【正文】 t speak the sam e ki nd of Engli sh. Look at thi s ki nd of exam pl e: Briti sh Betty: Woul d you l i ke to see m y fl at? Am eri can Am y: Yes. I’d l ike to e up to your apartm ent. So why has Engli sh changed over ti m e? Actual y al l anguages change and devel op when cul tures m eet and m unicate wi th each other. At fi rst the Engli sh spoken i n Engl and between about AD 450 and 1150 was very di fferent the Engli sh spoken today. It was based m ore on Germ an than the Engl ish we speak at present. Then gradual ly between about AD800 to 150, Engl i sh becam e l es l i ke germ en because those who rul ed Engl and spoke fi rst Dani sh and l ater French. These new settl ers enri ched the Engl i sh l anguage and especi al l y its vocabul ary. So by the 1600’s Shakespeare was abl e to make use of a wider vocabul ary than ever before. In 1620 some British settl ers moved to Am eri can. Later i n the 18th century som e Briti sh peopl e were taken to Austral i a too. Engli sh began to be spoken i n both countri es. Fi nal ly by the 19th century the l anguage was setl ed. At that tim e two big changes i n Engli sh spel li ng happened: fi rst Sam uel Johnson wrote hi s di cti onary and l ater N oah Webster wrote The Am eri can Di cti onary of the Engl ish Language. The l atter gave a separate i denti ty to Am eri can Engl ish spel i ng. Engli sh now i s al so spoken as a forei gn or second l anguage i n South Asi a. For exam pl e, Indi a has a very large num ber of fl uent Engl i sh speakers because Bri tain rul ed Indi a from 1765 to 1947. during that tim e Engli sh becam e the l anguage for government and education. Engl i sh is al so spoken in Singapore and Mal aysi a and countri es i n Africa such as South Afri ca. Today the num ber of peopl e learni ng Engli sh i n Chi na is i ncreasi ng rapi dl y. In fact, Chi na m ay have the l argest num ber of Engli sh l earners. Wi l Chi nese Engl i sh devel op i ts own i denti ty? O nl y tim e wi l tel . STAN DARD EN GLISH AN D DIALECTS What i s standard Engli sh? Is i t spoken i n Bri tain, the US, Canada, Australi a, India and N ew Zeal and? Beli eve i t or not, there i s no such thi ng as standard Engli sh. Many people bel i eve the Engl i sh spoken on TV and the radi o i s standard Engli sh. This i s because i n the earl y days of radi o, those who reported the news were expected to speak excel ent Engl i sh. H owever, on TV and the radio you wil l hear di fferences i n the way peopl e speak. When peopl e use words and expressions different from the “standard language”, it is cal ed a dial ect. American Engl ish has many di al ects, especi al y the Mi dwestern, southern, Afri can Ameri can and Spani sh di al ects. Even i n som e parts of the USA, two peopl e from neighbouri ng towns speak a l i tl e differentl y. Am erican Engli sh has so m any di al ects because people have e from al over the worl d. Geography al so pl ays a part i n maki ng di al ects. Som e peopl e who l ive i n the m ountai ns of the eastern USA speak wi th an ol der kind of Engl i sh di al ect. When Am eri cans m oved from one pl ace to another, they took thei r di al ects with them. So peopl e from the m ountai ns i n the southeastern USA speak with alm ost the sam e di al ects as peopl e i n the northwestern USA. The USA i s a l arge country i n whi ch m any di fferent di al ects are spoken. Al though many Americans move a lot, they stil recognize and understand each other’s dial ects. TH E O XFO RD EN GLISH DICTION ARY You m ay thi nk that Engli sh di cti onari es have been used for m any, m any centuri es. The spel i ng of Engli sh has al ways been a probl em but it was m ore of a probl em i n the days before a di cti onary. Then peopl e coul d spel word i n di fferent ways whi ch you mi ght fi nd it i nteresti ng. But i t m ade readi ng Engl ish m uch more di ffi cul t. So di cti onari es were i nvented to encourage everybody to spel the same. In fact, an Engl ish dictionary like the kind you use today wasn’t made until the time of the l ate Qing Dynasty. There m en di d m ost of the im portant earl y work on di cti onari es: Sam uel Johnson, N oah Webster, and Jam es Murray. These men spent nearl y al of their lives trying to col ect words for their dictionaries. For them, it wasn’t onl y a job。t speak the sam e ki nd of Engli sh. Look at thi s ki nd of exam pl e: Briti sh Betty: Woul d you l i ke to see m y fl at? Am eri can Am y: Yes. I’d l ike to e up to your apartm ent. So why has Engli sh changed over ti m e? Actual y al l anguages change and devel op when cul tures m eet and m unicate wi th each other. At fi rst the Engli sh spoken i n Engl and between about AD 450 and 1150 was very di fferent the Engli sh spoken today. It was based m ore on Germ an than the Engl ish we speak at present. Then gradual ly between about AD800 to 150, Engl i sh becam e l es l i ke germ en because those who rul ed Engl and spoke fi rst Dani sh and l ater French. These new settl ers enri ched the Engl ish l anguage and especial l y its vocabul ary. So by the 1600’s Shakespeare was abl e to make use of a wider vocabul ary than ever before. In 1620 som e Bri ti sh settl ers moved to Am eri can. Later i n the 18th century som e Briti sh peopl e were taken to Austral i a too. Engli sh began to be spoken i n both countri es. Fi nal ly by the 19th century the l anguage was setl ed. At that tim e two big changes i n Engli sh spel li ng happened: fi rst Sam uel Johnson wrote hi s di cti onary and l ater N oah Webster wrote The Am eri can Di cti onary of the Engl ish Language. The l atter gave a separate i denti ty to Am eri can Engl ish spel i ng. Engli sh now i s al so spoken as a forei gn or second l anguage i n South Asi a. For exam pl e, Indi a has a very large num ber of fl uent Engl i sh speakers because Bri tain rul ed Indi a from 1765 to 1947. during that tim e Engli sh becam e the l an