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I quote Whiskey Priestess:
"No dear, American English is a dialect of British English, rather like pidgin. Pass the scones, Jeeves, I feel a bout of imperialism coming on ..."
Ouch. Well, if you view things from a linguistic evolutionary perspective, like I tend to, you would say that the two began as the same language (British English), but have since diverged greatly into two different "species". Though both "species" share many common characteristics, as they have a common heritage, they have developed many differences over the years. I believe the divergence was greater in the past; before electronic media made it so easy to communicate back and forth.
Now, as Barbelith clearly demonstrates, it is much easier for us "Americans" to speak to you "Brits", and so perhaps the language is beginning to converge.
Of course, if I wanted to be argumentative, I would go back to an eariler point and suggest that, because there are more English-speaking Americans than their are English-speaking British folk, perhaps British English is a dialect of American English.
But, in reality, I would argue that there is no such thing as "American English" there are southern dialects, northern dialects, eastern, western, and even midwestern dialects. The differences between any two of these can be just as significant as the differences between what we've been calling "American English" and "British English".
And this discussion doesn't even begin to address the point that Haus made; English is spoken in many other countries, as well.
I guess in the end, the important question is; "How effectively can we communicate with one another?"
Okay, I'm done now. |
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