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Does the UK have its own language? | ||
Tags: United Kingdom (UK) | Accent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 25 of 39 18 December 2012 at 10:09pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
If your goal is being able to communicate with as many people as possible, British English is the one to go for. There's simply more exposure to non-British accents in British media than to non-American accents in American media, so it's much easier to learn to understand people using different accents. Otherwise, unless you're actually staying in one place to learn the language and local dialect there, I think it's rather pointless to concentrate on one particular accent - simply because at the level most people reach without immersion they aren't likely to emulate the dialect to such a degree that the difference between global standard language and local standard even shows. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4622 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 26 of 39 19 December 2012 at 10:17am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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The differences between American and UK English are very slight. There are a few minor spelling differences, a handful of vocabulary items are different and a couple of verbs behave differently in the past tense. Very occasionally, preposition usage differs.
None of the above cause any impediment in understanding the language, regardless of which side of the pond you come from. The Americans do seem to use one tense that the British don't. "He was the best actor I ever saw" - you would never hear this construction in the UK. So, I don't think it matters which version of English you study. As for accents, English speakers do not care about this issue. I mean, we're hardly going to switch to Spanish. Edited by beano on 19 December 2012 at 10:19am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| TobaccoSmoke Newbie England Joined 4374 days ago 16 posts - 21 votes | Message 27 of 39 19 December 2012 at 12:40pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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You could argue that the difference between France French and Quebecois is also very slight.
Same with European Spanish and South American Spanish 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| TobaccoSmoke Newbie England Joined 4374 days ago 16 posts - 21 votes | Message 28 of 39 19 December 2012 at 12:46pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
That's an interesting point. The BBC in particular does tend to use a wide range reporters and presenters with different accents, while the American media tends to have their reporters and presenters speaking with a General American accent. For example, a classic example of this is the journalist and presenter Lyse Doucet. She's Canadian, but her accent is frankly unusual and hard to pin-point to any particular region. It has elements of Irish, English, Canadian and French Canadian all in one and is a very distinctive. I can't imagine any American network ever employing someone with an accent like that. Edited by TobaccoSmoke on 19 December 2012 at 12:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4844 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 29 of 39 19 December 2012 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
That's because "-ize" is the etymologically correct variant. It has nothing to do with "British" or "American" spelling. The "British" variant "-ise" only really established itself during the 20th century. For further information have a look at Oxford spelling. Edited by Josquin on 19 December 2012 at 7:01pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Camundonguinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4749 days ago 273 posts - 500 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish Studies: Swedish | Message 30 of 39 19 December 2012 at 9:29pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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British pop singers sing in American English ;)
I've never heard /ˈɛvrɪbɒdi dɑːns/ in a pop song. :) Spice Gils in ''Wannabe'' ''So, here's a story from A [ei] to Z [zi:] You wanna get with me, you gotta listen carefully'' Edited by Camundonguinho on 19 December 2012 at 9:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4772 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 31 of 39 19 December 2012 at 9:41pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| espejismo Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5051 days ago 498 posts - 905 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani | Message 32 of 39 19 December 2012 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Yes yes yes. I wanted to point that out the similarity in style and content of their posts, but couldn't recall his old username. But hey, his other two threads were okay, so let's not "whet the axe, and scour the rusty spear" just yet. :D Edited by espejismo on 19 December 2012 at 11:33pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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