International Standard English or 'Singlish'?

In her well-researched and eloquently written book, titled 'The Postcolonial Identity of Sri Lankan English', Professor Manique Gunesekera writes: "The status of English in Sri Lanka highlights the struggle for a national identity."

In writing thus, Prof. Gunesekera summarises the birth and growth of diverse varieties of Englishes, without doubt, as a post-colonial phenomenon. English was the language of the coloniser.

English was introduced first to Sri Lanka as it was to the other British colonies around the world, as a vital appendage of the British colonial rule. Even the most ignorant farmer in a remote village in the Hambantota district had to know English to understand a judgement against his life as illustrated by Leonard Woolf, the former British Civil Servant in his novel, "The Village In The Jungle". English was indeed the language of the coloniser and the only medium to record administrative rules and judgements in the colony.

World Englishes

The spread of English across the continents is unique compared to other languages of the world. By now, English is spoken by about forty per cent of the world's population as the first language or the second language.

At first the widely held perception of hierarchical order of Standard English in the English-speaking world was that of parent (Britain) and children ('the colonies'). Now the British English is considered as one of the verieties of World Englishes with its distinct vocabulary and pronunciation. The existence of diverse varieties of Englishes was recognised as far back as in 19th century.

The John Jamieson's Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language published in 1808, among other things, identifies variations between the Scottish variety of English and English of England.

Some of the dictionaries such as John Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms published in 1848 identify how heterogeneous varieties of Englishes emerged across the Atlantic. The multivolume Oxford English Dictionary (1884-1928) documented not only words of British English but also words from diverse varieties of Englishes such as from Australasia, Asia, Africa and North America.

However, it was during the 1980s and 1990s that information regarding the dynamic proliferation of regional varieties of Englishes emerged. Five specialised dictionaries detailing out regional Englishes were published.

They include The Australian National Dictionary (1988), A Dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles (1996), A Dictionary of Caribbean Usage (1996), The Canadian Oxford Dictionary (1997) and The Dictionary of New Zealand English (1998).

In a well-documented book entitled "World Englishes: implications for international communication and English Language Teaching ", internationally renowned linguist, Andy Kirkpatrick spells out the implications and the challenges posed by world Englishes in English Language Teaching.

The book, among other things, questions the notion of native and non-native speakers of English and the effectiveness of the English language teaching in developing countries by a native speaker of English.

Kirkpatrick states that native Englishes and Indigenised Englishes have all developed by natural restructuring processes. He has cited Mufwene: "Native Englishes, Indigenized Englishes and English pidgins and creoles have all developed by the same kind of natural restructuring processes".

Bloomfield (1933) defines a native language as" one learns on one's mother's knee, and claims that no one is perfectly sure in a language that is acquired later. 'The first language a human being learns to speak is his native language; he is a native speaker of that language".

However, Kirkpatrick dismisses this view stating that individuals, who learnt language other than their native tongues, speak English better than their native languages.

International English

One of the important steps towards globalization of English or the emergence of English as a lingua franca was the establishment of the first English-speaking colonies in North America in 1607.

At the time the American colonies were established, British English was only partially standardised. Since the newly established colonies were isolated from each other by the Atlantic Ocean and the dialects in England, colonies began to evolve their own varieties of languages independently.

By the 19th century, the British standardisation was more or less established and it was this relatively well-established English that was brought to British colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific Region including Australia.

The British English, thus, firmly rooted in colonies was evolved as a language of English speaking settlers from Britain and Ireland and as an administrative language imposed on speakers of other languages.

The broadest possible definition of International English is the notion of English language as a global means of communication among diverse dialects and also the march toward an international standard for the language.

International English is also referred to as Global English, World English, Common English, Continental English or General English. However, these terms are sometimes applied for diverse varieties of English spoken in diverse parts of the globe.

Sri Lankan English

Prof. Manique Gunesekera in "The Post Colonial Identity of Sri Lankan English", defines Sri Lankan English as "The language used by Sri Lankans who choose to use English for whatever purpose in Sri Lanka."

However, she states in no ambiguous terms that most of the speakers of Sri Lankan English, even the speakers of standard version Sri Lankan English, do not accept the very existence of Sri Lankan English.

Prof. Gunesekera points out that overarching influence of Sinhalese and Tamils on Sri Lankan English is manifested by syntax and morphology of Sri Lankan English. Although the question of existence or non-existence of the variety of English termed as Sri Lankan English should best be left to the academics. The rationale behind promotion of such regionalised version of English is questionable.

The power of English language lies in its ability to communicate across ethnic, racial and geographical frontiers and as a common and perhaps a neutral language. If English is to be promoted as an international language, a language of global communication, it is the International Standard English that should be promoted and not a regionalised variety of it.

The influence and promotion of Sri Lankan English is one of the reasons that contemporary Sri Lankan literature in English does not reach international literary market in a substantial manner.

In the context of postcolonial writers including Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy, Prof. Gunesekera says, "...These writers may represent plural identities, but they have chosen to write in English: in a variety of English which can be described as international Standard English.

This variety is grounded in Sri Lankan culture, in the same way that Arundhati Roy's "The Gold of Small Things" (1997) is steeped in Kerala culture, but she, in the case of these Sri Lankan writers, uses international Standard English. This is a variety of English, which is acceptable and understood by an international readership of users of English."

Her book on Sri Lankan English was written in International Standard English and not in ‘Sri Lankan English’. This very fact eloquently testifies why we should not teach and promote 'Sri Lankan English'.