The role of the English language in the world culture. Students: Beridze, Shvetsova

20-th Century English In Great Britain at present the speech of educated persons is known as Received Standard English. A class dialect rather than a regional dialect, it is based on the type of speech cultivated at such schools as Eton and Harrow and at such of the older universities as Oxford and Cambridge.

American English An important development of English outside Great Britain occurred with the colonization of North America. American English may be considered to include the English spoken in Canada, although the Canadian variety retains some features of British pronunciation, spelling, and vocabulary. The most distinguishing differences between American English and British English are in pronunciation and vocabulary.

Why is English spoken with different accents? Most British people can recognize where someone was brought up by their accent. Every region has its own way of pronouncing the words and sentences of English that identifies the speaker with that particular geographical area.

Do Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own language? At the start of the 20th century half of the population of Wales were able to speak Welsh, a language belonging to the Celtic family. However, the numbers of Welsh-speaking people have steadily declined, and today only about a fifth of the population of Wales speak the language.

What is cockney rhyming slang? True cockneys traditionally come from a very small part of London.In fact,only those born within the sound of Bow Bells, which ring out from the church of St.Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside in the City of London,could by traditional consider themselves cockneys. Rhyming slang uses a phrase that rhymes with a word, instead of the word itself-thus stairs becomes apple and pairs,phone becomes dog and bone and word becomes dicky bird!

Pidgin English English also enters into a number of simplified languages that arose among non- English-speaking peoples. Pidgin English, spoken in the Melanesian islands, New Guinea, Australia, the Philippines, and Hawaii and on the Asian shores of the Pacific Ocean, developed as a means of communication between Chinese and English traders.

Basic English A simplified form of the English language based on 850 key words was developed in the late 1920s by the English psychologist Charles Kay Ogden and publicized by the English educator I. A. Richards.

Known as Basic English, it was used mainly to teach English to non-English- speaking persons and promoted as an international language. The complexities of English spelling and grammar, however, were major hindrances to the adoption of Basic English as a second language.

W. Shakespeare – the most famous English writer Now came Renaissance in Europe-a time of great advance of learning and culture. By this time, English was not very different from the English used today. And the most famous person to write in English in this period was William Shakespeare ( ).

What is the oldest university in Britain? The University of Oxford was the first university to be established in Britain. Dating from the 12th century, it is organised as a federation of colleges which are governed by their own teaching staff known as Fellows.The oldest college, University College, was founded in Other notable colleges include All Souls (founded in 1438),Christ Church(1546),Oxford Cathedral, and Lady Margaret Hall(1878),which was the first womens college.

Future of the English Language The influence of the mass media appears likely to result in standardized pronunciation, more uniform spelling, and eventually a spelling closer to actual pronunciation. Despite the likelihood of such standardization, a unique feature of the English language remains its tendency to grow and change.