Inner Circle English - Definition and Examples

Inner Circle English s The Inner Circle is made up of countries in which English is the first or the dominant language. These countries include Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Also called the core English-speaking countries. The inner circle is one of the three concentric circles of World English  identified by linguist Braj Kachru in Standards, Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism: The English Language in the Outer Circle (1985). Kachru describes the inner circle as  Ã¢â‚¬Å"the traditional bases of English, dominated by the mother tongue varieties of the language.† The labels inner, outer, and expanding  circles represent the type of spread, the patterns of acquisition, and the functional allocation of the English language in diverse cultural contexts. These labels remain controversial. What is the Inner Circle? Inner circle nations are countries where English is spoken as a first language (mother tongue or L1). They are very often nations to which very large numbers of people migrated from the U.K. For example, the U.S. and Australia are inner circle nations...Whether a country is in the inner, outer, or expanding circle ... has little to do with geography but more to do with history, migration patterns and language policy... [W]hile Kachrus model does not suggest that one variety is better than any other, inner circle nations are, in fact, perceived as having greater ownership over the language, in that they have inherited English as their L1. Even among inner circle nations, not all nations can claim authenticity of the English language. The U.K. is widely perceived as being the origin of the English language and is seen as the authority on what counts as standard English; inner circle nations tend to be regarded as authentic speakers of English (Evans 2005). However, . . . the English us ed even in inner circle nations is not homogenous.  (Annabelle Mooney and Betsy Evans,  Language, Society and Power: An Introduction, 4th ed. Routledge, 2015) Language Norms The most generally held view is that the Inner Circle (eg. UK, US) is norm-providing; this means that English language norms are developed in these countries and spread outwards. The Outer Circle (mainly New Commonwealth countries)   is norm-developing, easily adopting and perhaps developing its own norms. The Expanding Circle (which includes much of the rest of the world) is norm-dependent, because it relies on the standards set by native speakers in the Inner Circle. This is a one-directional flow and learners of English as a foreign language in the Expanding Circle look to the standards set in the Inner and Outer Circles.​  (Mike Gould and Marilyn Rankin,  Cambridge International AS and A Level English Language. Cambridge University Press, 2014)  Ã‚   In the so-called inner circle English is multifunctional, transmitted through the family and maintained by governmental or quasi-governmental agencies (e.g. media, school, etc.), and is the language of the dominant culture. The outer circle contains countries (usually multilingual) colonized by English-speaking powers. English is typically not the language of the home, but transmitted through the school, and has become part of the countrys chief institutions. Norms come officially from the inner circle, but local norms also play a powerful role in dictating everyday usage.  (Suzanne Romaine, Global English: From Island Tongue to World Language. The Handbook of the History of English, ed. by Ans van Kemenade and Bettelou Los. Blackwell, 2006)[W]hile inner circle nations are now well in the minority among users of English, they still exert strong proprietary rights over the language in terms of norms. This applies far more to discourse patterns than to grammatical rules or pronunciat ion norms (the latter varying considerably between the inner circle countries in any case). By discourse patterns, I mean the way spoken and written discourse is organised. In many fields of scholarship, the major international journals are now published entirely in English. . . . At present, English speakers from inner circle countries still hold a great deal of control in terms of assessing contributions and reviewing books in English.  (Hugh Stretton, Australia Fair. UNSW Press, 2005) Problems With the World Englishes Model [W]ith regard to inner circle Englishes in particular, the model ignores the fact that although there is relatively little differentiation between written norms, this is not the case between spoken norms. The model, thus, in its broad categorisation of varieties according to large geographical areas, does not take into account the considerable spoken dialectal variation within each of the varieties identified (e.g., American English, British English, Australian English)...Secondly, a problem exists with the World Englishes model because of its reliance on a fundamental distinction between native speakers of English (i.e., from the inner circle) and non-native speakers of English (i.e., from the outer and expanding circles). There is a problem with this distinction because attempts so far at precise definitions of the terms native speaker (NS) and non-native speaker (NNS) have proved highly controversial ...Thirdly, Singh et al. (1995:284) believe that the labelling of inner circle (o ld) English and outer circle (new) English is overly value-laden since it suggests that older Englishes are more truly English than those historically younger varieties in the outer circle. Such a distinction seems even more problematic because, . . . historically, all varieties of English other than English English are transpalnted.(Robert M. McKenzie,  The Social Psychology of English as a Global Language. Springer, 2010)

