Well the talk was called as you probably heard the future of Englishes and the important thing is that ES ending at the end there. You know, don't fall into the trap of thinking as some people do around the world, there is no such word. You know, English does not have a plural. Oh yes, it does. English is, is very definitely around.
And that word came into being about 10 or 15 years ago, really, to reflect the reality of what happens when English becomes a global language. Because what does happen, you know, as a country takes up the English language and adopts it, it immediately adapts it to suit its circumstances. Because what is language for? Language exists in order for us to talk about what we want to talk about. So what do you want to talk about?
Well, anything I suppose, the whole world. But you especially want to talk about what's happening in Serbia. Or, whoever's watching this, your country.
And therefore you want to have an English that actually reflects your local interests, your history, the things that happen around you, all the things that you would naturally do in your own language if you're learning another language as an international language and you want to be able to talk in that language as well. And so what is happening in English as it goes around the world, becomes global, is that the different countries that have adopted it immediately start to make it their own. They start to shape it and push it in a direction it never was in before.
Now this has happened ever since English began. So, take 400 years ago or so when the first people arrived in America. And, you know, we're talking 1606. That's the sort of period.
And they settle on the eastern seaboard of America. You get the beginnings of Virginia. And the result is American English eventually.
But how long do you think it takes for an American English to develop? Are you thinking decades or hundreds of years? It only takes weeks. for a new variety of English to start to grow. Because as soon as you arrive, you want to talk about what you see.
And what did the mariners see and the settlers see when they arrived in America? They saw new plants, new animals. They saw Indians with behavior that they'd never seen before with new clothes, new costumes, new shoes. And so words started to come in like moccasin and wigwam. squaw and skunk and they would write these words in their letters back home so suddenly in British English these letters were coming through with American English in just a few days days after these guys had arrived in America.
So that's how long it takes for a new variety of English to grow. And as you look around the modern English world and you see English developing in places like, well, you know everywhere now, everywhere, all countries in the world have English either as a first language or a second language or a privileged foreign language. And it doesn't take long for these countries to take the English that, wherever it's come from, Britain perhaps or from America or from Australia. and then start to adapt it to make it their own. And how do you see this adaptation taking place?
Chiefly in the vocabulary. So it doesn't take long. If you take a dictionary, like the Dictionary of South African English, for instance, there are 10,000 words in that dictionary that are only used in South Africa, you see, or perhaps just around South Africa, like Zimbabwe and so on. So if you read South African English, every now and then you come across a word and you've no idea what it means because you don't know the cultural background.
I told a story in the lecture of my first visit to South Africa. Driving along the road, British Council driver there, and I see a sign ahead and it says, Robot ahead. And I go, what?
And I turn to the driver. I say, Robot ahead? And he turns to me and says in a lovely South African accent, Of course it's a robot.
And I say, what's a robot? He says, you don't know what a robot is? I say, no, I don't know what a robot is. Have they landed? or something.
No, no, no. A robot is, anybody know? A robot is a traffic light in South African English. That's all.
And so when you're in South Africa, you will hear people saying sentences like. Turn left at the robot, or the robot is broken, or you'll find the shop three robots ahead. Now you know you can interpret it. But the first time you hear it, you go, what?
Like that. Now, think, 10,000 words like that in South African English. Not all from British English, of course. Robot comes from British English.
Well, Czech originally, of course. But there are words from Afrikaans and words from Zulu, words from Xhosa, and all the other languages of South Africa. So what happens when English goes to a new part of the world is in come the loan words, the borrowed words, from the other languages around that make that English difficult for a foreigner to understand.
Now I am the foreigner here, not just you, you see. There's no difference between me and you in this respect. If you go to South Africa, you don't understand some of the language, you think, oh, I'm a foreigner, I'm not a native speaker of English. Don't think like that. I go to South Africa.
I don't understand the language, and I'm a native speaker of English. You see, there's no difference between me and you when it comes to going to different parts of the world. world and encountering these new varieties of English.
And everywhere, this is the point you have to pick up on, everywhere in every country in the world there is a new variety of English growing which is culturally influenced. And it's happening here in Serbia. You see, you think Serbian English, what could that be?
Well, I'll tell you what Serbian English is. It's the English you use when you talk to me. about Serbia and I don't understand what you're talking about because I don't understand what is happening in Serbia let me give you some examples the other way round let me give you some examples of how I will use culturally specific British English and you may or may not understand it so if I come out of the room now over there and say oh terrible it was like Clapham Junction in there what on earth do I mean it was like Clapham Junction in there very common expression expression. But unless you know what Clapham Junction is, you've no idea.
You understand my grammar, you understand the vocabulary pretty well, except the name, you understand the pronunciation, but if you don't know what Clapham Junction is, you can't understand the sentence. And I tell you, Clapham Junction is the name of a railway station in the south of London. It's the most chaotic railway station in Britain because it has more railway platforms than anywhere else and the railway lines come all over the place. place, and if you ever go to Clapham Junction, you will get lost.
You will miss your train probably because you won't find the right platform. So it has become an idiom meaning it was chaos in there. It was terribly busy.
So you come out of a room and you say it was like Clapham Junction in there. All right? That's British English. What is, how would you translate that into Serbian? You see?
What is the equivalent? It was chaos. Is there such an expression? Maybe you are never chaotic in Serbia you don't have this sort of problem I don't know but the thing is as I go around the world I increasingly find people talking to me in English and using expressions which I have to say sorry I don't understand what you mean because they just slip into talking about oh the political parties in Serbia just like I might say you know that the Tories Labour Party the independents and so on and I know what I mean but you only know what I mean if you know the British political system.
Now, if you start talking politics here, I'm going to get lost very, very quickly. You will have nicknames for your prime minister, I have no doubt, and rude ones too, I expect. I won't know what they are if you drop these into the conversation. There will be parts of the city where you say you shouldn't go there because it's dangerous, maybe. Parts of a city where something special happens.
If somebody says to you in London, I'm going down to Soho, what does he say? saying? What is it about Soho?
Well, you have to know that Soho is the traditional sex shop area in London. And that's why he said Soho rather than Soho. You see, if you're just going to Soho, you're just going there. If you're going to Soho, you're going for a different reason, you see. Now, what is your Soho?
Maybe you haven't got one. I see there are some nods around the room, so perhaps you have. Is he what I mean? I mean, every aspect of your culture, myths and legends, fauna and flora, the food you eat, the folklore you have, the songs, the dances, the politics, the institutions, talk about them in English and there will be a Serbian flavor to it, which I might or might not understand.