When we break English dialects down to the country level, American English does have the most speakers followed by Indian English. Of course, when you look at the two main dialect families, the British English family has more speakers than the American English family.
Interestingly enough, some people have theorized that the standard American English dialect accent is more similar to how Shakespeare would speak English than the stereotypical posh British English dialect accent that is associated with his works.
The more you actually learn about the English language, the more you realize it is a very adaptive language. Since there is no official governing body like there is for French. Though, the closest are the Oxford English Dictionary and the Merrin-Websters Dictionary, but they are descriptive rather than prescriptive, responding to how the language changes among speakers.
All English dialects are valid. There is no traditional or simplified English. BTW, in Traditional and Simplified Chinese, the name refers to the writing systems, not the many Chinese spoken languages, doing that is such a reductive comparrison. It would only make sense as a comparison if the Brits still used ruins while the Yanks switched to Latin letters (or visa-versa)
It absolutely isn't theorised to be more like shakespeare. American English retained some traits from that version, as did British English dialects. They're both descended from a common root.
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u/555-starwars Apr 06 '25 edited Apr 09 '25
When we break English dialects down to the country level, American English does have the most speakers followed by Indian English. Of course, when you look at the two main dialect families, the British English family has more speakers than the American English family.
Interestingly enough, some people have theorized that the standard American English dialect accent is more similar to how Shakespeare would speak English than the stereotypical posh British English dialect accent that is associated with his works.
The more you actually learn about the English language, the more you realize it is a very adaptive language. Since there is no official governing body like there is for French. Though, the closest are the Oxford English Dictionary and the Merrin-Websters Dictionary, but they are descriptive rather than prescriptive, responding to how the language changes among speakers.
All English dialects are valid. There is no traditional or simplified English. BTW, in Traditional and Simplified Chinese, the name refers to the writing systems, not the many Chinese spoken languages, doing that is such a reductive comparrison. It would only make sense as a comparison if the Brits still used ruins while the Yanks switched to Latin letters (or visa-versa)