Peculiarities of British and American variants in the English Language
Contents
IntroductionI Historical background of the English Language. 1. A
short history of the origins and development of English. 2. Varieties of
English. 3. English as a global language.4. Writing systemII Peculiarities of
British and American variants in the English language. 1. Peculiarities of
American and British English and their differences. 2. American and British
English lexical differences. 3. Grammatical Peculiarities of American and
British English. 4. Social and cultural differences
Introduction
The theme of my Diploma paper is “Peculiarities
of British and American variants in the English Language”.purpose of my Diploma
paper is to investigate peculiarities of British and American variants in the
English Language.
Every language allows different kinds of
variations: geographical or territorial, perhaps the most obvious, stylistic,
the difference between the written and the spoken form of the standard national
language and others. It is the national language of England proper, the USA,
Australia, New Zealand and some provinces of Canada. It is the official
language of Wales, Scotland, in Gibraltar and on the island of Malta. Modern
linguistics distinguishes territorial variants of a national language and local
dialects. Variants of a language are regional varieties of a standard literary
language characterized by some minor peculiarities in the sound system,
vocabulary and grammar and by their own literary norms.task of our Diploma
paper is to reveal the main peculiarities of British and American variants in
the English Language; i.e. when we speak about the English language in general,
we often ignore some very important differences between several varieties of
this language. Some people argue that it is the same language and whichever
variant a person speaks, he is sure to be understood everywhere. This is only
partially true because of the differences between two countries, two peoples,
two cultures, and we cannot, in fact, divorce language and culture.
The theoretical value of work is to find
differences between British English and American English which can be the main
task of the Diploma paper.Diploma paper consists of Introduction, two Chapters,
Conclusion, Appendix and Bibliography. Introduction is about some differences
between BrE and AmE. The first Chapter of the Diploma paper gives the
historical background of the English language and its link with other
languages. The second Chapter of the Diploma paper speaks about peculiarities
of British and American variants in the English language.is the summary of our
paper. In Appendix, we have included some examples. The appearance of the
American variant of the English language is the result of a long process of
independent development of the people who settled in a new place to arrange a
new way of life. They didn’t give new names to old things, but very often they
filled old words with new meanings and borrowed new words from their native
languages, that’s why today for the British and Americans the same words can
have different connotations and implications even if they denote the same
things or phenomena. Oscar Wilde wrote, `The English have really everything in
common with the Americans, except a course of language.`
Standard English - the official language of Great
Britain taught at schools and universities, used by the press, the radio and
the television and spoken by educated people may be defined as that form of
English which is current and literary, substantially uniform and recognized as
acceptable wherever English is spoken or understood. Its vocabulary is
contrasted to dialect words or dialectisms belonging to various local dialects.
Local dialects are varieties of the English language peculiar to some districts
and having no normalized literary form. Regional varieties possessing a
literary form are called variants. Dialects are said to undergo rapid changes
under the pressure of Standard English taught at schools and the speech habits
cultivated by radio, television and cinema.differences between the English
language as spoken in Britain. The USA, Australia and Canada are immediately
noticeable in the field of phonetics. However these distinctions are confined
to the articulatory- acoustic characteristics of some phonemes, to some differences
in the use of others and to the differences in the rhythm and intonation of
speech. The few phonemes characteristic of American pronunciation and alien to
British literary norms can as a rule be observed in British dialects.
The existing cases of difference between the two
variants are veniently classified into:
§ Cases where there are no
equivalents in British English: drive-in 'a cinema where you can see the film
without getting out of your car' or 'a shop where motorists buy things staying
in the car'; dude ranch ‘a sham ranch used as a summer residence for holiday-makers
from the cities'.
§ Cases where different
words are used for the same denotatum, such as can, candy, mailbox, movies,
suspenders, truck in the USA and tin, sweets, pillar-box (or letter-box),
pictures or flicks, braces and lorry in England.
§ Cases where the semantic
structure of a partially equivalent word is different. The word pavement, for
example, means in the first place 'covering of the street or the floor and the
like made of asphalt, stones or some other material'. In England the derived meaning
is 'the footway at the side of the road'. The Americans use the noun sidewalk
for this, while pavement with them means 'the roadway'.
§ Cases where otherwise
equivalent words are different in distribution. The verb ride in Standard
English is mostly combined with such nouns as a horse, a bicycle, more seldom
they say ride on a bus. In American English combinations like a ride on the
train, ride in a boat are quite usual.
§ It sometimes happens that
the same word is used in American English with some difference in emotional and
stylistic colouring. Nasty, for example, is a much milder expression of
disapproval in England than in the States, where it was even considered obscene
in the 19th century. Politician in England means 'someone in politics', and is
derogatory in the USA. Professor A.D. Schweitzer pays special attention to
phenomena differing in social norms of usage. For example balance in its
lexico-semantic variant 'the remainder of anything' is substandard in British
English and quite literary in America.
§ Last but not least, there
may be a marked difference in frequency characteristics. Thus, time-table which
occurs in American English very rarely, yielded its place to schedule.
Actually, the idioms spoken in Great Britain and
in the USA have too much in common to be treated as different languages. Their
Grammar is basically the same. The main part of the vocabulary is essentially
the same. In fact, the period of their separate development is too short for
them to become absolutely independent.
Chapter I. Historical background of the English Language
English language was first introduced to the
Americas by British colonization, beginning in the early 17th century.
Similarly, the language spread to numerous other parts of the world as a result
of British trade and colonization elsewhere and the spread of the former
British Empire, which, by 1921, held sway over a population of about 470-570
million people: approximately a quarter of the world's population at that
time.the past 400 years, the form of the language used in the
Americas-especially in the United States-and that used in the British Isles
have diverged in a few minor ways, leading to the dialects now occasionally
referred to as American English and British English. Differences between the
two include pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary (lexis), spelling, punctuation,
idioms, formatting of dates and numbers, and so on, although the differences in
written and most spoken grammar structure tend to be much more minor than those
of other aspects of the language in terms of mutual intelligibility. A small
number of words have completely different meanings between the two dialects or
are even unknown or not used in one of the dialects. One particular
contribution towards formalizing these differences came from Noah Webster, who
wrote the first American dictionary (published 1828) with the intention of
showing that people in the United States spoke a different dialect from
Britain, much like a regional accent.divergence between American English and
British English once caused George Bernard Shaw to say that the United States
and United Kingdom are "two countries divided by a common language";
a similar comment is ascribed to Winston Churchill. Likewise, Oscar Wilde
wrote, "We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except,
of course, the language" (The Canterville Ghost, 1888). Henry Sweet
falsely predicted in 1877, that within a century, American English, Australian
English and British English would be mutually unintelligible. It may be the
case that increased worldwide communication through radio, television, the
Internet, and globalization has reduced the tendency to regional variation.
This can result either in some variations becoming extinct (for instance, the
wireless, superseded by the radio) or in the acceptance of wide variations as
"perfectly good English" everywhere. Often at the core of the dialect
though, the idiosyncrasies remain., it remains the case that although spoken
American and British English are generally mutually intelligible, there are
enough differences to cause occasional misunderstandings or at times
embarrassment - for example, some words that are quite innocent in one dialect
may be considered vulgar in the other.
.1 A short history of the origins and development
of English
history of the English language really started
with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th
century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the
North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the
inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers
were pushed west and north by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales,
Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came from Englaland and their language was called
Englisc - from which the words England and English are derived.
Germanic invaders entered Britain on the east and
south coasts in the 5th centuryEnglish (450-1100 AD)invading Germanic tribes
spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old
English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English
speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English.
Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have
Old English roots. The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old
English. Old
English was spoken until around 1100.English (1100-1500)
An example of Middle English by Chaucer.
|
1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy
(part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. The new conquerors
(called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the
language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a period
there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke
English and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became
dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called
Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but
it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.
Modern English (1500-1800)
's famous "To be, or
not to be" lines, written in Early Modern English by Shakespeare.
Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and
distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels
being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had
contact with many peoples from around the world. This, and the Renaissance of
Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered the language.
