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Dialects that have been displaced? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| onurdolar Diglot Groupie TurkeyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4643 days ago 98 posts - 147 votes  Speaks: Turkish*, English Studies: Italian, German | Message 17 of 20 20 April 2012 at 9:18am | IP Logged | ||
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Well that is very relative and depends on which part of the world you are living in; for me here in Turkey English is still considered "british". Most English language schools ( not all of course ) try to use british in their names or use references to union jack in their logos; also most of the material is linked to british culture.
Also when you speak English to the natives they most probably think you are foreign and ask where you are from rather then automaticaly assuming you are british/american. But i guess English language is considered "american" in Americas and Far East. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Nguyen Senior Member Vietnam Joined 5084 days ago 109 posts - 195 votes Speaks: Vietnamese | Message 18 of 20 21 April 2012 at 2:26am | IP Logged | ||
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I did not expect this post to be about Britain vs USA, I can give a different pespective about this discussion though. Here in SE Asia most people will assume you are Austrailian if you speak English. Also Austrailian TV is quite popular, The Austrailian network is available almost everywhere you go in Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore etc. Many language schools in Vietnam prefer to hire Americans or Austrailians because they are easier to understand. In Hong Kong and Singapore the British English seems to be preferred. Obviously my country, like the Philipines has alot more of an American influence as we were occupied by them.
With regards to cultural aspects both countries are about equal with the advantage perhaps going to the UK. American Idol is quite popular; however, this is a British concept and I think that a British Company has rights to the show. House is a popular TV show also but DR. House is played by an Englishman. In films I think that Sean Connery, Micheal Cain, Julia Roberts and Anthony Hopkins would rate up there with Robert Deniro, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The last two are popular in Vietnam because of their high profile adoption of a Vietnamese child and highly publicised charity work. More and more Asian production companies are taking over though and we like to watch dramas etc. about a culture closer to our own more than anything. The OP needs to be careful about catagorising TV programing also. Many American series like the office are just American versions of British shows. Regarding sport the UK wins hands down. The English Premiier League is easily the most watched sport in the world. Anyone in Asia would automatically recognise Man U or Chelsea but probobly wouldn't recognise a single American Football or Baseball team. European style motorsports like Formula One are mkost popular also with Lewis Hamilton (a Brit) appearing on many television ad's. Speaking of cars, rolling up in a Bently or Rolls Royce is going to get alot more attention than a Jeep or a Hummer. I think the first two are British car manufacturers if I am not mistaken. To finish, as one poster had said we have our own culture, just because we have KFC and Pizza Hut doesn't mean we want to leave our culture behind. English is an important tool because it is a common language. It doesn't matter if it's UK English or American, it is just required to get a job and get by in many places and industries even if it is spoken badly. That seems to be a good thing about English, you don't need to speak well to be understood. It is a unifying language that makes it possible for many people to communicate effectively. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4763 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 19 of 20 21 April 2012 at 9:41am | IP Logged | ||
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To reply to the original question without drawing parallels to the present situation between British and American English, a power shift between dialects definitely happened during the transition from Old to Middle English. In Old English West Saxon was the normative dialect, as Wessex was the most powerful kingdom, while the standard register of Middle English (one that has been passed down to Modern English to some extent) was largely based on the dialests of London and East Midlands, i.e. Mercian. In many cases such changes occur after a shift of capitals/political power centres. For example, modern Standard Mandarin is based on the Beijing dialect, but there have been times when it was based on the Nanjing dialect, when that city was the capital of China.
However, changing the capital of the country sometimes causes a merging of dialects to occur. For example, Classical Japanese was based on the Kyoto dialect (Western Japanese) of the time while modern Standard Japanese is based to a large extent on the Tokyo dialect (Eastern Japanese). However, the modern Tokyo dialect lacks many characteristic features of Eastern Japanese and displays heavy Western Japanese influence, which was likely caused by the influence of the Kyoto court speech and the Edo-era samurai coming from all over the country. A similar thing seems to have happened in Russian after the capital was moved from Saint Petersburg to Moscow in 1918. For example, the words что, конечно and булочная are spelled with a ч (ch) because that's how they were traditionally pronounced in Saint Petersburg, whereas in Moscow they were pronounced with a ш (sh); in modern standard Russian the two former words are pronounced the Moscow way, but the latter one the Saint Petersburg way, and only older people retain the same pronunciation in all three cases. And then there are cases where the dialect of the capital city was never the basis for the standard language to begin with, most notably in Italy and Croatia. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| COF Senior Member United States Joined 5822 days ago 262 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English* | Message 20 of 20 27 April 2012 at 12:41pm | IP Logged | ||
Those cars aren't really comparable. Jeep is a massive company in America and virtually every man and his dog has a Jeep, and many relatively normal people also have Hummers too. They're so common in America, they're just like Ford Fiestas in the UK in many respects. Bently and Rolls Royce are not normal cars. They are only for the mega rich, and the average Brit, or even a most very wealthy Brits could only dream of ever driving one, let alone owning one. On the whole those two companies don't make nearly as much for the UK as Jeep and Hummer do for the US economy. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, Rolls Royce isn't even a British company any more, it has been purchased by Germany, and I'm not sure if they're even made in the UK anymore. Edited by COF on 27 April 2012 at 12:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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