Is British English a dying language?

American English words/spellings in exams would likely not be scrutinized.

There were two little girls who lived next door to my aunty and they had american twangs to their accents even thought they lived in Scotland and their parents are Scottish my mum said she thought it was because they watched american cartoons. And I know what you mean about some Americans not knowing about where English is spoken they asked if I spoke it in Scotland and said my English was really good when I worked there.

But I did teach them new words like rubbish, which if you think about it it's a great word so many uses also they all loved my accent so nobody made fun of it. Except the way I said the word poor. They said it like pour. Good times I miss working there.

Let's bomb America and make everything better. (Pronounced betta.)

I think British English is still strong. Never heard anyone say mom, elevator, subway, eraser, acetaminophen, affirmative action, bangs, baseboard, sidewalk, burglarize, cellphone, highway, downtown, dumpster etc in this country. The whole list is here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_words_not_widely_used_in_the_United_Kingdom
I do however think that American spelling is taking over. When it comes to international things like science words tend to be standardised to to the American form eg sulphur to sulfur and s is gradually being replaced with z thanks to auto correct telling me that "standardised" is wrong.

English is the most widely spoken language in the world. It's not dying at all. More people learn English every-year. It's the worlds finest language, from he worlds finest people. The English

Also we have the second highest amount of speakers: Indian English, Nigerian English, doesn't count because its not native so they always have to look to us.

Us lovely English Canadian folk still tend to represent British English - not all of us - but I certainly think most of us do use British English. In fact British English is our "official" form, it's what all Government publications are printed in, giving you an example.

I mainly use British English, but I follow the American English for words like recognize and realize, as that's how I was taught back home before moving here to England. I do use the British English spellings in my schoolwork over here, but when I'm typing online or chatting on IM, I don't think about and therefore instinctively use the -ize spellings.

I can't distinguish Canadian and US accents (apart from 'about')... I know in Canada it's much worse than here in Britain, with very little in the way of indigenous TV shows and films produced. Also, there are so many Canadians living in the US and vice versa.

some didn't even know we spoke English in England

I don't think it's a dying language but it's continuously altering, being changed and being used in varying forms across our country and across the world.

I think one day though - as it always has been - English will have been altered so much that we would only vaguely recognize it as English, just as we currently see with Old English.

I'm not asking if the English language is dying- it evidently isn't, as it's the most successful language in history. I'm asking if the quirky, unique dialect spoken on this island is being forgotten and replaced.





Indian English and Nigerian English have developed into their own fully fledged dialects, with their own words, pronunciation and sometimes grammar. If you think Nigerian English sounds anything like British English, I can only assume you've never met a Nigerian person in your life.



I can't distinguish Canadian and US accents (apart from 'about')... I know in Canada it's much worse than here in Britain, with very little in the way of indigenous TV shows and films produced. Also, there are so many Canadians living in the US and vice versa.

I'm not saying its the same, I'm saying until it has its own native speakers who have communicated from childhood and talk to their mother exclusively in Nigerian English, its still just English spoken badly. It's like saying you've got German English or French English or Chinese English. You can't have a dialect unless you have native speakers, preferably monolingual or IMO. I don't why 'Nigerian English is a dialect and 'Chinese English' just because the former is in the commenwealth. Is English french a dialect of French: avay vou un poo duh pan si vou play lol

Wow, what a close minded thing to say. Nigerian English is a perfectly legitimate form of the language, and being different does not make it spoken 'badly'. English has no official organization to regulate the language; therefore, it's inevitable that the English used by a Londoner will be different from that of a Lagos schoolteacher.

Of course you can learn a dialect without being a native speaker. My gf, an Afghan, speaks British English very clearly, from pronunciation to vocab. A dialect is just a variety of a language... I'm kinda shocked you don't know this.

I'm not saying u can't learn a dialect, I'm saying ITS not its own dialect unless IT has got native speakers (even if it did have 'regulation' it wouldn't do much, as it doesn't with any other language) if there were twenty million people or even a hundred thousand speaking it natively I'd be quite happy to call it a dialect. I grew up around Greeks speaking with a unique accent and vocabulary like souvlaki (a dish) and xenos (generally non-Greek but with many colourful shades of meaning lol) but I wouldn't call it a dialect cuz none of them were native, their kids speak with totally London accents though that might throw in a Greek word if they are sure u know what they mean. Are u a fellow Christian btw?