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20 August 2007
Expert Discusses Evolving Nature of the English Language
USINFO Webchat transcript, August 20
Ilan Stavans, a professor at Amherst College in Massachusetts, discussed the evolving nature of the English language in an August 20 USINFO Webchat. Stavans is widely known as an international cultural critic, linguist, translator, public speaker, editor, short-story writer and TV host.
Following is the transcript:
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eJournal USA, Dynamic English Contributor Ilan Stavans
Guest: Ilan Stavans
Date: August 20, 2007
Time: 9:00 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT)
Question [Saul Murillo]: Is that possible that in the future spanglish should become a language?
If that so, according to the statistics how many years approximately will pass?
Answer [Ilan Stavans]: Hola! I’m pleased to engage in a discussion on the elasticity of English, in particular on the phenomenon of Spanglish, its history, its multifaceted existence, the likely road it will navigate in the future.
Even though languages evolved slowly, over a period of centuries, that speed is faster today as a result of technological advances. The Internet, for instance, spreads words quickly in minuscule fractions of time. History being so capricious, I’m reluctant to predict if Spanglish will become a full-fledge language, with a standard grammar and syntax. But recent developments show that Spanglish is more than a passing phenomenon limited to a single generation of Spanish-language immigrants to the United States. After more than 150 years, it is flourishing all across the country as well as in different parts of the Hispanic world.
Moderator [Armen Krasnov asks]: Dear Mr. Stavans, I have a question regarding the assimilation of the Latino immigrants in the USA. Not long ago I was watching a program called "Think Tank" on the VOA where the programs' host was debating this issue with the U.S. official in the House of Representative. This man Mr. Branar (not sure about the name spelling) who was originally the champion of the bilingual education. Later he radically changed his mind, even published a book "One Nation One Standard" in which he dealt with the hurdles of this so-called bilingual education. So, my question is will the U.S. government be able to preserve the English language as we know it and speak it nowadays? And what should be done to produce the turnaround in the attitude of young Latinos who persist in maintaining themselves segregated, and as a consequence do not want to learn English?
Thank You in advance for your responses. I am a teacher of English myself and I am very much interested in learning about the way this language is developing in the world.
Yours sincerely, Armen Krasnov.
A [Ilan Stavans]: Even though governments like to believe they have a role in the shaping and preservation of language, the truth is that people engage in communication according to their needs. Those needs aren’t defined from above; instead, they are the result of spontaneous forces. Obviously, the U.S. government has a stake in safeguarding English as the national language. But I doubt the more than 43 million Latinos will abandon Spanish, and Spanglish, because the U.S. government says so. This is not to say, of course, that English won’t become their primary form of communication. My view is that Spanglish has a role in the future not at the expense of English but at its side.
Q [Tam2]: Hi, I'd like to take part in this conversation about the English language. I'm an English teacher in Yakutsk. I have many considerations on the topic about the English language. For example, I find it interesting -- just as a one example -- to follow how local learning English prefer to copy an American accent rather than the British one.
Apart from just an accent, do you think there are any significant differences between the two variations, if it's appropriate to say so, of English? Thank you.
A [Ilan Stavans]: English thrives globally as a result of its flexibility. The emulation of the U.S. variety is the result of the domination of American culture everywhere. This variety isn’t better or worse than the Australian, British, Canadian, etc.; it is simply more ubiquitous.
Q [Naimat Ullah Khan - LC Karachi]: Spanish and French languages are major contributors to this dynamic English standard. Where did the Urdu and Arabic stands in this context?
A [Ilan Stavans]: All living languages are in constant change. Their growth depends on the dialectical connection they establish with other languages. As a result of the presence of Arab immigrants in the U.S. today, the English language is likely to absorb elements from it and vice versa. And the quest of U.S. citizens (soldiers and civilians) in the Arab world will also generate a dialogue between the languages. The same might be said of other tongues, including Urdu.
In this context, Spanish is crucial north of the Rio Grande nowadays because Latinos are already the largest minority in the U.S., close to 45 million. The number is astonishing when one considers that the total population of Canada is less than that.
