British English
From Free net encyclopedia
British English (BrE) is a term used to differentiate between the form of the English language used in the British Isles and those used elsewhere. It includes all the varieties of English used within the Isles, including England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The term is rarely used by British people who generally use the term 'Standard English' or merely 'English', but is often referenced by Americans.
As with many other aspects of British culture, the English language as spoken in Great Britain and Ireland is governed by convention rather than formal code: there is no equivalent body to the Académie française, and the authoritative dictionaries (e.g. Oxford English Dictionary, Chambers Dictionary, Collins Dictionary) record usage rather than prescribe it. As a result there is significant variation in grammar, usage, spelling, and vocabulary within English as used in the UK, and lively, idiomatic uses of the language are commonplace. In addition, vocabulary and usage change with time; words are freely borrowed from other languages and other strains of English, and neologisms are frequent.
While there is a meaningful degree of uniformity in formal written English in the United Kingdom, the forms of spoken English used vary considerably more than in most other areas of the world where English is spoken. Dialects and accents vary not only within the nations of the UK, for example in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, but also within these countries themselves. The written form of the language, as taught in schools, is universally the same as in the rest of the English-speaking world (except North America), with a slight emphasis on words whose usage varies amongst the different regions of the UK. For example, although the words "wee" and "little" are interchangeable in some contexts, one is more likely to see "wee" written by a Scot than by an English person.
For historical reasons dating back to the rise of London in the 9th century, the form of language spoken in London and the East Midlands became standard English within the Court, and thus the form generally accepted for use in the law, government, literature and education within the British Isles. Although British English is often used to denote the English spelling and lexicon used outside the U.S., this usage is not completely accurate, as almost all British spelling rules and the vast majority of British vocabulary are actually shared among the whole English-speaking world outside the U.S. (except Canada as far as lexicon is concerned). The British spellings were most famously recorded in Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1755).
Historically, the widespread usage of English across the world is attributed to the former power of the British Empire, and hence the most common form of English used by the British ruling class that of south-east England (the area around the capital, London, and the ancient English university towns of Oxford and Cambridge). This form of the language is associated with Received Pronunciation (RP), which is still regarded by many people outside the UK (especially in the United States) as "the British accent". However, even RP has evolved quite markedly over the last 40 years.
From the second half of the 20th century to the present day, the preeminence of the English language has been augmented by the economic, military and political dominance of the United States in world affairs. Indeed, American English is often regarded by Americans as the most prominent form of English in the world today, a view reinforced by the large amount of U.S. cultural products (including films) in global circulation. Thus the United States, born out of former British colonies acted to perpetuate the dominance of English.
The form of English spoken and written in the United Kingdom still has a major cultural influence, in particular on the English used, as a first or additional language, in many Commonwealth countries (including Australia, South Africa, and India), as well as in the European Union; British English is also taught and used in the former British colonies of Hong Kong, Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia.
See also
- English English
- Scottish English
- Welsh English
- Mid Ulster English
- Hiberno-English
- British Isles (terminology)
References
- Bragg, M. (2004) 'The Adventure of English', Sceptre. ISBN 0340829931de:Britisches Englisch
es:Inglés británico fr:Anglais britannique he:אנגלית בריטית ja:イギリス英語 ko:영국 영어 simple:British English zh:英國英語