Who is the most influential person in history?
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Yes but "English" is a bunch of languages. So long as you respect the differences (like my co-workers saying holiday instead of vacation to Brits that shop at our store) it's not a major issue but the moment to stick 100% to your version and they stick to their's you might as well be talking gibberish to each other.
Hell even in America that's true. I remember I moved from Florida to Pennsylvania and used a popular slang word and all I got from others was, "What?"
Maybe one part of it. What I was trying to say is that while England had a large influence on the colonies, English was King's English. As England's influence started to wane, English changed into something completely different everywhere. Initially they were "dialects", but have now become legitimate in their own right. North Americans for example in general prefer Webster's dictionary to Oxford.
Yes, but English is different in as a language in England too, for me it's not always so easy to catch what people up in northern England are actually saying. But it's all English. British, American, Australian, Jamaican, whatever sort of English we're speaking, it's a consequence of the British influence around the world.
No, they're different languages in the Latin family. Just like English is in the Germanic family.
The differences in English language in different parts of England were already there when England's international influence was at its highest. I still believe English is not equal. Even in England from the beginning of time language is almost symbolic of the differences between a Scots man, a Welsh man and an Irish man.
Well... okay, let's not get pedantic.
But a good way to describe it is that they were invaded by different people.
:giggle:
Of course, but it's a part of the same language. Spoken differently. It's not something new, this is something you find in most countries.
But it's still English. You can find the same issues with Spanish, Portuguese, French and German. There's difference between the Spanish in Spain and the Spanish in Mexico as an example, but it's still the same language.
a body of words and the systems for their use common to a people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural tradition
Do people in the UK and Jamaica share cultural tradition? Yes!
Do they speak the same language? Yes!
Do people in Spain and Italy share cultural tradition? Yes!
Do they speak the same language? Yes... Oh wait.
Not the same thing. Italy and Spain never had a tradition for speaking the same language, they're a part of the same language family. So is English and German.
And now today it's an official language spoken in Spain and in Latin America. And it's part of the Latin language family, same with Italian and French. English and German are two examples of two Germanic languages.
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