of British English

A bird’s eye view

Many years ago, a woman visiting London

came across the following sign outside a movie

theater:

New Sensational American

Western film – English

subtitles.

A bird’s eye view: a general

consideration

The woman thought this was just an example of the dry humor the English

are famous for. A few weeks later while in Paris, she came across another sign outside a shop. The sign said: “English spoken here. American understood.”

We can only imagine what the woman’s reaction must have been by this time. Was she outraged by the suggestion that she and million of other Americans don’t speak English?

Or did she think the shopkeeper was merely making fun of the way Americans speak English?

The story, which incidentally is based on true occurrences, lends credence to the view held by the late Irish-born writer George Bernard Shaw who once said that “England and America are two countries separated by a common language.”

Whatever conclusions we draw from either the story or Shaw’s famous dictum, one thing is clear: English is spoken differently on both sides of the Atlantic. Over the years, the differences betwen British and

American English have not only been a source of humor but have also given rise to much heated debate and discussion.

During much of the nineteenth century, some English people held the view that the Americans were “defiling” or “corrupting” the mother tongue. If we

* Sb who believes that sth should be done in the correct or traditional way, especially in the areas of art,

sport, music, and language.

Understand “defiling” and “corrupting” to mean “changing”, then those English purists* were indeed right.

However, such purists failed to understand that change is the inevitable destination of all living languages.

Still, their reaction seems understandable. Perhaps the proud citizens of the mother country thought of themselves as the “guardians” of theEnglish Language. But even the “guardians” themselves weren’t imune to attacks from their “Yankee” brothers. The American statesman John Hays, for example,

openly criticized British English as affected and pompous, while he praised American speech as incisive and straightforward.Even nowadays you’ll still hear people comparing British and American English and discussing which is “the best kind of English”.

Such discussions, however, ultimatly reveal nothing more than one’s

personal preferences. To argue that any variety of English is superior to

another is like saying that “roast beef” is tastier than “fried chicken”.

X

Today, English has become a true lingua franca* spoken with many accents by many peoples throughout the world.

*a universal language.

In view of this English-speaking

cultural diversity, the idea that British

English is the “best kind of English” is clearly an outdated

notion.

British English is simply one of the many unique varieties of English that now exist.

Before we deal with the subject of British English in detail, let’s first clarify

the term British English. For our purposes, we’re going to us the term

British English to refer only to the English spoken in England.

Such a distinction is necessary for the simple reason that the term British English can be misleading.

It could be understood as a generic term for all of the varieties of English spoken in the British Isles, which consist of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

The idea that these countries from a homogeneous culture or

linguisticgroup is erroneous. The Irish, Scots or Welsh would probably take offense at being called English.

Unlike England, most of whose inhabitants are of Anglo-Saxon origin, the populations of Ireland, Scotland and Wales are of predominantly Celtic origin. The only way we could do justice to Irish, Scottish or Welsh English would be to grant each separate discussion.

Since it would be impossible to adequately cover all regional English accents in the short space alloted, we’ve decided to limit our discussion primarily to standard British English. This is the variety of English you’re likely to hear used

by BBC Broadcasters or such famous English actors as ...

... as Jeremy irons, Julie Andrews or Alec Guinness. One of the most noticeable characteristics of Standard British English is its clear pronunciation and intonation.