do you speak english?

Ooh I can't think why we would, it's not England and English are similar.

What can we say, it's our baby and we're proud of it.
Besides the French are worse. They seriously do have commission pressing for 'English' words (e.g sandwich, air bags) to be kept out of official documents and to create/use French equivalents (which are usually three times longer, but meh).
Now that's just being silly imo, after all how many words and expression have we borrowed from them. Share and share alike. Would a sandwich by any other name taste as good?
(despite my nation, and indeed family's, tendencies the above should not be considered an attack on the French.)

Nah otherwise your points are good. Probably 99% of words in the English language are from other lingustic origins (Latin, Greek, Germanic, whatever). Of course the English language exists, but perhaps it is foolish to claim a monopoly. (only perhaps, mind)

 

Oh well we certainly don't claim any divine rights to control how foreigners use our language. But if Americans, etc. want to do things differently then they should stop calling it English. Until they do then we're happy to tell them they're wrong.

 

there's at least as much latin and greek in every other language spoken in Western Europe as there is in English. That's not the point. English is a language in its own right and it's ours, and where it's spoken differently it's not proper English. Oh of course they've got every right to fuck it up but they're not fooling anyone but themselves.

If you want to use french as an example of a language that deserves more credit than English then look at it this way. French is spoken all over the world too. All over Africa, Europe, Canada, and I believe still in some parts of Louisiana. But despite its popularity all over the world, it's only the accents that change. The vocab, spelling, grammar, colloquialisms, they're all consistent everywhere, more or less. Maybe that's because French is an easier language to learn, but I doubt that.

 

That's a very interesting thread!

I don't know if the word "sandwich" is often used in official documents...
I'm not a purist, but I can understand, in a certain way, that we protect ourselves from English invasion. And as far as I know, people in Quebec are worse than us, they invent a lot of new words to avoid using English language. For example, they refuse to use the word "e-mail", which is common language here.

Concerning English language being the international language, I find it good and bad at the same time. Good because it forces us to try and speak an other language, which is difficult but rewarding. Bad because you often expect us to speak fluent English, which is not the case for the huge majority of French people. It really annoys me when American or English tourists start to speak in English, sometimes without any effort to speak slowly, and without even asking beforehand if we do understand English...

French people are very bad at languages. Probably the worst in Europe (except British people ) I started learning English when I was 14... That's too bad!

I'm certainly not the right person to say what is proper English, but what I can say is that I learnt British English at school, not American English. I learnt the word lift, not elevator; colour, not color; motorway, not freeway, and so on...

 

I find the English accent much more beautiful than the American accent... And it has nothing to do with my opinion on both countries...
It's just the way it sounds...

 

That's not completely true... The language is not that uniform...there are lots of variations of vocabulary...

But you're right, spelling and grammar are very much similar...

Well I'm afraid I have no satisfaying explanation for that either....

 

let me clarify: when chomsky said 'the english language doesn't really exist' i think he was implying that a language does not exist as a real thing in the objective world. it only exists in your head as a system of transformational and combinatorial rules and processes. therefore any jingoistic preference for one dialect of english over another as the 'real english' or whatever (remembering that this is after all what we term a 'language' to be: a loose association of many splendoured dialects) is purely a subjective mentalist conceit and can never be proven or otherwise empirically. it's, like, just your opinion, man.

 

Well there are many different accents within England and even more within the rest of the UK. North America has its various accents. IMO the New England American accent is more pleasent and intelligible than many British accents.

 

Sorry about the over-simplification...
I was refering to the Londonian accent mainly.
By American accent I was thinking of -I believe it's more in the Southern parts of the country, like in Texas- the "twangy" sound. But my ear is not trained enough to recognize all the variations among the US.
And I don't know about the New England American accent.
I just can't understand someone who speaks with a strong Scottish or Irish accent...

 

Cockney? Beautiful? BRILLIANT!

 

The term "english language" is just that, a term. It's simply the people's language, that which we speak. Everyone has a different meaning though i guess. The words, the way in which we communicate.

 

I write English better than I speak it.

 

I'm not a native speaker of English, but I can manage quite well. I've been learning English since I was 3 years old...

 

haha.. i dnot know

 

British Though I have more of a yorkshire accent.

 

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."
- James D. Nicoll

"English is the result of Norman men-at-arms attempting to pick up Saxon barmaids and is no more legitimate than any of the other results."
- H. Beam Piper

 

non

 

I shift to the best available depending on the subculture I'm in.

 

well, amerenglish is my default condition. how can a siding be a loop if a loop is a baloon track? but i find many of the curiosities delightfully gratifying, even if i don't catch half the short cuts. in america we make up words, in brittan you make up telepathy, somehow conveying meaning by leaving them out.

it must by some kind of an inside thing, and i feel like a monkey puzzling it out.
but of course its precisely because of the challange that makes it delightful.

=^^=
.../\...

 

I am an American, who speaks American (which is a great and diverse language influenced from every corner of the globe). And if you are a citizen in this country, you also speak American, dispite the twangs and slurs and rolls of the tongue. Some Americans can speak Spanish. Some can speak Japanese. Some can even speak languages from the darkest interiors of Africa. But when we speak in the english language, all Americans speak American. Because America speaks with one voice.