[Note: This is a politics-free diary]
A national pastime in England is to criticize the English spoken by people who aren’t English. These self-confident language mavens (experts by their own estimation) claim they are the ones who speak the language correctly — mainly because it’s called English and they were the first to use it. Are they right? Before I give you my opinion, let me give you some background.
I was born in New York City into a family that had been in New York for a while. Then, when I was a toddler, my father was transferred to the UK on business. And my entire education, from kindergarten through university, was in English schools - including stints in what the British call a prep school and a public school. I have been back in the US for some time. So, while I am not a linguist, I do have a working familiarity with both how the English speak English and how Americans speak English.
Let’s get back to the question, is the English spoken in England the correct version? To answer that, the English would have to identify which variety of the language spoken in the UK they consider the correct one. The English spoken in London is different from English spoken in Yorkshire. And English spoken in the West End of London is different from English spoken in the East End. Those unfamiliar with linguistic geography should consider the distance between Richard Attenborough and Michael Caine. I cannot give a example of someone familiar to Americans who speaks Yorkshire English, because those folks, like Judi Dench and Patrick Stewart, work hard to sound like they’re from the south of England.
Arguably, the difference between the English of a well-educated American and that of a well-educated Brit is less than the difference between the various regional dialects of English that litter the British Isles.
But let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that when someone from England exalts the perfection of their language, what they are referring to is Queen’s English spoken with Received Pronunciation (RP) — the classic upper-class accent. This raises the question, is that current Queen’s English, or the Queen’s English of Queen Victoria (who was half German and married to a German)? Or that of Elizabeth the First?
As English is an evolving language, with so many varieties in England alone, to say there is a correct form of English is like saying there’s a correct breed of dog.
Ergo, we can dispense with the nonsense that there is a correct form of English. Particularly as the English language has no authority rendering decisions on what is and what is not acceptable English. The French rely on the Académie Française to give them the official version of their language — which is often ignored, even in France. The Real Academia Españole (RAE), which coordinates with the language academies of 22 other hispanaphone nations, rules on what is proper Spanish. And the official language of most Arabic countries is Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) as formulated and maintained by the Arabic Language International Council. Although the rules apply to the written language and spoken Arabic varies from country to country. Note: there is also classical Arabic, which is the language of the Quran, and is used by religious authorities.
All of this is well and good, but again let’s note there is no similar authority weighing in on the English language.
One other thing we can dismiss is the idea that the English spoken in England is a linear descendent from Old English and the English spoken in other countries is an offshoot. When the English colonized the Americas, the same English was spoken on both sides of the Atlantic. From that point, the language branched off in two different directions. Who is to say which one is more ‘official’. The same development took place in every country the British colonized.
The least chauvinistic course is to admit there are many correct forms of English. And each English-speaking country uses its version. But if you want to make language a numbers’ game then consider the fact that almost 70% of people, for whom English is a first language, live in America. And any rational person has to acknowledge American-English spelling uses far fewer excess letters than English-English spelling. So in terms of efficiency, the US version is ‘better’.
Lastly, let’s note that, whereas 11 Nobel laureates in literature wrote in British English, 13 wrote in American English. Make of that what you will.