The French speak French, the Spanish speak Spanish, The English speak?

[Slanzinger]

I identify my language as "English English" rather than "British English", though that's really neither here nor there to be honest.
It's similar with German though - in the areas of Switzerland where German is spoken it's almost a different language, same I believe with Austria. Especially the Swiss example, where the dialect is known as "Schwiizertüütsch" which isn't even a real word when looked at through the eyes of someone who speaks Hochdeutsch (standard German)

Though, Australia do call their dialect "Australian English" - at least according to Wikipedia - though why it's not more widely known as that in comparison to British English and American English is a mystery.

To go back to your original post for a moment as well - when the Japanese speak Japanese, it's called just "Japanese" because Japan is the only country (I believe, I may be wrong) where that is a major language - hence less room for dialect changing. Whereas English, Spanish, French and such are spoken so widely that there will be many different permutations thereof flying around. It becomes more necessary to be able to discern between them in that case I suppose, and American and British English in this case are the two main ones which people use for typed communication {where most of the differences between the two actually become apparent}

 

[QueenWren]

I've heard of "The Queen's English"/Received Pronounciation but never British English. I speak to quote from Blackadder "demotic Anglo-Saxon" or the "post-Norman tongue", which is basicaly old German with a lot of French some Latin and the occasional Asian word thown in for good luck (this is where we got Shampoo from). We tend to call it English in Cambridgeshire.

I don't really care what other people call it to be honest but I would like to point out that there are as many differences between the English I speak and English spoken in Newcastle, Glasgow, Cardiff and even some bits of London as there are between what I speak and what is spoken in America. It's sort of like, but not as complicated as Chinese, a lot of it is written the same but it's spoken very differently.

Also pet peeve: it's not Britain, it's the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or the UK, Britain only covers England, Wales and Scotland. Not sure why this annoys me as much as it does but it's true.

 

[Trildor]

Hey so i'm wondering after seeing a few comments from US citizens on this site about English grammar. When a person is Spanish and they speak Spanish, their language is called Spanish. When the Japanese speak Japanese, it is called Japanese. When the English speak English, it is called British English rather than English.

Please don't confuse a dialect with an entirely different language. There are many variations of English (Canadian, American, British, etc), just as there are many variations of Spanish (Mayan, Latin, etc). If you want to get technical, there are also pidgin and creole languages.

Sorry for being a pedant, but there's no such thing as Mayan or Latin Spanish.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

Probably since most "American" things are just rehashes of old European traditions.

Oh yeah, kinda like how most "English" things are just rehashes of old European traditions...

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Isn't the SPanish spoken in Spain different to the Spanish spoken in Mexico? Languages shift and diverge due to colonisation.

 

[emeraldrafael]

American English is just slang regular (british) English.

Its like soda and pop, or y'all and yinz.

 

[Sion_Barzahd]

Queens english or "BBC English" and american english. It's a main divide made only by americans as far as i know.
Seems they have to be plain awkward.

 

[Loop Stricken]

When the English speak English, it is called British English rather than English.

No.
The English speak English.

The Americans say we speak British English to differentiate themselves and their mangled version of English.

 

[DarkRyter]

Because we ARE speaking in English right now, it's easier to distinguish between certain dialects.

We call all Japanese speech and text Japanese because that's all it is to us. We don't understand the nuances and regional differences of the Japanese language, thus we group them all together as "Japanese".

 

[KeyMaster45]

Also, on a less serious/curious note.. what is the reasoning behind the unsual order of the American Date System?

*rubs eyes* Ughh, look we don't know. Nobody over here knows. From the time we're very little that is how we're told to date out papers, it's never explained to us why but for us it's normal. It's an accepted normalcy over here that things like date and time have two formats; the one we use and the one everyone else uses. When we write academic papers in school we follow the day/month/year format.

So please, pass the word on to stop freaking asking. So what if we do it differently is it really so hard to just flip the first two? I'll never understand why people take it as such a personal offense that we do stuff differently. It just kinda happened that way okay. We get that you think there's something mentally defective about us because to you we seem to go about everything ass backwards but news flash to us you guys do some stuff that seems ass backward.

Sorry to take it out on you but it's at least two to three times a month someone pops up on the forums bitching about the US' dating system or not using the metric system. We like using it, it's what we were raised on, and ffs stop asking us why we do it as if we're some kind of idiots. (to give an example: if you were to ask someone "why are you playing that game using your ass?")

EDIT
And another thing, all you stuck up brits who keep calling our language mangled. Freaking bugger off; it's called the language evolving into a different vernacular. You don't like it, tough titty you don't see us saying you speak a "mangled" version of English do you? No, of course not; we have so many different vernaculars and accents over here it would drive you guys insane. We understand that stuff like that happens and that it's not a bastardization of the language just a regional difference.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

Hey so i'm wondering after seeing a few comments from US citizens on this site about English grammar. When a person is Spanish and they speak Spanish, their language is called Spanish. When the Japanese speak Japanese, it is called Japanese. When the English speak English, it is called British English rather than English.

Does this also happen for French Canadians, who call the French version of French 'European French' and Brazilians who call the Portuguese version of Portuguese 'Iberian Portuguese' or is it just the US citizenship who modify the name of the original language If so, why?

