Part A

All the languages in the world have a variety of dialects. Different dialects are identified by
their unique use of vocabulary and grammar. The dialect of a person can be a very good
indicator of his or her regional or social background. Similar to all other languages, English
language has multiple dialects too. For someone who is not familiar with them, some of these
dialects may seem non-English at first. One example is Cockney dialect.
Comparing the first line of Cockney dialect with standard English, it becomes evident that the
letter h is avoided in Cockney dialect. Letter “r” at the end of “your” is also left out. It also
becomes clear that the vowels are spoken differently, as “o” is replaced by “a”. At the end of
the sentence, proper grammar is not used as the word “not” is omitted from “isn’t he?”. In the
second sentence vowels are pronounced differently, as letters “o” and “e” are replaced by “a”.
Also “i” is not used in “if” and “girls”. Words like “if you had” are merged together as
“fewd” and “better than” is shortened into “better’n” by dropping “th”. Only the letter “n” is
used in place of “and” and “g” at the end of words ending with “ing” is omitted. In the last
sentence “or” is dropped from “for them” and it is shortened to “f’them”. According to these
observations the most prominent feature of this dialect is that the words and sentences are
condensed frequently. Grammatical accuracy is not a priority, as long as the sentence gets the
point across. On the other hand, in standard English grammar is of prime importance and
words are not merged together.
The Cockney dialect is mainly spoken by working class of London and it is their
distinguishing feature. People of London are also referred to as Cockneys. The text shows the
social values of the speaker in a subtle way. The fact that the flower girl confronted the
mother on the spot, shows that the working class of London is very straightforward about
their opinions and they believe in social justice. The comment of the girl about the mother’s
duties signifies the importance of responsibilities in the eyes of cockneys. Also the last line
about paying for the trouble you cause someone, highlights the importance of responsibility.
Part B
As of today, 20% of the world’s total population speaks English. It means there are 1.5
Billion English speaking people in the world. But most of these people’s mother tongue is not
English. The number of non-native English speakers have increased prominently over the
years and they are still increasing.
One of the major reasons of this increased popularity of English language was the rise of
British Empire. British Empire’s forte was trade and it played an important role in making
English the business language of the world. In addition, many countries that were once ruled
by the British Empire still have English as their official language. The second most important
reason for the rise of English language is the contribution of English-speaking people in
Science and Technology. This works as a snowball effect. As more and more English-
speaking people contributed in science and Technology, more people were pulled towards
English as a language. These people contributed in science in English language, attracting
more people towards the language. In this way, research published in English language
increased exponentially. Once, Latin was considered the language of science. But currently,
most of the research is published in English language. Most recently, the rise of USA gave
English language a boost. During the late 19th Century, America became the World leader in
business and as a result popularity of English language touched its all time high. Hence,
English is increasingly used by people whose mother tongue is not English.
The increased use of English by speakers whose mother tongue is not English has some
downside to it too. Receiving information in your second language is not as efficient as
receiving it in your native language. Same is the case with giving information in your second
language. So, a non-native English speaker has difficulty in communicating with a native
English speaker or going through an English research paper. As he is actually translating each
sentence into his first language, so there is a high probability that a part of information is lost
in translation.
In conclusion, contribution of English language towards the world led to its mass appeal. It
has many positive aspects to it, as a globally understandable language allows people from
different regions to communicate. But, a second language can’t replace the mother tongue of
each region and chances of miscommunication are more in case of a second language.