Q [Naimat Ullah Khan - LC Karachi]: The adaptability of English is global, and this refer LINGUA FRANCA to English. But still English is parted by two main categories, an American Thesaurus and British Thesaurus. This also has impacted widely on English Literature in a whole. Do you really think this is a healthy trend for Unified English.
A [Ilan Stavans]: The biblical episode of the Tower of Babel is significant. It functions as a cautionary tale against unified languages. As globalism takes hold, imperial languages (English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Portuguese, etc.) are at the mercy of opposing forces: they strive toward unification while they also become fragmented into multiple units. It is utopian to believe that English speakers worldwide will use the exact same language at any given point.
Q [IRC Antananarivo]: Good morning: I am Ms. Raharinjanahary Berthine from Madagascar: In Madagascar it is the young people who generally coin new words is it the same case in the U.S.? How fast is this evolution of the English language and what impact does it have on other people outside the U.S. who speak English as well? Thanks.
A [Ilan Stavans]: Younger speakers are always more liberal in their use of language, whereas older people tend to be more conservative. Something similar applies to nations as living entities. The U.S. is a relatively young country, with a dynamic popular culture. Music, radio, TV, movies, and the Internet are channels where English is in constant movement. These, of course, are also "evangelical" tools through which the gospel of American English is spread around the world.
Q [ACKG]: Hello, Mr. Stavans! As I'm very interested in evolving nature of the language, English especially, what really got to me is the creation of that hybrid language. Tell me where can I read more about it?
A [Ilan Stavans]: I've written two books on the topic: "Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language" (HarperCollins, 2003) and "Dictionary Days: A Defining Passion" (Graywolf, 2005). Next month I will publish another volume: "Love and Language" (Yale University Press), where I explore the way the concept of love changes from one culture to another.
Q [adolatkal]: Dear Mr. Ilan Stavans, I think that even sitting so far in the Central Asian country like Uzbekistan and smoothly shifting from the English of BANA countries to the English as an International language, it is very interesting to know some backgrounds of the online interactions and namely the qualitative and quantitative ones. I think this process will be like acquisitions and mergers in business world. Best regards, Mrs. Halima, MBA emeritus professor.
Can later comment incorporating a live-case study about linguistic hybrids emerged recently in Central Asia.
Q [adolatkal]: As an ESP teacher in Uzbekistan I often encounter students who has little knowledge about diverse varieties of English. I wonder how Spanglish is treated by sociolinguists?
A [Ilan Stavans]: The phenomenon of Spanglish is quite controversial, especially among specialists. That controversy changes depending on the linguistic sphere one finds oneself in. In the Spanish-speaking world, Spanglish is seen by some as a threat to Spanish, but others approach it proof of its adaptability in the 21st century. Anti-American voices suggest it is a way for U.S. imperialism to water down Hispanic civilization. Within the U.S., the controversy has a different tenor. There are those who see Spanglish as evidence that Latino immigrants are not becoming Americans the way previous immigrants did whereas others point to it as a sign that Hispanic culture is revolutionalizing American culture as a whole.
Q [elsa2]: Dear Mr. Stavans, I am a translator from the north of Argentina, my question is how do we solve the very important problem of translating a language that is changing so fast, especially in the U.S.?
A [Ilan Stavans]: Translators are heroic figures. To be successful, they need to be attuned to the two languages: the one they are translating from, and the receiving one. When it comes to English, the pursuit might be maddening, such is the speed with which Shakespeare's tongue mutates. The solution, I believe, is to be daring, innovative in one's own tongue, to improvise, perhaps even to coin new terms.
Q [Liliana]: I am Liliana Anglada from Argentina. I teach English and I have noticed that down here we adapt English so that sometimes what we say sounds English but is nowhere near what a native speaker would ever say (e.g. "Explain me the issue" -- in oral discourse -- or "I consider the government is not acting properly" --in written discourse). What is your stance on this notion of "world Englishes"? Do you think that there will come a day when the Englishes spoken in different regions of the world will become so different that English will cease to be a "lingua franca"?
