Setting one's own standards

Regarding Standard English forms (American, British, Indian Nigerian, etc.), each group of people is at liberty to set its own standards, create its own idioms, and so on, with confidence and without apology.

Do you agree?

(Adapted from a statement by Chinua Acebe, 1965.)

Very bad idea practically. There should be only one standard which every speaker follows. English was originated in England. So British version is something that speakers from all over the world should stick to it. More and more versions would only complicate things further for those who want to learn it as a new language.

"Regarding Standard English forms (American, British, Indian Nigerian, etc.), each group of people is at liberty to set its own standards, create its own idioms, and so on, with confidence and without apology."

Guess what? English speakers are free to do anything they want with their language.

Always have been, always will be.

"English was originated in England."

Big deal! The English language long ago escaped the confines of England; it no longer "belongs" to the English. It "belongs" to native English speakers everywhere. No self-respecting Aussie, Canadian, South African, Kiwi, American or Indian would ever allow some remote "English Academy" in Oxford or London to dictate how the language should be used.

"More and more versions would only complicate things further for those who want to learn it as a new language."

Oh dear, what a shame.

Perhaps we should opt for a sterile, artificial and lifeless language like Esperanto instead?

<<No self-respecting Aussie, Canadian, South African, Kiwi, American or Indian would ever allow some remote "English Academy" in Oxford or London to dictate how the language should be used.>>

British English is taught at Indian colleges and universities. Indian authors prefer to use it. Best dictionaries that native speakers look for help are British: Cambridge, Oxford, Cobuild and you name it.

Aussie, South African, Kiwi English dictionaries. Do they exist? Never mind. The only famous American dictionary is Webster that is only confined to American native speakers other than that people don't know about it or feel shudder to use it because of its awkward phonectic symbols.

<<Perhaps we should opt for a sterile, artificial and lifeless language like Esperanto instead?>>

Plus, who says British English is boring, contrived? British accents are the best and never monotonous on ears unlike other accents from above mentioned countries. I would say that every native speaker on this earth should learn to speak British English. If people don't want to learn the correct version of the language, it is their own fault.

<<I would say that every native speaker on this earth should learn to speak British English. If people don't want to learn the correct version of the language, it is their own fault.>>

Why NATIVE speakers? They all have their own native varieties of English. Why should they adopt an entirely new variety?

Besides, there is no such thing as *the* correct version of the language.

Bad idea? This is a statement of fact: each group of people is at liberty to set its own standards. This is only natural.

Speakers of a language don't stick to some standard so as to make things easier for foreigners to learn nor should they.

There is no such thing as a correct version of English.

<<Plus, who says British English is boring, contrived? British accents are the best and never monotonous on ears unlike other accents from above mentioned countries. I would say that every native speaker on this earth should learn to speak British English. If people don't want to learn the correct version of the language, it is their own fault.>>

Ummm...we're native speakers. We learn to speak the accent of the area we live in. It isn't a matter of 'choice', anymore than a Hong Kong Chinese gets to choose whether to speak like a Beijinger. If we adopt another accent, for most of us, it sounds odds, like we're making fun of people with British accents instead of speaking some kind of 'standard' English.

There is no 'correct' version of any language. Language evolves based on the area in which it is used, and whichever way it is used in that area becomes the 'correct' way for that area.

< It "belongs" to native English speakers everywhere.>

Why only to native speakers?

"[W]ho says British English is boring, contrived?"

Not me. I have no idea where you picked that notion up.

"British accents are the best and never monotonous on ears unlike other accents from above mentioned countries."

A purely subjective statement of preference with no factual basis.

"I would say that every native speaker on this earth should learn to speak British English."

OK then. But whose British English? Billy Connolly's? Tony Blair's? The Queen's? Michael O'Leary's?

Also, why on earth would anyone want to learn an English dialect spoken by a small minority when the US alone accounts for 60% of all English speakers?

"Why only to native speakers?"

Good point.

English belongs to English speakers verywhere.

<<Also, why on earth would anyone want to learn an English dialect spoken by a small minority when the US alone accounts for 60% of all English speakers? >>

Just for a variety's change. Hearing same monotonous accent is boring.

<<There is no 'correct' version of any language.>>

British version is more accurate and more original. Other versions are fake or circumcision adaptations of the original language i.e British English. Writing "thou" for "though" would not make American English popular and more accurate just because most speakers of the language are Americans.

<<English belongs to English speakers verywhere. >>

Sure, but that does not give a sole right to them for disrespecting the language and use it in whatever way they deem fit to use it. British English is correct English.

<<British version is more accurate and more original. Other versions are fake or circumcision adaptations of the original language i.e British English. Writing "thou" for "though" would not make American English popular and more accurate just because most speakers of the language are Americans.>>

Sorry for me being blunt, but that's blatantly false.

You can't say that British English is more accurate and more correct than American English. There are accurate and less accurate speakers on both sides of the puddle. An educated speaker of American English is certainly more accurate than an uneducated British speaker. (The terms "educated" and "uneducated" are by no means pejorative here, and I mean "close to standard" by accurate.)

Besides, British English is not "more original" than American English. Not by any stretch of the imagination. The "original" one is the "Elizabethan English" (before the colonisation of the New World/Continent), which was neither British (at least not in the present-day sense) nor American. It was just "English", right? That's the ancestor of present-day American English, too. One can also say that British English is more innovative (thus "less original", as you put it), since the *original* variety of English was rhotic, just like the most American dialects.

As far as eye-writing is concerned ("tho" for "though"), well, this is also common in British English.

<<As far as eye-writing is concerned ("tho" for "though"), well, this is also common in British English.>>

I mean, this particular one, but eye-writing in general.