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43-408: Honour ( Commonwealth English ) or honor ( American English ; see spelling differences ) is a quality of a person that is of both social teaching and personal ethos , that manifests itself as a code of conduct , and has various elements such as valour , chivalry , honesty , and compassion . It is an abstract concept entailing a perceived quality of worthiness and respectability that affects both

86-552: A court of honour ) and in organisations with a military ethos, such as Scouting organisations (which also feature "Courts of Honour"). Honour in the case of sexuality frequently relates, historically, to fidelity : preservation of "honour" equates primarily to maintenance of the virginity of singles and to the exclusive monogamy of the remainder of the population. Further conceptions of this type of honour vary widely between cultures; some cultures regard honour killings of (mostly female) members of one's own family as justified if

129-424: A social contract : members of society give up some aspects of their freedom to defend themselves and to retaliate for injuries, on the understanding that society will apprehend and punish transgressors. An alternative to government enforcement of laws is community or individual enforcement of social norms. One way that honour functions is through reputation . In a system where there is no court that will authorise

172-479: A perception akin to Orientalism . Pre-modern societies may tend to "honour" more than do contemporary industrial societies. Saint Anselm of Canterbury ( c.  1033–1109 ) in Cur Deus Homo extended the concept of honour from his own feudal society to postulate God's honour. An emphasis on the importance of honour exists in such traditional institutions as the military (serving officers may conduct

215-412: A person who keeps agreements even if not mutually beneficial to the other person. In audio, "fidelity" denotes how accurately a copy reproduces its source. In the 1950s, the terms " high fidelity " or "hi-fi" were popularized for equipment and recordings which exhibited more accurate sound reproduction . For example, a worn gramophone record will have a lower fidelity than one in good condition, and

258-436: A real world object, feature or condition. Fidelity is therefore a measure of the realism of a model or simulation. Simulation fidelity has also been described in the past as "degree of similarity". In quantum mechanics and optics, the fidelity of a field is calculated as an overlap integral of the field of interest with a reference or target field. In the field of program evaluation , the term fidelity denotes how closely

301-401: A recording made by a low budget record company in the early 20th century is likely to have significantly less audio fidelity than a good modern recording. Similarly in electronics , fidelity refers to the correspondence of the output signal to the input signal, rather than sound quality, as in the popular internet connection technology " Wi-Fi ". The term " lo-fi " has existed since at least

344-409: A second definition: "A genre of rock music characterized by minimal production, giving a raw and unsophisticated sound." A third was added in 2008: "Unpolished, amateurish, or technologically unsophisticated, esp. as a deliberate aesthetic choice." In the fields of scientific modelling and simulation , fidelity refers to the degree to which a model or simulation reproduces the state and behaviour of

387-417: A set of procedures were implemented as they were supposed to have been. For example, it is difficult to draw conclusions from a study about formative assessment in school classrooms if the teachers are not able or willing to follow the procedures they received in training. In translation , fidelity is the extent to which a translation accurately renders the meaning of the source text, without distortion. It

430-577: A violation of the legal concept of human rights ; for example, they may outlaw vigilante or individual justice-taking. Thinkers ranging from Plato to Montesquieu have remarked upon the mindset needed for a culture of honour. Historians have examined the culture of honour in the American South . Social scientists have looked at specialised subcultures such as South Asian Muslims in Britain. Others have compared multiple modern nations. From

473-532: Is honour killing . Dueling and vengeance at a family level can result in a sustained feud . Honour-based cultures are also known as honour-shame cultures and are contrasted with guilt cultures on the guilt-shame-fear spectrum of cultures . Cultures of honour are often conservative, encoding pre-modern traditional family values and duties. In some cases these values clash with those of post- sexual revolution and egalitarian societies. Cultures of law sometimes consider practices in honour cultures to be unethical or

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516-470: Is in the process of developing) its own standards of usage, often under the influence of local languages. These dialects are sometimes referred to as New Englishes (McArthur, p. 36); most of them inherited non-rhoticity from Southern British English. Several dialects of West African English exist, with a lot of regional variation and some influence from indigenous languages. West African English tends to be syllable-timed , and its phoneme inventory

559-544: Is increasingly being used in the home as the first language. Small communities of native English speakers can be found in Zimbabwe , Botswana , and Namibia ; the dialects spoken are similar to native South African English . Prior to Togo 's admission at the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting , Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said that he expected Commonwealth membership to provide opportunities for Togolese citizens to learn English , and remarked that

602-461: Is much simpler than that of Received Pronunciation ; this sometimes affects mutual intelligibility with native varieties of English. A distinctive North African English , often with significant influences from Bantu languages such as Swahili , is spoken in countries such as Kenya or Tanzania , particularly in Nairobi and other cities where there is an expanding middle class, for whom English

645-422: Is often not so much a function of moral or ethical excellence, as it is a consequence of power. Finally, with respect to sexuality, honour has traditionally been associated with (or identical to) "chastity" or "virginity", or in case of married men and women, "fidelity". Some have argued that honour should be seen more as a rhetoric, or set of possible actions, than as a code. Honour as a code of behaviour defines

