Abstract
As global political preeminence gradually shifted from the United Kingdom to the United States, so did the capacity to culturally influence the rest of the world. In this work, we analyze how the world-wide varieties of written English are evolving. We study both the spatial and temporal variations of vocabulary and spelling of English using a large corpus of geolocated tweets and the Google Books datasets corresponding to books published in the US and the UK. The advantage of our approach is that we can address both standard written language (Google Books) and the more colloquial forms of microblogging messages (Twitter). We find that American English is the dominant form of English outside the UK and that its influence is felt even within the UK borders. Finally, we analyze how this trend has evolved over time and the impact that some cultural events have had in shaping it.
Highlights
With roots dating as far back as Cabot’s explorations in the 15th century and the 1584 establishment of the ill-fated Roanoke colony in the New World, the British empire was one of the largest empires in Human History
As an empire spreads so does the language of its ruling class because the presence of a prestigious linguistic variety plays an important role in language change [1, 2]. Thanks to both its global extension, late demise, and the rise of the US as a global actor, the English language enjoys an undisputed role as the global lingua franca serving as the default language of science, commerce and diplomacy [3, 4]. Given such an extended presence, it is only natural that English would absorb words, expressions and other features of local indigenous languages resulting in dozens of dialects and topolects such as “Singlish” (Singapore), “Hinglish” (India), Kenyan English [5], and, most importantly, American English [6] a variety that includes within itself several other dialects [7, 8]
If we focus on spelling, some the original differences between British and American English orthography are somehow blurred and, for instance, the tendency for verbs and nouns to end in -ize and -ization in America is common on both sides of the Atlantic [12]
Summary
With roots dating as far back as Cabot’s explorations in the 15th century and the 1584 establishment of the ill-fated Roanoke colony in the New World, the British empire was one of the largest empires in Human History. As an empire spreads so does the language of its ruling class because the presence of a prestigious linguistic variety plays an important role in language change [1, 2] Thanks to both its global extension, late demise, and the rise of the US as a global actor, the English language enjoys an undisputed role as the global lingua franca serving as the default language of science, commerce and diplomacy [3, 4] (see Fig 1). Given such an extended presence, it is only natural that English would absorb words, expressions and other features of local indigenous languages resulting in dozens of dialects and topolects (language forms typical of a specific area) such as “Singlish” (Singapore), “Hinglish” (India), Kenyan English [5], and, most importantly, American English [6] a variety that includes within itself several other dialects [7, 8]
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