The Empire Strikes Back
Presented by Robert MacNeil In Africa, India and the Caribbean, the English of former British colonies is now taking forms, written and spoken, that are almost unrecognisable to users of standard English.
This last episode explores the new Englishes of tribesmen in Papua New Guinea, Krio speakers in the bazaars of Sierra Leone, dub poets in the West Indies and Brixton, and newspaper wallahs in Calcutta.
Are words like 'kai-kai',
'savvy', 'lathicharge', 'bheri' and 'dacoit' the beginnings of new languages? Or are these new forms simply evidence of the huge international vitality of English today? The Empire Strikes Back is a provocative and stimulating conclusion to The Story of English.
Written by ROBERT MCCRUM
Sound recordist ANTHONY WORNUM Film cameraman DAVID SOUTH Film editor RICHARD SPURWAY Producers
WILLIAM CRAN. VIVIAN DUCAT
* CEEFAX SUBTITLES