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Varieties of English

English is a worldwide language. Between 1.5 billion and 2 billion people across the planet speak English. Between 375,000 and 400,000 people are native English speakers. In view of these statistics, many consider the English language to be a world language. Since the English language has become so widespread, it is no surprise that different varieties of English have arisen.


 

There are many varieties of English spoken in the world. The oldest variety of English is British English, spoken in the United Kingdom. Approximately 60 million people are native British English speakers. The variety of English with the largest number of native speakers is American English, with 225 million native speakers. The other major varieties of English are Canadian English, Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English and Indian English. Some linguists also recognize another classification of a variety of English known as World English. All varieties of English share the same basic tenets of the language, but certain words, phrases or linguistic constructs may differ. For instance, in British English, one says I’m going to hospital. In American English one says I’m going to the hospital. In British English one may say he is going to the cinema, in American English one says he is going to the movies, and in South African English, the phrase is going to the bioscope.
Varieties of English may be further divided into dialects such as Anglo-Cornish or Welsh English in Great Britain, Gallah or Gulf Southern in the United States and Bengali English and Southern Indian English in India. Whatever the variety or dialect, English speakers the world over may communicate with each other, with only occasional gaps in understanding.

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Comments

  1. Chris Michael says:
    October 30, 2012 at 11:47 pm

    Would love to see a “cheque vs. check” here. Thanks!

  2. cbh says:
    January 10, 2013 at 3:31 am

    Argument or arguement?

  3. Stephen says:
    January 29, 2013 at 9:52 am

    I would like to see Mom vs. mum.

    Mom, being the American shortened version of “mother”. Mum is commonly used in Great Britain, however, Mom is sometimes used in the West Midlands region of England.

  4. Charles J. Lippert says:
    February 6, 2013 at 1:02 pm

    Would love to see “Hospital”… the difference in usage between US and UK Englishes.
    Additionally, the above list can be grouped such as -our/-or, -re/-er (a dedicated page already exists for this), æ and œ simplification/reduction (-ae-/-e- and -oe-/-e-). In the hyphen/no-hyphen group, other than co-operate/cooperate, one can have to-day/today, to-morrow/tomorrow, etc.

    • Grammarist says:
      February 6, 2013 at 1:19 pm

      Great suggestions. We’re working on some new organizational schemes that we think people are going to find useful, and breaking up pages like this one will definitely be part of it.

  5. Ruth Sanchez says:
    February 18, 2013 at 9:24 pm

    These days I feel like I went through a lot of work trying to learn English correctly and now….it doesn’t matter how I write it, it’s accepted. Hahahaha. This is VERY interesting but confusing at the same time…English from other countries was not so noticeable in writing when I learrned it, but now that it is…I guess, I have a big challenge….to learn other ways of English hahaha.It all started when I saw the word defence on TV and argued that it had been mispelled and I could not believe it was on TV.:)

  6. FreeRangeRadical says:
    July 4, 2013 at 9:37 pm

    Defense vs defence?

    • Gordon Barlow says:
      December 12, 2014 at 4:31 pm

      Of course we all feel more comfortable with the spellings we were brought up to use. The only time I – educated in Australia in the 1940s & ’50s – voluntarily write “defense” is in the context of American Football, where “defense” is actually a legitimate VERB. “The cornerback defensed that pass perfectly” makes more sense than “defended”, in the context. As the Americans say, go figure!

  7. Will Harmon says:
    August 30, 2013 at 10:12 am

    How about all the variants of chili, chile, chilli….

  8. Callan says:
    November 8, 2013 at 6:49 am

    South Africa – Persue or Pursue ?

  9. leebossa says:
    May 13, 2014 at 9:16 pm

    summarise or summarize (BR)?

  10. Sue Sutherland says:
    July 30, 2014 at 6:18 pm

    One of my pet hates – Australians using the American ‘jail’ instead of ‘gaol’. Ruth, I feel exactly the same as you! I’m currently doing a masters in Linguistics, and I posted that my grandson’s teacher had used ‘your’ on a note to my daughter, instead of ‘you’re’. The lecturer’s comment was, well, the more people who use the incorrect spelling, the more it will become acceptable usage! To me, that’s just ignorance of basic grammar.
    In Australia, college and university are different entities – do the words mean the same thing in some places?

    • FreeRangeRadical says:
      December 14, 2014 at 2:21 pm

      In America, college and university, among the general population, have been accepted to mean the same institutions. Among actual university graduates, however, a finer distinction is made.

      I’d guess that less than a quarter of the general American population understand that a college is typically a two-year-degree granting school, whereas a university is a four-year-degree school, often granting masters and doctorates, as well.

      When a person leaves home to go away to school, she or he is usually said to be “in college”, even if it’s a university. You could probably drill down and someone would say that most universities are composed of colleges, but I think it’s just an accepted convention.

      We’re Americans. We’re linguistically lazy. Eventually, we’ll just point and say “thing”. :)

      • Gregory Chandler says:
        February 22, 2015 at 6:15 pm

        Good thought. However, what about schools that do not use the terms “college” or “university.” Is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology a university because it grants four-year degrees? What about a school that grants both two-year and four-year degrees? Gregory Chandler

  11. Jason Hall says:
    March 12, 2015 at 4:40 pm

    Arbutus vs. Madrona

  12. AP says:
    March 21, 2015 at 11:28 am

    Grammar/grammer. Is the latter an actual accepted spelling outside of the U.S.?

    • Velvet Android says:
      March 27, 2015 at 5:35 pm

      I hope not — it certainly isn’t here in Britain. One easy way of checking is to try typing “grammer” into a Google search box, and you’ll find that all the search terms that auto-complete for you will say “grammar”.

      • AP says:
        March 27, 2015 at 6:12 pm

        Googling “grammer” is what brought me here. That spelling showed in the results and I clicked it. I was told that it is correct in Australia, but I have not found it anywhere.

  13. John Berger says:
    April 5, 2015 at 1:58 pm

    Here’s an old chestnut. If your readers are predominantly in America, is it better to use U.S. spelling? The default spell checker has discombobulated me. (I’m in Australia)

  14. Kate Peteet says:
    May 28, 2015 at 2:24 pm

    What about the different pronunciations of “soot” and where you’re most likely to hear each pronunciation?

  15. AssassinLV says:
    July 3, 2015 at 12:18 pm

    “neither” & “nor” are also a good idea, cause quite usually to enrich my English I am using the old “nor” word, instead of using only “neither” (e.g. “I can’t do it nor do you can” (I can’t do it neither do you.))

    • 12July1947_Clifford_Martin says:
      December 12, 2015 at 7:00 pm

      “Me either” makes me want to be physically sick. I insist upon “Nor me”.

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