists, doctors, engineers, etc.), and they
may translate from English to Spanish in a careless or sloppy way; however, it is not
entirely their fault, since today we live in a society where everyone is forced to live at a
brisk pace, and thus there is little time for meticulous or elaborate work. This is
especially serious if you have to make a living as a writer, translator, a journalist or a
TV or radio presenter; that is, if you are going to be heard or read by thousands or
millions people, since people are really influenced by what they hear or read all the
time. That is why it seems very important for everyone to develop a critical sense of
the language.

B. CLASSIFICATION OF ANGLICISMS
It does not seem easy to make a classification but we have divided the different types
into several possible categories. This is just one of the many possible classifications:
bare Anglicisms, Anglicisms in process of adaptation, Anglicisms assimilated, calques,
semantic calques, and syntactic Anglicisms.
a) Bare Ang1icisms
These are words or expressions that keep in Spanish the original English spelling, and to
some extent, the original English pronunciation. For example: living, golf, round,
slogan or club.
These Anglicisms are very numerous, and from the view of purists of the language,
they are a major risk for the language.
2) Ang1icisms in process of adaptation

Sometimes their written form and pronunciation have been adapted to the conditions or
spelling patterns of Spanish. The Real Academia de la Lengua Española strongly
supports this type of Anglicisms, rather than bare Anglicisms.
We can see it in such an example as "futbof' , which has non-standard pronunciation
such as "fúrbol' or 'fulbo", both showing a higher degree of adaptation.
Typical examples of this type of Anglicisms are filme or folclore.
3) Ang1icisms assimilated
There are Anglicisms in Spanish which have become true Spanish words. Because they
have been used for long and look like ordinary Spanish words, native speakers may
even think they are genuine Spanish words. Such words are: raíl, túnel, chutar, norte,
sur, este or oeste.
4) Calques

Calques are loan translations in which the syntactic structure of a borrowed construction
is maintained, but its morphemes are replaced by those of the native language. These
adaptations correspond with concepts not well-known or unknown by the translator.
Some examples are:
-Conductismo/behaviourismo for behaviourism
-Hombre fuerte for strong man
-Fin de semana for weekend
-Luna de miel for honey moon
-Piel roja for redskin
-Saque de esquina for corner
-El Hombre de la calle for the man on the street
Many of these examples have come into Spanish through journalism and they are
called "lucky metaphors".
5) Semantic Calques
They are words of Spanish origin which have changed their meaning or adopted a
new "foreign" meaning by influence of English. That is the case of:
-Romance meaning love affair (Spanish for amorío)
-Héroe meaning main character (Spanish for protagonista)
-Audiencia meaning audience (Spanish for auditorio)
-Conferencia meaning conference (Spanish for asamblea, congreso)
-Ignorar meaning to deliberately pay no attention to something/somebody (Spanish for
to not know)
6) Syntactic Anglicisms
Examples of this category are: drogadicto (it would have seemed more logical to say
adicto a las drogas), fiber optic, autorradio, sábado noche...
C. THE INFLUENCE OF ENGLISH UPON SPANISH FROM LATIN AMERICA
It is obvious that the influence of the USA upon Latin America is even stronger than
upon Spain due to a matter of closeness. On the other hand, it is important to realise that

“Spanish from Spain” is certainly different from “American Spanish”. Therefore, one
should not be appalled by many expressions or words from Latin American Spanish
(pibe, chavo, chévere, maní) or grammatical differences (“Me lo dijo luego de platicar
con ustedes [= con vosotros].”), given that, even though everyone agrees on the
statement that we all share the same language, there are significant differences.
That is why, for Spaniards it is really difficult to judge which Latin American
“Anglicisms” are to be considered reprehensible and which are not. For example, notice
the use of the following words by Spanish-speaking people living in the USA: grocerías
(which obviously comes from groceries, and is English for productos (de la tienda de
ultramarinos) or molestar (which comes from to molest, which is English for abusar de
[alguien] in a sexual way). You may argue this linguistic variety is “Spanglish”, not
Spanish, and indeed it is. However, it is just the ordinary way of speaking to them, and
that is Spanish anyway. So the key question that arises is to what extent these words are
reprehensible, when almost everyone there speaks that way.
Consider also the Latin American word reporte, which obviously comes from
English report or the word ordenar (when you order your meal at a restaurant [in Spain,
we say pedir]). Are they unacceptable Anglicisms or are they just ordinary words (taken
from English)? As a Spaniard, you may think they are unacceptable, but the truth is that
they are totally acceptable to many Latin Americans, if not all.
In other words, it is important to be cautious as to what is reprehensible and what is
not in Latin America, since there could be some unacceptable Anglicisms in some
American countries from our Spanish point of view, but not from that of the people
living in Latin America.
VII. CONCLUSIONS
It is important for us teachers to deepen the origins and the main features of the English
language, to know which countries make up the “English-speaking world”, and to be
aware of the main differences between the main English dialects (that is, at least British
English and American English).
On the other hand, we teachers have the task of explaining some of the main
differences between American and British English to our students, so that they can

