nature of English

[Jenny Nguyen]

Do you think what country should English belong to?
Should English have correct standard for everyone?

[cawatawa]

Well, the idea of standard English rhymes with the idea for people wearing the same red coat.

[5jj]

Do you think what country should English belong to?

Languages 'belong' to no-one.

[shannico]

Personally I feel that the amazing thing about English is its variety! Having one correct standard would take away from its broad cultural spectrum, liveliness and musicality. I think it's great when, while going through posts and threads on this website's forums, one learns that a particular word, phrase or expression may be accepted in BrE whereas it wouldn't be in AmE for instance. That's the beauty and major challenge in learning, studying and teaching such a fast evolving language as English.

[Jenny Nguyen]

Personally I feel that the amazing thing about English is its variety! Having one correct standard would take away from its broad cultural spectrum, liveliness and musicality. I think it's great when, while going through posts and threads on this website's forums, one learns that a particular word, phrase or expression may be accepted in BrE whereas it wouldn't be in AmE for instance. That's the beauty and major challenge in learning, studying and teaching such a fast evolving language as English.

I think so, however, it's necessary to have some kind of "basic standard" that makes English itself, not other languages. There should be some thread that connect all English dialects together, I read somewhere that standard English is just one dialect of English only. But I wonder how English become an international language? Why is it English but not any other languages?

[Tdol]

English dialects and variants are connected. I can watch an American movie and follow it, or have a conversation with an Australian, etc. Very strong regional accents can be difficult, but the majority of speakers can follow each other.

[Frank Antonson]

Related to this subject, I can't recommend Robert MacNeil's "The Story of English" enough. It is about 9 hours long, and I am quite sure that it is available online for free viewing -- check out documentaries online.

Anyway, his first and especially his final episodes deal with the present and future of English. He even suggests that it is conceivable that English because of its very diversity could some day go the way of Latin -- another imperial language.

[emsr2d2]

The Robert MacNeil documentary sounds interesting. I hadn't stumbled across it before. I've found it on YouTube so I'll be watching it in instalments from this afternoon onwards.

[Frank Antonson]

Great!

I found it WONDERFUL. And at the time that it came out, I believed that it would change English teachers' attitudes around the world. Sadly, for me, I saw no such effect. Most English teachers in the USA never even knew about it.

Let us know what you think!

Frank

[konungursvia]

Someone corrected me last month saying an acronym is not an acronym unless it is pronounced as spelt, as in OPEC, UNESCO and NATO. BBC and VIP are therefore not acronyms. After looking it up, I see that is correct. But I can't remember the word for the other abbreviation spelt out when spoken.

[Edit: this should have gone onto a different thread]