With English being recognised as the global language of choice, which one is considered the official language?

So just how did American English diverge from British English in the first place? American English roots back to the early colonial days of the late 16th century, were a whole gamut of cultures converged into a single society. In some colonies English wasn’t even a spoken language and in those colonies that did speak English it was quite different from the English we know today. The Elizabethan English of the day consisted of many varieties of regional English dialects. All these different dialects, intermingled with a multitude of cultures formed one big boiling pot, of which over time, a new variant was produced – American English. And what was happening to the English back in Britain at the same time? There was a steady transformation of Elizabethan English into the British English we know today, without the influences that are present in a new developing multicultural nation. No wonder British and American English diverged into such two distinct forms. Noteworthy is the fact that there are also other variants of English. These are the forms of English spoken in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Although Australian and New Zealand English are simular to British English, they have established themselves as distinct dialects. In Canada, due to its close proximity to America, its English has elements of both British and American English.

Now back to the original question, which one is considered the official language? This has proven to be a touchy topic for some, on both sides of the Atlantic, as denoted by Englishman Samuel Johnson’s remarks,

"This treatise is written with such elegance as the subject admits, tho’ not without some mixture of the American dialect, a tract of corruption to which every language widely diffused must always be exposed."

And equally so with American, John Adam’s statement,

“As the people through this extensive country will speak English, their advantages for polishing their language will be great, and vastly superior to what the people of England ever enjoyed.”

While England can claim rights as the founder of the World’s most preferred language (although not the most widely spoken), it could however, be America who was responsible for boosting it to such international recognition. Post World War 2 saw American culture and influence spread far and wide across the globe. This paved the way for the global exposure of American English. Certainly, there are far more speakers of American English worldwide than British English speakers, but does that qualify making it the official language? With the worldwide spread of the American culture and influence, some foreign language institutes are changing from British to American English, even some of those that were former British colonies. Even an increasing number of students want to learn American English, after all they are bombarded with it daily, on their TV’s, in their music, on the internet…it’s no wonder. So where does this leave British English? Fortunately for England, British English hasn’t exactly been standing still while all of this has been happening. England has had a large global dominance as well, thrusting its version of the language globally, although certainly not to the same extent. However, through its global dominance from its earlier colonisations and its ownership of the “Oxford”, England has ensured a global persistence of British English to remain.

As the United Nations has officially accepted both forms of English, it is likely that English will remain, for sometime yet, as a duality of two variants.

Andrew Rowsell