Global English and World Englishes From an Evolutionary Perspective: A Rejoinder to Anna Kristina Hultgren

Salikoko S Mufwene

doi:10.35360/njes.582

Abstract

The terms Global English and World Englishes reflect two opposite imperial perspectives. The first highlights the success of the British Empire in spreading the language of England to various corners of the world, whereas the second subverts the race-based hierarchy that the European imperial history has added to the speciation that ensued from the geographical spread of English. Kachru (1982, 2017) captured the prestige-laden stratification that has become associated with this differential evolution of English with the opposition “Inner Circle” vs. “Outer Circle” vs “Expanding Circle”, with the latter two apparently merging into one powerless Circle, while speakers of the Inner Circle claim their varieties to be "native" and the only authentic ones. In this commentary, I capitalize on this historical background to explain why Anna Kristina Hultgren is correct in using the term “Red Herring” to characterize the misidentification of English as the cause of social injustice relative to those who do not use it as a mother tongue.

Highlights

The terms Global English and World Englishes reflect two opposite imperial perspectives
Associated directly or indirectly with colonization, the initial actuator of the spread of English around the world, the terms Global English and World Englishes have increased in currency since the 1980s
This increase is connected to the ever-growing invocations of worldwide globalization in the discourse on language endangerment and loss (LEL) in linguistics since the 1990s, the relevant literature has not been so informative on the actual causes of these processes (Mufwene 2017a)

Summary

Introduction

The terms Global English and World Englishes reflect two opposite imperial perspectives. The first highlights the success of the British Empire in spreading the language of England to various corners of the world, helped significantly by the dominance of the United States since the early 20th century as a superpower militarily, economically, and in Mufwene, Salikoko S.

Results

Conclusion