Varieties of the English language

English is a worldwide language which is not only spoken in the Anglo-American core area. This is because there are many countries where English is the second of third language and have developed different varieties of English. You can almost compare the varieties with different dialects in a country. The reason that the English language has been an international language is probably because of the numerous colonies Britain established around the world in the end of the 15^th century. Today the English language is the gateway for communication between the countries.

An example of a variety of where the English language has been shaped by the culture and the main language is Hong-Kong English. Hong Kong English is one of the official languages in Hong Kong, and it is mostly used in business, academic circles and by the government. It is divided into two different concepts. The first refers to the variation of dialect in the English. The Second refers to the special accent and its usage.

Hong-Kong uses British spellings as well as pronunciations and vocabulary, although there are influences from Canadian and Australian English to be found.

Hong-Kong English has different spoken characteristics like for example in the voicing of the consonants where the sound "Th" like in three is pronounced as free or fee. Often confusion of "Tr" and "Ch" occurs and makes "train" sound like "chain". But there is not only differences in the pronunciation, also in the grammar differences occur. A contraction of two words which is mostly used in conversations, for example "aren't" is never used. This is because the English used in Hong-Kong is mostly used for formal writing. As well "there is/there are" becomes "there has/have". In the Chinese language there are no plural forms, so this tends to be confusing.

Many can be confused if they ask a person speaking Hong-Kong English about the time. Normally you would say four past three but this can be mixed with three past four in Hong-Kong. This is also the case with discounts where 10% off in Chinese is 90% of the original price.

These are only excerpts of English in Hong Kong. Most of the countries where English is spoken as the second or third language, the mother tongue and the culture have shaped the language. Outside the Anglo-American core area there are numerous varieties of the English language, and it is only growing.

Shirin