Story Link

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When I went to school English was just English. The only complication in this simple language world was the division between "proper" English and Australian slang, the former being thought to be the equivalent of the English of Britain, and the latter being the vulgar but colourful contribution that Australians made.

Conversations like the one above would have occurred in relation to other languages, not other Englishes. "Parlez-vous Francais?" "Un peu." Definitely "un peu". Meaning I can't really do much more than this in French!

How the world has changed. In the first Macquarie Dictionary (1981) the entry "English" had no plural and was defined as "the Germanic language of the British Isles, widespread and standard also in Australia and many other countries, especially those colonised by Britain".

In the second edition of the Macquarie (1991) English had acquired a plural and the definitions now read, firstly, "the Germanic language of the British Isles, historically termed Old English or Anglo-Saxon (to 1150), Middle English (to 1450) and Modern English" and, secondly, "a dialect or national variety of English, being one of the many such throughout the world, often specified as in Australian English, American English."

The third edition (1997) ran with this entry, and added individual entries for the different varieties, including Philippine English, Singaporean and Malaysian English, and to make the point that English is now an Asian language.

But the Asian varieties of English tend to lack prestige and even visibility, largely because they are not yet widely documented in dictionaries and other language reference books. They are following the pattern of Australian English which twenty years ago was regarded as an upstart English but which is now regarded as one of the established Englishes.

Picture the Englishes gathered round for afternoon tea. There is British English looking rather like Prince Charles, inclined still to the petulant outburst about being the one true English surrounded by somewhat inferior imitations. Then there is American English, surprised that there is anyone else there at all, except Prince Charles who is amusing and quaint.

And here is Australian English, admitted now to this occasion, and somewhat irritatedly self-assured about the right to be there (Prince Charles thinks Australian English lacks manners but the new protocol for some outrageous reason forbids him to say so.)

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Comment:
Reading through the forum posts today (and lurking at the other) I have noticed an inordinate use of Yankee English. Indeed there appears to be a deliberate introduction of regionised hogwash to exclude anyone outside. I post this to make a point about how different our languages are, yet most of us understand each other. That excludes the Yankee jive though. When will they join us in our international talk, or must we learn to speak so dreadfully bad?

Regards from Down Under

-- Pieter (zaadz@icisp.net.au), April 22, 2000

Answers

OK Pieter. But that still doesn't explain why you and those Brits talk so funny ;-)

-- CD (costavike@hotmail.com), April 22, 2000.

It is because we are naturally superior ! LOL

-- Didn't you see that one coming? (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), April 22, 2000.

Pieter:

A good point; Yet one to spend little time over. When I published my first paper in Nature 34 years ago, I had to change color to colour, etc. Now-a-days, they use the American spelling. The overwhelming American/Canadian technology has changed that. Journalism has done the same.

That is just the way it is.

Best wishes,,,,

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), April 22, 2000.

Pieter I am giving 'strine' lessons to 4 Yankees at the moment. Each week I send them a list of Australian Colloquialisms and a Yankee translation (or as close as I can get). It all started because one of the group had no idea what a 'chook' was !!!!! I have also managed to set our PC up so it speaks Australian English rather than American because I conside our language is worth preserving.

-- Kerry (masz@southcom.com.au), April 22, 2000.