Commonwealth English

Commonwealth English is a blanket term for the English that developed during the British Empire separately from the United States of America. Thus it is the English of Britain and the Commonwealth nations, such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Caribbean, using British English as its ancestral model - in contrast to Canada, whose English is a variety of American English. Also to be considered outside the definition are Irish English, as Ireland is not a member of the Commonwealth, and Mozambican English, from a country that does not have English as the colonial language, Mozambique having been part of the Portuguese Empire, but which joined the Commonwealth in 1996.