realise that it is normal that dialects of the same language somehow differ, just as
happens to the Spanish language (which differs considerably according to its different
dialects). It is also important that they gradually become familiar with the English-
speaking world, that is, they should know where English is spoken, why English is
nowadays so important or even in which ways English is used across the world.
Finally, it is necessary to sensitise students about the existence of Anglicisms, which
may be reprehensible or not, depending on whether they are really necessary, or even
depending on actual use, for even la Real Academia de la Lengua Española is bound to
accept Anglicisms which everyone says already.

VIII. BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Blecua, José: Revolución en la Lingüística, Barcelona, Salvat, 1973.

- Encyclopaedia Britannica, CD version of 1994.
- Fowler, Roger: Understanding Language, London, Routledge and Reality, London,
1956.
- Malmberg, Bertil: La lengua y el Hombre, Madrid, Istmo, 1970.
- Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopaedia 2001. © 1993-2000 Microsoft Corporation.
- www.wikipedia.org/
-Alfaro, R.J. El anglicismo en español contemporáneo. Bol. Del Instituto: Caro y
Cuervo. IV. 1984
-International English, a Guide to varieties of Standard English, Peter Trudgill and Jean
Hannah, 1994, 3rd edition.


66 Antonio 2

Cargado por

Información del documento

Título original

Derechos de autor

Formatos disponibles

Compartir este documento

Compartir o incrustar documentos

Opciones para compartir

¿Le pareció útil este documento?

¿Este contenido es inapropiado?

Copyright:

Formatos disponibles

66 Antonio 2

Cargado por

Copyright:

Formatos disponibles

66. Dimensión cultural de la anglofonia en el mundo actual. El inglés británico y el inglés americano.

Dimensión cultural de la anglofonia

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 0

II. ENGLISH IN THE WORLD

III. ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS………...………...

IV. BRITISH ENGLISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH…….

V. OTHER VARIETIES OF ENGLISH………………………

VI. ENGLISH ELEMENTS IN THE SPANISH LANGUAGE.

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 1

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 2

II. ENGLISH IN THE WORLD

Therefore, it is important to notice that English can be used in many countries:

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 3

III. ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS

English belongs to the Indo-European family of languages, and is therefore related to

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 4

However, English belongs specifically to the sub-family of Germanic languages (like

B. MAIN LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 5

Chinese English Spanish German

Plural: die Männer (nomin./acus.), der

Chinese is an uninflected language, and therefore has no additional grammatical

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 6

work = trabajo (noun), trabajar (verb), de trabajo (adjective);

Due to the afore-mentioned flexibility of function, English adopts foreign words or

IV. BRITISH ENGLISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 7

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 8

English speakers (Americans, Canadians...) and extremely difficult for non-native

3. Plans to regulate English

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 9

D. American English E. British English

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 10

USA English UK English USA UK English USA UK English

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 11

USA UK USA UK USA UK USA UK

USA ENGLISH for UK ENGLISH for

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 12

V. OTHER VARIETIES OF ENGLISH

A. AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND ENGLISH

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 13

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 14

/mi "fa:D@ w@z "drOIvIn Qn D@ "r&ud DI "VD@ "daI, wen hI

B. THE ENGLISH OF INDIA, PAKISTAN AND BANGLADESH

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 15

C. ENGLISH IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES

VI. ENGLISH ELEMENTS IN THE SPANISH LANGUAGE

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 16

A. THE INFLUENCE OF ENGLISH UPON SPANISH FROM SPAIN

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 17

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 18

2) Ang1icisms in process of adaptation

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 19

C. THE INFLUENCE OF ENGLISH UPON SPANISH FROM LATIN AMERICA

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 20

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 21

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 22

- Blecua, José: Revolución en la Lingüística, Barcelona, Salvat, 1973.

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 23

También podría gustarte