Americans - what language do you speak?

Question

Here's a story a friend of mine once told me. She was getting her hair cut in Los Angeles, and the stylist was making phatic smalltalk as ever. So she asks the standard, 'Where are you from?' to which she gets the answer 'Manchester, England'. The ditzy hairdresser's response: 'Wow! You speak really good American!' My jaw dropped.

So my question to you is this: would you say you speak American, or English? The linguist's answer would be American English, but I'm more curious about what you would say.

Answer 1

Hello,



Speak English would be correct. As an analogy I have heard people who are not to swift or educated on world affairs ask my friends from Mexico if they speak Mexican.



Cheers,



Michael Kelly

Answer 2

Its english. Just like the Canadian's speak French. Both languages (American English and Canadian French) are very very different from the country of origin (England and France.)



American's have many phrases that have sprung from our movies and our songs and then become even more twisted that its hard to tell where it came from. And also the grammar in american has colapsed to the point where parts of speech are becoming obsolete in the language.



With each region of America (west coast, east coast, deep south, northwest etc) have its own dialect, it becomes even harder for a foreign to break the accent, let alone the slang.



And also, more and more of the slang is becoming dictionary accepted (like added to the dictionary) every day, branching it further from England English.



But the same goes with you all. You have your own movies and your own songs and your own slang, but not to the extent that Americans have.

Answer 3

i would say american english but thats probably because it has been drilled into my brain in my anthropology classes (linguistics is a subcategory of anthro).



before i would probably just say english because it was easier, but i understood there were differences between the english spoken here and the english spoken in Britain

Answer 4

saying speaking English is the proper word for it i speak English and Polish

Answer 5

English is my first language. Also fluent in French and Spanish.

Answer 6

I woudl say I speak English.

Answer 7

if your from england your english well id say english coz im proud to be british xx

Answer 8

i say english, im no idiot !