Language Definition

Language Definition

  • British English is a term used to distinguish the form of the English language used in the British Isles from styles used elsewhere. It includes all the varieties of English used within the Isles, including those found in England, Scotland, Wales, and the island of Ireland.

    The most noticeable difference between American and British English is vocabulary. There are hundreds of everyday words that are different. For example, British people call the front of a car the bonnet, while Americans call it the hood. Americans go on vacation, while Brits go on holidays. A surname in England is a last name in the USA.

    Noah Webster is partly responsible for the many differences in vocabulary and spelling. Noah Webster founded the Webster Dictionary. In the early nineteenth century, Webster saw extra letters in British English words and decided that they were superfluous. He then published a dictionary accordingly.

    Another difference between British English and American English is in pronunciation. There are also some grammatical differences between British and American English.

  • In technical writings, Global English is mainly used as preparation for machine translations or to facilitate easy multi-lingual translations. Global English is a style of writing that makes written English more easily understood by non-native speakers. It does this by being accurate, logical, understandable and literal.

    This type of language is used by technical writers who want their writing to be clear to anyone who reads it. Global English should not include figure of speech or idioms. Sentences should be short and clear. It should utilize simple sentence structure.

  • South Africa is a diverse country, and this diversity shows linguistically. There are 11 official languages in South Africa (including English), and many more that do not hold official language status. As such, its English dialect is heavily influenced by South Africa's unique demographic and linguistic climate.

    The history of English language in South Africa dates from the arrival of the British at the Cape in 1806. As was the case in most colonies, English was brought to South Africa during the 19th century initially by soldiers, and then by administrators, missionaries, settlers, and fortune-seekers.

    Apart from the pronunciation, South African English follows closely the British English in terms of vocabulary, spelling, grammar and style of writing.

  • Australian English follows British spelling and grammar very closely.

  • English-speaking Canada has been largely influenced by the British which explains why British English can be found in schools, in spelling and grammar. But Canada has the United States as its southern neighbor, so American slang and word pronunciation sometimes falls in line with American English.

    Canada has its own dictionaries, and the Canadian Press has its own style guide. The Editors' Association of Canada released a second edition of Editing Canadian English in 2015.

  • In terms of spelling and pronunciation, there are several differences between Standard German (Hochdeutsch) and the style of German used in Switzerland, Austria and the German-speaking regions of Luxemburg and other European countries.

    The New German Spelling and Punctuation Rules of the “Rechtschreibreform” were adopted in 1996 and can officially be found in Duden (Die Deutsche Rechtschreibung – Dudenverlag 1996). They have been adopted by most German, Swiss and Austrian media.

  • Swiss Standard German is a variety of Standard German (the one spoken across Germany) and is taught to Swiss children from the age of 6. It is the written form of the official German language spoken in Switzerland. As most people speak in the dialect of their region, Swiss Standard German is not used very much in every-day verbal communication, both privately and in business.

    Swiss Standard German (Schweizer Standarddeutsch), or Swiss High German (Schweizer Hochdeutsch or Schweizerhochdeutsch), referred to by the Swiss as Schriftdeutsch, is the written form of one of four official languages in Switzerland, besides French, Italian and Romansh.

    Where Standard German makes use of the Eszett (ß), Swiss German simply uses a double "ss”. This difference is only applicable to the written language. The new rule adopted in Standard German in 1996 is that ss follows short vowels and ß follows long vowels and diphthongs.

    Another difference is the numerical expression. There is a dot between Francs and Rappen (as opposed to a comma in German) and an apostrophe when the amount is above 999 (as opposed to a comma used in English).

  • The use of 'ß' is orthographically mandatory in Austria and Luxembourg, as it is in Germany.