British English

British English is the way people in the United Kingdom speak and write the English language. It includes many different dialects, such as the English spoken in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Because the word "British" can mean different things, British English can refer either to just the English spoken in England or to all the English dialects spoken throughout the United Kingdom.

Even though there are many ways people speak English in the United Kingdom, written English in these places is quite uniform. This shared written form is often called British English. However, spoken English varies much more between different regions, making it harder to talk about a single, uniform British English when speaking.

Many countries around the world, especially those that were former British colonies or are part of the Commonwealth, use British English. Important organizations like the United Nations and institutions in the European Union also use British English, often with Oxford spelling. In places like China, both British and American English are taught. The UK government works hard to teach and spread English in over 100 countries.

History

Main article: History of the English language

Origins

Further information: History of the English language, Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Germanic, Proto-West Germanic, Proto-English, Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English

English is a West Germanic language that began with the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers from areas now part of Germany and the Netherlands. At that time, most people spoke Common Brittonic, a type of Continental Celtic language, which was later influenced by Roman rule. Though Welsh, Cornish, and Cumbric stayed around for a long time, they did not change English much because they were very different from Germanic languages.

Old English had many different dialects, shaped by the many Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in England. One dialect, Late West Saxon, became the most important. Later, two big groups of people came to live in Britain. First, people from Scandinavia arrived in the 700s and 800s, and then the Normans came in the 1000s. They spoke Old Norman, which later became Anglo-Norman. Because of these groups, English changed a lot. It mixed words and ideas from many places.

Simple, everyday words in English often come from Anglo-Saxon, like "swine" for a pig in the field. More formal or learned words often come from Latin or French, like "pork" for the pig we eat. This shows how English grew by taking words from many different languages over time.

Dialects

See also: English language in England, Scottish English, Welsh English, Northern Irish English, Irish English, Anguillan Creole, Montserrat Creole, Bermudian English, Falkland Islands English, Cayman Islands English, Gibraltarian English, Manx English, and Channel Island English

The way people speak English changes a lot in the United Kingdom. There are different dialects and accents in each part of the country, and even within smaller areas.

The main types of British English include English English (spoken in England), Northern Irish English (in Northern Ireland), Welsh English (in Wales), and Scottish English (in Scotland). These types have many smaller differences among them, and they sometimes use words borrowed from other languages.

Most people in Britain have a regional accent or dialect. Only about 2% speak with an accent called Received Pronunciation, which is often used when teaching English to people from other countries. This accent comes from a mix of older dialects from London.

In some places, like London, there are many different accents. For example, the Cockney accent is very different from Received Pronunciation. Recently, Estuary English has become more common. It mixes features of Received Pronunciation and Cockney. Because many people from different places have moved to the UK, especially to London, you can hear many languages and new ways of speaking English there.

Features

British English has special ways of saying words that make it unique. One big difference is how the letter R is said. In many places in England and Wales, the R isn’t spoken if it comes at the end of a word. Instead, the vowel before it is stretched out. For example, “car” sounds like “cah” and “sugar” like “sugah”.

Another fun change is adding an R when it isn’t there. If a word ends with a vowel and the next word starts with a vowel, some people add an R in between. This is called intrusive R. For example, “So I” might sound like “So R I”.

British English also changes long vowels in interesting ways. In the north, words like “go” and “say” keep their long sounds. In the south, these vowels change a bit more. For example, “feed” and “food” have a sliding sound instead of a flat one.

When talking about groups, British English often treats them as more than one person. So, instead of saying “The police is here”, people say “The police are here”. The same goes for sports teams. Instead of “Arsenal is winning”, it’s “Arsenal are winning”. Even old books from the 1800s show this way of speaking.

Standard British English

Standard English in the United Kingdom, like in other places where English is spoken, is often used in schools and formal settings. There isn't one group in charge of deciding what is correct, unlike in some other countries.

Standard British English has some differences in words, grammar, and how it sounds compared to American English. The way many people in southeastern England speak has been called Received Pronunciation for over 100 years. But some experts think this way of speaking is changing or that other ways of speaking are becoming more common. In places like Scotland and Northern Ireland, this specific way of speaking isn't as common.

Dictionaries like the Oxford English Dictionary now describe how words are actually used, rather than telling people how they should be used. Words and ways of speaking change over time, with new words coming from other languages and different kinds of English.

The form of English that became standard started in London and the East Midlands many years ago. The printing press, brought to England in the 1400s, helped spread a common language and spelling faster.

Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language in 1755 helped make spelling more consistent. By the early 1900s, books like Fowler's Modern English Usage and The Complete Plain Words by Sir Ernest Gowers gave advice on using English correctly.

Guides from places like The Times, the Oxford University Press, and the Cambridge University Press also give detailed advice on writing British English. The Oxford University Press created Hart's Rules in 1893, which later became part of The Oxford Manual of Style in 2002. This guide is very important for writers using British English, just like The Chicago Manual of Style is for American English.

Relationship with Commonwealth English

British English is the basis of, and very similar to, Commonwealth English. Commonwealth English is the way people speak and write English in Commonwealth countries. This includes places like Australia, Malta, New Zealand, Nigeria, and South Africa. It also includes South Asian English used in South Asia, English varieties in Southeast Asia, and in parts of Africa. Canadian English comes from British English but has more influence from American English because the countries are close together. British English is very close to Indian English, but Indian English has some extra words and different meanings for some words.