Language and dialects [Was: Interesting Dell article]

In article <434aa274.16204272@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, ben_myers_spam_me_not at charter.net wrote:
>It's often a question of the dialects of English spoken by two people, and
> their respective familiarity with the dialect of the other.
>
>People in India are educated by what is essentially a British educational
>system, a remnant of the British Empire. Surprise, but the English taught in
>these schools is a prim and proper prestige dialect, Oxford or Cambridge or
>whatever, almost completely free of the vulgar slang that we Americans have
>introduced to corrupt a pure langauge. The accented English spoken by Indian
>Indians modifies the prim and proper British pronunciation somewhat. People

G'day Ben. You can say that again! :-)

When I was in India 35 years ago, most of the professional people I
dealt with spoke "good English" that I (an Aussie) could easily
understand. When I went back 20 years ago, things were rather
different. The old blokes were still easy to understand, but the
young researchers of a new generation were much harder to follow. I
put the difference down to many of the older generation having been
taught English by native English speakers; but the younger blokes had
probably been taught by the Indians who had been taught by the
original cohort of teachers, which would tend to gradually reinforce
differences in pronunciation. Of course, as one's own hearing
deteriorates with age, any difference in dialect will become harder to
understand anyway.

>unaccustomed to hearing any of the British dialects either need to adjust or
>they will have difficulty. Unfortunately, all too many people are unaware of
>how much slang they use or how many American English words and phrases are in
>their speech. The result is not too different from two people speaking foreign
>tongues at one another.
>
>Clearly, Europeans will have less difficulty than Americans communicating with
>people in India. On the continent, British English is taught, not American
>English. And in Great Britain, most everyone understands the prestige dialect
>spoken on the BBC and other radio and TV media... Ben Myers

I can even understand Yanks if they speak like that. :-)
But it's an interesting point. My high school French is bloody
pathetic and when I was in Madagascar years ago, I had a lot of
trouble trying to understand native French speakers -- presumably,
like Poms, they all had their own French "dialect" depending on what
part of the country they came from. However, the local Malgache
people had obviously been taught a "BBC" form of French at school and
were usually much easier for me to understand. :-)

Actually, one of the funniest language problems I encountered was
trying to talk to a Portuguese bloke in Angola in my schoolboy French.
He ended up demanding that I speak in English, and he responded in
French. We got by, but it wasn't easy. :-)

Cheers, Phred.

--
ppnerkDELETE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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