Home Forums Discussion Board Discussion 2.1 – “Non-Standard” English Words

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    • #2324
      admin adminadmin
      Keymaster

      I live in the Inner Circle, so my list consists of California English words. I’m STOKED to find out if any of these are more widespread 🙂

      1. stoked! (excited)
      2. hella (very, extremely – as in “I’m hella stoked to be here.” /”This movie was hella good.”)
      3. gnarly (awesome OR awful – “These waves are gnarly!”)
      4. NorCal and SoCal (Northern and Southern California)
      5. the 5, the 8, the 163 – the article “the” is added in front of freeway names, which is not done on the East Coast.
      6. sick (cool, awesome – “Sick board, bro” – I heard someone use the word “righteous” in the same way once, as in “Righteous hat, dude!”)
      7. radical (or rad) – cool, awesome
      8. lane camper – someone driving really slow in the left lane
      9. dank (good)
      10. a grip (a large amount of something)

      To view past replies go to: https://changingenglishes.proboards.com/thread/10/non-standard-english-words

      • This topic was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by admin adminadmin.
    • #3735

      1. dank (good)
      2. a grip (a large amount of something)

    • #3856

      I live in expanding country. So that, I love to see the other comments.

    • #4083

      I live in the Outer Circle. Since our country is colonized and influenced by America, most of the people in my country, particularly people living in the cities use English in daily communication. Most young people prefer using slang in informal settings and formal English is used in businesses (workplaces) and in school (academic English).

    • #4114

      As Sri Lankans, we belong to the outer circle and though we gained independence from the British rule, some elite and some ESL teachers too pathetically consider British English as the norm forgetting the fact of world Englishes.
      The Sri Lankan variety of English is enriched with borrowing from the vernaculars(mainly, Sinhala and Tamil): ‘hansi putuwa’, ‘mala batha’,
      Affixation as by adding suffixes: ‘thadeying’ ,double affixation as in ‘nurunurufying’ ‘poojafying’, empty morph and suffix: ‘podering’, abbreviations: terras, journos, coinages: peoplization, duplications: hot hot , tiny tiny, expressions such as ‘anee’ , ‘apoi’.
      I’m debted to Professor Manique Gunasekara for all these examples in her book Post Colonial Identity of Sri Lankan English, and also I owe her a big salute for making us see language as something constantly changing and welcoming world Englishes as they are.

    • #4215

      As Indonesian, English is a foreign language. Yet, some communities modify several English word, sudh as: Woles (Slow),

    • #4524
      Dauda PikawiDauda Pikawi
      Member

      In Nigeria English is a language of the colonialist, Britain. Nigeria is a heterogeneous country with over 200 languages, this made the country to easily adopt English not only as an official language at first, but is now serving as a lingua Franca. The language has been diversely indiginized or ‘Nigerianized’ by the parculiarities of almost all the language groups. You hear speakers say:
      I off it, I on it, I am offing and oning the phone (to mean switching on and off).
      Dropping means to alight from a vehicle, branching means to check someone along the way. Sabiness is having knowledge, big man is someone rich or influential in the society.
      Some of the perculiarities may not be unconnected to the influence of the Nigerian Pidgin; which is another area of discourse in relation to language dynamism.

    • #4690

      I live in an inner circle, but I am surrounded by people who have immigrated from outer circle and possibly expanding circle countries. Aside from a lot of slang that user est 1841 (admin) already pointed out, I hear a lot of words that are English, but being used in a different way than the native speakers might use them. The neighborhood I live in contains primarily Asian immigrants, so I do hear a variety of Englishes almost every day.

