varieties of english

[BobK]

Supposing you are a foreigner wanting to learn English, whose or which pronunciation will you accept as your model? Any clue? The case of pronunciation seems to be a free-for-all. As a foreign learner,I have noticed that there is a great deal of difference between American and British pronunciation ,or rather, this is what Daniel Jones tells you. What is more, this is compounded by the fact that most words can be pronounced in more than one way. I have heard that in France they have an academy to regulate language. Why not set up something like that in English speaking countries?

As has been said many many times in other threads, such a scheme has been suggested and tried regularly for several hundred years, and simply won't work. Everyone agrees it would make life easier for students, but it'll never happen.

b

[balakrishnanijk]

Although India is a former British colony and we have a tendency to speak English with a British accent,the situation seems now to have changed with with the incursion of American technology and culture. A lot of American TV programmes are available here and a lot of people go to the US rather than the UK for higher studies. Moreover, American English dominates most of the Internet . All these factors have contributed to the younger generation focusing more on American English. If this situation prevails, I am sure that British English will be thrown in the shade. The apparent predominance of American English can be attributed to the influence which the US exerts on international affairs and its global presence.