As a result of Brexit could British English be marching towards irrelevance?

Having taken my German exam in Switzerland, I was informed that the examination centre in Frankfurt would allow High German (CH) words, articles, spelling (i.e. no ß). English teaching could remain the same but examiners could allow for Americanisation without docking points.

Doomed I tell you!!

This thread is bizarre. Fun but bizarre. For what it's worth...

There's English and American English and that's largely a difference of some spellings (z not s), some semantic and syntactical shifts. British English is not a thing.

Standard English (SE) is however the thing and the English that is/should be modelled in every first language English classroom/learning environment and the one that should be taught in second/third/ fourth etc classrooms. It's standardised so everyone using it is starting from the same base line and is using the same code. I suppose that's why mathematics is truly international. No/less room for ambiguity.

More like 500 years. The gentry spoke French, their servant English... middle English any way. That is why we eat beef and lamb but the animals are cows and sheep. The servants didn't often get to eat what they tended to/ killed/ cooked for their masters. Everything worth writing was written in Latin. Then later French. The English then was the English of Chaucer and Shakespeare where syllables were stressed differently and spelling was not standard. Shakespearan English is quite removed from "modern " SE.

This.

I'm with Sandgrounder here. I doubt the overhaul, if there is one, would impact on their usage of SE. It's more likely a reaction to the recently overhauled UK exams systems which will probably have them reorganizing their papers etc, not their requirements etc. Not sure how the Shakespeare Netflix comparison works. Other than if he were alive today he'd no doubt be in charge of Netflix content.

The kids may speak with US inflections, accents and syntax etc but the English will be SE for the international exams. The spelling is hidden when spoken

RP is an accent - what used to be called BBC or Queen's English- not a dialect or system. There is a lot of pigeon English in Europe. Just as there is no doubt "pigeon" German, French etc.

As it was until the standardised spellengs were agreed upon and the definitive dictionaries were created. Shakespeare famously never spelled his own name the same way twice. And he made up a lot of words we use today.

It's non -standard English. Used in the bible i think. SE past tense is got, gotten is merely a derivative.

What do you mean? AFAIK there is no Oxbridge English divide. Oxford produces arguably the definitive dictionary. Cambridge develops and administrates the world renowned English examinations. They both model and promote SE while recognising that deviations exist. No exam system in the UK penalises for American English spelling (although it is not encouraged in a UK classroom as it is, again, not the SE we are required to teach to).

Exactly. You could use SE.

I'm English and to me "gotten" is common usage.

In some parts of the US you can hear "tooken". I'm lead to believe it's also in the bible.

Rufus hasn't gotten any better at English!

Yeah but he's tooken lots of lessons!

I believe that English will ironically become more accepted in the EU after Brexit: Last year I worked as a contractor for an EU institution. The employees are from all over the EU and there are even measures in place to make sure that no nationality is overrepresented or left out. (So if you come from a smaller EU country do you actually have an easier time to make a career there than Germans or French).

The thing is that for example French people dont like to switch to English in a meeting where native English speakers are present. They are quite sensitive about it.

The problem is that all the Eastern countries dont speak French or German, so English is really the only way forward. I believe that after Brexit people are much more willing to accept English as a lingua franca within the EU... (the only native speakers left are the Irish and they seem to struggle to speak comprehensible English to the same level a Frenchy does...)

Common does not make it standard. It's still non-SE usage. Language usage is quite amorphous so it follows that everyone, or every

social group, develops their own idiom, just as you have done.

Have never heard of nor read "tooken". But I'm no biblical scholar.

And Rufus is not a he.

Our kids here appear to be being taught U.S. English.

When they query the teacher, often they are told they are wrong.

One example recently in English class:

Teacher "What colour are Mario's pants?"

My son, embarrassed, "How the hell should I know?"

was it not 'what color' ?

Blue. https://supermariorun.com/en-gb/index.html

"Pants" are also undercrackers, so Mario could have been wearing brown Y-fronts.

Therer are exceptions of course, but actually many "CH high German" words are in fact correct High German but just not commonly used or even known by average high German speakers, or if used, then often used in a subtly different way.

I don't think the same can really be said of the differences between US and UK English. At least not generally.

Tough topic.

From my understanding, it is very equivalent comparisons (I can't really comment because my german isn't strong enough to see the differences).

But American English vs British English:

1. Different pronunciation

2. Some different spellings

3. Some different word uses

Standard Swiss German vs. Standard German

1. Different pronunciations? (Sometimes I can tell a Swiss person speaking German rather than a German, but unsure)

2. Some slight different spellings

3. Some different word uses

Maybe a bit simplistic approach, but I think the comparison holds (biggest difference is there's such a larger population and prevalence of all the languages other than Standard Swiss German - which is seldom heard relatively speaking.

This:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_spelling

You'll find that while there is no "British" English, there is English GB (Great Britain), vs English US, CA, Oxford, etc...

The other place is a different story. Where Webster has led the EN-US spelling reform, on this side of the pond, the other place follows the "standardizsed EN-GB", while, Oxford has a slightly different take.

It's one of the wonderful reasons that you can excuse pretty much any spelling, as long as you remain consistent ...

Important are the role models: you have

Ferguson english

Mourinho english

Wenger english

Shearer english

Messi no english

my favo(U)rite

Ralph Krueger german

Brexit is more of an EU than football topic as they are allowed to stay in Uefa...

So Id add the English of an EU commisioner, Guenter Oettinger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88OGXLFpeMw

Still not clear on what you mean by Cambridge English. What you seem to refer to as Oxford English is Standard English. AFAIK, they use SE in Cambridge too!

I don't see it as one system versus another but as branches of the same tree.

Consistency is I suppose important re s or z usage but if non-standard spellings are habitually used, then the user is using non-SE and is not therefore operating within the same codified system as "everyone" else.

This is quite a fun article in just this topic: https://www.theatlantic.com/internat...sation/263091/

Btw, I was always taught that - ise was SE, - ize American English.

... over his fanny yes, men have fannies in 'Murica.

Do you realise or realize something?

In Oxford, you realize... in SE you realise that the correct spelling is with a z

In their pants?

Realise is SE in the UK. I'm pretty confused as I'm only really finding that one Wiki page about -ize as UK SE usage. Everything else says - ise is UK SE. It's certainly what has been standard in all my education and in my professional usage. The OUP house style is apparently-ize but i believe that was a historical decision and -ise is considered standard UK usage (sometimes interchanged with -ize) and - ize wholly American. -ise derives from the French derived words we use and have become more prevalent. -ize from the Greek /Latin.

Different publishers have different formats, just like different universities have different formats for essays.

Maybe it's better / more accurate to say that typical UK usage is -ise.