Poll: American English or English English?

[Waxed Owl]

i was bron in the UK so naturally i use English english and english phrases seem perfectly normal to me wheareas american expressions sound strange over here. i think most of the differences are the different cultures of the UK and america but as the language originated in england i think all of the spelling differences should be put right!

COLOUR

 

[Zykon TheLich]

It'd be "you're," for the record. And all discussions turn into that eventually. I'm just clinging to whatever discussion I can get out of this while I can.

Damn, my earlier smugness at correcting someone who misspelt 'pronunciation' is wiped out in a moment of careless hubris.

 

[StarkRavingSane]

When one language is used by two separate groups of speakers two varieties are bound to evolve. It is only natural and proper. No one variety is superior another (as there are no means to determine that in an objective way; personal taste, patriotism or snobbery don't count as objective). As for mispronunciations or any other derivations from what is considered standard: if enough people make them they become incorporated into the variety and regarded as correct.

Languages change all the time on all levels (phonetics, phonology, morphology, lexis, syntax, semantics etc) and a language that does not change is a dead language. British and American varieties evolve in two partly separate ways.

Also, linguistics is too beautiful a science to taint with politics.

Just my 2 cents. Or eurocents. Or pence. Whichever you prefer.

 

[curlycrouton]

Us english have pubs, pubs that are 900 years old down our roads, next to Saxon churches and 300 year old farms. And we have THE accent. The one that all american girls seem to find attractive. yay.
AND we have Rugby. Glorious, fantastic, brilliant Rugby.
Oh and better T.V.
Just watch Peep Show.
Watch it and be enlightened.
DO IT.

Anyway language.
well obviously Britain first spoke English so logically that is the proper way.
However that doesn't mean you SHOULD speak it. That's like saying just because it is the "proper way" to eat sitting at a table with a napkin etc. etc. that everyone should do it. No speak how you like.
or rather, one should speak how one likes

 

[birdbrain18]

As a Canadian, I find we use more American English in speach, but England English in writing.

same here

 

[Mistah Kurtz]

American English. We say what we mean and we mean what we say!

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

As a Canadian, I find we use more American English in speach, but England English in writing.

same here

*Puzzled* This doesn't make any sense to me.

Speechwise, there's almost no difference between the two. The main differences are spelling and terms based on local usage.

And I would have thought that Canadian would have a French tinge?

 

[Aurora219]

I prefer English.

I'm English myself, and I like the way that half our language is so damned complicated that it feels almost exclusive in some ways.

American English is fine, until things get swapped for no reason. Losing vowels out of words when they serve no purpose is common sense for tweaking a language, but swapping trousers for pants and chips for fries just confuses me when all other nations use American English!

 

[StarkRavingSane]

Speechwise, there's almost no difference between the two.

Slightly different vowel system, different pronunciation of words like "oh" (AmE "ow", BE "oe-w") and AmE has rhotic speech (you pronounce the "R"s, in BrE you lengthen vowels instead). And there;s probably more. Those are huuge differences.

 

[The Iron Ninja]

fruit machine

What the fuck is a fruit machine? (I could hazard a guess, but then I'd probably guess it wrong)

British English (In my opinion) just sounds way cooler, plus most of them have awesome accents.

 

[NewClassic_v1legacy]

fruit machine

What the fuck is a fruit machine? (I could hazard a guess, but then I'd probably guess it wrong)

British English (In my opinion) just sounds way cooler, plus most of them have awesome accents.

Slot machine.

And sometimes, BrEnglish does sound cooler, but I just think accents sound cooler by default.

 

[Capt_Jack_Doicy]

I come from England and I use English.

Since English originally comes from England, the English are speaking what would be considered the 'original' English. The American's have taken the language and made alterations from slang developed over a century or 2.

So American English is just English with slang in effect.

See what I mean?

Let me tell you a truth, neither the English spoken in America nor the English spoken in Britain is more similar to the English spoken during the Middle Ages, or even when the first British colonies were founded.

isn't there argument that a language belongs to the culture that created it? The french take great pride in their language (which is greatly different to its medieval version) yet you would seek to deny their ownership over a facet of their own culture because you happen to be anglophonic? isn't that racist?

on your previous comment on pronuciation, within the british isles there is a great variety of pronuciation and phrases based on region, class and local cultural diversity.

as a great man once said: There even are places where English completely disappears. In America, they haven't used it for years!

but the the english should be taken out and hung,
For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue...

 

[TomNook]

Dialects are dialects does it really matter if color is color or colour? How is it destroying society?

 

[Crowghast]

I am an American and personally, will always feel comfortable with my native accent, but as for spelling, sentence structure, and a few slang terms, i'll vote for the guys who perfected the language in the first place.

 

[Crowghast]

fruit machine

What the fuck is a fruit machine? (I could hazard a guess, but then I'd probably guess it wrong)

British English (In my opinion) just sounds way cooler, plus most of them have awesome accents.

Slot machine.

And sometimes, BrEnglish does sound cooler, but I just think accents sound cooler by default.

Some of them are rather silly. Like Suffolk accents. I've always thought of them as unbearable. Imagine that feeling you get when you stick a metal spoon in your mouth and start biting and scraping your teeth against it... yea. That's the feeling I get. Not ACTUALLY sticking the spoon in your mouth, just... THINKING about it. It's WORSE.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

fruit machine

What the fuck is a fruit machine? (I could hazard a guess, but then I'd probably guess it wrong)

British English (In my opinion) just sounds way cooler, plus most of them have awesome accents.

I did say it underneath

Gotta say the Brummie accent is worse. Whilst I'm sure there are some lovely people from Birmingham, the accent grates on my nerves.

 

[PAGEToap44]

I use English English, but I'd rather call it British English. Us Scots only speak it because we were made to, back in the old days.

 

[Crowghast]

I believe it was Webster who rewrote the dictionary so people in the colonies could understand eachother. Back then it wasn't just English immigrants, they got people from most parts of Europe. No one could understand eachother, whether or not they spoke English. So Webster (Or whoever.) created a kind of "recieved pronunciation" or "standard dialect" for the United States. That's why Americans sound like we do. Though I still don't know where Southern comes from...

 

[NewClassic_v1legacy]

Though I still don't know where Southern comes from...

The South? I do hear a lot of accents like that around here, and I'm just guessing that it's the result of too much short-hand. I notice myself using a lot of contractions that don't actually exist, or double-contractions like "shouldn't've" or "couldn't've."

Woo, questionable grammar transposed onto proper rules such as apostrophe use.