[Wikipedia-l] Wikipedia English English

[Caroline Ford]

Nah - not all US accents are rhotic, and the UK has some rhotic accents
too..

Prescriptiveness doesn't work for language, ever.

English imperialism actually offends me more than US imperialism. It's nice
to think that nationalists exist only on the other side of the Atlantic but
it certainly isn't true.. 

-----Original Message-----
From: wikipedia-l-bounces at Wikimedia.org
[mailto:wikipedia-l-bounces at Wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of James R. Johnson
Sent: 19 September 2005 18:38
To: wikipedia-l at Wikimedia.org
Subject: RE: [Wikipedia-l] Wikipedia English English

When I went to London, I did have to ask what a secre tree was (any relation
to the oak tree?).  And a labora tree and an observa tree and a 'lie bree'
and the 'straw bree'... :)  Were I able to stay longer, perhaps I would have
understood better.

And at least we pronounce the 'r' at the ends of words. :)

James

PS - note that this is a sarcastic e-mail.  Don't take it that seriously.

-----Original Message-----
From: wikipedia-l-bounces at Wikimedia.org
[mailto:wikipedia-l-bounces at Wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Pawel Dembowski
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 10:37 AM
To: wikipedia-l at Wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] Wikipedia English English

>>Americans seem to want to believe that they speak English, and we 
>>speak British English in England (meaning Britain!). They are wrong. 
>>They speak
a
>>dialect of our language, called American-English, an offshoot from the
main
>>trunk if you will, which has evolved somewhat independently of English.
>> American-English is an out and out dialect of English. How can 
>>English English be a dialect of English?
> I presume you are referring to the dialect of the ruling classes.

American pronunciation is definitely more similar to 17th century English
than British RP.

--
Ausir
Wikipedia, wolna encyklopedia
http://pl.wikipedia.org

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