International Journal of English and Literature (IJEL) ISSN 2249-6912 Vol. 3, Issue 4, Oct 2013, 61-64 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

ALIENS: KACHRU'S EXPANDING CIRCLE OF ENGLISH

RAJ KISHOR SINGH Sanothimi Campus, Tribhuvan University, Nepal

ABSTRACT

Braj. B. Kachru's concentric circles of English are Inner, Outer and Expanding circles. In flow of time, these circles have been confined to Inner and Outer circles. David Graddol finds English speakers more in Outer circle rather than those in Inner circle. The present article argues that a new circle of English has emerged during some past decades. That's Aliens' World, which possibly speaks English in a large number, and this world can be further categorized as Expanding Circle of English.

KEYWORDS: Inner, Outer, Expanding Circles of English, Science Fiction, Aliens' World, Aliens' English

INTRODUCTION

English language has now world varieties, which were once only varieties of Great Britain and the United States. World Englishes consist of varieties of English used in diverse sociolinguistic contexts globally, and in the ways sociolinguistic histories, multicultural backgrounds and contexts of function influence the use of colonial English in different regions of the world.

The issue of World Englishes was first raised in 1978 to examine concepts of regional Englishes globally. Pragmatic factors such as appropriateness, comprehensibility and interpretability justified the use of English as an international and intra-national language. Currently, there are around seventy five countries where English is spoken either as a first language or as unofficial or institutionalized second language in fields such as government, law and education. It is difficult to establish the total number of Englishes in the world, as new varieties of English are constantly being developed and discovered.

From the point of view of regional and national impacts on use of English language, Kachru made three circles of English1 – Inner, Outer and Expanding circles. The Inner circle includes countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and these are native English speaking countries. The outer circle covers up those countries in which English has official or historical importance. This circle includes Commonwealth of Nations such as India, Pakistan, Nigeria, etc. Third category refers to those countries where English has no official role, but nonetheless is important for certain functions, notably international business.

Around 750 million people are believed to speak English as a foreign language. Around 750 million people speak English as their first language and second language2. A large number of people are learning English for different purposes. The number of speakers of English language as second language has already increased in such a way that their number has outnumbered the native speakers. Now the new world is being discovered that possibly knows English language and that is very mysterious and wonderful world of extraterrestrial species – the world of Aliens.

ALIENS AND KACHRU'S CIRCLES OF ENGLISH

Braj. B. Kachru's concentric circles of English – Inner circle, Outer circle and expanding circle – have been shrinkled to two as Inner and Outer circles. David Graddol writes the spread and expansion of English in the outer circle, 62 Raj Kishor Singh particularly ‘English Next’ in India. English is widely spoken and used in the BRICS, and beyond them. English is a global language. It is widely argued now that English language is not property of English people any more. It is the property of the world. I am not contented yet. The 'world' merely refers to the earth, but what about the space?

Exolinguistics, or xenolinguistics, or astrolinguistics, is the hypothetical study of the language of alien species. The possibility of future contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life has made the questions of the structure and form of potential alien language a topic of scientific and philosophical discussion.3

Graeme: How came I can understand you? Are you using some sort of neural language router?

Paul: Actually, I'm speaking English, you fucking idoit!4

In most of the scientific fiction, films and television shorts, regarding extraterrestrials, they speak English or their speeches are translated into English. The aliens really speak English. If they've been watching English television shows all this time, they could have easily learnt that language. The aliens speak English because they have dealings with English- speaking humans.5 They may have been listening in on the educational children's programs like 'Sesame Street’ for decades. They may have been acting like hackers having access to any human computer system, computers decoding any (audio, video, or text) signal from any sources.

The Aliens either do not understand other language or they are mostly exposed to English language. They must have acquired English language because of the maximum exposure with the access to computer, television and other electronic media. The trope often turns up on Japanese fiction as aliens are other placeholders for foreigners, but depicting foreigners in that light would appear somewhat xenophonic. Therefore, having them speaking Japanese but with a strange accent or having clearly foreign names -as can be seen in works like 'Gintama' or 'Dears' - is often a way to avoid the xenophobia accusations while making the aliens-foreigners look indeed ..... alien to Japanese culture. 6

Not only pronunciation and accent but also grammar rules are strange in the case of Alien English language. If the words are understandable but the grammar rules are not, it's a Strange Syntax Speaker. Eternal English is for the time travel equivalent, which is occasionally justified by a Common Tongue. We can do also compare Anime Accent Absence for when the Japanese forget to put accents on their foreign characters.

