Californian English. Trust me, it's really different here. Us Californians aren't afraid to form entire accents, considering how we (mostly) created the "Valley Girl" (sorry 'bout that one!) and "Surfer Dude" accents. And then of course there is that time we invented the word "hella" (from San Francisco).

The Iron Ninja:
I'm feeling childish now I guess so...

NewClassic:
Just a hypothetical example.

No you're a hypothetical example!

Yeah I'll leave now, I'm to tired to make any proper intelligent arguments... I'll go find another less intellectual thread.

Party at the 'I bet he's Cockney' thread! I'll bring the cheese dip?

Unmannedperson:
Californian English. Trust me, it's really different here. Us Californians aren't afraid to form entire accents, considering how we (mostly) created the "Valley Girl" (sorry 'bout that one!) and "Surfer Dude" accents. And then of course there is that time we invented the word "hella" (from San Francisco).

California has some pretty interesting pronunciations and spellings, although I think separating it from American English is a bit of a stretch. As soon as we do, there'll swiftly be a Texan English and Louisiana English to follow, and probably a few dialects of New York English.

And, Gangsta English, yo.

um.... oh crud. tough poll for me. REAL tough poll. Can't come out both ways without sounding like an idiot, so ill just go with the flow and say american/canadian english. I was born and raised in canada for most of my life. But since i moved like, 7 years ago, i got a bit more used to English English and i started to see why some people are like, "americans practically ruined English." So.... English English it is. Choosing between the two i'd say American english since Im much more used to it.

*buy teh haloz means no offense towards any nationality, group, or racial backgrounds.*

Canadian English?

Xhumed:

Radelaide:

PurpleRain:
English English
Over here a Thong is a shoe, Boot is the back of a car, a Dunny is a toilet and a Fanny isn't a bum.

You'd know the Carl Barron joke about the Thong ><

I've heard people say "There's no such thing as American English". I figure, as long as you know what you mean, it's okay. But I spell jail "gaol" and my "colour" with a "u".

DAMN FIREFOX! STOP RED LINING MY ENGLISH!! ><

I giggle slightly almost every time my Aussie fiancee refers to them as "thongs" and not "flip-flops." Or at least grin cheekily.

"You can see her thong through her jeans!"
"Wow, she must have pretty loose jeans then!"

When I stayed in America, I was amazed at the students I went to school with. I was like the monkey in a cage. So, when they asked me to speak Australian (After asking me if we spoke English here [the fuck?]) I decided to get complete Bogan on them... :D

It went something like this:
"Hey, so can you speak Australian?"
"Yeah... Sure... Uh... (Stereotypical Australian accent) G'day mate! So, how's Shazza? Let's go throw a shrimp on the barbie and down a cold one and watch the baggie greens knock the Poms for six!"

I smiled and looked at the blank looks on their faces and was never happier to live in Australia :D

Tis simple really; American-English is a bastardisation of proper English (yes, much as Australian-English is, I know) and as such does not accurately represent the real langauge. I'd instead classify American-English as a dialect (the American dialect for example) rather than term it American-English.

NewClassic:

The Iron Ninja:
I'm feeling childish now I guess so...

NewClassic:
Just a hypothetical example.

No you're a hypothetical example!

Yeah I'll leave now, I'm to tired to make any proper intelligent arguments... I'll go find another less intellectual thread.

Party at the 'I bet he's Cockney' thread! I'll bring the cheese dip?

Unmannedperson:
Californian English. Trust me, it's really different here. Us Californians aren't afraid to form entire accents, considering how we (mostly) created the "Valley Girl" (sorry 'bout that one!) and "Surfer Dude" accents. And then of course there is that time we invented the word "hella" (from San Francisco).

California has some pretty interesting pronunciations and spellings, although I think separating it from American English is a bit of a stretch. As soon as we do, there'll swiftly be a Texan English and Louisiana English to follow, and probably a few dialects of New York English.

And, God help us, Gangsta English, yo.

I believe it's called Ebonics.

I think, and I mean no offense to my friends across the pond here, that the term kind of sums it all up.

"English English"

I object to the lack of Canadian English! We've got the British 'u's and the American 'z's. We're unique!

English English.

If you are ever going to do anything in life, then by God be sure you bloody well do it properly!

American English for me. Though, I've adopted some minor stuff from English English. Like I says cheers as a form of goodbye which really catches my fellow Americans off guard. They start looking around for drinks and stuff, it's awesome.

There's one thing I really like about English English though. You pronounce "herb", "herb". We pronounce it "'erb".

