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British English

British English: Encyclopedia - British English

British English (BrE) is a term used to differentiate the form of the English language used in the United Kingdom from other forms of the English language used elsewhere. It includes all the varieties of English used within Britain, including England, but also Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. It is perhaps important to understand that there is no formal definition of British English other than English as used in Great Britain. As with many other aspects of British culture, the language is governed by convent ...

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British English - -ise versus -ize

British English, British English - -ise versus -ize, English English, American English, Scottish English, Welsh English, Mid Ulster English and Hiberno-English, International English, American and British English differences, List of dialects of the English language, Standard English, British Isles (terminology)

British English: Encyclopedia - British English

British English

British English (BrE) is a term used to differentiate the form of the English language used in the United Kingdom from other forms of the English language used elsewhere. It includes all the varieties of English used within Britain, including England, but also Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales.

It is perhaps important to understand that there is no formal definition of British English other than English as used in Great Britain. As with many other aspects of British culture, the language is governed by convention rather than formal code: there is no equivalent body to the Académie française, and the authoratative dictionaries (e.g. Oxford English Dictionary, Chambers Dictionary, Collins Dictionary record usage rather than prescribe it. As a result there is a significant variety in grammar, usage, spelling, and vocabulary within English as used in Great Britain, and there can be lively idiomatic uses of the language. In addition, vocabulary and usage change with time, words are freely borrowed from other languages and other strains of English, and neologisms are frequent.

While there is a meaningful degree of uniformity in formal written English in the United Kingdom, the forms of spoken English used vary considerably more than in most other areas of the world where English is spoken. Dialects and accents vary not only within regions of the UK, for example in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, but also within England. The written form of the language, as taught in schools, is universally Commonwealth English with a slight emphasis on a few words that might be more common in some areas than in others. For example, although the words "wee" and "small" are interchangeable, one is more likely to see "wee" written by a Scot than by a Londoner.

For historical reasons dating back to the rise of London in the 9th century, the variety of language spoken in London and the East Midlands became the standard English within the Court and thus the form of language generally accepted for use in the law, government, literature and education of the British Isles. Although British English is often used in the United States to denote the English spelling and lexicon used outside the US, the term Commonwealth English is more accurate for this purpose. The British spellings were most famously recorded in Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1755).

Historically, the widespread usage of English across the world is attributed to the power once held by the British Empire, and hence the most common form of English used by the British ruling class was the English used in south-east England (in the area around the capital city London, and the ancient English university towns of Oxford and Cambridge). This form of the language is associated with Received Pronunciation (RP), which is still regarded by many people outside the UK (especially in the United States) as "the British accent". From the second half of the 20th century to the present day, the preeminence of the English language has been augmented by the economic, military and political dominance of the United States in world affairs, and American English is often regarded as the most prominent form of English in the world today, especially with the large amount of U.S. cultural products (especially films) around the world, as well as those produced by other English-speaking nations.

The form of English spoken and particularly written in the United Kingdom still has a major cultural influence on the English used in many Commonwealth countries, including Australia, South Africa, and India, as well as in the European Union. Although British English is taught and used in the former British colonies of Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, American English is often taught in Chinese and Japanese schools, and in other schools throughout Asia.

British English - -ise versus -ize

Words of the sort organize/organise and their derivatives can be spelt with either s or z in British English. The -ize forms are promoted by the Oxford English Dictionary. British English with -ize is sometimes known as OED spelling, and may be marked by the registered IANA language tag 'en-GB-oed'. It is the spelling used by the Encyclopædia Britannica, by the United Nations, and by many international organizations and academic publications. The -ize forms were used by The Times until the mid-1980s. The -ise forms are now generally used by the British government and mostly taught in the British school system. They are far more prevalent in common usage. Pam Peters (2004, -ize/-ise) relates that British National Corpus data indicates the ratio of popularity for -ise forms to -ize forms in Britain is 3:2.

English English, American English, Scottish English, Welsh English, Mid Ulster English and Hiberno-English, International English, American and British English differences, List of dialects of the English language, Standard English, British Isles (terminology)