    • #4705

      I live in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka belongs to Outer circle. There are commonwealth countries which are once colonized by the British people. It has norm-developing countries. Therefore, Sri Lanka too belongs to this particular category. In Sri Lanka, English language exists as a second language or an official language which uses in the official, educational and administrative matters. With the usage and its impact from mother tongue languages (Sinhala and Tamil), English language adopted within the country and consequently, it inspired both Standard Sri Lankan English and Non-Standard English (Non-pot Sri Lankan English). Furthermore, it is needed to mention the fact that still Sri Lankans aspire to reach for the Standard British variety of English. For instance; prepare students for British exams like IELTS, CIEP,YLE,KET,PET and etc. Some examples for the Standard Sri Lankan English variety as followed, machang, maddo, made-up saree, yala, maha, mahanayake and etc.

      Reference
      Meyler,M.2007. Dictionary of Sri Lankan English. Colombo: Michael Meyler

    • #4727

      In Korea –

      Korean does not have friction sounds, so some English words can sound different – film can sound like pilm, coffee can sound like copee

      Adding a vowel sound to some English words due to structure of Korean – juice = ju-suh

    • #5227

      I was born and raised in Latvia, meaning in the Expanding Circle. Despite belonging to the third group, English is the compulsory subject at school and all students must sit an exam in order to graduate from a high school (equivalent to GCSE). Here are the most common mistakes Latvians make in English: 1) we do not use articles because both in Latvian and Russian articles do not exist (e.g. Do you want receipt? Riga is so now city); 2) countable and uncountable nouns (e.g. I have two advices for you.); 3) we translate directly (e.g. Jūs apkalpos blakus kasē – direct translation: Next cash at your service instead of Checkout is closed. Please use the next available till.

    • #5243

      I believe that the influence of other languages helps the development of the English language, as we will always learn something new.

    • #5267

      I`m live in Brazil,Expanding Circle (EFL).

    • #5279

      English is seen as a foreign language here, the Expanding Circle. People who want to apply abroad mostly learn this language to find better positions in target societies. Since using social media like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and popular YouTube become a necessity in this pandemic, we can see people tend to use English words to express what has been said earlier in the news and channels will give them the opportunity to use those expressions in their daily conversations.

    • #5293

      I think English is a language that constantly evolves

    • #5319

      lug’ole
      cake’ole
      lad
      lass
      aye
      ‘ow do?
      put (the) wood in’t ‘ole
      reyt mardy
      sarnie
      butty
      chuddy
      bizzies
      offy
      Barnet
      boat
      battle cruiser
      Adam and Eve
      pork pies
      Rosie (Lee)
      Ruby Murray
      gadgie
      radgie
      mortal
      bostin’
      sound
      champion, tha’

    • #5361

      As a Nigerian, I live in the outer circle of the classification of English. The Nigerian English in itself varies according to the social, cultural and linguistic background of the speaker. The British English however, largely serve as the standard for correctness. As a linguist who received training in British English, I am more conscious of the influence of my native language on the form of English I speak. Despite this, I still switch based on the context of usage.
      Some examples include:
      1. Drop- to alight from a bus or car
      2. Chop- to eat/ to win
      3. Short Knickers- shorts
      4. Wiwi- to urinate
      5. Barbing salon- Baber’s shop e.t.c.

    • #5395

      I have the privilege of having spent the first half of my life in the inner circle and the second half of my life in the expanding circle. The former, however, were my informative years. I often hear in my context GB English words used but with a different meaning, eg ‘box’, meaning a closed space for parking your car. And there are many examples like this in my L2. Some EFL speakers are rather indignant when they discover that their L1 has opted to use English words, however, attributing a different meaning to them. The language in my context is highly inflected, unlike English, and there is certainly no evidence of gender-neutral language in my L2 as seems to be on the rise in GBEng (my L1). Nor does the ‘singular they’ (to avoid denoting gender, eg The dentist can do research……They will need to know…..) go down very well (in academic papers) as many EFL speakers in my context rely exclusively on translating for meaning, taking very little account of any cultural considerations. (This is often the result of unprincipled pedagogy or, where the pedagogy is principled, it’s about 130+ years old!)

    • #5409

      I am Italo-Australian but born in Australia to Italian parents interestingly I am in the inner circle although I am fluent in Italian as well. So English is L1 and Italian L2.

