British English

British English
Native toUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (originally Kingdom of England)
RegionUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (originally Kingdom of England)
EthnicityBritish people (originally English people)
Early forms
Standard forms
Dialects
Latin (English alphabet)
Unified English Braille
Official status
Official language in
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
IETFen-GB[1][2]
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Comparison of
American and
British English
Keyboards
Grammar
Speech
Spelling
Vocabulary
Works

British English (abbreviations: BrE, en-GB, and BE)[3] is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.[6] More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to the collective dialects of English throughout the British Isles taken as a single umbrella variety, for instance additionally incorporating Scottish English, Welsh English, and Northern Irish English. Tom McArthur in the Oxford Guide to World English acknowledges that British English shares "all the ambiguities and tensions [with] the word 'British' and as a result can be used and interpreted in two ways, more broadly or more narrowly, within a range of blurring and ambiguity".

Variations exist in formal (both written and spoken) English in the United Kingdom. For example, the adjective wee is almost exclusively used in parts of Scotland, north-east England, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally Yorkshire, whereas the adjective little is predominant elsewhere. Nevertheless, there is a meaningful degree of uniformity in written English within the United Kingdom, and this could be described by the term British English. The forms of spoken English, however, vary considerably more than in most other areas of the world where English is spoken[7] and so a uniform concept of British English is more difficult to apply to the spoken language.

Globally, countries that are former British colonies or members of the Commonwealth tend to follow British English,[8] as is the case for English used by European Union institutions.[9] In China, both British English and American English are taught.[10] The UK government actively teaches and promotes English around the world and operates in over 200 countries.[11][12][13]

  1. ^ "English". IANA language subtag registry. 16 October 2005. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  2. ^ "United Kingdom". IANA language subtag registry. 16 October 2005. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  3. ^ "British English". Lexico.com. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  4. ^ "British English; Hiberno-English". Oxford English Dictionary (2 ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 1989.
  5. ^ British English, Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary
  6. ^ The Oxford English Dictionary applies the term to English as "spoken or written in the British Isles; esp[ecially] the forms of English usual in Great Britain", reserving "Irish English" for the "English language as spoken and written in Ireland".[4] Others, such as the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary, define it as the "English language as it is spoken and written in England".[5]
  7. ^ Jeffries, Stuart (27 March 2009). "The G2 Guide to Regional English". The Guardian. section G2, p. 12.
  8. ^ New Oxford Style Manual. Oxford University Press. 2016.
  9. ^ "10.3. Spelling". Interinstitutional Style Guide. Publications Office of the European Union. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  10. ^ Odinye, Sunny (2016). "A study of British and American English for Chinese students". Dezuruigbo Journal.
  11. ^ "British Council". GOV.UK. 19 July 2018. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
  12. ^ "Learn English Online". British Council. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
  13. ^ "About BBC Learning English". Archived from the original on 4 February 2023. Retrieved 4 February 2023.