Variants of English outside the British Isles

Outside the British Isles there are distinguished the following variants of the English language: American English, Canadian English, Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English, Indian English and some others.

American English is the variety of the English language spoken in the USA.

The first wave of English-speaking immigrants was settled in North America in the 17-th century. In this century, there were also speakers in North America of the Dutch, French, German, native American, Spanish, Swedish and Finnish languages.

The vocabulary used by American speakers, has distinctive features of its own. There are whole groups of words which belong to American vocabulary exclusively and constitute its specific features. These words are called Americanisms.

The first group of such words may be described as historical Americanisms, e.g. fall “autumn”, to guess “to think”, sick “ill, unwell”. In American usage these words still retain their old meanings whereas in British English their meanings have changed or fell out of use.

The second group of Americanisms includes words which are not likely to be discovered in British vocabulary. These words may be called proper Americanisms. They were coined by the early Americans which had to find names for the new environment (flora and fauna) and new conditions of life, e.g. redbud – “an American tree having small budlike pink flowers, the state tree Oklahoma”; blue-grass – “a sort of grass peculiar to North America”.

Another group of Americanisms consists of words which may be described as specifically American borrowings. These borrowings reflect the historical contacts of the Americans with other nations on the American continent, e.g. ranch, sombrero (Spanish borrowings), toboggan, caribou (Indian borrowings).

One more group of Americanisms is represented by American shortenings. These are shortenings which were produced on American soil, but may be used in other variants of English as well, e.g. dorm (dormitory), mo (moment), cert (certainly).

Canadian English is the variety of the English language used in Canada.

In many respects, the spelling of Canadian English is intermediate between British English and American English. However, the spoken language is much closer to American English than to British English. It is also influenced by Canadian French, as Canada has both English and French as official languages.

Canadian English also has its own words not found in other variants of English. Specifically Canadian words are called Canadianisms, e.g. parkade (“parking garage”), chesterfield (“a sofa, couch”).

There may be also meaning differences in words and expressions used in Canadian English and in other variants of the English language. For example, to table a document in Canada is to present it, whereas in the United States it means to withdraw it from consideration.

Australian English is the variety of the English language used in Australia. Australian English is similar in many respects to British English, but it also borrows from American English, e.g. it uses truck instead of lorry.

Australian English incorporates several uniquely Australian terms, such as, for example, outback to refer to remote regional areas, walkabout to refer to a long journey of uncertain length and bush to refer to native forested areas, but also a regional areas.

Australian English has a unique set of diminutives formed by adding –o or –ie to the ends of (often abbreviated) words, e.g. arvo (afternoon), servo (service station, though the term is dying out), barbie (barbecue), bikkie (biscuit).

A very common feature of traditional Australian English is rhyming slang, based on Cockney rhyming slang and imported by migrants from London in the 19-th century. For example, Captain Cook rhymes with look, so to have a captain cook, or to have a captain, means to have a look.

South African English is the variety of the English language used in South Africa and surrounding countries, notably Namibia and Zimbabwe.

South African English is not unified in its pronunciation: this can be attributed to the fact that English is the mother tongue for only 40% of the white inhabitants (the remainder mostly having Afrikaans as their mother tongue) and only a tiny minority of black inhabitants of the region. South African English spoken by whites bears some resemblance in pronunciation to a mix of Australian English and British English, Afrikaans has heavily influenced only those living in Afrikaans areas.

In South African English there are words that do not exist in British or American English, usually derived from Afrikaans or African languages, bra, bru – “male friend (prob. from Afrikaans word for brother)”, dorp – “a small rural town or village”, sat – “dead, passed away”.

There are also a few unique words (or expressions) in South African English, in which common English words take on new meanings, e.g. boy – “ a black man”, township – “urban area for black, Coloured or Indian South Africans under apartheid”, book of life – “national identity document”.

Several South African words, usually from Afrikaans or native languages of the region, have entered world English, e.g. apartheid – “ a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race”.

Indian English is the variety of the English language spoken widely in India.

The language that Indians are taught in schools is essentially British English and in particular, spellings follow British conventions. However, the British left India in 1947, and therefore many phrases that the British may consider antique are still popular in India. Official letters continue to include phrases like please do the needful, your obedient servant.

Despite the fact that British English is an official language of Government in India (as a result spoken and written English in India has not explicitly “forked” away from the British variant of the English language), there are words and expressions that can be regarded as those used only in Indian English, e.g. crore – “ten millions”, scheduled tribe – “a socially/economically backward Indian tribe, given special privileges by the government”, mohalla – “an area of a town or village; a community”.

Some Peculiarities