Perverse Language

[Deathwish]

If you really want an argument about the english go pick one with a yorkshireman about whether it is east riding, east yorkshire, humberside or whatever it is called these days, my step father is from there and he does my head in about it all  .Then try to understand their use of the English language. I can't understand a word most of them say.

[vk6zgo]

I don't care, the fact it is the English Language says it all, we spell it and use it as we want too, if you want to steal it and butcher it about feel free but do not whine or moan at us for correcting you on it.

English belongs to the English. it aint called the American language by the Oxford English dictionary printers is it now.

But you are from Wales,Look you, bach!

[vk6zgo]

Place names in the UK are always a pain for tourists (and often to people from other parts of the UK!) - few are pronounced the way they are spelt (or, if you prefer, "spelled"  ).

Mind you, the US gets its own back sometimes: Kansas and Arkansas anyone?

All part of life's rich tapestry 

People from the Eastern States of Australia freak out West Australians by pronouncing our towns of Derby
& Albany as "Darby" & "Orlbany"!

[Deathwish]

But you are from Wales,Look you, bach!

my bio father was welsh, I am an Englishman in a foreign land , erm yeah, HELPPPPPP......

[hikariuk]

Place names in the UK are always a pain for tourists (and often to people from other parts of the UK!) - few are pronounced the way they are spelt (or, if you prefer, "spelled"  ).

Mind you, the US gets its own back sometimes: Kansas and Arkansas anyone?

All part of life's rich tapestry 

"Happisburgh" is one of my favourite ones for confusing people.

[Halcyon]

It does make me giggle when the Brits pronounce routing/router as "rooting/rooter".

[vk6zgo]

It does make me giggle when the Brits pronounce routing/router as "rooting/rooter".

The"rowting" & "rowter"pronunciation are Americanisms which were picked up in this country because "they didn't sound rude".
I don't know why Americans use them,because "rooting for your team" does not have the vulgar connotations it has in Oz.

[CatalinaWOW]

Perhaps because one of us poor colonists thought the "ou" in route should be pronounced like the one in bough, not the one in through. 

[CatalinaWOW]

I'm all for diversity and inclusiveness in English.  It is the closest thing we have to a world language.  But somehow we have to keep it one language.  Otherwise, in 50 or 100 or how ever many years we will have 15 percent of the world speaking Changlish, 5 percent speaking North American English, 10 percent speaking Spanglish, 3 percent speaking Euro English, 1 percent speaking English English and none of them able to talk to each other.  We know it happened to Latin, and from my limited knowledge it appears to have happened to Chinese.  At the current time the differences in English are mostly amusing and seldom interfere with communication so lets keep it that way.

[miguelvp]

Chinese is the most spoken language followed by Spanish.

I don't know about if Chinese has problems with dialects, but in Spanish other than some local slang and common words that can be insulting on other countries we have no problems communicating at all.

Also I have no problems communicating in English no matter how inconsistent it can be at times.

[Richard Crowley]

I have had to learn quite a few BrEnglish words and phrases and idioms since joining international forums like this one.
For example, the word "redundant" has very different meanings in BrEnglish vs. AmEnglish.
But then there are the more understandable differences like screen=shield or earth=ground, etc.

[Richard Crowley]

Chinese is the most spoken language followed by Spanish.

Not exactly.

Mandarin has the most speakers at 1.1 billion
But English is not far behind at 1.0 billion
And Spanish comes in at 3rd place with 500 million.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers

[rolycat]

I have had to learn quite a few BrEnglish words and phrases and idioms since joining international forums like this one.
For example, the word "redundant" has very different meanings in BrEnglish vs. AmEnglish.

It does?
I thought it meant the same thing in both the UK and the USA - more than is necessary, or surplus to requirements.

Redundancy as a term applied to people who are deemed to be unnecessary and whose employment is consequently terminated has legal significance in the UK, but the meaning is essentially the same.