The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in
print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also
brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the
dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In
1604 the first English dictionary was published.Modern English
(1800-Present)main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern
English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from
two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology
created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height
covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted
foreign words from many countries.is a member of the Germanic family of
languages. Germanic is a branch of the Indo-European language family.
Germanic Family of Languages
A
brief chronology of English
|
BC 55
|
Roman
invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar.
|
Local inhabitants speak Celtish
|
BC 43
|
Roman
invasion and occupation. Beginning of Roman rule of Britain.
|
|
436
|
Roman
withdrawal from Britain complete.
|
|
449
|
Settlement
of Britain by Germanic invaders begins
|
|
450-480
|
Earliest
known Old English inscriptions.
|
Old English
|
1066
|
William
the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invades and conquers England.
|
|
c1150
|
Earliest
surviving manuscripts in Middle English.
|
Middle English
|
1348
|
English
replaces Latin as the language of instruction in most schools.
|
|
1362
|
English
replaces French as the language of law. English is used in Parliament for the
first time.
|
|
c1388
|
Chaucer
starts writing The Canterbury Tales.
|
|
c1400
|
The
Great Vowel Shift begins.
|
|
1476
|
William
Caxton establishes the first English printing press.
|
Early Modern
English
|
1564
|
Shakespeare is
born.
|
|
1604
|
Table
Alphabeticall, the first English dictionary, is published.
|
|
1607
|
The
first permanent English settlement in the New World (Jamestown) is
established.
|
|
1616
|
Shakespeare
dies.
|
|
1623
|
Shakespeare's
First Folio is published
|
|
1702
|
The
first daily English-language newspaper, The Daily Courant, is published in
London.
|
|
1755
|
Samuel
Johnson publishes his English dictionary.
|
Thomas
Jefferson writes the American Declaration of Independence.
|
|
1782
|
Britain
abandons its American colonies.
|
|
1828
|
Webster
publishes his American English dictionary.
|
Late Modern
English
|
1922
|
The
British Broadcasting Corporation is founded.
|
|
1928
|
The
Oxford English Dictionary is published.
|
|
I.2 Varieties of English
around 1600, the English colonization of North
America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English.
Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached
America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare
than modern British English is. Some expressions that the British call
"Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were
preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain (for example trash
for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn; another
example, frame-up, was re-imported into Britain through Hollywood gangster
movies). Spanish also had an influence on American English (and subsequently
British English), with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante being
examples of Spanish words that entered English through the settlement of the
American West. French words (through Louisiana) and West African words (through
the slave trade) also influenced American English (and so, to an extent,
British English)., American English is particularly influential, due to the
USA's dominance of cinema, television, popular music, trade and technology
(including the Internet). But there are many other varieties of English around
the world, including for example Australian English, New Zealand English,
Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English.
· Basic English
is simplified for easy international use. It is used by some aircraft
manufacturers and other international businesses to write manuals and
communicate. Some English schools in the Far East teach it as an initial
practical subset of English.
· Special
English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It
uses a vocabulary of 1500 words.
· English reform
is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language.
· Seaspeak and
the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies,
were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international co-operation
and communication in specific areas.
· European
English is a new variant of the English language created to become the common
language in Europe.
· Manually Coded
English - a variety of systems have been developed to represent the English
language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education.is now
the fourth most widely spoken native language worldwide (after Chinese,
Spanish, and Hindi), with some 380 million speakers. English is also the
dominant member of the Germanic languages. It has lingua franca status in many
parts of the world, due to the military, economic, scientific, political and
cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th
centuries and that of the United States from the early 20th century to the
present.the global influence of native English speakers in cinema, airlines,
broadcasting, science, and the Internet in recent decades, English is now the
most widely learned second language in the world, although other languages such
as French and Spanish also retain much importance worldwide.students worldwide
are required to learn at least some English, and a working knowledge of English
is required in many fields and occupations.is spoken in many countries, even if
it isn't the primary language. Germany speaks German, but many people are also
fluent in English. Same with countries like Denmark, France, and Spain.is an
Anglo-Frisian language brought to Britain by Germanic settlers from various
parts of northwest Germany. The original Old English language was subsequently
influenced by two successive waves of invasion. The first was by speakers of
languages in the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family, who colonised
parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second wave was of the
Normans in the 11th century, who spoke a variety of French.to the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, around the year 449, Vortigern, King of the British Isles, invited
the Angles to help him against the Picts. In return, the Angles were granted
lands in the south-east. Further aid was sought, and in response came Saxons,
Angles, and Jutes. The Chronicle talks of a subsequent influx of settlers who
eventually established seven kingdoms. Modern scholarship considers most of
this story to be legendary and politically motivated.Germanic invaders
dominated the original Celtic-speaking inhabitants, whose languages survived
largely in Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland. The dialects spoken by the
invaders formed what would be called Old English, which resembled some coastal
dialects in what are now north-west Germany and the Netherlands. Later, it was
strongly influenced by the North Germanic language Norse, spoken by the Vikings
who settled mainly in the north-east (see Jórvík).the 300
years following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Norman kings and the high
nobility spoke only a variety of French. A large number of Norman words were
assimilated into Old English. The Norman influence reinforced the continual
evolution of the language over the following centuries, resulting in what is
now referred to as Middle English.the 15th century, Middle English was
transformed by the Great Vowel Shift, the spread of a standardised London-based
dialect in government and administration, and the standardising effect of
printing. Modern English can be traced back to around the time of William
Shakespeare.
Classification and related languages
The English language belongs to the western sub
branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Apart
from English-lexified creole languages such as Tok Pisin and Bislama, the
nearest living relative of English is Scots (Lallans), spoken mostly in Scotland
and parts of Northern Ireland. Like English, Scots is a direct descendant of
Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon.Scots, the next closest relative is
Frisian-spoken in Germany and the Netherlands. Other less closely related
living languages include German, Low German, Dutch, Scandinavian languages and
Afrikaans. Many French words are also intelligible to an English speaker
(pronunciations are not always identical, of course) because English absorbed a
tremendous amount of vocabulary from French, via the Norman language after the
Norman conquest and directly from French in further centuries; as a result, a
substantial share of English vocabulary is quite close to the French, with some
minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings etc.), as
well as occasional differences in meaning.
Geographic
distribution
<http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/File:English_dialects1997.png>
Distribution of native English speakers by
country (Crystal 1997)
English is the second or third most widely spoken
language in the world today. A total of 600-700 million people use the various
dialects of English regularly. About 377 million people use one of the versions
of English as their mother tongue, and an equal number of people use them as
their second or foreign language. English is used widely in either the public
or private sphere in more than 100 countries all over the world. In addition,
the language has occupied a primary place in international academic and
business communities. The current status of the English language at the start
of the new millennium compares with that of Latin in the past. English is also
the most widely used language for young backpackers who travel across
continents, regardless of whether it is their mother tongue or a secondary
language.is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia
(Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados (Caribbean English), Bermuda,
Belize, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, Dominica, the Falkland
Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guernsey, Guyana, Ireland (Irish English), Isle of
Man, Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, New Zealand (New Zealand
English), Saint Helena, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and
the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United
Kingdom (various forms of British English), the U.S. Virgin Islands and the
United States.is also an important minority language of South Africa (South
African English), and in several other former colonies and current dependent
territories of the United Kingdom and the United States, for example Guam and
Mauritius.Hong Kong, English is an official language and is widely used in
business activities. It is taught from infant school, and is the medium of
instruction for a few primary schools, many secondary schools and all
universities. Substantial numbers of students acquire native-speaker level. It
is so widely used that it is inadequate to say that it is merely a second or
foreign language, though there are still many people in Hong Kong with poor or
no command of English.majority of English native speakers (67 to 70 per cent)
live in the United States. Although the U.S. federal government has no official
languages, it has been given official status by 27 of the 50 state governments,
most of which have declared English their sole official language. Hawaii,
Louisiana, and New Mexico have also designated Hawaiian, French, and Spanish,
respectively, as official languages in conjunction with English.many other
countries, where English is not a major first language, it is an official
language; these countries include Cameroon, Fiji, the Federated States of
Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Kenya, Namibia,
Nigeria, Malaysia, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the
Philippines, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Singapore,
Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.is the most widely learned and used
foreign language in the world, and as such, some linguists believe that it is
no longer the exclusive cultural emblem of 'native English speakers', but
rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures world-wide as it grows
in use. Others believe that there are limits to how far English can go in
suiting everyone for communication purposes. Many people feel that the use of
English through media such as the Internet and its constant, informal use by
others has led to a diminution in the importance of using the language correctly,
thus resulting in a 'dumbing down' of the English language. English is the
language most often studied as a foreign language in Europe (32.6 per cent),
followed by French, German, and Spanish. It is also the most studied in Japan,
South Korea and in the Republic of China (Taiwan), where it is compulsory for
most secondary school students. See English as an additional language.
