how long does it take for a new global variety of English to evolve? Not very long at all.
In 1607,after a long and eventful sea voyage from England,Captain John Smith arrived ln America,and soon after become president of the council of Jamestown in Virginia. A highly controversial ,he explored the new territory at length, and wrote about his encounters with the native American tribes. He become well known because of the story that he was saved from execution by Pocahontas, the daughter of an Indian chief-though whether this actually happened in the way he described has been greatly debated.
Smith sent his account of the new colony back to Britain, where it was published. English people would never have seen such place namrs as Rappahannock and Nandtanghtacund before. The fauna and flora of the new country introduced them to raccoons and skunks. Other accounts talked of moccasins, wigwams, and squaws. There words were being read in Britain within a few years of the coloonists’ arrival-the first signs of a future American English.
We see the same kind of process happening all over the word, as English has travelled to new shores. Within a very short time of settlers arriving, we find them using a local vocabulary and writing home about it. After only a few years, there new worlds can number several hundred. The manner of speech alters too, so that a distinctive accent is one of the earliest signs of a new variety of English.
Probably the most dramatic linguistic result of world exploration is the invention of a pidgin or trade language. What happens when sailors and the local people meet and have no language in common? They do their best to communicate. Everyone instinctively talks in a simpler way, making sentences shorter, repeating words, and avoiding difficult sounds and grammar. After a while, a pidgin language can become quite sophisticated, and be used as an everyday means of communication. It can even end up as a national language. As has happened to tok pisin in papua new Guinea-one of the most impressive linguistic consequences of sea travel ever.