688-401: The "dishonourable people" ( unehrliche Leute ) in early modern German society. Various sociologists and anthropologists have contrasted cultures of honour with cultures of law. A culture of law has a body of laws which all members of society must obey, with punishments for transgressors. This requires a society with the structures required to enact and enforce laws. A culture of law incorporates

731-540: The 1950s, shortly after the acceptance of "hi-fi", but its definition evolved continuously between the 1970s and 2000s. In the 1976 edition of the Oxford Dictionary , lo-fi was added under the definition of "sound production less good in quality than ' hi-fi '", and in the glossary of the 1977 book The Tuning of the World , was defined as "unfavourable signal-to-noise ratio". In 2003, the Oxford Dictionary added

774-506: The Commonwealth, although comparatively very few speakers of Indian English are first-language speakers. The same is true of English spoken in other parts of South Asia , e.g. Pakistani English , Sri Lankan English , Bangladeshi English and Myanmar English . South Asian English phonology is highly variable; stress, rhythm and intonation are generally different from those of native varieties. There are also several peculiarities at

817-626: The South of the country "are shown to be twice as likely to involve uses of force, last on average twice as long, and are three times more likely to end in victory for the United States than disputes under non-Southern presidents. Other characteristics of Southern presidencies do not seem able to account for this pattern of results." Commonwealth English The use of the English language in current and former Commonwealth countries

860-602: The United Kingdom have produced their own English dictionaries and style guides , and may rely on those produced in other countries. Southern Hemisphere native varieties of English began to develop during the 18th century, with the colonisation of Australasia and South Africa. Australian English and New Zealand English are closely related to each other and share some similarities with South African English (though it has unique influences from indigenous African languages, and Dutch influences it inherited along with

903-540: The community as a way to punish bad behaviour and create an incentive for others to maintain their honour. If one's honour is questioned, it can thus be important to disprove any false accusations or slander . In some cultures, the practice of dueling arose as a means to settle such disputes firmly, though by physical dominance in force or skill rather than by objective consideration of evidence and facts. Honour can also imply duty to perform certain actions, such as providing for and disciplining one's children, serving in

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946-598: The country sought closer ties with the Anglophone world . Hong Kong ceased to be part of the Commonwealth (by virtue of being a British territory) in 1997. Nonetheless, the English language there still enjoys status as an official language. English was introduced into the subcontinent by the British Raj . Among the partitioned post-independent countries, India has the largest English-speaking population in

989-443: The development of Afrikaans from Dutch). Canadian English contains elements of British English and American English , as well as many Canadianisms and some French influences. It is the product of several waves of immigration and settlement, from Britain, Ireland, France, the United States, and around the world, over a period of more than two centuries. Modern Canadian English has taken significant vocabulary and spelling from

1032-474: The duties of an individual within a social group. Margaret Visser observes that in an honour-based society "a person is what he or she is in the eyes of other people". A code of honour differs from a legal code, also socially defined and concerned with justice, in that honour remains implicit rather than explicit and objectified. One can distinguish honour from dignity , which Wordsworth assessed as measured against an individual's conscience rather than against

1075-439: The first of which was " nobility of soul, magnanimity , and a scorn of meanness ". This sort of honour derives from the perceived virtuous conduct and personal integrity of the person endowed with it. Johnson also defined honour in relationship to "reputation" and "fame"; to "privileges of rank or birth", and as "respect" of the kind which "places an individual socially and determines his right to precedence". This sort of honour

1118-548: The herding of animals dominates an economy. In this situation, the geography is usually extensive, since the soil cannot support intensive sustained farming and thus large populations; the benefit of stealing animals from other herds is high, since animals are the main form of wealth; and there is no central law-enforcement or rule of law . However, cultures of honour can also appear in places like modern inner-city slums . The three conditions exist here as well: lack of resources (poverty); crime and theft have high rewards, compared to

1161-624: The individuals have "defiled the family's honour" by marrying against the family's wishes, usually for reasons such as refusing to enter an arranged marriage, having sex outside marriage, dressing in ways which are deemed inappropriate, or engaging in homosexual relations or even by becoming the victims of rape . Western observers generally see these honour killings as a way of men using the culture of honour to control female sexuality. Skinners , executioners , grave-diggers , shepherds , barber-surgeons , millers , linen-weavers , sow-gelders, latrine-cleaners , bailiffs and their families were among

1204-427: The judgement of a community. Compare also the sociological concept of "face" . In the early medieval period, a lord's or lady's honour was the group of manors or lands he or she held. "The word was first used indicating an estate which gave its holder dignity and status." For a person to say "on my honour" was not just an affirmation of his or her integrity and rank, but the veracity behind that phrase meant he or she

1247-434: The levels of morphology, syntax and usage, some of which can also be found among educated speakers. Southeast Asian English comprises Singapore English , Malaysian English , and Brunei English ; it features some influence from Malay and Chinese languages, as well as Indian English . Other languages: Fidelity In moral philosophy, fidelity refers to a person who keeps agreements. Strong fidelity refers to