.3 English as a Global Language
English is so widely spoken, it has been referred
to as a "global language". While English is not an official language
in many countries, it is the language most often taught as a second language
around the world. It is also, by international treaty, the official language
for aircraft/airport communication. Its widespread acceptance as a first or
second language is the main indication of its worldwide status.are numerous
arguments for and against English as a global language. On one hand, having a
global language aids in communication and in pooling information (for example,
in the scientific community). On the other hand, it leaves out those who, for
one reason or another, are not fluent in the global language. It can also
marginalise populations whose first language is not the global language, and
lead to a cultural hegemony of the populations speaking the global language as
a first language. Most of these arguments hold for any candidate for a global
language, though the last two counter-arguments do not hold for languages not
belonging to any ethnic group (like Esperanto).secondary concern with respect
to the spread of global languages (including major non-English languages such
as Spanish) is the resulting disappearance of minority languages, often along
with the cultures and religions that are primarily transmitted in those
languages. English has been implicated in a number of historical and ongoing
so-called 'language deaths' and 'linguicides' around the world, many of which
have also led to the loss of cultural heritage. Language death caused by
English has been particularly pronounced in areas such as Australia and North
America where speakers of indigenous languages have been displaced or absorbed
by speakers of English in the process of colonisation.and regional variantsof
dialects of the English language
British Isles:EnglishEnglishEnglishUlster
EnglishEnglishEnglishEnglishEnglishStates:EnglishAmerican Vernacular
EnglishEnglishEnglishEnglishAmericanCentral American EnglishEnglishAmerican
EnglishEnglish:EnglishEnglishEnglish:EnglishZealand English:Kong
EnglishEnglishEnglishEnglishEnglishLankan
Englishcountries:EnglishEnglishEnglishEnglishEnglishAfrican
English:EnglishEnglishEnglishEnglishEnglishEnglishEnglishexpansiveness of the
British and the Americans has spread English throughout the globe. Because of
its global spread, it has bred a variety of English dialects and English-based
creoles and pidgins.major varieties of English in most cases contain several
subvarieties, such as Cockney within British English, Newfoundland English
within Canadian English, and African American Vernacular English
("Ebonics") within American English. English is considered a
pluricentric language, with no variety being clearly considered the only
standard.consider Scots as an English dialect. Pronunciation, grammar and lexis
differ, sometimes substantially.of English's wide use as a second language,
English speakers can have many different accents, which may identify the
speaker's native dialect or language. For more distinctive characteristics of
regional accents, see Regional accents of English speakers. For more
distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the
English language.as English itself has borrowed words from many different
languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in a great many
languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural
influence wielded by English speakers. Several pidgins and creoles have formed
on an English base - Tok Pisin was originally one such example. There are a
number of words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English
languages that contain a very high proportion of English words - Franglais, for
example, is used to describe French with a very high English content.phonology Description
word/iː Close front unrounded vowel bead
ɪ Near-close near-front unrounded
vowel bid
ɛ Open-mid front unrounded vowel bed
æ Near-open
front unrounded vowel bad
ɒ Open back rounded vowel bod 1
ɔ Open-mid back rounded vowel pawed
2
ɑ/ɑː Open back
unrounded vowel bra
ʊ Near-close near-back rounded vowel good/uː
Close back rounded vowel booed
ʌ/ɐ Open-mid back
unrounded vowel, Near-open central vowel bud
ɝ/ɜː Open-mid central
unrounded vowel bird 3
ə Schwa Rosa's 4
ɨ Close central unrounded vowel roses
5ɪ Close-mid
front unrounded vowelfront unrounded vowel bayedʊ/əʊ Close-mid
back rounded vowelclose near-back rounded vowel bodeɪ Open
front unrounded vowelclose near-front rounded vowel buyʊ Open
front unrounded vowelclose near-back rounded vowel bough
ɔɪ Open-mid back
rounded vowelfront unrounded vowel boysymbols appear in pairs, the first
corresponds to the sounds used in North American English, the second
corresponds to English spoken elsewhere.
. North American English lacks this sound;
words with this sound are pronounced with /ɑ/ or /ɔ/. According
to The Canadian Oxford Dictionary (1998), this sound is present in Standard
Canadian English.
. Many dialects of North American English
do not have this vowel. See Cot-caught merger.
. The North American variation of this
sound is a rhotic vowel.
. Many speakers of North American English
do not distinguish between these two unstressed vowels. For them, roses and
Rosa's are pronounced the same, and the symbol usually used is schwa /ə/.
. This sound is often transcribed with /i/
or with /ɪ/.
. The letter U can represent either /u/ or
the iotated vowel /ju/.is the English Consonantal System using symbols from the
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). labio- dental alveolar post- palatal
velar glottal p b t d k
g m n ŋ 1 ɾ 2 f
v θ ð 3 s z ʃ ʒ 4 x 5 h tʃ dʒ 4 ɹ 4 j
approximant l, ɫ
labial-velar ʍ w6
. The velar nasal [ŋ] is a
non-phonemic allophone of /n/ in some northerly British accents, appearing only
before /g/. In all other dialects it is a separate phoneme, although it only
occurs in syllable codas.
. The alveolar flap [ɾ] is an
allophone of /t/ and /d/ in unstressed syllables in North American English and
increasingly in Australian English. This is the sound of "tt" or
"dd" in the words latter and ladder, which are homophones in North
American English. This is the same sound represented by single "r" in
some varieties of Spanish.
. In some dialects, such as Cockney, the
interdentals /θ/ and /ð/ are usually merged with /f/ and /v/, and in others, like
African American Vernacular English, /ð/ is merged
with /d/. In some Irish varieties, /θ/ and /ð/ become the corresponding dental plosives, which then
contrast with the usual alveolar plosives.
. The sounds /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /ɹ/ are labialised in some dialects.
Labialisation is never contrastive in initial position and therefore is
sometimes not transcribed.
. The voiceless velar fricative /x/ is
used only by Scottish or Welsh speakers of English for Scots/Gaelic words such
as loch /lɒx/ or by some speakers for loanwords from German and Hebrew
like Bach /bax/ or Chanukah /xanuka/, or in some dialects such as Scouse
(Liverpool) where the affricate [kx] is used instead of /k/ in words such as
docker /dɒkxə/. Most native speakers have a great deal of trouble
pronouncing it correctly when learning a foreign language. Most speakers use
the sounds [k] and [h] instead.
. Voiceless w [ʍ] is found in
Scottish, Irish, some upper-class British, some eastern United States, and New
Zealand accents. In all other dialects it is merged with /w/.and Aspirationand
aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a
few general rules can be given:
• Voiceless plosives and affricates (/p/,
/t/, /k/, and /tʃ/) are aspirated when they are word-initial or
begin a stressed syllable and are not part of a consonant cluster-compare pin
[pʰɪn] and spin [spɪn]. In some dialects, aspiration extends
to unstressed syllables as well. In other dialects, such as Indian
English, most or all voiceless stops may remain unaspirated.
• Word-initial voiced plosives may be
devoiced in some dialects.
• Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be
unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects (e.g. many
varieties of American English)-examples: tap [tʰæp̚], sack [sæk̚].
• Word-terminal voiced plosives may be
devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English)-examples:
sad [sæd̥], bag [bæɡ̊]. In other
dialects they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in
initial position.groupsis an intonation language. This means that the pitch of
the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or
to change a statement into a question.English, intonation patterns are on
groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or
sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence,
are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting
roughly two seconds. The structure of tone groups can have a crucial impact on
the meaning of what is said. For example:
/duː juː niːd ˈɛnɪˌθɪŋ/ Do you
need anything?
/aɪ dəʊnt | nəʊ/ ''I don't,
no''
/aɪ dəʊnt nəʊ/ I don't
knowof intonationtone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either
be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). There is always a strong syllable,
which is stressed more than the others. This is called the nuclear syllable.
For example:| was | the | best | thing | you | could | have | done!, all
syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words "best" and
"done", which are stressed. "Best" is stressed harder and,
therefore, is the nuclear syllable.nuclear syllable carries the main point the
speaker wishes to make. For example:had stolen that money. (... not I)had
stolen that money. (... you said he hadn't)had stolen that money. (... he
wasn't given it)had stolen that money. (... not this money)had stolen that
money. (... not something else)nuclear syllable is spoken louder than all the
others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most
commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch,
although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used.
For example:do you want to be paid?ów? (rising
pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: can I be paid now?)òw (falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a
statement: I choose to be paid now)grammargrammar displays minimal inflection
compared with some other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English,
unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical
gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the
language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (eg.
speak/spoke/spoken) versus weak verbs inherited from Germanic has declined in
importance and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become
more regular.the same time as inflection has declined in importance in English,
the language has developed a greater reliance on features such as modal verbs
and word order to convey grammatical information. Auxiliary verbs are used to
mark constructions such as questions, negatives, the passive voice and
progressive tenses.without exception, Germanic words (which include all the
basics such as pronouns and conjunctions) are shorter and more informal.
Latinate words are regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive
use of Latinate words is often mistaken for either pretentiousness (as in the
stereotypical policeman's talk of "apprehending the suspect") or
obfuscation (as in a military document which says "neutralise" when
it means "kill"). George Orwell's essay "Politics and the
English Language" gives a thorough treatment of this feature of
English.English speaker is often able to choose between Germanic and Latinate
synonyms: "come" or "arrive"; "sight" or
"vision"; "freedom" or "liberty"-and sometimes
also between a word inherited through French and a borrowing direct from Latin
of the same root word: "oversee", "survey" or
"supervise". The richness of the language is that such synonyms have
slightly different meanings, enabling the language to be used in a very
flexible way to express fine variations or shades of thought. See: List of
Germanic and Latinate equivalents.exception to this and a peculiararity
arguably unique of English is that the nouns for meats are commonly different
from and unrelated to those for the animals from which they are produced, the
animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French derived
noun. Examples include deer and venison, ox or cow and beef, or swine and pork.
This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the Norman invasion where a
French speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by English
speaking lower classes.everyday speech, the majority of words will normally be
Germanic. If a speaker wishes to make a forceful point in an argument in a very
blunt way, Germanic words will usually be chosen. A majority of Latinate words
(or at least a majority of content words) will normally be used in more formal
speech and writing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article.is noted for
the vast size of its active vocabulary and its fluidity. English easily accepts
technical terms into common usage and imports new words which often come into
common usage. In addition, slang provides new meanings for old words. In fact
this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made
between formal forms of English and contemporary usage. See also
sociolinguistics.of words in Englishthe General Explanations at the beginning
of the Oxford English Dictionary state:Vocabulary of a widely diffused and
highly cultivated living language is not a fixed quantity circumscribed by
definite limits.... there is absolutely no defining line in any direction: the
circle of the English language has a well-defined centre but no discernible
circumference.vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific
number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike
other languages, there is no Academy to define officially accepted words.
Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology-some enter
wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in
immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic,
dialectal, and regional words might be considered as "English" or
not.Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition) includes over 500,000 headwords,
following a rather inclusive policy:embraces not only the standard language of
literature and conversation, whether current at the moment, or obsolete, or
archaic, but also the main technical vocabulary, and a large measure of dialectal
usage and slang (Supplement to the OED, 1933).difficulty of defining the number
of words is compounded by the emergence of new versions of English, such as
Asian English. Word originsin Englishof English words of international originof
the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is,
to a certain extent, divided between those words which are Germanic (mostly Old
English) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either
directly or from Norman French or other Romance languages).computerised survey
of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was
published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973)
which estimated the origin of English words as follows:
• French, including Old French and early
Anglo-French: 28.3%
• Latin, including modern scientific and
technical Latin: 28.24%
• Old and Middle English, Old Norse, and
Dutch: 25%
• Greek: 5.32%
• No etymology given: 4.03%
• Derived from proper names: 3.28%
• All other languages contributed less
than 1%D. Nicoll made the oft-quoted observation: "The problem with
defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure
as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has
pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle
their pockets for new vocabulary."
.4 Writing System
alphabetis
written using the Latin alphabet. The spelling system or orthography of English
is historical, not phonological. The spelling of words often diverges
considerably from how they are spoken, and English spelling is often considered
to be one of the most difficult to learn of any language that uses an alphabet.
See English orthography.sound-letter correspondences Alphabetic
representation Dialect-specific p b t, th
(rarely) thyme, Thames th thing (African-American, New York) d th
that (African-American, New York) c (+ a, o, u, consonants), k, ck, ch, qu
(rarely) conquer, kh (in foreign words) g, gh, gu (+ a, e,
i), gue (final position) m n
ŋ
n (before g or k), ng f, ph, gh (final, infrequent) laugh,
rough th thing (many forms of English used in England) v th with
(Cockney, Estuary English)
θ
th : there is no obvious way to identify which is which from the
spelling.
ð
s, c (+ e, i, y), sc (+ e, i, y) z, s
(finally or occasionally medially), ss (rarely) possess, dessert, word-initial
x xylophone
ʒ
si division, zh (in foreign words), z azure, su pleasure, g (in words of
French origin)(+e, i, y) genre kh, ch, h (in foreign words) occasionally
ch loch (Scottish English, Welsh English) h (initially, otherwise silent) ʃ ch, tch occasionally tu
future, culture; t (+ u, ue, eu) tune, Tuesday, Teutonic (Australian English)ʒ
j, g (+ e, i, y), dg (+ e, i, consonant) badge, judg(e)ment d (+ u,
ue, ew) dune, due, dew (Australian English)
ɹ r, wr (initial) wrangle y
(initially or surrounded by vowels) l w, wh
ʍ - wh (Scottish
English)and British English spelling differencesthe early 18th century, English
spelling was not standardized. Different standards became noticeable after the
publishing of influential dictionaries. Current BrE spellings follow, for the
most part, those of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755).
Many of the now characteristic AmE spellings were introduced, although often
not created, by Noah Webster in his An American Dictionary of the English
Language of 1828.was a strong proponent of spelling reform for reasons both
philological and nationalistic. Many other spelling changes proposed in the US
by Webster himself, and, in the early 20th century, by the Simplified Spelling
Board never caught on. Among the advocates of spelling reform in England, the
influences of those who preferred the Norman (or Anglo-French) spellings of
certain words proved decisive. Subsequent spelling adjustments in the UK had
little effect on present-day US spelling, and vice versa. While, in many cases,
AmE deviated in the 19th century from mainstream British spelling; on the other
hand, it has also often retained older forms.
• Full
stops/Periods in abbreviations: Americans tend to write Mr., Mrs., St., Dr.,
while British will most often write Mr, Mrs, St, Dr, following the rule that a
full stop is used only when the last letter of the abbreviation is not the last
letter of the complete word. This kind of abbreviation is known as a
contraction in the UK. Still, many British writers would also tend to write
other abbreviations without a full stop, such as Prof, etc, eg, and so forth
(as recommended by OED). The use of periods after most abbreviations can also
be found in the UK, although publications generally tend to eschew the use of American
punctuation. Unit symbols such as kg and Hz are never punctuated.
