LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Standard English as a 'Fiat Code' and the Dwindling Faith behind It

Seyed Ahmad Kasaian, Ph.D. Candidate
Rangaswamy Subbakrishna, Ph.D.

Abstract

This article reviews the causes of the 'dwindling faith' behind the American and British varieties of English by drawing a comparison between 'fiat money' and these two native varieties of English which are referred to as 'fiat codes' by the present authors.

'Fiat money' is the money whose value comes entirely from the faith its users choose to put in it believing that they can exchange the money for the things and services they may need in future. What is vital for the survival of fiat money is the continued faith of its users. If this customer faith is not maintained for one reason or another, 'fiat money' loses its strength.

American and British varieties of English are likened to 'fiat money' and are called 'fiat codes' in that they have the same two characteristics fiat money has.

The worldwide recognition of British and American English was not because of their intrinsic linguistic superiority over other languages in the world; the recognition originated from the faith of the people who had chosen to use them as varieties of a language of international communication with the belief that they could solve their communication problems in a world which has become increasingly dependent on international communications.

Since the custodians of the these two varieties of English have failed to heed the reality of the language learning situations in the world and have insisted on the promotion of their own native varieties of English, they are witnessing the loss of faith on the part of the learners of English in general and that of many applied linguists in particular who have begun to promote the non-native varieties of English and demote the formerly unrivaled British and American Englishes.

In this paper five major discrepancies between the views of the native speakers and those held by the learners and ELT experts about the status of the American and British varieties of English are mentioned as the major causes of this dwindling faith.

Key words: Fiat code, Standard English, Language and Culture Inseparability, American English, British English, Faith-based Language

1. Introduction: Faith-based Money, Faith-based Language

In our faith-based economy, the value of the dollar is not tied to any real, solid thing […]. The dollar is fiat money, supported by nothing more than the faith that those that accept it in payment have in it, with the belief that they can, in turn, exchange it for the goods and services that they want to purchase. Sharon L. Secor (October 22, 2007)

The readers of this article might be initially perplexed by the phrase "Fiat code" and the quotation above which sound displaced from their proper context of finance and economics. But they are, we hope, instrumental in helping us have the readers look at the status of the British and American varieties of English from a new perspective. The above paragraph, though unrelated to the field of language and linguistic studies, has some key phrases which are at the heart of our discussion.

Neither of the two things compared in this paper, the US dollar and the British and American varieties of English, has an intrinsic superiority over any other currency and language around the world.

The first thing, according to the above quotation, is a 'fiat money'. And fiat money, according to Deardorff's (2000) Glossary of International Economics, is "a money whose usefulness results, not from any intrinsic value or guarantee that it can be converted into gold or another currency, but only from a government's order (fiat) that it must be accepted as a means of payment".

The opening quotation incorporates a couple of features of dollar as a fiat money: The first feature is the fiat nature of the dollar: According to Secor (2007), "The dollar is fiat money, supported by nothing more than the faith that those that accept it in payment have in it" [emphasis added], which means the dollar has no intrinsic value and that what has made it a powerful currency is the faith of the people who have come to accept it as payment. This, in turn, implies that, for dollar to remain powerful and flourishing, it is in a dire need of the faith of the people who have, for one reason or another, chosen to use it as currency. The second feature concerns the utility of the dollar. People have adopted dollar "with the belief that they can, in turn, exchange it for the goods and services that they want to purchase" [emphasis added] (Secor 2007). The key to maintaining the faith dollar has enjoyed to date is the confidence dollar users have in the belief that they can satisfy their miscellaneous needs with this token; the strength and the status of the dollar is proportionate to the strength of the faith behind it. We do not think anyone finds this fact difficult to understand.

The second thing is the British and American varieties of English whose status is compared with fiat money in this paper. Although there are a number of native varieties of English used in Kachru's (1985) 'inner circle' countries, the British and American varieties have been much more widely used and promoted as varieties of a second or foreign language than the other native varieties and accordingly the faith of their international learners can be better compared with the faith of dollar users.

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