I am curious because the majority of Australians, Indians and New Zealanders, who speak English too, don't seem to categorise English into 'British English' and 'Indian English' as much, despite the differences being clear and defined (Such as in India where English isn't really a well established language as most people speak primarily Hindi I believe).

Also, on a less serious/curious note.. what is the reasoning behind the unsual order of the American Date System? The progression is usually in ascending/descending order, such as seconds>minutes>hours>days>months>years or years>months>days>hours>minutes>seconds but whenever it is written on an American document it flows seconds>minutes>hours>months>days>years, why is it in such an unintuitive layout?

The "Spanish" you're speaking of is known as Castilian Spanish and parallels the American/British English split pretty well. Also, you only really need to disambiguate in certain contexts. If you say "English" in Britain, they're going to assume you mean British English in most contexts, so you need to specify if you mean American English. If you say "Spanish" in Mexico, they're going to assume you mean Mexican Spanish, so you need to specify if you mean Castilian.

If you say "English" in America, they're going to assume you mean American English in most contexts, so you need to specify if you mean British English. Since America produces exponentially more media and comprises a considerably larger population of English speakers than does England, you're going to see a need to specify British English a lot more often than the reverse.

Note: Please do not try to invoke the dialect/language distinction. You are probably wrong. There are numerous dialects of the same language that aren't mutually intelligable and numerous different languages that are mutually intelligable

The date thing makes sense if you consider it a composite. It's very natural in any dialect of English I know of to say "February fourth", just as it is to say "the fourth of February". Both make sense: one goes from smaller to larger, the other from larger to smaller (not that this likely matters since both are more likely just the result of normal linguistic options). Then you need to specify the year, so you just tack it on. The British effectively tack it onto the "the fourth of February" version and the Americans tack it onto the "February fourth" version. I highly, highly doubt that the British date reporting order actually had anything to do with going from small to big originally. More likely, that's just a modern idea of why it was that way (people love to make up justifications like this to point out how "logical" or even how "illogical" things in their language/writing systems are and the justifications catch on pretty quickly, often being repeated until they become "common knowledge").

 

[mikespoff]

Englsh is English surely. If you can speak "British English" it's not as if those who speak "American English" won't be able to understand you.

As someone living in the UK I can't complain about Imperial/Metric. We use both for some reason! Imperial for distance and metric for volume.

The date thing kindof makes sense... They say March 17th whilst we would say 17th of March.

Yup, it's not a different dialect or a creole the way that Haitian or Quebecois or Reunion French would be. English is pretty much English. The Americans tend to have sloppier grammar and interesting variations in their pronunciation, but it's the same language.

The date thing I can sort of understand, though I dislike the mm/dd/yyyy convention - it seems illogical and messy to me.

The adherence to imperial units, though... that one I can't support at all. It's just silly.

 

[IndianaJonny]

i like the fact the english guy has a monocle... because we all do that

Yeah, add a beefeater hat, kilt and welsh wool and you have the outfit for the 2012 opening ceremony

 

[NightHawk21]

The U.S. still hasn't changed over to the metric system.

I'll just leave that here.

We can be a stubborn people, unfortunately, and we appear to strongly value our, "Individuality," as a nation, which can be ironic in some cases.

Probably since most "American" things are just rehashes of old European traditions.

American English or British English? Yes there are diffrences but I would go as far to call them seperate languages.

Just different dialects really. IMO

 

[KnifeyMcStaberson]

a glorified mix of all other languages.

 

[HentMas]

snip

oh, no, dont worry i wasn´t offended, i get your point, but what i was trying to convey is that even though "Argentina" "Bolivia" and other Latin-American countries speak "Latin-Spanish" (or wathever) even though they are much different, if i tryed to talk to an "Argentinian" (or watever) off the bat, i wouldnt get anything that he says, i would understand some common words that are simmilar or the same in both languages, but both are called "Latin-Spanish" and i thought it was "dumb" because it doesn´t matter what differentiates the languages as much as the place where people speak it.

 

[Xealeon]

There's also people who actually believe they speak 'American'.

As for the French/Canadian-French thing, to my knowledge and if anyone can correct this on me please do because I'm not 100% sure but I believe French Canadians refer to their language as Quebecois and then regular French is just French.

 

[crazyfoxdemon]

I've never actually heard the term 'British English' outside of online discussions.. I've heard people say that they speak American.

 

[MoNKeyYy]

Also, on a less serious/curious note.. what is the reasoning behind the unsual order of the American Date System? The progression is usually in ascending/descending order, such as seconds>minutes>hours>days>months>years or years>months>days>hours>minutes>seconds but whenever it is written on an American document it flows seconds>minutes>hours>months>days>years, why is it in such an unintuitive layout?

I'm sure this has already been answered by someone but the reason is because of the way Americans and many Canadians say dates like month/date/year. Where an English person might say 14th of July 1986 an American would say July 14th, 1986, so it's written as it's said. Why exactly I'm not sure, it's the way the dialect has evolved. Also I've never seen anyone in any dialect say 12 seconds 31 minutes, it's always 31 minutes 12 seconds. But that's just me.

 

[Davey Woo]

I think other countries that use English use the more modern version of English (I.E much more similar to British English today)
America still uses the Older English which is why they distinguish it.