Creole

Creoles

In Jamaica an English passed Creole is spoken which represents a history where two languages were contacted through speech with different linguistic, ethnic and social backgrounds.

In the Jamaican language there are several common phonological features as there are in the transcription too, deletion is common in the Jamaican language as you can see they say ‘laik’ rather than like another example would be when they say ‘nau’ rather than now. Deletion is where the vowels are removed from the end of the word this changes to sound of the word so much that if you were to say it in any other area people may not understand what you are saying.

Due to Jamaican being unstable Creole there is no standard way of writing it for example in the text he says ‘Den’ one minute and then ‘dem’ the next, with both words meaning them it is clear to see that there is no standard way of spelling however the  misspelt words to indicate accents.

Missing consonant clusters are also present within the transcript for example when they say ‘memba’ rather than remember and ‘taak’ rather than talk, this is due to the change in accent.

Creole

An English-based creole language is a creole language that was considerably influenced by the English language. Most English creoles were formed in British colonies, following the great expansion of British naval military power and trade in the 17th,18th and 19th centuries.

Jamaican Patois (Jamican creole) is different from Jamaican Standard English (this is a dialect of English). The creole is an english based creole language which is spoken in Jamaica. Jamaican creoles are formed from several different speakers coming from many different backrounds such as; ethnic, linguistic and social backrounds. It was fiorst inttroduced into America due to the migration of the farm hands and it is related to dialects which are very similar to each other. It is the dominant Language in Jamaica and is slowly gaining prestige.

International Phonetic Alphabet

The international phonetic alphabet was created by the International Phonetic Association to standardize spoken language is primarily based on the latin alphabet, it is an alphabetic system based on phonetic notation of latin. 


IPA symbols are composed of one or more elements of two basic types, letters and diacritics.
Slashes are often used to signal broad phonemic transcription.
It is used in dictionaries to help pronounce the words.

It has often been used to has often been used as a  basis for helping to create writings systems written languages which previously didn't exist.

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one on the right represents a voiced consonant, while the one on the left is unvoiced. Shaded areas denote articulations judged to be impossible.

Late Modern English

When comparing the essay to Modern contemporary English we can use key language features such as lexis, grammar and orthography to help find the differences between late modern English and Modern contemporary English.
In terms of lexis many words were added to the English language in this period due to Industrial revolution. As you can see from the text many key words used for factories are present for example the word ' threadbare' sounds like it comes from the industrial revolution. Scientific words were also added to the English language through coinage and neologism, during this period a few of these are present in the text such as 'observed' and 'nauseous', this is due to the development of science which took place around this period. As well as scientific words and other new words being created loan words are also being introduced to the English Language.  This is due to England becoming to come in contact with other countries and cultures through things such as trade and travelling.  An example of this within the text would be ‘cultivated’. Loan words are quite popular in this period however we are still borrowing words from other countries today such as ‘cab’ for taxi which is originally from America.

Orthographically the texts are very similar with inflections being lost in the late modern period it makes the two texts more similar. During this period vowels and consonants became more established for example where U and V were less interchangeable in Middle English they are now separated into a vowel (u) and a consonant (v).  

Grammatically the two texts are very similar with an increase in literacy, books and public libraries in the 18^th century the English language was becoming more standardised. Within the text grammar is used correctly such as ‘rational hearers, and’ and ‘affectation, and not to the want of understanding.’

It is clear to see that the text is written in the late modern period due to the lexis and grammar used, however it is still very similar to contemporary English.

What differences can you identify between Caxtons English and modern standard English?

Whilst studying The Preface of Eneydos by William Caxton I have compared two language features (Lexis and Grammar) to compare to modern Standard English.

In early modern English V and U were not considered as two distinct letters, they were different forms of the same letter. For example in the text the word ‘vnderftonden’ meaning understood the V is in the place of the U. the V was used at the beginning of the word however and the U was used elsewhere.

Inflections such as the silent ‘e’ were used in this period at the end of words. When this inflection took place the consonant before this were sometimes present. An example of this in text would be ‘englysshe’ the ‘s’ has been duplicated with the inflection ‘e’ added on the end. Inflections began to simplify as they moved towards their modern forms.

In terms of orthography and lexis in early modern English it remains quite similar to English today, however the spelling in early modern English was non phonetic as well as being unstable. This is shown in the text where is says ‘ded do’ actually meaning ‘did do’.

In early modern English there were two main second person personal pronouns 'thou' which was an informal singular pronoun and 'ye' which was the plural pronoun as well as the formal singular pronoun. Despite ' thou' being one of the main personal pronouns the use of it was beginning to die down and was mainly used to address God. Many of the pronouns used in early modern English are the same as they are today with 'my' and 'our' which are both present in Caxton’s text.

Commas are used quite often in this text which is unusual as there is supposedly a lack of them in early modern English however they are used several times within the text for example ‘certaynly, it is harder’.

In comparison to early modern English and Modern standard English the main differences are lexical changes with orthographic features such as inflections, and spelling.

Early Modern English - Journal of George Fox

From looking at the text from The Journal of George Fox I discovered that it was written in the period of Early Modern English. The first language constituent I have decided to talk about is Orthography.
The Orthography of Early Modern English is quite similar to what it is today however there are a few differences such as the spelling in Early Modern English  a lot of it was unphonetic unstable. An example of an unphonetic word used in the text would be 'Bloode' and 'bleade' these examples contain a silent ‘e’; these were often placed at the ends of words. In the second person ‘ye’ is used regularly this is now replaced by the word; you/your/yours.
With England gaining more contacts from around the world, this meant new words were beginning to enter the English Language along with the intervention of printing meaning English as a language would become more standardised and common language in print, as printing became more popular books became cheaper giving more people an chance to learn how to read. As the language became standardised spelling and grammar became fixed. With most of the publishing houses being in London, the dialect from London became the standard.
The main difference between EME and LME is vocabulary, in English today we have many more words this is through many factors such as, immigrants, technology, wars ect, because of these factors English today includes loan words from countries like France, Italy and Spain with words such as; France – ticket, duel and volunteer. Spain – armada. All of the factors above expand the English language making it even more different form Early Modern English.

Punk

PUNK

Process  - Semantic Change, Mild Amelioration And Broadening.
Reasons - Reflection of dissapproval, Once meant a criminal or a thug however is now used to define a music genre.
Denotation - Trouble maker, Criminal; Individual
Connotation - Punk rocker with abnormal behaviour. Stands out from the crowd.