ENGLISH IN ENGLAND

ENGLISH IN ENGLAND Also ANGLO-ENGLISH, England English, ENGLISH ENGLISH. The English language as used in England. For many people in England and elsewhere, the terms Anglo-English, England English, and English English are tautologous and barbarous. It has seemed natural to them that, just as French is the language of France, so English is (and should be) the native language of the inhabitants of England. Other forms of the language have been used elsewhere, in some cases for many centuries, but they have been widely regarded in England as peripheral and in many cases deficient. In the late 20c, however, English in England is generally seen by scholars as one of many varieties that bear the name English, but because English English is, as it were, the parent stock it is often harder to discuss and describe than varieties that have added distinctive characteristics of their own. In the English of North America, parts of Africa, and South Asia, it is relatively easy to identify phonological, grammatical, and lexical features unique to certain varieties. It is less easy to say that a particular feature will be heard only or mainly in England.

A language without competition

Since the decline of French in the late Middle Ages, English in England has had no major competitor. English people have not shared the experience of the Celtic parts of Britain, where the presence of other vernaculars may affect the idiom even of those who do not speak them. Nor has there been resistance to the status of English, such as that which makes the Irish writer James Joyce's character Stephen Daedalus think after speaking to an Englishman, ‘My soul frets in the shadow of his language.’ The language has never been officially standardized, but a typically English nostalgia for the past is reflected in attempts to fix one period as definitive. In the 18c, the best English was widely supposed to have been used in the ‘Augustan’ reign of Queen Anne (1702–14). Writers and scholars like Swift and JOHNSON sought to fix it, but at the same time there was strong and successful resistance to suggestions for an Academy on the French model. There continues to be a feeling that a certain type of English is the best, phrases like the Queen's English, BBC ENGLISH, OXFORD ENGLISH suggesting that the ruling and cultural establishment has by right the correct usage.

Standard and accent

There is in England a degree of confusion between the terms STANDARD ENGLISH (SE) and RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION (RP). Although SE is generally defined by linguists and teachers in terms only of grammar and vocabulary, and RP only in terms of ACCENT, both are often used as virtual synonyms, and SE is often assumed to include (and require) RP. SE, however, can be and is spoken in many accents. RP emerged more slowly than SE; although regional accents were recognized and considered slightly comic or substandard as early as the 16c, generally dialect was not despised: Walter Raleigh spoke with a Devon accent and was an accomplished courtier and writer. It is not until the late 19c that the prestige of RP becomes apparent, with the desire to acquire it for the enhancement of status. SE is not a class usage, but RP is. Although it has considerable prestige value, RP is disliked and caricatured by many speakers with other accents. It is accepted without comment from a BBC newsreader, but is liable to arouse mirth or hostility when used by anyone suspected of shedding the local speech and ‘talking posh’.

The permutations of SE and RP are many. It is likely that an RP speaker will use SE in speech and writing. Most English people write SE, with occasional lapses in spelling and grammar. Many also speak SE, often with some mixture of regional words and idioms, ranging from an occasional item to full dialect. There has, however, been a steady decline in the degree of dialect differences from SE, accelerated over the last fifty years by media mainly purveying SE usage in RP voices. Dialect variation of lexis and syntax is less marked among younger people, but accents are still diverse. Some speakers in effect command two dialects, local for intimate uses and a version (among the many versions) of the national standard for more formal purposes. The increase of town populations has created marked differences between urban and rural dialects. In large conurbations, local forms which sometimes varied over even a small area have tended to lose their distinctiveness and merge into a more general and extensive type of speech. Pressures from the national educational system and the media have also acted to remove or reduce some of the more extreme variants. A large English town today will contain a variety of spoken English determined by social, educational, and generational factors, rather than the simpler division between educated speech and a fairly uniform local dialect which would until recently have been found in rural areas. The presence of immigrant groups has brought new forms of speech; the second generation usually acquires the local accent, but older speakers often keep distinctive features.

Defending the language

Strong feelings about the state of the language are made public in various ways. Among older middle-class users there is resistance to change and a freely expressed distrust of American and other influences. Resistance to an Academy has paradoxically resulted in unofficial watchdogs such as the Society for Pure English, founded in 1913, which carried on for many years a campaign against what it regarded as degenerate tendencies. Postwar exponents of ‘U and non-U’ (upper-class and non-upper-class usage) stigmatized certain words and idioms as ‘common’, and for a time in the 1950s the spotting of U and non-U terms was a kind of national game. The idea grew from an article by the linguist A. S. C. Ross, which suggested that the comparative levelling of outward signs of rank and wealth in post-war England had made linguistic usage a more important pointer. In 1979, taking a different tack, Plain English Campaign publicly destroyed government forms as the opening move in a crusade against officialese and obfuscation.

Changes

English in England appears to be losing many of its particularities. Traditionally, educated English people have separated shall for the first person and will for the second and third, and reversed them for special meaning or emphasis: I shall come tomorrow; you shall go to the Ball! The immediate ‘Have you (got) a pen?’ has been distinguished from the more habitual ‘Do you have a pen?’ Similarly, the present perfect tense has been used for past states within a continuing time period: ‘Have you seen him today?’ as against ‘Did you see him yesterday?’ Modal verbs such as would and might have been used to express hesitation or extra politeness. Would you care for some more tea?—If I might. These and other features are still found with older speakers but seem to be declining, perhaps through the influence of AmE. Because so much is shared with other parts of the UK, and because there has been so much AmE influence in recent decades, it is probably true to say that specifically English English is currently less distinctive within the British Isles than at any time in the past.

See AMERICAN ENGLISH AND BRITISH ENGLISH, ANGLO-, ANGLO-SAXON, BIRMINGHAM, BRITISH ENGLISH, BURR, CAXTON, CHAUCER, COCKNEY, CUMBRIA, DIALECT, DORSET, EAST ANGLIA, EAST MIDLAND DIALECT, GEORDIE, HISTORY OF ENGLISH, JUTES, KENTISH, KING'S ENGLISH, LANCASHIRE, LONDON, MIDDLE ENGLISH, MIDLANDS, MUMMERSET, NORTHERN ENGLISH, NORTHUMBRIA, OLD ENGLISH, OXFORD ACCENT, PUBLIC SCHOOL ENGLISH, SAXON, SAXONISM, SCOUSE, SHAKESPEARE, SOMERSET, VARIETY, WEST COUNTRY, YORKSHIRE.