Variants of the English

Language

doc. dr Dragna Lukic

University of Bihac
 The Main Variants of the English
Language
Every language allows different kinds of
variations:
1. geographical;
2. territorial;
3. stylistic and others.
For historical and economic reasons the English
language has spread over vast territories. It is the
national language of:
1. England proper,
2. the USA,
3. Australia,
4. New Zealand,
5. some provinces of Canada.
It is the official language in:
1. Wales,
2. Scotland,
3. in Gibraltar,
4. on the island of Malta.
Standard English – lets repeat

may be defined as that form of English

which is current and literary, substantially
uniform and recognized as acceptable
wherever English is spoken or understood.
Standard English is the variety most widely
accepted and understood either within an
English-speaking country or throughout the
entire English-speaking world.
 Variants of English
are regional variants possessing a literary norm. There
are distinguished variants existing on the territory of
the United Kingdom:
1. British English,
2. Scottish English,
3. Irish English),
Variants existing outside the British Isles:
1. American English,
2. Canadian English,
3. New Zealand English,
4. South African English,
5. Indian English.
British English is referred to the written Standard
English and the pronunciation known as Received
Pronunciation (RP). video
 Variants of English in the United Kingdom

Scottish English has a long tradition as a

separate written and spoken variety.
Pronunciation, grammar and lexis differ from
other varieties of English existing on the
territory of the British Isles. It can be
explained by its historical development.
The identity of Scottish English reflects an
institutionalized social structure, as it is most
noticeable in the realm of law, local
government, religion, and education.
Lexical peculiarities of Scottish English

1. Some semantic fields are structured

differently in Scottish English and in British
English, e.g. the term minor in British
English is used to denote a person below the
age of 18 years, while Scottish law
distinguishes between pupils (to age 12 for
girls and 14 for boys) and minors (older
children up to 18);
Lexical peculiarities of Scottish English

2. Some words used in Scottish English have

equivalents in British English, e.g. (ScE)
extortion – (BrE) blackmail;
3. The distinctiveness of Scottish English
derived from the influence of other
languages, especially Gaelic, Norwegian, and
French., e.g., Gaelic borrowings include:
 cairn – ‘a pile of stones that marks the top of
a mountain or some other special place’;
 sporran – ‘a small furry bag that hangs in
front of a man’s kilt as part of traditional
Scottish dress’
 Lexical peculiarities of Scottish English

4. Many words which have the same form, but

different meanings in Scottish English and
British English, e.g. the word gate in Scottish
English means ‘road’;
5. Some Scottish words and expressions are
used and understood across virtually the
whole country, e.g.
 dinnae (don’t),
 wee (‘small’),
 kirk (‘church’),
 lassie (‘girl’).
Irish English

subsumes all the Englishes of the

Ireland. The two main politico-
linguistic divisions are Southern and
Northern, within and across which
further varieties are Anglo-Irish,
Hiberno-English, Ulster Scots, and the
usage of the two capitals, Dublin and
Belfast.
The Irish English vocabulary is characterized by:

1. the presence of words with the same

form as in British English but different
meanings in Irish English, e.g.
 backward – ‘shy’;
 to doubt – ‘to believe strongly’;
 bold – ‘naughty’;
2. the use of most regionally marked words
by older, often rural people, e.g.
 biddable ‘obedient’;
 feasant – ‘affable’;
3. the presence of nouns taken from Irish
which often relate either to food or the
supernatural, e.g. banshee – ‘fairy
woman’ from bean sidhe;
4. the Gaelic influence on meanings of
some words, e.g. to destroy and
drenched. These words have the semantic
ranges of their Gaelic equivalents mill ‘to
injure, spoil’ and báite ‘drenched,
drowned, very wet’;
5. the presence of words typical only of
Irish English (the so-called Irishisms),
e.g. begorrah – ‘by God’;
6. the layer of words shared with Scottish
English, e.g. :
 ava – ‘at all’;
 greet – ‘cry, weep’;
 brae – ‘hill, steep slope’.
Besides distinctive features in lexis Irish
English has grammatical, phonetical and
spelling peculiarities of its own, e.g. :
 the use of ‘does be/ do be’ construction in
the following phrase: ‘They do be talking on
their mobiles a lot’;
 the plural form of you is distinguished from
the singular, normally by using the otherwise
archaic English word ye to denote plurality,
e.g. ‘Did ye all go to see it?’
Variants of English outside the
British Isles:

1. American English,
2. Canadian English,
3. Australian English,
4. New Zealand English
Differences between the Variants

phonetic peculiarities
grammatical peculiarities
spelling peculiarities
lexical peculiarities
 American English
regional variety of English
has its own literary standard (norms of
speaking and writing) – Standard
American or American National Standard
American English – historical background
is the variety of the English language
spoken in the USA. The first wave of
English-speaking immigrants was settled in
North America in the 17th century. There
were also people who spoke Dutch, French,
German, Spanish, Swedish, and Finnish
languages.
Whole groups of words which belong to
American vocabulary exclusively and
constitute its specific features are called
Americanisms.
American English
isnot a separate language (H.L.
Mencken)
has neither grammar nor vocabulary of its
own
the differences between the variants are
not systematic
 American English. Lexical
Peculiarities
General English – words found on both
sides of the Atlantic
Americanisms – specific of present-day
American usage
Briticisms – typical of British English
American English. General English
General English
e.g. country, nation, language, etc.
a notion may have two synonyms used both in
Great Britain and in the USA. Difference is in
frequency
e.g. post – mail, timetable – schedule post,
timetable are more frequent in Britain
mail, schedule - in the USA
American English. Americanisms

