Why is Australian or Canadian English marginalized in discussions related to English as if English is only spoken in Britain and US?
Why is Australian or Canadian English marginalized?
Because Canadian English is just like the American one, and Australian English is too far away to be noticed.
They come up in discussion occasionally. As do South African, Jamaican, Irish, Scottish, and other varieties of English.
I guess it's because, among anglophone nations, Britain and the US have been the two great world powers - and they're also the most populous -, and thus RP and GA are the two most popular standard varieties of English.
Hint: BBC, SKYNEWS and CNN, FOXNEWS
We dont have Canadian and Australian news channels on our cables.
We dont have Canadian and Australian news channels on our cables.
***Britain and the US..... they're also the most populous....***
It depends really what you mean with this one. Both countries are indeed populous in that they each contain large numbers of inhabitants, but if you use "populous" in the sense of "crowded" then Britain definitely fits the description the most graphically.....the UK has far more people crammed overall into a square kilometre than does the USA.....243 per sq.km here in the UK but only 31 per sq.km in the United States, so our American friends have far more breathing space spread right across the board. Admittedly the Americans do have heavily populated urban areas and densely populated cities , but spread overall they have the advantage when it comes to wide open spaces, lucky them, with loads of lovely empty nothingness in many rural parts of their vast country stretching as far as the eye can see....something we Brits find hard to contemplate on this crowded little island.
Many people in Britain think it's time to put up huge, illuminated signs at all points of entry into the UK saying something like: "Sorry, no entry - Britain is full. Try France or Germany instead.......". But not the Netherlands - they already have 395 bods packed into each Dutch sq km. Maybe it's time they put up similar signs at all their border crossings, an even greater challenge for them beause they are not floating on an island like we are. Plucky little Belgium likewise.....
Talking about crowded places.....we all know what road rage is, and no doubt many of us have experienced it, well here in the UK we now have "pavement rage", featured on GMTV this morning - 29/09/08....people with very little time to spare and a lot of things to do in it being made very irate by people who have very little to do but loads of time in which to do it all and at the same time failing to acknowledge the existence of the former.....all on very busy pavements
You know the situation.......you have about 30 minutes at the most in which to grab a quick bite and a sup at lunchtime and you nip out to the deli (or the pub) just along the street and you start to seethe at dawdling tourists doing a steady two mph...all in groups......or pensioners on an outing to the city from Auchtermuchty snailing it along at an average ten inches per hour...all in groups...or mums pushing prams, three abreast, all blethering* away together at a rate of 90 words per second and giving the impression that they have all day in which to do it all. It really makes you so crabbit, so fashed!**
*Scots for idle chatter.
** Scots for irritable, irritated. ;-)
It depends really what you mean with this one. Both countries are indeed populous in that they each contain large numbers of inhabitants, but if you use "populous" in the sense of "crowded" then Britain definitely fits the description the most graphically.....the UK has far more people crammed overall into a square kilometre than does the USA.....243 per sq.km here in the UK but only 31 per sq.km in the United States, so our American friends have far more breathing space spread right across the board. Admittedly the Americans do have heavily populated urban areas and densely populated cities , but spread overall they have the advantage when it comes to wide open spaces, lucky them, with loads of lovely empty nothingness in many rural parts of their vast country stretching as far as the eye can see....something we Brits find hard to contemplate on this crowded little island.
Many people in Britain think it's time to put up huge, illuminated signs at all points of entry into the UK saying something like: "Sorry, no entry - Britain is full. Try France or Germany instead.......". But not the Netherlands - they already have 395 bods packed into each Dutch sq km. Maybe it's time they put up similar signs at all their border crossings, an even greater challenge for them beause they are not floating on an island like we are. Plucky little Belgium likewise.....
Talking about crowded places.....we all know what road rage is, and no doubt many of us have experienced it, well here in the UK we now have "pavement rage", featured on GMTV this morning - 29/09/08....people with very little time to spare and a lot of things to do in it being made very irate by people who have very little to do but loads of time in which to do it all and at the same time failing to acknowledge the existence of the former.....all on very busy pavements
You know the situation.......you have about 30 minutes at the most in which to grab a quick bite and a sup at lunchtime and you nip out to the deli (or the pub) just along the street and you start to seethe at dawdling tourists doing a steady two mph...all in groups......or pensioners on an outing to the city from Auchtermuchty snailing it along at an average ten inches per hour...all in groups...or mums pushing prams, three abreast, all blethering* away together at a rate of 90 words per second and giving the impression that they have all day in which to do it all. It really makes you so crabbit, so fashed!**
*Scots for idle chatter.
** Scots for irritable, irritated. ;-)
Why is Kiwi English marginalized?
Why is Kenyan English marginalized?
:(
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Canadian accent(s) are frequently debated here on antimoon.
Sometimes even questions on Canadian spellings are brought up (driver's license vs driver's licence, well in BC, driver's license is more common).
Why is Kenyan English marginalized?
:(
---
Canadian accent(s) are frequently debated here on antimoon.
Sometimes even questions on Canadian spellings are brought up (driver's license vs driver's licence, well in BC, driver's license is more common).
>>>>>>> Because Canadian English is just like the American one, and Australian English is too far away to be noticed.
Pretty much, though the I'd say that the 3 major strongholds of English are thought of as US/Canada, Britain, Australia/New Zealand in that order.
Pretty much, though the I'd say that the 3 major strongholds of English are thought of as US/Canada, Britain, Australia/New Zealand in that order.
<<You know the situation.......you have about 30 minutes at the most in which to grab a quick bite and a sup at lunchtime and you nip out to the deli (or the pub) just along the street and you start to seethe at dawdling tourists doing a steady two mph...all in groups......>>
Sounds like you need to brown-bag it (or plasticbag it these days).
Sounds like you need to brown-bag it (or plasticbag it these days).