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| == '''[[British and American English]]''' == | | {{:{{FeaturedArticleTitle}}}} |
| ''by [[User:Ro Thorpe|Ro Thorpe]] and others <small>([[User:Hayford Peirce|Hayford Peirce]], [[User:John Stephenson|John Stephenson]], [[User:Peter Jackson|Peter Jackson]], [[User:Chris Day|Chris Day]], [[User:Martin Baldwin-Edwards|Martin Baldwin-Edwards]], and [[User:J. Noel Chiappa|J. Noel Chiappa]])</small>''
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| | ==Footnotes== |
| Between '''[[British English]] and [[American English]]''' there are numerous differences in the areas of [[lexis|vocabulary]], [[spelling]], and [[phonology]]. This article compares the forms of British and American speech normally studied by foreigners: the former includes the [[Accent (linguistics)|accent]] known as [[Received Pronunciation]], or RP; the latter uses [[Midland American English]], which is normally perceived to be the least marked American [[dialect]]. Actual speech by educated British and American speakers is more varied, and that of uneducated speakers still more. [[Grammar|Grammatical]] and lexical differences between British and American English are, for the most part, common to all dialects, but there are many regional differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, usage and slang, some subtle, some glaring, some rendering a sentence incomprehensible to a speaker of another variant.
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| American and British English both diverged from a common ancestor, and the evolution of each language is tied to social and cultural factors in each land. Cultural factors can affect one's understanding and enjoyment of language; consider the effect that [[slang]] and [[double entendre]] have on humour. A joke is simply not funny if the [[pun]] upon which it is based can't be understood because the word, expression or cultural icon upon which it is based does not exist in one's variant of English. Or, a joke may be only partially understood, that is, understood on one level but not on another, as in this exchange from the [[Britcom]] ''[[Dad's Army]]'':
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| Fraser: Did ya hear the story of the old empty barn?
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| Mainwaring: Listen, everyone, Fraser's going to tell a story.
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| Fraser: The story of the old empty barn: well, there was nothing in it!
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| Americans would 'get' part of the joke, which is that a barn that is empty literally has nothing in it. However, in Commonwealth English, 'there's nothing in it' also means something that is trivial, useless or of no significance.
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| But it is not only humour that is affected. Items of cultural relevance change the way English is expressed locally. A person can say "I was late, so I ''Akii-Bua'd'' (from [[John Akii-Bua]], Ugandan hurdler) and be understood all over East Africa, but receive blank stares in [[Australia]]. Even if the meaning is guessed from context, the nuance is not grasped; there is no resonance of understanding. Then again, because of evolutionary divergence; people can believe that they are speaking of the same thing, or that they understand what has been said, and yet be mistaken. Take adjectives such as 'mean' and 'cheap'. Commonwealth speakers still use 'mean' to mean 'parsimonious', Americans understand this usuage, but their first use of the word 'mean' is 'unkind'. Americans use 'cheap' to mean 'stingy', but while Commonwealth speakers understand this, there is a danger that when used of a person, it can be interpreted as 'disreputable' 'immoral' (my grandmother was so ''cheap''). The verb 'to table' a matter, as in a conference, is generally taken to mean 'to defer', in American English, but as 'to place on the table', i.e. to bring up for discussion, in Commonwealth English.
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| English is a flexible and quickly-evolving language; it simply absorbs and includes words and expressions for which there is no current English equivalent; these become part of the regional English. American English has hundreds of loan words acquired from its [[immigration|immigrants]]: these can eventually find their way into widespread use, (''[[spaghetti]]'', ''mañana''), or they can be restricted to the areas in which immigrant populations live. So there can be variances between the English spoken in [[New York City]], [[Chicago]], and [[San Francisco]]. Thanks to Asian immigration, a working-class [[London|Londoner]] asks for a ''cuppa cha'' and receives the tea he requested. This would probably be understood in [[Kampala]] and [[New Delhi]] as well, but not necessarily in [[Boise]], [[Idaho]].
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| ''[[British and American English|.... (read more)]]''
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Paramhansa Yogananda circa 1920.
Paramhansa Yogananda (5 Jan 1893–7 Mar 1952) was one of the first Indian teachers from the Hindu spiritual tradition to reside permanently in the West, and in particular, he was the first to teach yoga to Americans. He emphasized the universality of the great religions, and ceaselessly taught that all religions, especially Hinduism and Christianity, were essentially the same in their essence. The primary message of Yogananda was to practice the scientific technique of kriya yoga to be released from all human suffering.
He emigrated from India to the United States in 1920 and eventually founded the Self-Realization Fellowship there in Los Angeles, California. He published his own life story in a book called Autobiography of a Yogi, first published in 1946. In the book, Yogananda provided some details of his personal life, an introduction to yoga, meditation, and philosophy, and accounts of his world travels and encounters with a wide variety of saints and colorful personalities, including Therese Neumann, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Luther Burbank, and Jagadis C. Bose.
Paramhamsa, also spelled Paramahamsa, is a Sanskrit title used for Hindu spiritual teachers who have become enlightened. The title of Paramhansa originates from the legend of the swan. The swan (hansa) is said to have a mythical ability to sip only the milk from a water-and-milk mixture, separating out the more watery part. The spiritual master is likewise said to be able to live in a world like a supreme (param) swan, and only see the divine, instead of all the evil mixed in there too, which the worldly person sees.
Yogananda is considered by his followers and many religious scholars to be a modern avatar.
In 1946, Yogananda published his Autobiography of a Yogi. It has since been translated into 45 languages, and in 1999 was designated one of the "100 Most Important Spiritual Books of the 20th Century" by a panel of spiritual authors convened by Philip Zaleski and HarperCollins publishers.
Awake: The Life of Yogananda is a 2014 documentary about Paramhansa Yogananda, in English with subtitles in seventeen languages. The documentary includes commentary by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, among others.[1][2]
