English in Scotland and Wales
ABOUT HISTORY, PRESENT LINGUISTIC SITUATION AND LEXIS
OF ENGLISH IN BOTH COUNTRIES
WALES
A.HISTORY
It was in 1066 that the
Welsh population came in touch with the English language for the first time.
This was the beginning of a period, lasting up to now, where the influence
of English on Welsh has permanently increased. In 1284 Edward I.,king of
England, established the English law in Wales by the "Statute of Rhuddlan".
He declared Wales to be principaly of the English throne in 1301 and his
son as "Prince of Wales", which was made an hereditary title.
Besides Edward built a lot of castles in Wales, where colonists
settled down. These villages and the bigger towns became the basis
for the spread of the English language.
The actual anglicising of Wales began not till 1485 when Henry Tudor, who
was of noble, Welsh birth, became king of England as Henry VII.
Consequentely Welsh nobility moved to the court in London and
English became a prestigious language. In 1536 and 1543 Wales got
formally annexed to England by the "Acts of Union of England and Wales".
The former act announced English to be the official language in Wales,
but it reached only the upper classes. It lasted until the second half
of the 19th century that English supersed Welsh.
There are two main reasons for this development.
Firstly English became teaching language, even in primary school-
and secondly industrialisation spread over the country.
Therefore a lot of entrepreneurs moved to Wales and with them the
workers came. Suddenly it became an important criterion to speak English
to find a job. During the 20th century the decline of Welsh continued.
Because of mobility, movings because of economic crisis and the
influence of English media English was established.
B.THE PRESENT LINGUISTIC SITUATION
Since 1942 Welsh is legally acknowledged in the "Welsh Courts Act".
That means that an offender, who is only Welsh speaker has the chance to
have his case handled in Welsh.
A balance of the two languages has not been achieved yet and English
remains the standard means of communication, whereby
Standard English is the model. In reality many varieties do exist.
Particulary pronunciation differs, because it is definitely
influenced and charactrized by Welsh features.
C.LEXIS
As I have just mentioned, the influence of Welsh on the English language
led to several varieties of the English language. The most popular is
called Welsh (Standard) English.
It is characterized by loan-words, proper phrases or idioms and altered
meanings.
EXAMPLES are:
"eisteddfod", "cwn" /ku:m/ which means short valley
"to pull a photograph" instead of taking a photograph
"tidy" means good, nice=> "He's got a tidy bit of money"
A very special feature is the use of "look you", which
simply has a filling function or is comparable to
"you know".
Nowadays many people are proud of their Welsh language, it is a
symbol of their nationality.
SCOTLAND
A.HISTORY
The initial influence of English in Scotland was caused by Englishmen
who fled from Normans towards the north in 1066. The pressure on
the Scottish language, Gaelic, grew as the Scottish kings
gave the right to hold land in the Lowlands to the Norman nobility.
They brought their English speaking servants, who moved later to the
cities (bourghs). Like in Wales those cities became the foundation of
the influence of English in Scotland.
Gaelic mainly resisted in the Highlands and on some islands.
The kind of English that developed from these circumstances was
called SCOTS.
But since the 16th century Standard English became the prestigious language.
This happened because of several reasons. Firstly the English literature
had a great influence on the Scottish one. In the course of the
reformation the English bible became popular in Scotland. In comparison
to this, there existed a bible in Welsh English since 1588.
And a lot of other English written books flood over Scotland.
In 1603 Scotland and England were unified by Jakob I., king
of both countries. In 1707 THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN was
constituted. England soon developed to be the dominating part
and Scots was loosened by Standard English.
But naturally the both languages got in touch with each other, and
a certain mixture was created. This kind (Standard Scottish English)
carries particular features in pronunciation and lexis and exists
also in different varieties.
B.PRESENT LINGUISTIC SITUATION
There is a coexistence of Scots and Scottish Standard English
nowadays. Of both exist certain varieties that are dependent on the
particular speaking situation, on the region and on the social background.
Scottish Standard English (SSE) is defined as Standard English (SE) with
a Scottish
accent. It differs of SE particulary in pronunciation, less in Lexis and
at least in Grammar. SSE cetainly dominates, but the landed gentry
prefers the pure Standard English version.
It was not till 1982 that the bible was translated into Scots.
A step that found great feed-back.
In 1991 it was found that only 1,4% of the children elder than 3 years
were able to speak Gaelic. Since 1975 politics promotes bilingualism
and Gealic was announced to be official language in schools and
administration. It is spoken in families, in church and with friends,
and even a special radio programme exists. But nevertheless
the educated Scottish people do speak a form (SSE)of Standard English.
C.LEXIS
In written language a special terminology exists, espacielly concerning
terms of law and education. The reason therefore is, that Scotland could
keep a certain autonomy on these fields. The solicitor is a "law agent"
and the barrister is an "advocate". There are a lot of loan words
of French, Gaelic, or Norse origin, like "ben" (= mountain peak),
"loch" (=lake), "feu" (=loan), "caddy", "kirk" (=church); but most of the SSE
vocabularies are of English origin. Often they do not exist in English
any more or they do have altered meanings. Also new words
and idioms were created, e.g. the suffix -ie (or -y) was added.
This suffix expresses that the speaker is closely related to the
subject of his speach. Examples are "pinkie", what means little finger,
or "postie" for postman. "How are you keeping" means how are you
and a "kirkman" is a member of the Church (of Scotland!!!).
Finally one can say that Scottish English is really a proper variety
of English and it is difficult to be understood.
REFERENCES:
- Hanson, K.,u.a. Die Differenzierung des Englischen
in nationale Varianten: Eine Einfuehrung. Berlin 1996.
- Trudgill, P. and Jean Hannah. International English:
A Guide to Varieties of Standard English. London 1985.