British English
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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 those found in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. The term is used especially by those outside the British Isles, as well as by linguists and lexicographers; British people themselves generally use the term 'Standard English' or, rather more commonly, merely 'English'.
As with many other aspects of culture within the British Isles, the English language as spoken in the United Kingdom 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, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 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 Ireland 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 UK and Ireland, 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 between the nations of the British Isles, 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 Scottish or Northern Irish person 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 US, 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 US (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, political and cultural dominance of the United States in world affairs. 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 British Isles still has a major cultural influence, in particular on the English used, as a first or additional language, in many Commonwealth countries and former British colonies (including Australia, India, South Africa, New Zealand and, Hong Kong, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and to some extent, Canada), as well as in the European Union.
See also
- English English
- Scottish English
- Welsh English
- Mid Ulster English (Northern Ireland and border counties of Republic of Ireland)
- Hiberno-English (Southern Ireland)
- Geordie (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England)
- Scouse (Liverpool/Merseyside English)
References
- Bragg, M. (2004) 'The Adventure of English', Sceptre. ISBN 0340829931
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