Language in England

One of the first things many people think about when they think of the United Kingdom is the accents and the dialects. I was certainly excited about it when traveling to the UK. According to Lincolnshire Pride Magazine, the common dialect in Grantham (the town closest to Harlaxton, where I was studying) is the “Lincolnshire dialect” also known as East-Midlands English. 

While interacting with the locals I did notice a few dialect differences that interested me. Of course, there is the use of the “u” vowel in certain words such as favourite or colour. I noticed these differences frequently on signs and on websites I have been using to research for this blog. But beyond spelling another thing that stood out to me was their “yield” signs. Over in England all of their round-abouts had signs that said “give way” instead. I found this quite interesting because while both terms clearly mean the same thing, “give way” feels like a more proper and polite way to say “pause and wait for the people in the traffic circle.” 

I did not notice many unique phrases while speaking with those from the United Kingdom, however I know I heard many. I believe this might come from the amount of popular British shows we watch, even in America. After watching so many films and shows with British actors using the slang of their region, it feels far more normal to hear people from England use the same terms. One specific custom and phrase that stood out to me is many times at restaurants, when the waiter would bring the food, they would say “tuck in.” This phrase essentially means to tuck a napkin into one’s shirt and begin eating, and appears to be a way of saying “here is your food, so now you can enjoy.” 

While I did experience language differences, I thankfully did not have to learn a new language before the three week journey, but why is this? English is what is known as a lingua franca. Which according to Thought Co. is a language utilized as a form of communication by people who have different native languages. Essentially, English is a standard language many other cultures learn, to be able to interact with a larger amount of people. 

However, having your native language be a lingua franca can pose some difficulties. Since I went to England, my 3 years of American Sign Language in high school were not of value, leaving me with just English. This meant that when I was in the very diverse city of London, with a large tourist population as well, I had a couple difficult interactions with people who did not speak much English. For example, I saw a woman running around searching for a Church, however I did not understand anything else she was saying, so when she came to me asking for help, I was not able to assist her. This is not to say having a lingua franca is not valuable, but to point out an interesting impact it has on communication, especially when traveling. Beforehand I did not expect to have any interactions with those who do not speak English, or do not have it as their first language. I think having this experience truly pointed out how much value learning other languages has, beyond just relying on a lingua franca.