There's a fucking H in it!

An internet goes to whoever gets the reference.

Khedive Rex:
American English for me. Though, I've adopted some minor stuff from English English. Like I says cheers as a form of goodbye which really catches my fellow Americans off guard. They start looking around for drinks and stuff, it's awesome.

There's one thing I really like about English English though. You pronounce "herb", "herb". We pronounce it "'erb".

There's a fucking H in it!

An internet goes to whoever gets the reference.

Eddie Izzard. Where's my internet?

spartanhelmet:
I object to the term "English English"... it's actually British English, thank you. England get way too much credit for everything in the UK.

Thank you. My thoughts exactly. I was surprised how many posts I hade to read before getting to one who made a point of that.

On topic, I use the american, british and australian. I find all them charming with different aspects. Oh yeah and I'm danish so I really have no natural prefference here.

I use Canadian English and Engrish.

I guess I tend to use American English when caught out off guard although - and since I'm Spanish - I try to use British English as much as I possibly can.

Excuse me people, but may I interject:
I prefer Fucking Australian English. But not Rural Fucking Australian English. To many fucking C-bombs with rural.

:D

I use English English spelling but i use mainly American figures of speech ( form Australia by the way)

Arntor:

Khedive Rex:
American English for me. Though, I've adopted some minor stuff from English English. Like I says cheers as a form of goodbye which really catches my fellow Americans off guard. They start looking around for drinks and stuff, it's awesome.

There's one thing I really like about English English though. You pronounce "herb", "herb". We pronounce it "'erb".

There's a fucking H in it!

An internet goes to whoever gets the reference.

Eddie Izzard. Where's my internet?

It's right in front of you. It's what you're typing in.

As a resident of the island of Éire, I use what could be classified as a mixture of true British English, which derives from my family background, and Hiberno-English for certain slang words, although the British English side predominates strongly. One of the only times when I use what could be classified as an American English spelling refers to the spelling of the word "program/programme" - "program" for computer software and "programme" for television shows.

Certain American English spellings used to have the capability of giving me the physical gag reflex - the term referring to the post-embryo state of an unborn child was one of those words. Spelt "foetus", the connotations are of a perfectly well, healthy and happy baby; with the American spelling, the connotations formed in my mind are of a malformed, horribly mutated monster.

on the whole the great strength of the english language is its diversity and ability to adapt. but then i does lead to some funny moments, an american friend of mine once told me she had to wear a skirt because she had no clean pants. i can't see why people get annoyed though it does make me occasionally hesistant or wikipedia incase something is a valid US spelling rather than a typo.

oh but the date thing is just stupid.

Some sort of horrible bastard child of the two. Why? Because school taught me British and TV taught me American. And if you're not a native, the difference is small enough for you to not notice most of the time.
I don't know which type dominates actually. Perhaps one of you natives can tell me? I think it's American, but I'm not sure.

Well I personally love the bastardizations of English. I myself being a linguist major drool over these topics. I tend to think it isn't bastardization per se of British English but evolution of a language that is being sped and slowed down at the same time. That is what the internet has down with the mass communication ability. It has slowed down English growing by itself as regional dialects but also has sped up the acquisition of new words from regional foreign languages. So I reiterate that I don't see it as bastardization of a language but a form of evolution.

I think that you will find that 'proper' English is called just 'English'. American English is so called because a conscious decision was made by American intellectuals/politicians (back in the days when those were compatible terms) to establish an American dictionary, knowing that to speak a language is to inhabit a world and they wanted as practicable break as possible with the language of the Empire.

English is by its very nature a rapidly evolving bastard amalgamation of many older languages (Latin, Norman-French, Saxon-German, Viking, trace elements of others) that is permeated with imported words and borrowed phrases; an example of this is 'raison d'etre' - a directly apropriated french phrase. Cockney Rhyming slang is brilliant demonstration of how quickly English evolves: the terms "the dogs bollocks" and "bog standard" are actually drawn from early 20th century Meccano toy packages: "the Box Deluxe" and "Box Standard". These terms are used all over Britain, maybe elsewhere (i dont know) by a myriad of people, none of whom know where the expressions first emerged.

The duality of English, its apparent simplicity despite rich complexity makes it, when used properly the most beautiful language on Earth.

Did you know that the English language has over 200,000 active (i.e commonly used in day to day speech) words, almost double the total of active words used by its nearest competitor - French - which uses just over 100,000 active words.

I'm going to have to say "Canadian English". Which is what I call it. It seems like a mix of British Style English and American Style English.