[Richard Crowley]

Yes, I should have said "very different default/common usage". 
I have never heard anyone speaking AmEnglish use the word "redundant" for surplus equipment or excess workforce.
When people speaking BrEnglish use the word "redundant" 90% of the time they seem to be referring to excess workforce, layoffs, unemployment benefits, etc. Or at least that is my perception from my (admittedly narrow) view of the world.

[miguelvp]

Chinese is the most spoken language followed by Spanish.

Not exactly.

Mandarin has the most speakers at 1.1 billion
But English is not far behind at 1.0 billion
And Spanish comes in at 3rd place with 500 million.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers

I was referring to native speakers but yeah if you consider 2nd languages English is 2nd.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers

[CatalinaWOW]

Native speakers do better with dialects.  Maybe you native Spanish speakers do fine with dialects but I with limited Spanish, am thrown for a loop by many dialects.   Not so much the vocabulary, but the syncopation and rhythms.   Same thing is true with my rudimentary German.   I am sure that works both ways.  I understand many forms of spoken English pretty well, but would challenge a non-native speaker to understand people from the Big Thicket region of Texas, or a full blown speaker of Ebonics. 

[miguelvp]

I lived in TX for over 10 years before moving to Chicago, had no troubles at all, even in East TX or North Louisiana. No problems in Tennessee either nor in New England.

Then again, I'm not sure where Clarkson from TopGear was when he encountered some strange English dialect that no one could understand. I'll say I would have trouble in there myself, but so would 99.99% of native English speakers

[vk6zgo]

Chinese is the most spoken language followed by Spanish.

Not exactly.

Mandarin has the most speakers at 1.1 billion
But English is not far behind at 1.0 billion
And Spanish comes in at 3rd place with 500 million.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers

If we use the generic word "Chinese",Cantonese probably puts Chinese languages in front.

[timofonic]

Why does it matter? Almost 20% of the world can speak English, so flavors/dialects/accents do exist, and vary region by region.

IMHO it is not a bad thing at all, since a very strict grammar and vocabulary system will render it hard to learn, and don't forget why we need languages -- to communicate.

As long as it is understandable and not creating ambiguity, why bother correcting it?

I'm an OCD person, I do not like typos, but the only hands I can control is mines. I won't bother correcting the others' misspellings at all.

The biggest and most extremely confusing issue of English is the total lack of a pronunciation standard.

It's not just small variations like in Spanish (we just need to learn a few words and get used to small pronunciation and rhythm differences, and only total dumbasses are really unable to get used to that, most of the people unable to understand it are (closet or not) racists with a poor excuse ), but in English the pronunciation can change A LOT!

I find English to be very practical for written communication, but a pain in the ass for spoken communication.

English needs a standard or at least an official international pronunciation system for everyone. I would use something like australian or north uk English, easier to understand for non-natives.

[coppice]

Chinese is the most spoken language followed by Spanish.

Not exactly.

Mandarin has the most speakers at 1.1 billion
But English is not far behind at 1.0 billion
And Spanish comes in at 3rd place with 500 million.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers

I was referring to native speakers but yeah if you consider 2nd languages English is 2nd.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers

Those native speaker numbers downplay the number of speakers of Mandarin and English quite a lot. They seem to be based on picking one language per person. A family in China who predominantly speak Cantonese at home, but are fluent in Mandarin, and speak it much of the day outside the home, are not counted as native Mandarin speakers. A family in India who might speak Hindi at home, but speak fluent English most of the day outside the home are not counted as native English speakers. For huge numbers of people around the world being truly bilingual is a normal part of life in their community.

[coppice]

If we use the generic word "Chinese",Cantonese probably puts Chinese languages in front.

Would you like to bundle all the Romance languages together as well? That would make for a pretty large number, and be about as meaningful as bundling Cantonese with Mandarin.

[miguelvp]

I'll thought that being a tonal language it will be less susceptible to accents, but it makes sense that it actually makes it more different.