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World English
English is spoken as a first language by more than 300 million people throughout
the world, and used as a second language by many millions more. It is the
language of international communication in business, diplomacy, sports, science,
technology, and countless other fields.
The main regional standards are American, British, Canadian, Australian and New
Zealand, South African, Indian, and West Indian. Within each of these regional
varieties, a number of highly differentiated local dialects may be found. For
example, within American English, Southern and Appalachian English have a long
history and a number of distinctive features, which have in turn influenced other
varieties.
The scope of a dictionary such as the
New Oxford American Dictionary
, given the
breadth of material it aims to cover, must be limited for the most part to the
vocabulary of the standard language of the United States rather than world English
variation. Nevertheless, the
New Oxford American Dictionary
includes thousands of
regionalisms encountered in standard contexts in the different English-speaking
areas of the world. For examples, see bunyip, kaross, parkade, serviette, snog,
tuque and tyke.
The underlying approach has been to get away from the traditional, parochial
notion that “correct” English belongs to a chosen few in any one geographical area
or social class. A network of consultants in all parts of the English-speaking world
has assisted in this by giving information and answering queries—by e-mail, on a
regular, often daily basis—on all aspects of the language in a particular region.
Often, the aim has been to find out whether a particular word, sense, or expression,
well known and standard in American English, is used anywhere else. The picture
that emerges is one of complex interactions among an overlapping set of regional
standards.
The vast majority of words and senses in the
New Oxford American Dictionary
are
common to all the major regional standard varieties of English, but where important
local differences exist, the
New Oxford American Dictionary
records them. There
are over 6,000 geographical labels on words and senses in this dictionary, but this
contrasts with more than ten times that number that are not labeled at all.
The complexity of the overall picture has necessarily been simplified, principally for
reasons of space and clarity of presentation. For example, a label such as “chiefly
Brit.” implies, but does not state, that a term is not standard in American English,
though it may nevertheless be found in some local varieties in the United States.
The label “Brit.,” on the other hand, implies that the use is found typically in
standard British English but is not found in standard American English, though it
may be found elsewhere.
Spelling
It is often said that English spelling is both irregular and illogical, and it is certainly
true that it is only indirectly related to contemporary pronunciation. English spelling
reflects not modern pronunciation but the pronunciation of the 16th and 17th
centuries, in particular through the influence of the works of Shakespeare and the
Authorized Version of the Bible. However, in the two centuries between Chaucer
and Shakespeare, English pronunciation had undergone huge changes, but
spelling had failed to follow.
In the 18th century, standard spelling became almost completely fixed. The
dictionaries written in this period, particularly Samuel Johnson’s
Dictionary of the
English Language
(1755), helped establish this standard, which, with only minor
change and variation, is the standard accepted in British English today. Just over
fifty years after the American colonies became independent, in 1828, Noah
Webster published a dictionary with many of the spellings that we recognize today
as being distinctly American rather than British. The complex history of the English
language, together with the absence of any ruling body imposing “spelling reform,”
has ensured that many idiosyncrasies and anomalies in standard spelling have not
only arisen but have also been preserved.
The
New Oxford American Dictionary
gives advice and information on spelling,
particularly those cases that are irregular or that otherwise cause difficulty for
native speakers. The main categories are summarized below.
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