English as a World Language
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Many languages of the world have contributed to the vocabulary of English which has approximately 500,000 words and 300,000 technical terms. However, purists of French, Russian and Japanese have been resisting the arrival of English words.
George Bernard Shaw once said that the United Kingdom and the United States were “two countries divided by a common language” but the differences that exist are few and unimportant. British do things at the weekend while Americans do things on the weekend and Americans may use the past simple where the British would use the present perfect simple. Spelling only affects a small number of words. Compare the British spelling with color, aluminum, traveled, dialog and program. Vocabulary can cause confusion and maybe some embarrassment. Compare the use of the words bathroom, squash, public school, subway, mad, vest, coach (of Hungarian origin) and football. The British have different words for sidewalk, trunk (of a car), gasoline, attorney and elevator. American pronunciation is often the easiest to understand and usually far easier than a strong Glasgow, Liverpool or Newcastle accent but the difference is usually small. As the British comedy group, Monty Python, pointed out to American audiences: “you say tomato and we say tomato but you say potato and we say potato ..... so what`s the problem?”
What all types of English have in common has been their openness of vocabulary - the readiness to acquire words from other languages. In British English foreign words reflect Britain`s European heritage and colonial past. From French came fait accompli, coup (d`état), coup de grace, enfant terrible, café, femme fatale and passé. From German there is schnitzel, zeitgeist and schadenfreude and from Spanish there is canyon, sombrero, guerrilla, flotilla, incommunicado and aficionado. From India came bungalow, verandah, curry and khaki. American English has absorbed new words as a result of successive waves of immigration. From Yiddish came schmuck, schlep, wanderlust, schmooze and chutzpah.