AUDIO
LANGUAGE CHAT
CULTURE UK / US
LANGUAGE CHAT In today’s studio we have American linguist Brad Perrable and British linguistics Professor Brian Wilkins. They’ll be discussing the statement “British English is the only true form of English”. Int: Brad:
Brad, how do you see the situation these days? Well, there are more than a thousand words that have different meanings or usages in British and American English. I think it’s time we harmonised the two languages. Take the case of spelling, in many ways American is more logical for example “enroling” with one “l”, “traveling” with one “l”, etcetera. Brian: I completely disagree. I feel if we start to try to regulate, we’ll get into all sorts of problems. And which English are we going to choose? Why should it be American English? I completely disagree. Brad: No, I really think it is time for some sort of rationalisation. Look, there are just so many words with different meanings. We can’t even communicate effectively. Just the other day I was talking to a friend and it was like talking to a foreigner. We just didn’t understand one another. I was talking about “pants” and he thought I was referring to underwear. Also we can’t watch foreign films. If a film claims to be in English, I want to be able to understand it. I tried watching Trainspotting and it might as well have been in Mongolian. Some American movies need to be subtitled when they are shown. Brian: Well, that’s the same for us. Sometimes we don’t understand everything you’re saying, but that’s no reason to impose your form of English on the rest of us, is it?
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Brad:
Yeah, but getting back to that point about which language. I’d say it should be American. After all, more people in the world speak American English than speak British English if you include speakers of English as a second language. All the music comes from America. Canadian English bears a strong resemblance to United States English, but they’re not identical. Brian: No, no, I really must disagree with you there. I, I, I’m convinced that British English, after all, we invented the language so I think it should be British English if anything. Brad: As the world’s number one superpower I think we should stick to American English. I think it’s the obvious choice. Int: All right gentlemen thank you very much. That was very interesting. I think the conclusion we’ll have to come to is that British English is in fact the best. Thank you. in fact the best. Thank you.
GLOSSARY to harmonise vb to make things similar so they are easier to understand to get into phr vb if you “get into” trouble, you start to have problems rationalisation n efficiency and logic pants n US in American English, “pants” are the things you wear to cover your legs; and in British English, “pants” are things you wear under your trousers underwear n clothing you wear under your trousers/ skirt, etc Trainspotting n a British film with many Scottish actors
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with Scottish accents it might as well have been in Mongolian exp this expression means: “it is the same as if it had been in Mongolian” subtitled adj with subtitles: text that appears at the bottom of the cinema screen, and which offers a translation of the dialogue to bear a strong resemblance to something exp to look almost identical to something a superpower n a country that is very powerful; one of the most powerful countries in the world to stick to something phr vb to continue using some-thing
