English in the Commonwealth of Nations
The English language is commonly used in many current and former countries of the Commonwealth. The English varieties used share a mostly similar set of word spellings, punctuation rules and grammatical conventions. The use of English was largely inherited through British colonisation, with limited exceptions. The language forms part of the association's common culture and serves as the medium of inter-Commonwealth relations.[1][2]
The term Commonwealth English is most often interchangeable with British English, but is also used to distinguish between British English and that in the rest of the Commonwealth.[3] Many regions have developed their own local varieties of English. Its official status varies; in Bangladesh, it lacks any but is widely used, and likewise in Cyprus, it is not official but is used as the lingua franca.[4][5]
Written English in current and former countries of the Commonwealth generally favours British English spelling as opposed to that of American English,[6] with some exceptions, particularly in Canada.[7]
Native varieties
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Caribbean
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Caribbean English is drawn from British English and West African languages. It is influenced by constant contact with English-based Creoles. There is considerable influence from Hindustani and other South Asian languages in countries with language Indian populations, including Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana. Jamaican English and Barbadian English bear influences of Irish English.[8]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ "The Commonwealth". New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
- ↑ "Joining the Commonwealth". Commonwealth Secretariat. Archived from the original on 7 March 2022. Retrieved 27 March 2022.
- ↑ "Commonwealth English". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
- ↑ Ara, Rowshon (March 2020). "A Foreign Language or the Second Language: The Future of English in Bangladesh". International Journal of Language Education. 4 (1): 81–95. ISSN 2548-8457.
- ↑ Ammon, Ulrich; Dittmar, Norbert; Mattheier, Klaus J.; Trudgill, Peter, eds. (2006). "Greece and Cyprus". Sociolinguistics: an international handbook of the science of language and society / Soziolinguistik: ein internationales Handbuch zur Wissenschaft von Sprache und Gesellschaft. Handbooks of linguistics and communication science / Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft. Vol. 3 (2nd ed.). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. p. 1888. ISBN 9783110184181.
- ↑ New Oxford Style Manual. Oxford University Press. 2016.
- ↑ Boberg, Charles (2004) Standard Canadian English Archived 11 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine." In Raymond Hickey. Standards of English: Codified Varieties Around the World. Cambridge University Press. p. 159.
- ↑ "Introduction to Caribbean English". Oxford English Dictionary. Archived from the original on 15 September 2024. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- McArthur, Tom (2002). The Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866248-3.
- Peters, Pam (2004). The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62181-X.
- Trudgill, Peter & Hannah, Jean (2002). International English: A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English; 4th ed. London: Arnold. ISBN 0-340-80834-9.