 fall – ‘autumn’;
 to guess – ‘to think’;
 sick – ‘ill, unwell’.
In American usage these words still retain
their old meanings whereas in British
English their meanings have changed or
fell out of use.
b) Proper Americanisms
were not discovered in British
vocabulary: redbud – ‘an American tree
having small budlike pink flowers’;
blue-grass – ‘a sort of grass peculiar to
North America’.
c) Specifically American borrowings

reflect the historical contacts of the

Americans with other nations on the
American continent:
ranch, sombrero (Spanish borrowings),
toboggan, caribou (Indian borrowings).
d) American shortenings:
dorm – dormitory;
mo – moment;
cert – certainly.

thelayer of words shared with Scottish

English, e.g. ava – ‘at all’; greet – ‘cry,
weep’; brae – ‘hill, steep slope’.
 Canadian English
is the variety of the English language used in
Canada and close to American English.
Specifically Canadian words are called
Canadianisms, e.g. :
parkade – ‘parking garage’;
chesterfield – ‘a sofa, couch’;
to fathom out – ‘to explain’,
to table a document – ‘to present it’,
whereas in American English it means ‘to
withdraw it from consideration’.
 Australian English
is similar to British English, but also borrows
from American English, e.g. truck is used
instead of lorry. The exposure to the different
spellings of British and American English leads
to a certain amount of spelling confusion, e.g.
behaviour as opposed to behavior.
Uniquely Australian terms:
outback – remote regional areas;
walkabout – a long journey of certain length;
bush – native forested areas.
Australian English has a unique set of
diminutives formed by adding –o or –ie to the
ends of words:
arvo (afternoon),
servo (service station),
barbie (barbecue),
bikkie (biscuit).
A very common feature of traditional Australian
English is rhyming slang based on Cockney
rhyming slang and imported by migrants from
London in the 19th century, e.g.:
Captain Cook rhymes with look, so to have a
captain cook, or to have a captain, means to
have a look.
 New Zealand English

is the variety of the English language

spoken in New Zealand and close to
Australian English in pronunciation.
The only deference between New
Zealand and British spelling is in the
ending –ise or –ize.
New Zealanders use the –ise ending
exclusively, whereas Britons use either
ending, and some British dictionaries
prefer the –ize ending.
Many local words in New Zealand English were
borrowed from the Maori population to describe the
local flora, fauna, and the natural environment, e.g.
the names of birds (kiwi, tui );
the names of fish (shellfish, hoki);
the names of native trees (kauri, rimu) and many
others.
Words that are unique to New Zealand English or
shared with Australian English, e.g.
bach – ‘a small holiday home, often with only one
or two rooms and of simple construction’;
footpath – ‘pavement’;
togs – ‘swimming costume’.
 New Zealand idioms
It is in idioms, in different metaphoric phrases
that New Zealand English has made most
progress or divergence. Often they reflect
significant differences in culture., e.g. :
up the Puhoi without a paddle –‘to be
difficulties without an obvious solution’;
sticky beak – ‘someone unduly curious about
people’s affairs’.
The latter idiom in Australia is quite pejorative
whereas in New Zealand it is used with more
affection and usually as a tease.
 South African English
is the variety of the English language used
in South Africa and surrounding counties
(Namibia, Zimbabwe). It is a mother
tongue only for 40 % of the white
inhabitants and a tiny minority of black
inhabitants of the region. South African
English bears some resemblance in
pronunciation to a mix of Australian and
British English.
 In South African English there are words that
do not exist in British and American English,
usually derived from Africaans or African
languages, e.g.
bra, bru – ‘male friend’,
dorp – ‘a small rural town or village’,
sat – ‘dead, passed away’.
In South African English:
boy – ‘a black man’ (derogative),
township – ‘urban area for black, Coloured or
Indian South Africans under apartheid’,
book of life – ‘national identity document’.
 Indian English - video
is the variety of the English language spoken in
India. The language that Indians are taught in
schools is essentially British English and in
particular, spellings follow British
conventions. Many phrases that the British
may consider antique are still popular in India.
Official letters include phrases like
please do the needful,
you will be intimated shortly,
your obedient servant.
Indian English mixes in various words from
Indian languages, e.g. bandh or hartal for
strikes, challen for a monetary receipt or a
traffic ticket.
 Despite the fact that British English is an
official language of Government in India,
there are words used only in Indian
English are:
crore – ‘ten millions’;
scheduled tribe – ‘a socially/economically
backward Indian tribe, given special
privileges by the government’,
mohalla – ‘an area of a town or village, a
community’.
Phonetic peculiarities of Indian English,
rhotic [r] is pronounced in all positions;
the distinction between [v] and [w] is
generally neutralized to [w];
in such words as old and low the vowel is
generally [ɔ], etc.
A variety in syntax:
one used rather than the indefinite article:
He gave me one book, yes;
no as question tags: He is coming, yes?
Present Perfect rather than Past Simple:
I have bought the book yesterday, etc.
QUESTIONS?