A [Ilan Stavans]: English is the second most-frequently spoken language in the world (after Mandarin). The role that newcomers (students, tourists, etc.) have in it is important, reinvigorating it. The concept of "Lengua Franca" has to be understood dynamically. Its users, even those that are native, never embrace the exact same language. As the language changes, often as a result of newcomers, so do it speakers.
Q [adolatkal]: Dear Ilan, I read online articles about marketing of English with great interest. Many Asian researchers are arguing today about Products and Services in the English language acquisition mentioning always opposite terms like "Empowerment or Disenfranchisement?" What is your opinion? Will English and Spanglish be commodities for manufacturing diverse tailored products due customers needs or will we get in the future only copied materials from BANA countries and our quasi leaders as liasons/promoters of multiple NGOs providing these products and services about nothing relevant and valuable for target audience at this buzzing knowledgeable time?
Best wishes,
ESP professional,
Halima.
A [Ilan Stavans]: In the last five years, Spanglish has become an important marketing tool in the U.S. Companies like Taco Bell, Hallmark, and Mountain Dew, to mention only a handful, are embracing it as a way to reach a new type of customers. This embrace is in turning allowing Spanglish to grow, injecting it with a feeling of empowerment. Is it also disenfranchising other customers? Perhaps but in a global economy companies seeks diverse ways to advertise their products and those ways often include an array of linguistic possibilities.
Q [elsa2]: Dear Mr. Stavans, my name is Elsa, and I am a translator from Argentina. Considering that translation should be not for a reduced number of people, but for massive numbers, my question is how do we translate and solve the problem of local ways of speaking, when you are not living in the area?
A [Ilan Stavans]: The tension between the local and the global, the particular and the universal, is at the core of the translator's quest, especially the one engaged with literary texts. The characters in a novel seldom use a standard language to communicate; they personalize the language, adapting it to their needs. In other words, they make it local. A good translator is also an ethnolinguist, capable of recreating the various registers of a tongue.
Q [Naimat Ullah Khan - LC Karachi]: Did South East Asian Languages found any place in this Dynamic English?
A [Ilan Stavans]: The mixing of Chinese and English, Korean and English, Japanese and English, Vietnamese and English, are worldwide phenomena. And within the U.S., Asian immigrants are embracing English as their language of communication while also infusing it with their own linguistic modalities. No doubt English in the 21st centuries will suck from the Asian constellation of languages in unforeseen ways.
Q [adolatkal]: Dear Ilan, I think that emerging of a new hybrid will get a butterfly effect. Even in Uzbekistan we have to think more careful about the staffing and faculty' members at the elite tertiary educational institutions. Of course, we must have more specialists with knowledge of mostly spread languages in the world. The historical question beginning 'Sprechen’. Do you -- must sound like this: "How many today's relevant languages do you speak?" - Mrs. Halima, IHRM professor.
Q [IRC Antananarivo]: Hello, Rahariseheno Domoina: What is the relationship between the evolution of English language and the content of the English teaching at school in general? Thank you.
A [Ilan Stavans]: It is a mistake to think of the English taught in the classroom as divorced from the living English, the one heard on the street, in restaurants, on TV and music. Teachers have the responsibility to introduce students to the wide array of possibilities of a language, even when the students are just beginners. In a multiethnic society like ours, it is important to use different linguistic varieties as education tools.
Thanks to all the participants for the insightful questions. It's exciting to engage in a discussion of English as a dynamic force in such simultaneous fashion, talking to people from around the world. Apologies: there are fascinating questions I was simply unable to respond because of time constraints. In any event, Spanglish is playing a global role. That role will likely become more influential as time goes by. Hasta la vista, baby!
Moderator: We wish to thank Ilan Stavans for joining us today. The webchat is now closed. Please visit our USINFO Webchat Station homepage for more information on upcoming events and a transcript of today’s discussion (posted within one business day).
This USINFO webchat coincides with the Electronic Journal series on Dynamic English, to which Stavans has contributed two articles. To view our eJournal online, please visit eJournal USA, "Dynamic English".
(Guests are chosen for their expertise. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of State.)
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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