• Both
styles hyphenate multiple-word adjectives (e.g. "a first-class
ticket"), but some British writers omit the hyphen when no ambiguity would
arise.
• Quoting:
Americans begin their quotations with double quotation marks (") and use
single quotation marks (') for quotations within quotations. BrE usage varies,
with some authoritative sources such as The Economist and The Times
recommending the same usage as in the U.S., whereas other authoritative
sources, such as The King's English, recommend single quotation marks. In
journals and newspapers, quotation mark double/single use depends on the
individual publication's house style
• Quotation
marks with periods and commas: Americans always place commas and periods inside
quotation marks. Exceptions are made only for parenthetical citation and cases
in which the addition of a period or comma could create confusion, such as the
quotation of web addresses or certain types of data strings. In both styles,
question marks and exclamation points are placed inside the quotation marks if
they belong to the quotation and outside otherwise. With narration of direct
speech, both styles retain punctuation inside the quotation marks, with a full
stop changing into a comma if followed by explanatory text, also known as a
dialogue tag. Carefree means "free from care or anxiety."
(American style) Carefree means "free from care or anxiety".
(British style) "Hello, John," I said. (Both styles) Did you
say, "I'm shot"? No, I said, "Why not?" (Both styles) To
insert a long dash, type "—". (Both styles)American style
was established for typographical reasons, a historical legacy from the use of
the handset printing press. It is used by most American newspapers, publishing
houses, and style guides in the United States and Canada (including the Modern
Language Association's MLA Style Manual, the American Psychological
Association's APA Publication Manual, the University of Chicago's Chicago
Manual of Style, the American Institute of Physics's AIP Style Manual, the
American Medical Association's AMA Manual of Style, the American Political
Science Association's APSA Style Manual, the Associated Press' The AP Guide to
Punctuation, and the Canadian Public Works' The Canadian Style). It also makes
the process of copy editing easier, eliminating the need to decide whether a
period or comma belongs to the quotation.'s Rules and the Oxford Dictionary for
Writers and Editors call the British style "new" quoting. It is also
similar to the use of quotation marks in many other languages (including
Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Catalan, Dutch, and German). A few U.S.
professional societies whose professions frequently employ various non-word
characters, such as chemistry and computer programming, use the British form in
their style guides (see ACS Style Guide). According to the Jargon File,
American hackers switched to what they later discovered to be the British
quotation system because placing a period inside a quotation mark can change
the meaning of data strings that are meant to be typed character-for-character.
(It may be noted that the current American system places periods and commas
outside the quotes in these cases anyway.)
• Parentheses/brackets:in
American English, brackets in British English.both countries, standard usage is
to place punctuation inside or outside parentheses/brackets according to the
stop:
• "I
am going to the store. (I hope it is still open.)"
• "I
am going to the shop (if it is still open)."accentsincludes some words
which can be written with accent marks. These words have mostly been imported
from other languages, usually French. But it is increasingly rare for writers
of English to actually use the accent marks for common words, even in very
formal writing. The strongest tendency to retain the accent is in words that
are atypical of English morphology and therefore still perceived as slightly
foreign. For example, café has a pronounced final e,
which would be silent by the normal English pronunciation rules.examples: ångström,
appliqué, attaché, blasé, bric-à-brac, café, cliché, crème, crêpe, façade, fiancé(e), flambé, naïve, né(e), papier-mâché, passé, piñata, protégé, raison d'être, résumé, risqué, über-, vis-à-vis, voilà. For a more complete list, see
List of English words with diacritics.words such as rôle and hôtel
were first seen with accents when they were borrowed into English, but now the
accent is almost never used. The words were considered very French borrowings
when first used in English, even accused by some of being foreign phrases used
where English alternatives would suffice, but today their French origin is
largely forgotten. The accent on "élite" has disappeared from
most publications today, but Time magazine still uses it. For some words such
as "soupçon" however, the only spelling found in English dictionaries
(the OED and others) uses the diacritic., with appropriate accents, are
generally applied to foreign terms that are uncommonly used in or have not been
assimilated into English: for example, adiós, coup d'état, crème brûlée, pièce de résistance, raison d'être,
über
(übermensch),
vis-à-vis.is also possible to use a diaeresis to indicate a syllable
break, but again this is often left out or a hyphen used instead. Examples: coöperate
(or co-operate), daïs, naïve, noël, reëlect (or re-elect). One
publication that still uses a diaeresis to indicate a syllable break is the New
Yorker magazine.accents are also used occasionally in poetry and scripts for
dramatic performances to indicate that a certain normally unstressed syllable
in a word should be stressed for dramatic effect, or to keep with the meter of
the poetry. This use is frequently seen in archaic and pseudoarchaic writings
with the "-ed" suffix, to indicate that the "e" should be
fully pronounced, as with cursèd.certain older texts
(typically in Commonwealth English), the use of ligatures is common in words
such as archæology,
œsophagus,
and encyclopædia.
Such words have Latin or Greek origin. Nowadays, the ligatures have been
generally replaced in Commonwealth English by the separated letters
"ae" and "oe" ("archaeology",
"oesophagus") and in American English by "e"
("esophagus"). However, the spellings "oeconomy" and
"oecology" are now generally replaced by "economy" and
"ecology" in Commonwealth English, making these spellings the same as
in American English.two major English language keyboard layouts, namely United
States and United Kingdom, normally do not fully permit these accents to be
typed into the computer. However, the United States-International and United
Kingdom-International keyboard layouts permit such accents to be keyed in. See
British and American keyboards, keyboard layouts
english
british american grammatical
Chapter
II. Peculiarities of British and American Variants in the English Language
.1
Peculiarities of American and British English and their Differences
English
(variously abbreviated AmE, AE, AmEng, USEng, en-US, also known as United
States English, or U.S. English) is a set of dialects of the English language
used mostly in the United States. Approximately two thirds of native speakers
of English live in the United States. English is the most common language in
the United States. Though the U.S. federal government has no official language,
English is considered the de facto, "in practice but not necessarily
ordained by law", language of the United States because of its widespread
use. English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state
governments.use of English in the United States was inherited from British
colonization. The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North
America in the 17th century. During that time, there were also speakers in
North America of Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Swedish, Scots,
Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Finnish, Russian (Alaska) and numerous Native
American languages.
• American
English (AmE) is the form of English used in the United States. It includes all
English dialects used within the United States of America.
• British
English (BrE) is the form of English used in the United Kingdom. It includes
all English dialects used within the United Kingdom.English and British English
(BrE) differ at the levels of phonology, phonetics, vocabulary, and, to a
lesser extent, grammar and orthography. The first large American dictionary, An
American Dictionary of the English Language, was written by Noah Webster in
1828; Webster intended to show that the United States, which was a relatively
new country at the time, spoke a different dialect from that of Britain.in
grammar are relatively minor, and normally do not affect mutual intelligibility;
these include: different use of some verbal auxiliaries; formal (rather than
notional) agreement with collective nouns; different preferences for the past
forms of a few verbs (e.g. AmE/BrE: learned/learnt, burned/burnt, and in sneak,
dive, get); different prepositions and adverbs in certain contexts (e.g. AmE in
school, BrE at school); and whether or not a definite article is used, in very
few cases (AmE to the hospital, BrE to hospital). Often, these differences are
a matter of relative preferences rather than absolute rules; and most are not
stable, since the two varieties are constantly influencing each other.
Differences in orthography are also trivial. Some of the forms that now serve
to distinguish American from British spelling (color for colour, center for
centre, traveler for traveller, etc.) were introduced by Noah Webster himself;
others are due to spelling tendencies in Britain from the 17th century until
the present day (e.g. -ise for -ize, although the Oxford English Dictionary still
prefers the -ize ending) and cases favored by the francophile tastes of 19th
century Victorian England, which had little effect on AmE (e.g. programme for
program, manoeuvre for maneuver, skilful for skillful, cheque for check, etc.).
