Standard English (SE) is the variety of English language that is used as the national norm in an English-

speaking country, especially as the language for public and formal usage.[1]In England and Wales, the
term Standard English is associated with British English, the Received Pronunciation accent, and the
United Kingdom Standard English (UKSE) grammar and vocabulary. This variety, which is perceived
as official, is used in writing, the education system (grammar books and dictionaries), the court, the
church, in newspapers, the media and for official purposes. It sets a certain set of rules for the English
language in terms of grammar, syntax and lexis. Standard English can be spoken in a vast range of
regional accents or without any regional pronunciation.

Local dialects are varieties of the English Language peculiar to some districts and having no
normalized literary form. Regional varieties possessing a literary form are called variants. In GB
there are two variants: Scottish English and Irish English, and five main groups of dialects: Northern,
Midland, Eastern, Western and Southern. Every group contains several (up to ten) dialects.

Among the regional varieties beyond the borders of GB American English is the most important, as it
has its own literary standards, i.e. its own generally accepted norms of speaking and writing.
American English cannot be called a dialect since it has a literary normalized form called Standard
American, while a dialect has no literary form.

Canadian, Australian and Indian English can also be considered regional varieties of English with
their own peculiarities. The English language has quite a few dialects, including several major
dialects, such as British English, American English, Australian English, and Canadian English. These
dialects have many regional varieties, with dialects and accents of their own.

American English

On the whole, regional American accents share enough common features in pronunciation and speech
patterns so that the spoken language in the United States can be clearly distinguished from the languge
spoken in Great Britain or from other varieties of spoken English.

Common characteristics of regional American accents include such clearly noticeable features as the
sound [r] pronounced in all positions in words (e.g., hard [ha:rd], more [mo:r], first [fərst]); the sound [æ]
in words like "ask, last, class, demand, dance" (whereas British English has [a:] in such cases); the sound
[o] that sounds like [a:] in words like "hot, rob, gone, sorry, bother, want"; the sound [yu:] pronounced as
[u:] after the letters "d, n, s, t" (duplicate, news, sue, student, tune).

One of the most important common characteristics of American accents is American intonation. Typical
patterns of American intonation are characterized by mid-level beginning and mid-level continuation
through the sentence (as compared with gradually descending scale of British English) and by strong
stresses that sound like falls.

The differences between British English (BE) and American English (AmE) are observed in the
vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and spelling.
There is a number of differences between British and American lexicons. There exist words which belong
only to American vocabulary and constitute its specific feature. These words are called Americanisms.
Among Americanisms the following major groups of words are distinguished: historical Americanisms,
proper Americanisms and borrowings.

The examples of historical Americanisms are the words: fall (autumn), to guess (in the meaning “to
think”), sick (in the meaning “ill, unwell”). In BE their meanings have changed, while in AmE these
words still retain their old meanings.
Proper Americanisms are words that are specifically American. They denote American realia, objects
of American flora and fauna: ^ Congress, House of Representatives, District Attorney, forty-niner
(золотоискатель 1949 года), prairie scooner (фургон переселенцев), jump a claim (захватить
чужой участок), drugstore, blue-grass, catbird (американский пересмешник), bullfrog, etc. They
are also names of objects which are called differently in the US and in GB: store – shop, baggage –
luggage, subway – underground, railroad – railway, gasoline – petrol, department – faculty, etc.

AmE is rich in specifically American borrowings which reflect the historical contacts of the
Americans with other nations on the American continent. Among such borrowings are Spanish
borrowings (ranch, sombrero, canyon, tornado), Afro-American borrowings (banjo), German
borrowings (lager beer and black beer, frankfurter) and especially Indian borrowings (the words
wigwam, canoe, moccasin, tomahawk, raccoon, skunk, names of places, rivers, lakes and states:
Mississippi, Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky.

Canadian English
The differences between Canadian and BE are concerned mainly with intonation. As for the vocabulary,
some words do not differ from their British counterparts while others are the same as in AmE: to guess
("to think"), rooster ("cock"), sidewalk ("pavement"), and store ("shop").

The boundary with Canada nowhere corresponds to any boundary between dialects, and the influence of
United States English is strong. Nevertheless, in spite of the effect of this proximity to the United States,
British influences are still potent in some of the larger cities; Scottish influences are well sustained
in Ontario. Canada remains bilingual. Less than one-fourth of its people, living mostly in the province
of Quebec, have French as their mother tongue.

Australian English

Australian English, too, differs from BE mainly in phonetics: the pronunciation is characterized by the
nasal twang (is nasalized), like that of Americans, by indistinct pronunciation of the consonants p, b, w, n
(the so-called American lip -laziness), Australian speech is somewhat slow, lengthy and monotonous. In
the vocabulary there is a number of typically local words like koala, dingo, bandicoot and various place
names borrowed from the native inhabitants.
For historical and economic reasons the English language has spread over vast territories. It is the national
language of the UK, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and some provinces of Canada.

New Zealand English

The characteristics of Australian English are there to some degree, but not as intensely. The effect for
Americans is uncertainty as to whether the person is from England or Australia. One clue is that New
Zealand English sounds "flatter" (less modulated) than either Australian or British English and more like
western American English.

South African English

South African English is close to RP but often with a Dutch influence. English as spoken by Afrikaaners
is more clearly influenced by Dutch pronunciation. Just like Australian and American English, there are
numberous words adopted from the surrounding African languages, especially for native species of
animals and plants. As spoken by black South Africans for whom it is not their first language, it often
reflects the pronunciation of their Bantu languages, with purer vowels. Listen, for example, to Nelson
Mandela or Bishop Tutu. On top of all this, the dialects of the ethnic group referred to in South Africa as
"Coloured" (i.e. of mixed racial backgrounds) have a dialect quite distinct from the dialects of "white"
South Africans.
Alan also suggests that South African has a "flatter" (less modulated) sound, similar to that of New
Zealand as contrasted with Australian English.