Post‐protectorate Uganda and current models of influence across Englishes

Abstract

This paper presents the overall results of a research project that investigated factors determining how speakers of Ugandan English express futurity, ability and obligation. Findings reveal that forms identified to convey these meanings in American, Indian, Kenyan or Nigerian English, and whose use would reveal influence from these, are seldom used. Rather, persisting exonormative orientation towards BritishEnglish and first-language influence seem to determine how many forms are tolerated and which ones are preferred. This challenges epicentre theory, according to which an endonormatively stable variety influences varieties in neighbouring countries, as well as models that assume that varieties with a high impact in terms of the demographic and economic weight of their speakers influence those with a lower impact, whilst findings furthermore indicate that regular long-term exposure to another variety results in accommodation, making this a factor that needs to be better accounted for. INTRODUCTIONSo far, epicentre theory has had a noticeable focus on the varieties spoken in the Pacific/Oceania as well as on the Indian subcontinent. In these two contexts, such centres can be defined on historical grounds, as Australia and what today is India were placed under British dominance earlier than their neighbouring countries. However, discussions assessing the concept for the African continent and for non-postcolonial countries are non-existent to date. This