The state of British English

Adam   Tue Jul 26, 2005 8:27 pm GMT
Britain is the driving force behind English today. The US is just the driving force behind American English, which isn't true English and is nowhere near as widespread as British English.
Kirk   Tue Jul 26, 2005 9:15 pm GMT
Haha. Adam's list included "Canada" under "British English" even tho Canadians speak a bundle of dialects clearly under the North American English grouping.

Sander, as I've said before, if you ignore him he'll lose the fuel to his fires, like what happened on the other forum.
Kirk   Tue Jul 26, 2005 9:24 pm GMT
<<Damian

While your probably right about China becoming an economic juggernaut, I don't its language will become so well known. For two main reasons:
There is more than one language
The languages (politically) are only really present on one continent. English by contrast is heavily present in Europe, North America, Asia (especially India), Large parts of Africa and the Middle East and Australasia- I imagine its well represented by the few people who spend time in Antartica, although I'm not sure they really have any political power.>>

Good point. Also, the Chinese languages are not widely distributed on a massive scale globally like English is. Even with its rising and impressive economic growth, that doesn't mean the world is all of a sudden going to rush to learn Chinese, for better or worse. Take Japan--second economy in the world. High living standards, powerful economy. Yet its language is quite understudied on a global scale especially considering its economic prowess (2nd economy in the world). I do see it quite plausible that many more people will start to learn Mandarin in the coming years and decades, but I think the situation may parallel what happened with Japanese. When it was apparent it was a rising power in the 1960s-1980s similar predictions were made about Japanese and indeed the worldwide rate of people studying Japanese certainly increased. However, predictions that it would become a new global language a la Spanish or English have rung false. I foresee a similar thing happening with China and Mandarin.
Washington   Sun Aug 07, 2005 4:21 pm GMT
Brittish English is the product of Colonialism. Is that or should that be used for "bragging" rights. If the United States had wanted, 95 percent of the Pacific would be speaking "American English" and Brittians would be learning "Brittish English" as a second language to German.
Sander   Sun Aug 07, 2005 4:25 pm GMT
Washington,

American English is the result of colonialism.And Brittians is incorrect.You suck.
London   Mon Aug 08, 2005 9:37 am GMT
<Brittish English is the product of Colonialism. Is that or should that be used for "bragging" rights. If the United States had wanted, 95 percent of the Pacific would be speaking "American English" and Brittians would be learning "Brittish English" as a second language to German. >

And if the United States wasn't colonised by the British you probably won't be an English speaking thus meaning there probably no such thing as 'American English'.

---End of story---
Travis   Mon Aug 08, 2005 9:44 am GMT
London, so why does that really matter? Just why is the fact that the US today is primarily English-speaking of so much importance exactly?
London   Mon Aug 08, 2005 9:49 am GMT
*Excuse me I used the term 'United States' when it didn't existed til they decided to unite (the orginal 13) to gain independent rule from Britain.

BTW Washington I don't really give a flying fuck if American English takes over the world as I have realise its just the continuing development of the English language or even of a dialect/new language.
greg   Mon Aug 08, 2005 4:56 pm GMT
Adam : il va falloir que tu comprennes une bonne fois pour toutes que le système "impérial" et le système métrique sont deux inventions françaises. Même la monnaie utilisée au RU est d'origine française.
Trawick   Mon Aug 08, 2005 5:37 pm GMT
Adam also lists, inexplicably, Ireland, Newfoundland and several Carribean countries in the "British" column, even though I'm pretty sure those countries don't speak anything resembling British English.
Kirk   Mon Aug 08, 2005 7:04 pm GMT
<<Adam also lists, inexplicably, Ireland, Newfoundland and several Carribean countries in the "British" column, even though I'm pretty sure those countries don't speak anything resembling British English.>>

Yeah, don't try to make sense out of his postings.
Travis   Mon Aug 08, 2005 7:16 pm GMT
I stopped taking anything Adam says seriously a long time ago, even though his extreme nationalism still irritates me nonetheless.
Sander   Mon Aug 08, 2005 7:41 pm GMT
And you're not alone.
Awoala Jack   Wed Aug 10, 2005 7:18 pm GMT
Dear

Can I talk to you?Can I recieve a response via the internet,eh?On a slight different note, what do you browse?BBC,The Times or just bloggin's or something?I'll tell you what

I browse bbc.co.uk, not bbcworld.com.The latter sounds like it's made for the international audience with the resultant modification of language to suit.Not entirely british, if you ask me..What to browse is too hard to figure. I can't think of anything to do with my lap top.Maybe you could help me out here,coz I'm knind of lost,really.May I just go ahead and print out newsy articles,something like'China has an ancient mariner story to talk about'?But ,I think I'll do well to simply roam the streets of Cars,F-1 grand prix, and it's news items? Anyway, CAR things: Ferrari and other top gears like Bugatti Beast werre my first love where sports and hobby were concerned. These days the English Premiership League has caught my fancy and left me feeling little for the other.Have you ever thought of dumping yourbanger of a car for a new one?

On a more serious note, please have mercy on the Amerians and browse-- not CNN this time;they aren't very hot at language as their rival Fox News-- the New York Times(go to www.nytimes.com have an account there), though the English as spoken here is stilt, too formal and distant.Perhaps the NY times are trying to put on airs or just depicting pictures of their education, something Harvardic and Yale-ish with a little it of Princeton mixed with Columbus to a frothy consistency..

Do the New York Times have any justification for this style of writing? 'Oh yes', my mum told me,'the NY Times are all for giving the world articles termed as ''high -brow''. If you fall in love with those articles and start reading them as often as not you'll discover how your English will change to ain't-free type' She was partly correct in her circumlocution and not polished English, anyways. But I love East US English; it's the closest thing to Oxford English or the Queens. The Queens ,albeit , is a bit different from Oxford: The original Queens was spoken in the Elizabeth days when pan was pronounced pen in Buckingham Palace, you know.Do you require a generous explanation here? send your empty page to wwwawoala@yahoo.com.au to be filled up, right?
Damian in Edinburgh   Thu Aug 11, 2005 3:18 pm GMT
The Edinburgh International Festival 2005 has started..the Fringe has been going some time and let me tell you it's supercool - well, I would say that would I not :-) ..but it really is! Edinburgh is a superfun place to be right now...I've already been to several Fringe events so far...Tuesday night I went to see the Lafayette High School Theatre Company from Missouri, USA in their production of "My America".....a great laugh and really well performed. You have to be American to fully appreciate some of the issues raised...all satirical but most of the aspects of American life and attitudes etc are well known generally. It's not just the British who can take the piss out of themselves and laugh at their own loopiness! :-) I was with a small group of friends and we met up with the American kids and their director, manager etc etc and a great time at the Pleasance until about 3am. It's a large pub with outside garden and courtyard which was crammed with people and among loads of other things we discussed the title of this thread...British English, especially the Scottish version. We suggested doing a sort of reverse performance and take it over to America as "My Britain" and show the Americans that we are just as weird as they are...perhaps more so but who cares!

:-)

If anybody comes to Edinburgh in the next month do the Fringe bit!

http://www.edfringe.com/