LuntiX:
I'm going to have to say "Canadian English". Which is what I call it. It seems like a mix of British Style English and American Style English.

I feel awesome for ganking someone's first and only post.

I use American English and I find British English to be full of unnesessary idioms, letters, and spelling rules (re- = "ree," -re = "ur," why?). I also notice that most British accents drop consonants and warp vowels, a subject of much annoyance to me. Although I'm sure they're equally annoyed by the American perchance to many contractions and acronyms.

All in all what I find most annoying is when an Englishman mispronounces words and then claims his pronunciation is inheirently correct because "we invented the language."

And of course the ethnocentricity, but Americans have that too so. . .

By the way, overly defensive Brits. Most of that was verifiable fact so don't dispute it. My opinions you can bitch about all you want.

I come from England and I use English.

Since English originally comes from England, the English are speaking what would be considered the 'original' English. The American's have taken the language and made alterations from slang developed over a century or 2.

So American English is just English with slang in effect.

American vocabulary, English spelling. That's how we do it in Canada.

Larenxis:
I object to the lack of Canadian English! We've got the British 'u's and the American 'z's. We're unique!

Does French happen to get into that mix as well at times?

I prefer American because although I think British sounds pretty cool at times, if I actually tried to speak it full time, it would not have the same flare.

DarkLordofDevon:
I come from England and I use English.

Since English originally comes from England, the English are speaking what would be considered the 'original' English. The American's have taken the language and made alterations from slang developed over a century or 2.

So American English is just English with slang in effect.

See what I mean?

Let me tell you a truth, neither the English spoken in America nor the English spoken in Britain is more similar to the English spoken during the Middle Ages, or even when the first British colonies were founded.

I think the sticking point is in the original question.

There can be no such thing as "American English" because you wouldn't talk about Mersey English, you'd say Scouse.

If the languages were just called American and English, then there wouldn't be half the problems there are. However, by tacking on US to English, you're using a whole different language.

Any English speaker can differentiate any other English speaker, but most US English users can't, or won't, differentiate between the differing schools of English.

There are hundreds of variations of English used across the British Isles; and there has to be hundreds used across America/Canada etc.

US English is just an attempt to stamp their own trademark onto a language that's already bastardised, and as such is, at best, an infringement of copyright similar to Scrabalous, or whatever the facebook version is called.

English is spoken by the English, American is spoken by the Americans. JD.

I thought that's what the Boston Tea Party was all about.

That's why most of the English speaking world knows what a pensioner is, or a fruit machine, or an aubergine.

Not a senior citizen, slot machine or eggplant.

poleboy:
Some sort of horrible bastard child of the two. Why? Because school taught me British and TV taught me American.

Put me in this catagory. But British English is dominant for me because I was born in England.

Eldritch Warlord:
By the way, overly defensive Brits. Most of that was verifiable fact so don't dispute it. My opinions you can bitch about all you want.

No they can't. My thread, no flame-baiting. I won't report you, but you're opening a can of worms here.

Eldritch Warlord:

DarkLordofDevon:
I come from England and I use English.

Since English originally comes from England, the English are speaking what would be considered the 'original' English. The American's have taken the language and made alterations from slang developed over a century or 2.

So American English is just English with slang in effect.

Let me tell you a truth, neither the English spoken in America nor the English spoken in Britain is more similar to the English spoken during the Middle Ages.

I suppose if you wanted to prance about original English, we'll all go become fluent in Beowulf. But ultimately, it doesn't matter. The "English" we know is the awkward child of German and French, with lots of little who-sits and wha-sats stolen from other languages

Really, this is a preference thing. You can speak whatever dialect of English you'd like, because you can learn whatever dialect you like. Stop turning my thread into a who has a bigger Engl-is, and more into who uses what and why. This is a discussion, not a contest.

Although, a question to the Canadian/Australian/British/Non-American speakers out here, are there any phrases or sayings you've picked up from the American dialect, because it seems to be uniform "I've picked up some English expressions" from a lot of the American speakers, but no equivalent from the Non-Amies.

Also, apologies if I made this thread with option: American and option: Other, but I wasn't thinking too carefully on the topic. I'd rectify it if I could, but know that I'm not doing it 'cause I'm racist, I'm doing it because I'm stupid. =P

I was born in England then moved to America at the age of 4... so I am a bit of both.. seeing as my parents use English English but I was taught American English.

Something that really annoys me is when someone British uses American words.

When they say something like; "I was at the mall, buying sneakers and my cell phone rang in the elevator"

I just stare at them until they slowly back away. I don't know why it annoys me so much.