1290-425: The military during war, contributing to local collective projects like building infrastructure, or exacting revenge in retaliation for acts one is directly harmed by. The concept of personal honour can be extended to family honour , which strengthens the incentives to follow social norms in two ways. First, the consequences of dishonourable actions (such as suicide or attempted robbery that results in death) outlive

1333-521: The perpetrator, and negatively affect family members they presumably care about. Second, when one member of the family misbehaves, other members of the family are in the position to and are incentivised to strongly enforce the community norms. In strong honour cultures, those who do not conform may be forced or pressured into conformance and transgressors punished physically or psychologically. The use of violence may be collective in its character, where many relatives act together. An extreme form of punishment

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1376-561: The reach of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Mounties) seem to inherit a violent code of honour that drives their behaviour. Historian Norman Risjord emphasised the importance of honour as a cause of the War of 1812 , which the United States launched against Britain despite Britain's much more powerful naval and military strength. Americans of every political stripe saw the need to uphold national honour, and to reject

1419-694: The rest of the Commonwealth. English in the Commonwealth is diverse, and many regions have developed their own local varieties of the language. In Cyprus , it does not have official status but is widely used as a lingua franca . English is spoken as a first or second language in most of the Commonwealth. Written English in the current and former Commonwealth generally favours British English spelling as opposed to American English , with some exceptions, particularly in Canada, where there are strong influences from neighbouring American English. Few Commonwealth countries besides Australia, Canada, South Africa, and

1462-963: The shared political and social institutions of Commonwealth countries. Caribbean English is influenced by the English-based Creole varieties spoken, but they are not one and the same. There is a great deal of variation in the way English is spoken, with a "Standard English" at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum and Creole languages at the other. These dialects have roots in 17th-century British and Irish English , and African languages , plus localised influences from other colonial languages including French, Spanish, and Dutch; unlike most native varieties of English, West Indian dialects often tend to be syllable-timed rather than stress-timed . Second-language varieties of English in Africa and Asia have often undergone " indigenisation "; that is, each English-speaking community has developed (or

1505-507: The social standing and the self-evaluation of an individual or of institutions such as a family, school, regiment, or nation. Accordingly, individuals (or institutions) are assigned worth and stature based on the harmony of their actions with a specific code of honour , and with the moral code of the society at large. Samuel Johnson , in his A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), defined honour as having several senses,

1548-532: The strongest praise for America and swiftest recognition of what the young republic had achieved for American honor, prestige, and power came from within British naval circles." Britain refrained from interfering with American maritime interests and ceased with the impressment of American citizens following the war. A 2016 study suggests that honour culture increases the risk of war. The study found that international conflicts under U.S. presidents who were raised in

1591-487: The treatment of the United States by Britain as a third class nonentity. Americans talked incessantly about the need for force in response. This quest for honour was a major cause of the war in the sense that most Americans who were not involved in mercantile interests or threatened by Indian attack strongly endorsed the preservation of national honour. The humiliating attack by HMS Leopard against USS Chesapeake in June 1807

1634-510: The use of force to guarantee the execution of contracts, an honourable reputation is very valuable to promote trust among transaction partners. To dishonour an agreement could be economically ruinous, because future potential transaction partners might stop trusting the party not to lie, steal their money or goods, not repay debts, mistreat the children they marry off, have children with other people, abandon their children, or fail to provide aid when needed. A dishonourable person might be shunned by

1677-564: The very limited alternatives; and law enforcement is generally lax or corrupt. Once a culture of honour exists in a society, its members find it difficult to make the transition to a culture of law, which requires that people become willing to back down and refuse to immediately retaliate. From the viewpoint of the culture of honour, the perceived humiliation of such an action makes personal restraint extremely difficult, as it reflects weakness and appeasement. One paper finds that present-day Canadians born in communities that historically lay outside

1720-580: The viewpoint of anthropologists, cultures of honour typically appear among nomadic peoples and among herdsmen who carry their most valuable property with them and risk having it stolen, without having recourse to law enforcement or to government . Due to the lack of strong institutions, cultivating a reputation for swift and disproportionate revenge increases the safety of one's person and property against aggressive actors. According to Richard Nisbett, cultures of honour will often arise when three conditions exist: Historically, cultures of honour exist where

1763-529: Was a decisive event. Historians documented the importance of honour in shaping public opinion in a number of states, including Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee, as well as the territory of Michigan. Americans widely celebrated the conclusion of the war as successful, especially after the spectacular defeat of the main British invasion army at New Orleans restored the American sense of honour. The British showed respect for American honour. "Some of

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1806-424: Was largely inherited from British colonisation , with some exceptions. English serves as the medium of inter-Commonwealth relations and the language forms part of the common culture of the Commonwealth . Commonwealth English refers to English as practised in the Commonwealth; the term is most often interchangeable with British English , but is also used to distinguish between British English and that in

1849-512: Was willing to offer up estates as pledge and guarantee. The concept of honour appears to have declined in importance in the modern West ; conscience has replaced it in the individual context, and the rule of law (with the rights and duties defined therein) has taken over in a social context. Popular stereotypes would have it surviving more definitively in more tradition-bound cultures (e.g. Pashtun , Southern Italian , Polish , Persian , Turkish , Arab , Iberian , " Old South " or Dixie ) in

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