English Styes

What makes people confused of English is English Styles. English styles will show the differences of English used by British or Americans. Actually, there are so many English styles in this world as the impact of imperialism done by England. There are Malay English, African English, Australian English, Hawaii English, etc. In general, there are two English styles; British or Americans. Examples:

-          Take (“tæk” in American English and “tIk” in British”)

-          Analyze (in British) and Analyse (in American)

-          Refrigerator (British) and Freezer (American)

-          Etc

The differences in Sentence also can be seen as following:

-          “I am going to take it” (British) and “I’m gonna take it” (American)

-          “She wants to meet them” (British) and “She wanna meet’em” (American)

-          “He is not my friend” (British) and “He ain’t my friend” (American)

-           Got you (British) and “Gotcha”( it is from the word “got ya as the Americans like to use “ya” for the pronoun “you”) 

There are two questions asked by two learners while the writer was teaching. He asked which one he should use and then why English could change. I answered that we can choose the styles; for example, if we want to use English for communication, we can choose American English as it is the easy one; it does not use grammar properly. As an example, the sentence “ She don’t know it.” However, if we use it in some official moments, we should use British English.” Then, why it has some styles because it is based on history.

The great grandparents of English or other Europeans are Anglo- Saxons. Anglo are the tribe in Germany, Netherland, and Denmark. The Anglo tribe could be called as “Anglaish” and it changed to become “English.” Then, The Anglaish came to England. Even, the name of England was from “Anglo land.” It has formed in three phases; early, Middle, and modern. It has taken centuries until we knew English as today. Wells (1982) states:

English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic invaders from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the Netherlands. Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of England. One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate.