History of
English
World English III
Facultad de Lenguas
y Educación
World English III
• Following Yule, in The Study of
Language, “If we are thinking of that
general variety used in public
broadcasting in the United States, we
can refer more specifically to
Standard American English or, in
Britain, to Standard British English. In
other parts of the world, we can talk
about other recognized varieties such
as Standard Australian English,
Standard Canadian English or
Standard Indian English” (Yule, 2010,
p. 240).
Global Campus Nebrija
World English III 2
World English III
The following image illustrate well the circle of
world English or standard English, it is a one
way of representing the unity and diversity of
English-speaking world. At the centre, we have
the notion of World English, as common core,
around that, we can find the various regional or
national standards, either established or
becoming established, we can say they are
being standardized. On the outside, we have
examples of the wide range of popular
Englishes which exist. Source:
https://www.slideshare.net/Marioedu/standard
-english-slide
World English III 3
Accent and dialect
• We all speak with an accent
• Accent: description of aspects of pronunciation that identify where
an individual speaker is from, regionally or socially. It is different
from the term dialect, which is used to describe features of grammar
and vocabulary as well as aspects of pronunciation
• Dialect: describes features of grammar and vocabulary as well as
aspects of pronunciation. While differences in vocabulary are often
easily recognized, dialect variations in the meaning of grammatical
constructions are less frequently documented.
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English spoken in the North of
Ireland
• English in Ulster:
• (1) Ulster-Scots, stemming from seventeenth century Scottish immigrants
(2) Mid-Ulster English, deriving from immigrants, largely from the North of
England speakers from roughly the same period,
• (3) South Ulster English consisting of transitional varieties between the
north and south of Ireland. In Co Donegal, the most westerly county of the
province, there are Irish speakers in the Gaeltachtaí (Irish-speaking areas)
all of whom are bilingual. The English of this small group justifies a further
sub-type
• (4) Contact English which can show an influence from the structure of
native-speaker Irish. Although the latter group is not of great relevance
today, transfer from Irish to English in Ulster in its formative period in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is taken by some authors to have
been considerable.
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World
English III
English spoken in Northern
Ireland. Source:
https://tellmamauk.org/inti
midation-in-northern-
ireland-towards-muslims-is-
deeply-worrying/
World English III 6
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Dublin English
• Dublin is the capital of the Republic of Ireland
• The name is an Anglicisation of Irish Dubh Linn, ‘black pool’
• There is a second name Baile Átha Cliath ‘town at the fortified ford’ which
is used in Irish rather than Dubh Linn
• The English language in Dublin has been spoken since the late twelfth
century when the first settlers came up from the south-east
• The seventeenth century in Ireland marks the beginning of the second
period and is characterised chiefly by the re-introduction of English on a
large-scale. This happened in the north of the country with a steady influx
of immigrants from the Scottish Lowlands who were to form the base of
the later Ulster Protestant community. In the south, many new English
settlers came as a result of plantations and land confiscations under Oliver
Cromwell in the mid seventeenth century.
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American vs British English
• Spelling differences: American English has the more economical and
phonetic spelling. Unnecessary letters are left out and words are spelled
how they sound. An obvious example is the omission in AmE of the letter u
in words such as color, neighbor, honor etc. Compare also the AmE words
traveling, jewelery and program with their BrE counterparts travelling,
jewellery and programme. However, this rule does not always apply. For
example, you would expect skilful to be the AmE spelling and skillful the
BrE spelling, but unfortunately you would be wrong!
British American
colour color
travelling traveling
skilful skilfull
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Grammar
• In BrE the present perfect tense is used for situations in which AmE would
typically use the past simple.
• For example, using the words just or already, Britons would be more likely
to say: I've just seen him or I've already done it whereas in AmE it would be
common to hear I just saw him or I already did it.
British American
I've just seen him I just saw him
I've already done it I already did it
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As another example, Americans are much more likely to be technically
correct in the agreement of collective noun and verb form than Britons. So,
in standard AmE it would be: The team is playing well this season whereas
in BrE it is common and acceptable to say The team are playing well.
Similar differences can be seen in the use of words like government,
committee etc.: The government is .. (AmE), The government are . (BrE).
British American
The team are playing well The team is playing well this season
The government are The government is
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