AmE sometimes favors words that are morphologically more complex, whereas BrE
uses clipped forms, such as AmE transportation and BrE transport or where the
British form is a back-formation, such as AmE burglarize and BrE burgle (from
burglar). It should however be noted that these words are not mutually
exclusive, being widely understood and mostly used alongside each other within
the two systems.most noticeable differences between AmE and BrE are at the
levels of pronunciation and vocabulary.forms of American and British English as
found in newspapers and textbooks vary little in their essential features, with
only occasional noticeable differences in comparable media (comparing American
newspapers to British newspapers, for example). This kind of formal English,
particularly written English, is often called 'standard English'. An unofficial
standard for spoken American English has also developed, as a result of mass
media and geographic and social mobility. It is typically referred to as
'standard spoken American English' (SSAE) or 'General American English' (GenAm
or GAE) and broadly describes the English typically heard from network
newscasters, commonly referred to as non-regional diction, although local
newscasters tend toward more parochial forms of speech. Despite this unofficial
standard, regional variations of American English have not only persisted but
have actually intensified, according to linguist William Labov.dialects in the
United States typically reflect the elements of the language of the main
immigrant groups in any particular region of the country, especially in terms
of pronunciation and vernacular vocabulary. Scholars have mapped at least four
major regional variations of spoken American English: Northern, Southern,
Midland, and Western (Labov, Ash, & Boberg, 2006). After the American Civil
War, the settlement of the western territories by migrants from the east led to
dialect mixing and levelling, so that regional dialects are most strongly
differentiated in the eastern parts of the country that were settled earlier.
Localized dialects also exist with quite distinct variations, such as in
Southern Appalachia and New York.spoken forms of British English vary
considerably, reflecting a long history of dialect development amid isolated
populations. Dialects and accents vary not only between the countries in the
United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but also within
these individual countries.are also differences in the English spoken by
different groups of people in any particular region. Received Pronunciation
(RP), which is "the educated spoken English of south-east England",
has traditionally been regarded as proper English; this is also referred to as
BBC English or the Queen's English. The BBC and other broadcasters now intentionally
use a mix of presenters with a variety of British accents and dialects, and the
concept of "proper English" is now far less prevalent.and American
English are the reference norms for English as spoken, written, and taught in
the rest of the world. For instance, the English-speaking members of the
Commonwealth often closely follow British English forms while many new American
English forms quickly become familiar outside of the United States. Although
the dialects of English used in the former British Empire are often, to various
extents, based on British English, most of the countries concerned have
developed their own unique dialects, particularly with respect to
pronunciation, idioms, and vocabulary; chief among them are Canadian English
and Australian English, which rank third and fourth in number of native
speakers if Indian English and the English of other countries of Asia and
Africa are disregarded.vocabularies of American English and North American
English regional phonologymany ways, compared to English English, North
American English is conservative in its phonology. Some distinctive accents can
be found on the East Coast (for example, in Eastern New England and New York
City), partly because these areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious
varieties of British English at a time when those varieties were undergoing
changes. In addition, many speech communities on the East Coast have existed in
their present locations longer than others. The interior of the United States,
however, was settled by people from all regions of the existing United States
and, therefore, developed a far more generic linguistic pattern.red areas are
those where non-rhotic pronunciations are found among some white people in the
United States. AAVE-influenced non-rhotic pronunciations may be found among
black people throughout the country.North American speech is rhotic, as English
was in most places in the 17th century. Rhoticity was further supported by
Hiberno-English, West Country English and Scottish English as well as the fact
most regions of England at this time also had rhotic accents. In most varieties
of North American English, the sound corresponding to the letter r is a
retroflex [ɻ] or alveolar approximant [ɹ] rather than a trill or a tap. The loss
of syllable-final r in North America is confined mostly to the accents of
eastern New England, New York City and surrounding areas and the coastal
portions of the South, and African American Vernacular English. In rural
tidewater Virginia and eastern New England, 'r' is non-rhotic in accented (such
as "bird", "work", "first", "birthday")
as well as unaccented syllables, although this is declining among the younger
generation of speakers. Dropping of syllable-final r sometimes happens in
natively rhotic dialects if r is located in unaccented syllables or words and
the next syllable or word begins in a consonant. In England, the lost r was
often changed into [ə] (schwa), giving rise to a new class of falling
diphthongs. Furthermore, the er sound of fur or butter, is realized in AmE as a
monophthongal r-colored vowel (stressed [ɝ] or unstressed [ɚ] as represented in the IPA). This does
not happen in the non-rhotic varieties of North American speech.other English
English changes in which most North American dialects do not participate:
• The
shift of /æ/
to /ɑ/ (the so-called "broad
A") before /f/, /s/, /θ/, /ð/, /z/, /v/ alone or preceded
by a homorganic nasal. This is the difference between the British Received
Pronunciation and American pronunciation of bath and dance. In the United
States, only eastern New England speakers took up this modification, although
even there it is becoming increasingly rare.
• The
realization of intervocalic /t/ as a glottal stop [ʔ] (as in [bɒʔəl] for bottle). This change is not
universal for British English and is not considered a feature of Received
Pronunciation. This is not a property of most North American dialects.
Newfoundland English is a notable exception.the other hand, North American
English has undergone some sound changes not found in the standard varieties of
English speech:
• The
merger of /ɑ/ and /ɒ/, making father and bother rhyme. This
change is nearly universal in North American English, occurring almost
everywhere except for parts of eastern New England, hence the Boston accent.
• The
merger of /ɒ/ and /ɔ/. This is the so-called cot-caught
merger, where cot and caught are homophones. This change has occurred in
eastern New England, in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas, and from the Great
Plains westward.
• For
speakers who do not merge caught and cot: The replacement of the cot vowel with
the caught vowel before voiceless fricatives (as in cloth, off [which is found
in some old-fashioned varieties of RP]), as well as before /ŋ/ (as in
strong, long), usually in gone, often in on, and irregularly before /ɡ/ (log, hog, dog, fog [which is not found
in British English at all]).
• The
replacement of the lot vowel with the strut vowel in most utterances of the
words was, of, from, what and in many utterances of the words everybody,
nobody, somebody, anybody; the word because has either /ʌ/ or /ɔ/; want has normally /ɔ/ or /ɑ/, sometimes /ʌ/.Vowel merger before intervocalic /ɹ/. Which vowels are affected varies
between dialects, but the Mary-marry-merry, nearer-mirror, and hurry-furry
mergers are all widespread. Another such change is the laxing of /e/, /i/ and
/u/ to /ɛ/, /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ before /ɹ/, causing pronunciations like [pɛɹ], [pɪɹ] and [pjʊɹ] for pair, peer and pure. The resulting
sound [ʊɹ] is often further reduced to [ɝ], especially after palatals, so that
cure, pure, mature and sure rhyme with fir.
• Dropping
of /j/ is more extensive than in RP. In most North American accents, /j/ is
dropped after all alveolar and interdental consonant, so that new, duke,
Tuesday,resume are pronounced /nu/, /duk/, /tuzdeɪ/, /ɹɪzum/.
• æ-tensing
in environments that vary widely from accent to accent; for example, for many
speakers, /æ/
is approximately realized as [eə] before nasal consonants. In some
accents, particularly those from Philadelphia to New York City, [æ]
and [eə] can even contrast sometimes, as in Yes, I can [kæn]
vs. tin can [keən].
• The
flapping of intervocalic /t/ and /d/ to alveolar tap [ɾ] before unstressed vowels (as in butter,
party) and syllabic /l/ (bottle), as well as at the end of a word or morpheme
before any vowel (what else, whatever). Thus, for most speakers, pairs such as
ladder/latter, metal/medal, and coating/coding are pronounced the same. For
many speakers, this merger is incomplete and does not occur after /aɪ/; these speakers tend to pronounce writer
with [əɪ] and rider with [aɪ]. This is a form of Canadian raising but,
unlike more extreme forms of that process, does not affect /aʊ/. In some areas and idiolects, a phonemic
distinction between what elsewhere become homophones through this process is
maintained by vowel lengthening in the vowel preceding the formerly voiced
consonant, e.g., [læ:•ɾɹ̩] for "ladder" as
opposed to [læ•ɾɹ̩]
for "latter".