Thermodynamics and the Cooking of a Turkey

Thermodynamics and the Cooking of a Turkey Turkeys are native to North America, called Indian fowls in some writings of the 1500s. Around 1519, ships began transporting turkeys back to Spain, thus beginning its migration to Europe. American Benjamin Franklin advocated the turkey as the national bird. The turkey became prominent in Europe in the 1800s during the holiday season, replacing the goose as the most popular Christmas bird in the latter part of the century. In 1851, Queen Victoria had a turkey in place of her standard Christmas swan. The Make-Up of a Turkey At the biochemical level, a turkey is a combination of approximately 3 parts water to one part fat and one part protein. The majority of meat comes from muscle fibers in the turkey, which are mostly proteins- notably myosin and actin. Because turkeys rarely fly but rather walk, they contain far more fat in their legs than in their breast, which results in the strong differences in texture between these sections of the bird and the difficulty in making sure that all portions of the bird are properly heated. The Science of Cooking a Turkey As you cook the turkey, muscle fibers contract until they begin to break up at around 180 F. Bonds within the molecules begin to break down, causing proteins to unravel, and the dense muscle meat to become more tender. Collagen in the bird (one of three protein fibers that attaches muscles to the bone) breaks down into softer gelatin molecules as it unwinds. The dryness of a turkey is a result of muscle proteins coagulating within the meat, which can result if it is cooked too long. Temperature Differentials Part of the problem, as described above, is that the different nature of the light and dark meat in a turkey result in different rates to reach the coagulation of the muscle proteins. If you cook it too long, the breast meat has coagulated; if you dont cook the bird long enough, the dark meat is still tough and chewy. Harold McGee, a food science writer, indicates aiming for 155 to 160 F in the breast (which concurs with the overall temperature indicated by Roger Highfield), but you want 180 degrees or above in the leg (a distinction Highfield does not address). Heating Differentials Since you ultimately want the breast and legs to be different temperatures, the question is how to successfully accomplish this. McGree presents one option, by using ice packs to keep the breast of the bird about 20 degrees lower than the legs while thawing, so that the legs get a heat start on the cooking process when theyre put in the oven. Alton Brown, of Food Networks Good Eats, once presented another way to establish different heating rates, using aluminum foil to reflect heat away from the breast, thus resulting in the legs heating faster than the breast. His current roast turkey recipe on the Food Network website does not include this step, but if you watch the related videos, it shows the steps involved in using the aluminum foil. Cooking Thermodynamics Based on thermodynamics, it is possible to make some estimations of cooking time for a turkey. Considering the following estimations, it becomes fairly straightforward: Assume the oven maintains a constant temperature throughout.Assume the thermal diffusivity is independent of temperature and time.Assume the turkey is so plump that it can be estimated as a sphere. You can then apply the principles of Carlaw Jaegers 1947 Conduction of Heat in Solids to come up with an estimate for the cooking time. The radius of the hypothetical spherical turkey falls out, resulting in a formula based solely on mass. Traditional Cooking Times Small bird - twenty minutes per pound 20 minutesLarge bird - fifteen minutes per pound 15 minutes It would appear that these traditional cooking times work well in conjunction with the thermodynamic calculations provided, which give the time as being proportional to the mass to the power of two-thirds. Panofsky Turkey Constant Pief Panofsky, former SLAC Director, derived an equation to attempt to more precisely determine the cooking time of a turkey. His problem is that he disliked the traditional suggestion of 30 minutes per pound, because the time a turkey should be cooked is not a linear equation. He used t to represent the cooking time in hours and W as the weight of the stuffed turkey, in pounds, and determined the following equation for the amount of time the turkey should be cooked at 325 degrees Fahrenheit. According to the report, the constant value 1.5 was determined empirically. Heres the equation: t W (2/3)/1.5 Particle Accelerators Create Shrink Wrap The plastic shrink wrap that turkeys (specifically Butterball turkeys) come in may also have an amazing connection to particle physics. According to Symmetry magazine, some of these forms of shrink wrap are actually created by a particle accelerator. Particle accelerators use electron beams to knock hydrogen atoms off of the polymer chains within the polyethylene plastic, making it chemically active in just the right way so that when heat is applied it shrinks around the turkey. Theres a bit more detail provided in the Symmetry article on the subject. Sources and Further Reading Thermodynamics OverviewThe Physics of Christmas by Roger HighfieldSymmetry Breaking blog - The Panofsky turkey constantPhysics Talks Turkey This ThanksgivingSymmetry magazine - Accelerator applications: shrink wrapFood Network - Good Eats Roasted Turkey recipeCocktail Party Physics blog - A Taste of Science for Turkey DaySymmetry Breaking blog - Physicists talk turkey