UFO encounters were frequently heard in the 20th century and these are still in news. It is still impossible to disregard the incidents. To solve these mysteries, special services have been established with special departments for air defense troops. Secret laboratories have been established for the study of the UFOs phenomena. They are still working hard for the chances to study fragments of alien spaceships or even aliens themselves. SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) released a sensational statement of giant spaceships heading towards the earth. These spaceships were detected by HAARP search system, based in Alaska.7

On March 15, 2009, The New York Times produced another sensation. The same Chinese official, Mao Kan, Stated that he had obtained over than 1000 secret NASA photographs depicting not only human footprints, but even a human carcass on the surface of the Moon. Some of the bones in the carcass were missing, the official said. The human corpse must have been dropped on the moon from an alien spaceship, whereas the extraterrestrials kept some tissue samples for research. 8

Are these related to science fiction? Science fiction is a source of neologisms (like William Gibson's 'cyberspace' and Gardner Dozois's 'cyberpunk'). All the stuff of science is invention: new devices, new ideas, new approaches, each of which generates words to name, describe, encompass them. Aliens: Kachru's Expanding Circle of English 63

In "The Words that could Happen: Science Fiction Neologisms and the Creation of Future Worlds" (Extrapolation, Winter 1993), Gary Westfahl suggests a quantitative reckoning of the number of neologisms in a work of science fiction will reflect the number of new ideas.9 Alien world, alien language, alien speaking English, and such many other aspects of alien species must have been result of the science fiction. Samuel R. Delany is perhaps closer to the mark in his article, "About 5,750 Words" (The Jewel-Hinged Jaw, 1977), which proposes that science fiction is itself a language. The words that are quoted in science fiction, the way they are constructed, the echoes they sound of our own world, or their sheer alienness, are important for the type of illusion they are creating. They are creating a strange world and very strange language within English language. That seems as if the alien English language is a distinct variety, a dialect, like the Black English. In the following dialect, average readers may get clogged with strange language.

The sides of the gate rose high above us, pierced at wide intervals by windows of some material thicker, yet clearer, than glass. Behind these windows we could see the moving figures of men and women, and of creatures that were neither men nor women.Cacogens, I think, were there, beings to whom the avern was but what a marigold or a marguerite is to us. Others seemed beasts with too much of men about them, so that horned heads watched us with eyes too wise, and mouths that appeared to speak showed teeth like nails or hooks. I asked Dr. Talos what these creatures were.

'Soldiers,' He said. 'The pandours of the Autarch.'

Jolenta, whose fear made her press the side of one full breast against the thigh of the man on the merychip, whispered, 'Whose perspiration is the gold of his subjects." 10

(Gene Wolfe: The shadow of the Torturer (1980))

Percy Greg's Martian language in his 1880 novel "Across the Zodiac" is probably the first alien language in a work of science fiction. Along with the development and increment in number of science fiction literary works, the use of alien languages also developed and increased.

Some science-fiction works operate on the premise that alien languages can be easily learned if one has a competent understanding of the nature of languages in general. For example, the protagonist of C.S. Lewis's novel ‘Out of the Silent Planet’ is able to use his training in historical linguistics to decipher the language spoken on Mars. Others work on the premise that languages with similarities can be partially understood by different species. Stainslaw Lem's novel ‘His Master's Voice’ describes an effort by scientists to decode, translate and understand an extraterrestrial transmission. The novel critically approaches humanity's intelligence and intentions in deciphering and truly comprehending a message from outer space.11

Some scientists do believe that extraterrestrial advanced civilizations do exist. The SETI program has a slogan that "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" and it absolutely related to the search for extraterrestrial life, alien's world and their language as well. It may take a longer time to discover the evidence to fill the space of absence, but we cannot deny the truth that exolinguistics, or xenolinguistics, or astrolinguistics is going to be a distant field of study regarding alien English language, and languages of the alien world.

CONCLUSIONS

Ideas produced by science fiction originated the concept of alien world. Alien world has further produced sensations in the human mind with strange and wonderful new ideas and English language. Alien World, whether that is fictional or nonfictional, scientific or fantastic, is developing a real expanding circle, that is alien circle of English language speaking community. 64 Raj Kishor Singh

REFERENCES

1. Kachru, Braj B. and et al. "World Englishes". Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching. Ed. Sandra. Mckay and Nancy H. Hornberger. CUP. 1996. 71-102.

2. Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved from

3. Alien language. Retrieved from

4. Alien Speaking English. Retrieved from

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. Three giant spaceships to attack Earth in 2012. Retrieved from

8. Ibid

9. Language and Science Fiction. Retrieved from

10. Ibid

11. Alien language. Retrieved from