English as a second language dominates the world:
Today, English is spoken by billions of people all over the globe. Mandarin may have more native speakers, and Spanish and Hindi-Urdu have about the same number, but English claims a special distinction: It is so popular among language learners that there are more speakers of English as a second language than there are native speakers. English is now the language of urbanization and globalization.
See? I always knew that Americans don't know how to spell properly – their spelling is based on the whim of a single individual:
In the early 19th century, he says, American lexicographer Noah Webster published a dictionary of English reflecting a number of his personal quirks and preferences. For instance, he preferred spellings such as "color" and "center."
"He also felt that pronunciation of 'zed' should be regularized to 'zee' to agree with the names of other letters such as bee, cee, dee. Webster's dictionary was influential in early American schools, and many of his spellings and preferences became standard there. 'Zee' clearly won the day in the United States."
The rest of the English-speaking world, including Canada, kept the older "zed."
Let's hear it for Canada!
Finally, Australian "strine" is disappearing – sorry, mate:
Strewth, mate, it's enough to make a dinky di bloke choke on his pot of XXXX. The Aussie accent is losing its distinctive ''ocker'' twang.
"Strine" is in decline as Australians soften the broad, stereotyped accent epitomised by the likes of the comedian Paul Hogan and Steve Irwin, a reptile-baiting television presenter known as the Crocodile Hunter.
The nasal, flattened vowels familiar from the rants of Dame Edna Everage, the former prime minister, Bob Hawke, and from countless television commercials for Australian beer is making way for less extreme, more mellifluous sounds.
[...] The newly evolved accent is neither British-sounding nor, to the relief of the many Australians who fret about the cultural dominance of the United States, veering towards American English.
