5. Retell the text. British English

The term British English is used by linguists to contrast the form of English used in Britain with American English, and also with Australian English, South African English, etc. In broad terms, British English is English as used throughout the United Kingdom, but it is often more narrowly understood as the English of England, especially that of southeast England as used by the upper and middle classes. English people are rather possessive about their language and to them it is simply English. Other varieties are seen as modified, usually less acceptable forms.

Standard English. From the 15th century onwards standards of pronunciation and vocabulary gradually became established. In the 18th century there was a lot of discussion about ‘correct’ English, and Samuel Johnson’s dictionary, published in 1755, came to be considered an authority on the correct use of words. Dialects (=forms of a language used in a particular region) were considered inferior to standard English, also called the Queen’s / King’s English or BBC English. Today, standard English is used by educated speakers and is taught in schools and to foreign students.

Standard English used to be associated with the accent (=way of speaking) known as Received Pronunciation (RP). It is often assumed to require RP, but it can be spoken with a variety of accents. Phonetic transcriptions of British English in dictionaries are usually based on RP. It used to be thought necessary for a person to get rid of their regional accent and speak RP in order to get a good job. Now, though many educated people use RP, others are proud to keep their regional accent.

Regional English. Modern dialects have their roots in Old English or Middle English. The old East Midlands dialect developed into standard English, while others became the many regional dialects spoken today. Dialects are often characterized by use of non-standard forms such as double negative structures, e.g. ‘I don’t want none’, dropped prepositions as in ‘He’s gone down the pub’, or variant pronouns such as ‘hisself’ and ‘theirselves’. Dialects are usually spoken with a regional accent.

Most British people can recognize Cockney, a London dialect of the working class. Grammatical variations include ‘them as’ for ‘those who’ and double negatives. Characteristics of a Cockney accent include dropping the letter ‘h’, e.g. ‘ouse’ for ‘house’, a feature shared by many urban accents, and pronouncing ‘th’ in words like ‘think’ as /f/. A glottal stop /o/ replaces the /t/ in words like ‘water’, and the /ei/ in ‘mate’ is replaced by /ai/.

The northern Geordie dialect shares many features with Scottish English. Speakers of Scouse, a Liverpool dialect, tend to ‘slur’ (=join) their words, as in ‘gorra’ for ‘got a’ or ‘got to’. Words unique to the north include ‘gradely’ (= excellent) and ‘mardy’ (= spoilt).

The West Country is known for its distinctive rural dialects. Non-standard usages include ‘I be’ for ‘I am’ and ‘her says’ for ‘she says’. Accents have burred (=rolled) ‘r’s, and ‘s’ is pronounced more like ‘z’, as in ‘Zummerzet’ for ‘Somerset’.

Scottish dialect expressions that are well known to English people are ‘aye’ for ‘yes’, ‘wee’ for ‘little’, ‘bairns’ for ‘children’ and ‘I dinna ken’ for ‘I don’t know’. Scottish pronunciation is noted for its burred ‘r’s and distinctive vowel sounds. Words like ‘rice’ or ‘tide’ are pronounced more like /reis/ or /teid/ than the standard /rais/ or /taid/ sound. Educated Scottish accents have features in common with RP.

In Wales dialect usages include ‘boyo’ for ‘man’ and ‘look you’ for ‘you see’. Well-known Irish dialect forms include ‘would you be after wanting’ for ‘do you want’, and the repetition of a phrase at the end of a sentence, such as ‘at all, at all’. Welsh, Irish and some Scottish accents often have an attractive lilt (=rising and falling intonation pattern). These dialects and accents are sometimes made fun of.

In Britain there are many people whose families came from South Asia or the Caribbean. Younger people from these groups speak English as their first language, while some older people use it as a second language. Many have dialects and accents which are influenced both by their first language and by the dialect of the area where they now live.

The changing language. In the 1990s a new dialect, Estuary English, spread through south-east England. It developed from a combination of Cockney and RP, and was the result of the upward social movement of some Cockney speakers and a downward trend from RP by some middle-class speakers. Estuary English was adopted by some people as a feature of a new classless society. It can be heard in Parliament and on television though it seems less popular than originally, perhaps because many people find its accent unattractive. It has some of the glottal stops found in Cockney, and in words like ‘hill’ the /l/ is replaced by /v/, so ‘hill’ is pronounced /hiv/. Non-standard forms include the use of ‘was’ for ‘were’, as in ‘We was walking home’, etc.

The spread of Estuary English provoked a strong reaction among people who believed that the standard of English was falling. Previously, there was a distinction between written English and the more informal spoken language. This has been reduced in recent years, with many books and newspapers using easier, more informal English to reach a wider group of readers.

Some people are also worried about the increasing influence of American English. Both written and spoken British English are today more aggressive and direct. But one development which most people welcome is the campaign to replace the difficult and obscure language used on official forms with plain English.

Britain has no language academy to set and enforce standards, though recently there have been calls for one to be set up. Others argue that rules laid down by such an organization would hinder the natural development of the language and would in any case probably be resisted by the public.