Commonwealth English

From Freepedia

"Commonwealth English" is intended as a collective term for the perceived standard English language used in the Commonwealth of Nations¹, applying in theory to Australian English, British English, Caribbean English, Canadian English, Hiberno-English (Irish English)², Hong Kong English³, Indian English (includes Pakistani English), formal Malaysia English, New Zealand English, formal Singapore English (but not colloquial Singlish) and South African English. But Canadian English in particular does not fit well with the others. The term is little used, and when used is most often synonymous with British English in its narrower sense or with International English in a specialized sense which excludes American English.

Contents 1 Rationale for the term "Commonwealth English" 2 Conflict from Differences in Language 3 Canadian English's unique position 3.1 Words and idioms 3.2 Canadian spelling 4 Australian borrowings 5 Internal spelling differences 6 Independent standards within "Commonwealth English" 7 Limited use 8 Notes 9 References and external links

Rationale for the term "Commonwealth English"

The term perhaps comes from a desire to recognise that "Standard English" of Britain, distinguished from American English, is just as much owned by those who use it in Australia or New Zealand or India or South Africa as by those who use it in the land of its origin and from a feeling that this use in multiple countries should appear in its name, that this kind of English is no longer only British.

Conflict from Differences in Language

Aside from spelling, there are other differences in the languages. Words used in the United States are sometimes used in England which can be insultive and derogatory.

Canadian English's unique position

Words and idioms

Canada, the Commonwealth country with the largest native-born native-English-speaking population outside of Britain, is unique in that its standard vocabulary, idiom, and accent tend to coincide with that of neighbouring speakers in the United States far more than with those of Britain or the rest of the Commonwealth. Most of the distinctive terms Britons identify as American English are used by Canadians as well, such as diaper, gasoline, elevator, and apartment. See also North American English.

Canadian spelling

There is no universally accepted standard of Canadian spelling, and standards differ from one area of English-speaking Canada to another.

Historical ties with Britain tend to pull Canadian spelling in that direction; physical proximity with the United States has tended to pull it towards the American standard. As a result, Canadian spelling has tended to waver between the two, taking some of each.

Most authorities, such as the Canadian Government's style manual, The Canadian Style, the Canadian Press style guide, the Gage Canadian Dictionary and the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, propose certain standards:

• the use of the "-our" ending in words such as neighbour and colour;
• the use of the "-ce" ending for nouns and the "-se" ending for the equivalent verbs, such as licence (noun), to license (verb) and practice (noun), to practise (verb);
• the use of double letters in words such as travelled, leveller, etc.

Certain American spellings remain common. The spelling program is more usual than programme, airplane is universally favoured over aeroplane, tire is used rather than tyre, etc.

Australian borrowings

Australian English also borrows from both British and American spellings. However, British spelling dominates.

Internal spelling differences

Within British English and its Commonwealth variants there is disagreement as to proper spelling of words such as organise / organize. Both "-ise" and "-ize" are generally accepted as correct. The "-ise" forms are very rarely used in Canada, but they are the choice of the majority in Britain (even though most British dictionaries prefer the "-ize" forms). See British English for more details. According to Pam Peters (1994: -ise/-ize), based on British National Corpus data, in Britain:

... the -ise spellings outnumber those with -ize in the ratio of about 3:2. In Australian English, the difference is still greater (often 3:1, by frequencies in the ACE corpus), and the tendency has been reinforced by official endorsement of -ise by the Australian government Style Manual since 1966.

The English Academy of South Africa website uses "-ize" forms on some pages and "-ise" forms on other pages, recognising both. The Australian Journal of Linguistics, the official journal of the Australian Linguistics Society, insists on the "-ize" forms against the Australian dictionaries and the majority in Australia.

Independent standards within "Commonwealth English"

The more extensive forms of Commonwealth English and even some of those less used have their own separate, recognised dictionaries. The Dictionary of Canadian English: The Senior Dictionary was first published by the Canadian textbook publisher Gage Learning in 1967 and updated versions have appeared regularly, the most recent being the Gage Canadian Dictionary in 1997. For South Africa there was Charles Pettman's Africanderisms, a glossary of South African colloquial words and phrases published in 1913. Philip Branford's A Dictionary of South African English was published in 1978 and the most recent edition in 1991. Australian English has had the Macquarie Dictionary since 1981. In 1996 Oxford University Press published the Concise Ulster Dictionary. In 1998 they went farther afield by releasing A Dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles, The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, and The Dictionary of New Zealand English. In 2000 they published The Australian Oxford Dictionary. All these use previous Oxford English dictionaries as a base, but modify or replace text according to research on other varieties of English. Caribbean English has Frederic G. Cassidy and Robert B. Le Page's Dictionary of Jamaican English and John A. Holm and Alison W. Shlling's Dictionary of Bahamian English.

Limited use

"Commonwealth English" is not a clear and distinctive dialect, although it becomes far closer to being one if Canadian English is not considered. Microsoft Encarta appears in four English versions, an American English version, a British English version, a Canadian English version, and an Australian English version, perhaps indicating that Microsoft did not feel that one Commonwealth English version would serve to balance the American English version, though there are likely to be few differences between the British English version and the Australian English version. A fifth version could be introduced as well: British English with Concise Oxford Dictionary spelling (IANA value en-GB-oed). Also, increasingly, spell checkers are supporting more finely grained systems of spelling, not attempting to make British English, renamed as Commonwealth English, do for all.

Notes

1. There are a number of other Commonwealth nations which are not listed here but also have English as either the primary or an official, language. Examples include Malta, Singapore and Mozambique, which is a Commonwealth member but uses Portuguese as its main language of communication.
2. Although Hiberno-English (Irish English) is listed as Commonwealth English, the Republic of Ireland is not a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, but Northern Ireland is (as part of the United Kingdom).
3. Although Hong Kong English is listed as Commonwealth English, since 1997 Hong Kong is not a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, but a Special Administrative Region of China.

References and external links

• Peters, Pam (2004). The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052162181X.
• English Academy of South Africa (Website).
• Taylor & Francies: Instructions for Authors for the Australian Journal of Linguistics ("The -ize suffix is used, for example, civilize, civilization rather than civilise, civilisation").