• Both
intervocalic /nt/ and /n/ may be realized as [n] or [ɾ̃],
rarely making winter and winner homophones. Most areas in which /nt/ is reduced to /n/, it is accompanied
further by nasalization of simple post-vocalic /n/, so that V/nt/ and V/n/
remain phonemically distinct. In such cases, the preceding vowel becomes
nasalized, and is followed in cases where the former /nt/ was present, by a
distinct /n/. This stop-absorption by the preceding nasal /n/ does not occur
when the second syllable is stressed, as in entail.
• The
pin-pen merger, by which [ɛ]
is raised to [ɪ] before nasal consonants,
making pairs like pen/pin homophonous. This merger originated in Southern
American English but is now also sometimes found in parts of the Midwest and
West as well, especially in people with roots in the mountainous areas of the
Southeastern United States.mergers found in most varieties of both American and
British English include:
• The
merger of the vowels /ɔ/
and /o/ before 'r', making pairs like horse/hoarse, corps/core, for/four,
morning/mourning, etc. homophones.
• The
wine-whine merger making pairs like wine/whine, wet/whet, Wales/whales,
wear/where, etc. homophones, in most cases eliminating /hw/, the voiceless
labiovelar fricative. Many older varieties of southern and western AmE still
keep these distinct, but the merger appears to be spreading.written AmE is
standardized across the country, there are several recognizable variations in
the spoken language, both in pronunciation and in vernacular vocabulary.
General American is the name given to any American accent that is relatively
free of noticeable regional influences.the Civil War, the settlement of the
western territories by migrants from the Eastern U.S. led to dialect mixing and
leveling, so that regional dialects are most strongly differentiated along the
Eastern seaboard. The Connecticut River and Long Island Sound is usually
regarded as the southern/western extent of New England speech, which has its
roots in the speech of the Puritans from East Anglia who settled in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Potomac River generally divides a group of
Northern coastal dialects from the beginning of the Coastal Southern dialect
area; in between these two rivers several local variations exist, chief among
them the one that prevails in and around New York City and northern New Jersey,
which developed on a Dutch substratum after the British conquered New
Amsterdam. The main features of Coastal Southern speech can be traced to the
speech of the English from the West Country who settled in Virginia after
leaving England at the time of the English Civil War, and to the African
influences from the African Americans who were enslaved in the South.no longer
region-specific, African American Vernacular English, which remains prevalent
among African Americans, has a close relationship to Southern varieties of AmE
and has greatly influenced everyday speech of many Americans.distinctive speech
pattern also appears near the border between Canada and the United States,
centered on the Great Lakes region (but only on the American side). This is the
Inland North Dialect-the "standard Midwestern" speech that was the
basis for General American in the mid-20th Century (although it has been
recently modified by the northern cities vowel shift). Those not from this area
frequently confuse it with the North Midland dialect treated below, referring
to both collectively as "Midwestern" in the mid-Atlantic region or
"Northern" in the Southern US. The so-called '"Minnesotan"
dialect is also prevalent in the cultural Upper Midwest, and is characterized
by influences from the German and Scandinavian settlers of the region (yah for
yes/ja in German, pronounced the same way).the interior, the situation is very
different. West of the Appalachian Mountains begins the broad zone of what is
generally called "Midland" speech. This is divided into two discrete
subdivisions, the North Midland that begins north of the Ohio River valley
area, and the South Midland speech; sometimes the former is designated simply
"Midland" and the latter is reckoned as "Highland Southern."
The North Midland speech continues to expand westward until it becomes the
closely related Western dialect which contains Pacific Northwest English as
well as the well-known California English, although in the immediate San
Francisco area some older speakers do not possess the cot-caught merger and
thus retain the distinction between words such as cot and caught which reflects
a historical Mid-Atlantic heritage.South Midland or Highland Southern dialect
follows the Ohio River in a generally southwesterly direction, moves across
Arkansas and Oklahoma west of the Mississippi, and peters out in West Texas. It
is a version of the Midland speech that has assimilated some coastal Southern
forms (outsiders often mistakenly believe South Midland speech and coastal
South speech to be the same).island state of Hawaii has a distinctive Hawaiian
Pidgin., dialect development in the United States has been notably influenced
by the distinctive speech of such important cultural centers as Boston,
Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Charleston, New Orleans, New York
City, and Detroit, which imposed their marks on the surrounding areas.
.2
American and British English Lexical Differences
America
has given the English lexicon many thousands of words, meanings, and phrases.
Several thousand are now used in English as spoken internationally; others,
however, died within a few years of their creation.of an American
lexiconprocess of coining new lexical items started as soon as the colonists
began borrowing names for unfamiliar flora, fauna, and topography from the
Native American languages. Examples of such names are opossum, raccoon, squash
and moose (from Algonquian). Other Native American loanwords, such as wigwam or
moccasin, describe artificial objects in common use among Native Americans. The
languages of the other colonizing nations also added to the American
vocabulary; for instance, cookie, cruller, stoop, and pit (of a fruit) from
Dutch; levee, portage ("carrying of boats or goods") and (probably) gopher
from French; barbecue, stevedore, and rodeo from Spanish.the earliest and most
notable regular "English" additions to the American vocabulary,
dating from the early days of colonization through the early 19th century, are
terms describing the features of the North American landscape; for instance,
run, branch, fork, snag, bluff, gulch, neck (of the woods), barrens,
bottomland, notch, knob, riffle, rapids, watergap, cutoff, trail, timberline
and divide. Already existing words such as creek, slough, sleet and (in later
use) watershed received new meanings that were unknown in England.noteworthy
American toponyms are found among loanwords; for example, prairie, butte
(French); bayou (Choctaw via Louisiana French); coulee (Canadian French, but
used also in Louisiana with a different meaning); canyon, mesa, arroyo
(Spanish); vlei, kill (Dutch, Hudson Valley).word corn, used in England to
refer to wheat (or any cereal), came to denote the plant Zea mays, the most
important crop in the U.S., originally named Indian corn by the earliest
settlers; wheat, rye, barley, oats, etc. came to be collectively referred to as
grain (or breadstuffs). Other notable farm related vocabulary additions were
the new meanings assumed by barn (not only a building for hay and grain
storage, but also for housing livestock) and team (not just the horses, but
also the vehicle along with them), as well as, in various periods, the terms
range, (corn) crib, truck, elevator, sharecropping and feedlot., later applied
to a house style, derives from Mexican Spanish; most Spanish contributions came
after the War of 1812, with the opening of the West. Among these are, other
than toponyms, chaps (from chaparreras), plaza, lasso, bronco, buckaroo, rodeo;
examples of "English" additions from the cowboy era are bad man,
maverick, chuck ("food") and Boot Hill; from the California Gold Rush
came such idioms as hit pay dirt or strike it rich. The word blizzard probably
originated in the West. A couple of notable late 18th century additions are the
verb belittle and the noun bid, both first used in writing by Thomas
Jefferson.the new continent developed new forms of dwelling, and hence a large
inventory of words designating real estate concepts (land office, lot,
outlands, waterfront, the verbs locate and relocate, betterment, addition,
subdivision), types of property (log cabin, adobe in the 18th century; frame
house, apartment, tenement house, shack, shanty in the 19th century; project,
condominium, townhouse, split-level, mobile home, multi-family in the 20th century),
and parts thereof (driveway, breezeway, backyard, dooryard; clapboard, siding,
trim, baseboard; stoop (from Dutch), family room, den; and, in recent years,
HVAC, central air, walkout basement).since the American Revolution, a great
number of terms connected with the U.S. political institutions have entered the
language; examples are run, gubernatorial, primary election, carpetbagger
(after the Civil War), repeater, lame duck and pork barrel. Some of these are
internationally used (e.g. caucus, gerrymander, filibuster, exit poll).rise of
capitalism, the development of industry and material innovations throughout the
