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UK museum studies spread of the English language

7 October 2004

"The essence of culture, identity, life experience and the effect of the English and Commonwealth languages on contemporary society have all been captured in this exciting project."

The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol, UK, has completed a project that takes an in-depth look at the spread of the English language. 

'Language and Legacy in Empire', a year-long initiative which ended on 5 October 2004, looks at the influence of the former British Empire on language -- how it has affected vocabulary and accents of people from all over the Commonwealth.  

The museum worked with the Centre for Employment and Enterprise to collect more than 50 interviews with members of Bristol's African, Asian and Caribbean communities. The interviewees were all aged between 18 and 30 and have family links to former Empire, and Commonwealth countries. The project was designed to heighten awareness of the richness and variety of spoken language in contemporary Britain.  

Dharani Naidoo, the museum's education facilitator and manager of the project, says: "The recordings provide a snapshot of second and third generation immigrant experiences in this country. 

The essence of culture, identity, life experience and the effect of the English and Commonwealth languages on contemporary society have all been captured in this exciting project." "

 The project allowed interviewees the chance to reflect on their use of language and their experiences of trying to communicate, often in a language that was not their mother tongue. In one interview, a 26-year-old Gujarati Indian tells of how he threw himself into playing sport as a way of becoming accepted, because he couldn't speak English. He later learned English through children's television programmes, while his mother taught him Gujarati.  

Some of the testimonies will be broadcast on the museum's own radio station, Commonwealth FM, which will air in Bristol from 1 to 30 November 2004. They will also be accessible to researchers in the museum's oral history archive which covers a vast range of views, opinions, anecdotes and experience from people who lived and worked in the former Empire, and Commonwealth. 

The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum is a new national museum which presents the history of the British Empire and explores its impact and legacy upon modern, multicultural United Kingdom.