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London (pte026/25.11.2004/12:10) - "Mother" is the most beautiful word in the English language for non-English speakers. According to a survey of non-English speakers carried out by the British Council to mark its 70th anniversary, "mother" is the top choice, followed by "passion", "smile", "love" and "eternity". As the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk reports, more than 40,000 people in 102 countries were polled. "Fantastic", "destiny", "freedom", "liberty" and "tranquility" make up the top 10.
The British Council has been promoting the English language around the world for the past 70 years and teaches it to more than 500,000 people each year. According to Chris Wade, director of communications at the council, the most favoured choice in the list were all strong, positive words. "All of us have a mother and have a reasonable idea of who that person is, it's one piece of certainty we can have and it's also a very powerful word in a variety of cultures."
The list of 70 words also contains many unusual choices, such as "peekaboo", "flabbergasted", "hen night" and "oi", as well as many imported words from other languages, such as "renaissance" and "aqua". According to Wade, this showed the diversity of the English language. In his eyes, the use of imported words was an advantage to the language. "While other languages may be reluctant to use our words, a real richness in English has evolved," explained Wade.
According to Michael Quinion, who has recently written a book examining the peculiarities of the English language, it was a very "eclectic" list. "These non-English speakers certainly have wonderful English vocabularies," said Quinion. "There seems to be a curious mixture of the formal and the colloquial. "Oi" is not a word that I would've thought turned up in English manuals all that often."
Other words in the list of favourites include "flip-flop", a word recently used in the US presidential election by the Republicans to accuse the failed presidential candidate John Kerry of changing his stance, and "serendipity". According to Wade, it is unlikely that the council would have had the same result if they had done the survey in the UK.
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