Thanks to the Internet, English has become one of the most written, if not spoken, language in the world. And from the way things are going it can be safely assumed that the use of English is only going to increase in the years to come.
A few years ago, there were only two major varieties of English – the British and the American. Given the fact that most of the world has been a British colony at some point of time or another, it is not surprising that countries like India, south Africa etc. were predominantly using British English, and occasionally spicing it up with bits and pieces of the native language.
Thus, in addition to the two major varieties of English, a few other variants began to develop. But, then came computers, and the Internet, and things changed altogether.
Microsoft’s dominance in the operating system market has had an indirect effect on the language system too. Most computers in a country like India are using MS Office and, though MS Office gives the user an option of choosing either UK English or US English, most users are using the US system as that is usually set as the default system.
So, even in India, “colour” has become “color”, “favour” has become “favor”, “realise” has become “realize” and many other changes have come about in the language, almost unnoticed.
This has made the job of a blogger difficult. When one intends to write for a global audience, he is always beset with choices. For example, in one of my posts on a different blog, I had used the term “to take a decision”. Soon, I got a few comments, from a couple of online friends, telling me that I had committed a grammatical error by using “take” instead of “make”.
I corrected that, but at the back of my mind there was a nagging feeling that even “take” was right. A little research on the Internet confirmed my doubts. Though, “making a decision” was more appropriate , “taking a decision” wasn’t completely wrong either. So, what is a writer supposed to do?
I feel that till such time as there is a set of rules for the global writer, it s best to use the words that one is comfortable with. What say you?
Language itself is always evolving, especially a borrowing one like English. But in your case, I’d say stick with whatever style you feel is best. If it happens to be British, keep it as such. It’s not wrong, as there are two official forms. One might be inclined to say the American form is incorrect, but that would only be true if we had an English language academy, like French or Spanish, though the closest thing we get to it is the OED. So, I’d agree with you and stick to what works for you, granted that it is at least grammatically correct in one of the forms of English.
Well, well.. you have touched a touchy subject… it’s the ancient controversy between teachers and linguists, or in other words: descriptive vs. perscriptive language. If you address teachers with your questions, they’ll tell you to say “make a decision”, but us, linguists whose job is to describe what human being do with languages, will tell you: go ahead, write “take a decision” and maybe many more will follow and one day it’ll change???!!!
You are welcome to visit our blog about languages: http:phraseit.blogetery.com. I think you’ll find it interesting. Well, I hope you will.
British and American English are, for all intents and purposes, identical. So go with what you are most comfortable with.
Incidentally, American English is the older form of English in some respects, since words like “gotten” and “apartment” which we see as quintessentially American words, appear in Shakespeare’s plays.
I am really delighted to find this website on bing, just what I was looking for. I also saved it to favourites.