Wednesday, September 12, 2012

The Glorious English Language ...And the Other English Language

The English language is notorious for its complexity. Unfortunately (quite possibly due to the fact that at one time English was spoken by nearly a quarter of the world’s population) the confusion is aggravated by the many forms of English in use around the globe. Probably you are familiar with one of the two principle forms spoken in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Even without pursuing the many divergences in vocabulary and syntax, the two styles vary greatly—in spelling, grammar, and even punctuation. Our readers may have noticed the preference evinced by the editors of this periodical for British style. This preference is not so much a slight to American style as it is simply a greater familiarity with (and appreciation for the aesthetic qualities of) British form. But whichever form you use, it is important to adhere to it consistently. Unfortunately, if your library consists of both books published in the States and books published in Great Britain, you may occasionally inculcate both styles in your writing. A good knowledge of the basic rules of both would preclude this possibility.

Punctuation
American style prints double quotation marks before and after quoted material. British style prints single marks. (“” versus ‘’.)
American style employs the confusing method of using the relative pronoun ‘that’ in a restrictive sense while ‘which,’ another relative pronoun, is used nonrestrictively and, unless in conjunction with a preposition, is always preceded by a comma. British style does not differentiate between ‘which’ and ‘that’.

Verbs
In British style certain verbs take the irregular past tense and past participle form. For instance, verbs which in America would be spelled spoiled, learned, burned, or dreamed, in the UK are often spelt spoilt, learnt, burnt, and dreamt. Some verb forms that are often irregular in American are not irregular in British; e.g. fit (Am.)/ fitted (Br.) and lit (Am.)/ lighted (Br.).
The verb shall is rarely used in American style, save in a legal setting, while it is common in British style.

Spelling
English spelling was first standardised by early dictionaries, such as Samuel Johnson’s. In 1828 Noah Webster published a dictionary in the United States with shortened, ‘American’ spellings for certain words. For instance, words ending in ‘or’ in American spelling, such as honor, vigor, or neighbor, end in ‘our’ in British spelling (colour, valour, etc.) Some American spellings simplify a word by dropping the ‘e’ at the end, as in ‘ax’ (properly spelt ‘axe’) and ‘program’ (programme). Directional words, though alternate spellings are accepted on either side of the Atlantic, generally take an ‘s’ at the end in British style (e.g. afterwards, forwards, backwards).
American spelling confuses the last two letters in words such as centre and theatre (Am. center, theater). American spelling also substitutes a ‘z’ for an ‘s’ in words such as organise (Am. organize). It occasionally shortens words (such as draught to draft and cheque to check).

A/an
British style optionally places the article ‘an’ before words beginning with the letter ‘h’ where the first syllable is unstressed, such as historical or horrific.

Numbers
With its customary precipitation, the United States has ascribed the name one ‘billion’ to the number 1,000,000,000, while in the United Kingdom the same number is known as one ‘milliard’. One billion is properly one million millions, or 1,000,000,000,000.

Titles
In the United Kingdom and its commonwealth the reigning monarch’s title is always capitalised, as in ‘the Queen.’ Other members of the royal family also receive a capital letter at the beginning of their titles (e.g. ‘the Duke’). In the United States both forms are ignored.

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