英式英语从未没落

当年美国作家门肯认为英式英语将败给美式英语，他错了。有些人从英美大学留学归国，他们的口语会带有英式或美式口音，但大多数人都操着一口属于他们自己的英语。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

Anglophile亲英派的人[ˈæŋgləʊfaɪl]

rejoice使高兴；使欢喜[rɪˈdʒɔɪs]

prevail流行，盛行；获胜，占优势[prɪˈveɪl]

dire可怕的，恐怖的[ˈdaɪə(r)]

Oscars show US conquest of English never happened (676 words)

By Michael Skapinker,February 11, 2015 12:28 pm American power has not obliged everyone, not even nominee actors, to adopt its language.

HL Mencken, the US writer, was no Anglophile. In his book The American Language, he rejoiced in the impending eclipse of the “stilted and precious” English spoken by England's elite.

America's English, he wrote, “is better on all counts — clearer, more rational and, above all, more charming”.

In any case, the larger number of US English speakers meant that, in any dispute over what was correct, the American view should prevail.

“There is no reason under the sun,” he wrote, why a language spoken in a country as huge as the US “should yield anything to the dialect of a small minority” in England.

Americans were not the only ones who found the standard English of the English ridiculous. “The Irishman, the Scotsman, the Canadian and the Australian laugh at it along with the American — and with the Englishman who has lived in the United States.”

With English spreading around the world, language learners would make their choice. Russians were opting for the American variety. “In Japan and elsewhere in the Far East, the two dialects are in bitter competition, with American apparently prevailing.”

Mencken's view that American English would render England's irrelevant was understandable. He completed his monumental work in 1948, when America's dominance and Britain's decline were evident. Had he been right, the consequences for UK companies and workers who depended on the language for their livelihood would have been dire.

Yet he wasn't right. The US outstrips the UK in manufacturing, technology and military might, but those who make a living speaking and writing standard UK English are doing fine.

Look at this year's Oscar nominees: Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones and Keira Knightley. It is true that much of the investment in British film comes from the US. These actors may not sweep the Oscars but their popularity indicates that English English is still an international linguistic currency decades after Mencken declared it worthless.

When it comes to written words, London-based Pearson, owner of the Financial Times, and the Anglo-Dutch Reed Elsevier are still among the world's leading publishers. Was Mencken right that foreigners would choose to learn American English rather than the English variety?

While most commentators have been preoccupied with the combative stance of Yanis Varoufakis, Greece's finance minister, and a few with his leather coat, I have been fascinated by his English.

I compared it with that of one of his opponents, Antonis Samaras, the defeated conservative prime minister. Mr Varoufakis studied at Essex and Birmingham universities; Mr Samaras at Amherst and Harvard Business School. Would Mr Varoufakis's English betray a British influence and Mr Samaras's an American one?

No. They both speak an English that, in accent, cadence and word choice, is distinctively Greek — that of the well-educated elite.

The same is true of English speakers from Brazil to Malaysia. Some return from university in the US or the UK having worked on their American or English accents but most speak an English that is their own.

Mr Varoufakis, after years of teaching in the UK, the US and Australia, uses standard English grammar. But I have written about what I have called Eurish, the English with its own grammatical tics that has developed in continental Europe and is not identifiably either American or British.

Where Mencken was wrong was assuming, in his early writings, that American and British English would diverge more than they did — and then, when they did not, that US power would mean everyone else would adopt its language.

In the end, the major streams of English remained mutually comprehensible, apart from the odd word or expression.

There is no need for anyone to adopt anyone else's accent or vocabulary, unless they want to. Anyone who achieves competence in the language can watch Downton Abbey or Orange is the New Black — or read novels in English from India or Nigeria.

There is a place for many forms of English. Unlike the Oscars, this was not a contest someone had to lose.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which of the following statements is not true according to the article？

A.Mencken doesn't like British English.

B.Only American found the standard English of the English ridiculous.

C.Mencken regards British English as no more than a small dialect.

D.More people in the world tend to speak American English.

答案(1)

2.Why does the author take this year's Oscar nominees as examples？

A.To prove that UK is still an enormous empire on the earth.

B.To reflect the recent popular trends.

C.To show that English English is still an international linguistic currency.

D.To demonstrate that British people have privilege in movie industry.

答案(2)

3.Which of the statements below about accent is true according to the article？

A.English is a language resisting differentiation and mutation.

B.English developed in continental Europe can be categorized into British English or American English.

C.Speaking English in own accent is a shame for it shows speaker's rudeness.

D.Even well educated, one may still preserve their own distinguishable English accent.

答案(3)

4.What is the most probable trend of English development according to the article？

A.British English will conquer American English and be the only accent.

B.American English will be the mainstream and British will gradually disappear.

C.All kinds of English will exist at the same time.

D.Standard English will appear and dialects will be eliminated.

答案(4)

* * *

(1)答案：B.Only American found the standard English of the English ridiculous.

解释：文中指出，觉得英格兰人的标准英语荒谬可笑的并不唯有美国人。与美国人一道对其报以嘲笑的还有爱尔兰人、苏格兰人、加拿大人和澳大利亚人——以及在美国生活过的英国人。

(2)答案：C.To show that English English is still an international linguistic currency.

解释：文章中间部分指出，这些演员可能不会横扫奥斯卡，但他们的受欢迎程度表明，在门肯宣布英式英语一无是处几十年后，它仍是国际通用语言。

(3)答案：D.Even well educated, one may still preserve their own distinguishable English accent.

解释：文章中后部分以希腊财长作例，提出关于口音的问题。也讲过，即便留学过英美，他们的口语会带有英式或美式口音，但大多数人都操着一口属于他们自己的英语。

(4)答案：C.All kinds of English will exist at the same time.

解释：文章最后一段提到，各式各样的英语是可以共存的。与奥斯卡不同，它不是一项必须决出胜负的比赛。

英国《金融时报》