    • #5417

      I was born in Greece where English is taught as a foreign language. It is a compulsory subject at school and many Greeks study English in private institutions in order to get some qualifications, such as the First Certificate in English or the Certificate of Proficiency. I immigrated to Australia years ago, so now I am in the inner circle.

    • #5512
      Saul SantosSaul Santos
      Member

      I am from Mexico, in the expanding circle, I suppose there are many instances, even in my own idiolect, but I might not be aware of them, I really can’t think of an example…

      I can think of examples of words used in the border between Mexico and the US: washandería (loundry), parkear (to park), troca (truck)…

    • #5563

      In Italy, English is mainly “used” at school and university during English classes, where students try to reproduce Standard English norms. However, a few years ago I had the opportunity to work with two engineers who use English to communicate with foreign partners from other parts of Europe, so my list includes examples from different nationalities (although I don’t think I can get to 20):
      – definite article “the” with countries (e.g. the France, the Italy, etc.)
      – definite article “the” with continents (e.g. the Europe, the Asia, etc.)
      – pronouncing voiced “th” as “d”
      – pronouncing voiced “th” as “z”
      – pronouncing voiced “th” as “v”
      – pronouncing unvoiced “th” as “t”
      – pronouncing unvoiced “th” as “s”
      – pronouncing unvoiced “th” as “f”
      – pronouncing the suffix “-able” as “-abel”
      – using “information” in the plural (e.g. “Can you give me some informations, please?”)
      – using “advice” as countable (e.g. “I’ll give you one advice”)
      – making up words by making L1 words sound “English” (which may sometimes work between Italian and Spanish or French speakers)
      I could probably more easily do the opposite and find examples of Italian words and expressions that are influenced by English in form or meaning.

    • #5591

      English usage outside Standard English I have encountered and where it originates from – I am living in the inner circle (England) but I have also lived in Vietnam:
      dreckly – in a while/unspecified time (Cornwall) – derives from Cornish
      geddon – hello, or well done – literally “get on” (Cornwall/Plymouth)
      lekker – fantastic/great (South Africa)
      nyam – eat (Jamaica)
      asignatory – subject (Spain)
      profesor – teacher (Spain)
      proof – exam (Spain)
      wagwan – what’s up? (Jamaica)
      raggamuffin – tough man (Jamaica)
      comfort room – toilet (Philippines)

    • #5715

      I’ve lived in London for several years now, I would be interested in where it would be placed in relation to other countries around the world if it’s statistics were seen as it’s own separate country.

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    • #6446

      I believe that when we go to another country, we don’t know the language at the time and English is the language that 99% of people know.
      So the influence of other languages ​​helps the development of English language, because we always learn something new.

    • #6641

      I was born and raised in Chile, that is expanding circle. English here is a mandatory subject in primary and secondary levels of education, but there isn’t any stadardised test at the end of high school to measure and guarantee a certain level of proficiency. As a result, you can pass the subject without being a fluent user of the language. Common mistakes made by Chileans in English:
      – Using false cognates, that is words which are similar in both languages but have different meaning (e.g. using ‘assist’ instead of ‘attend’ in a sentence because asistir means to attend in Spanish)
      – Wrong use of the verbs ‘to do’ and ‘to make’ because in Spanish we have just one verb, which is: hacer.
      – Forgetting to pronounce the ‘s’ for the third-person singular in the simple present (e.g. ‘She sing’ instead of ‘She sings’)
      – Using the wrong preposition. There are only 23 prepositions in Spanish.

    • #7020
      Trang NguyenTrang Nguyen
      Member

      I’m from a nation in the Expanding circle so i’m looking forward to seeing comments. My language has borrowed lots of English words but changed the pronunciation so that people could use them easier

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    • #7676
      Kai WardKai Ward
      Member

      While none of these are slangs from dialect/area, they are very widespread online so I recognised all of them

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