19th and 20th centuries were the source of a massive stock of distinctive new
words, phrases and idioms. Typical examples are the vocabulary of railroading
(see further at rail terminology) and transportation terminology, ranging from
names of roads (from dirt roads and back roads to freeways and parkways) to
road infrastructure (parking lot, overpass, rest area), and from automotive
terminology to public transit (e.g. in the sentence "riding the subway
downtown"); such American introductions as commuter (from commutation
ticket), concourse, to board (a vehicle), to park, double-park and parallel
park (a car), double decker or the noun terminal have long been used in all
dialects of English. Trades of various kinds have endowed (American) English
with household words describing jobs and occupations (bartender, longshoreman,
patrolman, hobo, bouncer, bellhop, roustabout, white collar, blue collar,
employee, boss [from Dutch], intern, busboy, mortician, senior citizen),
businesses and workplaces (department store, supermarket, thrift store, gift
shop, drugstore, motel, main street, gas station, hardware store, savings and
loan, hock [also from Dutch]), as well as general concepts and innovations
(automated teller machine, smart card, cash register, dishwasher, reservation
[as at hotels], pay envelope, movie, mileage, shortage, outage, blood
bank).existing English words -such as store, shop, dry goods, haberdashery,
lumber- underwent shifts in meaning; some -such as mason, student, clerk, the
verbs can (as in "canned goods"), ship, fix, carry, enroll (as in
school), run (as in "run a business"), release and haul- were given
new significations, while others (such as tradesman) have retained meanings
that disappeared in England. From the world of business and finance came
breakeven, merger, delisting, downsize, disintermediation, bottom line; from
sports terminology came, jargon aside, Monday-morning quarterback, cheap shot,
game plan (football); in the ballpark, out of left field, off base, hit and
run, and many other idioms from baseball; gamblers coined bluff, blue chip,
ante, bottom dollar, raw deal, pass the buck, ace in the hole, freeze-out,
showdown; miners coined bedrock, bonanza, peter out, pan out and the verb
prospect from the noun; and railroadmen are to be credited with make the grade,
sidetrack, head-on, and the verb railroad. A number of Americanisms describing
material innovations remained largely confined to North America: elevator,
ground, gasoline; many automotive terms fall in this category, although many do
not (hatchback, SUV, station wagon, tailgate, motorhome, truck, pickup truck,
to exhaust).addition to the above-mentioned loans from French, Spanish, Mexican
Spanish, Dutch, and Native American languages, other accretions from foreign
languages came with 19th and early 20th century immigration; notably, from
Yiddish (chutzpah, schmooze, tush and such idioms as need something like a hole
in the head) and German -hamburger and culinary terms like frankfurter/franks,
liverwurst, sauerkraut, wiener, deli(catessen); scram, kindergarten,
gesundheit; musical terminology (whole note, half note, etc.); and apparently
cookbook, fresh ("impudent") and what gives? Such constructions as
Are you coming with? and I like to dance (for "I like dancing") may
also be the result of German or Yiddish influence. Finally, a large number of
English colloquialisms from various periods are American in origin; some have
lost their American flavor (from OK and cool to nerd and 24/7), while others
have not (have a nice day, sure); many are now distinctly old-fashioned (swell,
groovy). Some English words now in general use, such as hijacking, disc jockey,
boost, bulldoze and jazz, originated as American slang. Among the many English
idioms of U.S. origin are get the hang of, take for a ride, bark up the wrong
tree, keep tabs, run scared, take a backseat, have an edge over, stake a claim,
take a shine to, in on the ground floor, bite off more than one can chew,
off/on the wagon, stay put, inside track, stiff upper lip, bad hair day, throw
a monkey wrench, under the weather, jump bail, come clean, come again?, it
ain't over till it's over, what goes around comes around, and will the real x
please stand up?words that survived in the United Statesnumber of words and
meanings that originated in Middle English or Early Modern English and that
always have been in everyday use in the United States dropped out in most
varieties of British English; some of these have cognates in Lowland Scots.
Terms such as fall ("autumn"), pavement (to mean "road
surface", where in Britain, as in Philadelphia, it is the equivalent of
"sidewalk"), faucet, diaper, candy, skillet, eyeglasses, crib (for a
baby), obligate, and raise a child are often regarded as Americanisms. Fall for
example came to denote the season in 16th century England, a contraction of
Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of
the year". During the 17th century, English immigration to the colonies in
North America was at its peak, and the new settlers took their language with
them, and while the term fall gradually became obsolete in Britain, it became
the more common term in North America. Gotten (past participle of get) is often
considered to be an Americanism, although there are some areas of Britain, such
as Lancashire and North-eastern England, that still continue to use it and
sometimes also use putten as the past participle for put (which is not done by
most speakers of American English).words and meanings, to various extents, were
brought back to Britain, especially in the second half of the 20th century;
these include hire ("to employ"), quit ("to stop," which
spawned quitter in the U.S.), I guess (famously criticized by H. W. Fowler),
baggage, hit (a place), and the adverbs overly and presently
("currently"). Some of these, for example monkey wrench and
wastebasket, originated in 19th-century Britain.mandative subjunctive (as in
"the City Attorney suggested that the case not be closed") is
livelier in AmE than it is in British English; it appears in some areas as a
spoken usage, and is considered obligatory in contexts that are more formal.
The adjectives mad meaning "angry", smart meaning
"intelligent", and sick meaning "ill" are also more
frequent in American than British English.of the differences in lexis or
vocabulary between British and American English are in connection with concepts
originating from the 19th century to the mid 20th century, when new words were
coined independently. Almost the entire vocabularies of the car/automobile and
railway/railroad industries (see Rail terminology) are different between the UK
and US, for example. Other sources of difference are slang or vulgar terms,
where frequent new coinage occurs, and idiomatic phrases, including phrasal
verbs. The differences most likely to create confusion are those where the same
word or phrase is used for two different concepts. Regional variations, even
within the US or the UK, can create the same problems.is not a straightforward
matter to classify differences of vocabulary. David Crystal identifies some of
the problems of classification on the facing page to his list of American
English/British English lexical variation, and states "this should be
enough to suggest caution when working through an apparently simple list of
equivalents".the influence of cross-culture media has done much to
familiarize BrE and AmE speakers with each other's regional words and terms,
many words are still recognized as part of a single form of English. Though the
use of a British word would be acceptable in AmE (and vice versa), most
listeners would recognize the word as coming from the other form of English,
and treat it much the same as a word borrowed from any other language. For
instance, an American using the word chap or mate to refer to a friend would be
heard in much the same way as an American using the Spanish word amigo.and
phrases which have their origins BrEspeakers of AmE are aware of some BrE
terms, although they might not generally use them, or may be confused as to
whether someone intends the American or British meaning (such as for biscuit).
They will be able to guess approximately what some others, such as “driving
licence,” mean. However, use of many other British words such as naff
(unstylish, though commonly used to mean "not very good"), risks
rendering a sentence incomprehensible to most Americans.and phrases which have
their origins AmEof BrE are likely to understand most AmE terms, examples such
as 'sidewalk', 'gas (gasoline/petrol)', 'counterclockwise', or 'elevator
(lift)', without any problem. Certain terms which are heard less frequently,
eg. 'copacetic (satisfactory)', are unlikely to be understood by most BrE
speakers.and phrases with different meaningssuch as bill (AmE "paper
money", BrE and AmE "invoice") and biscuit (AmE: BrE's
"scone", BrE: AmE's "cookie") are used regularly in both
AmE and BrE, but mean different things in each form As chronicled by Winston
Churchill, the opposite meanings of the verb to table created a
misunderstanding during a meeting of the Allied forces; in BrE to table an item
on an agenda means to open it up for discussion, whereas in AmE, it means to
remove it from discussion.word "football" in BrE refers to
Association football, also known as soccer. In AmE, "football" means
American football., the word "hockey" in BrE refers to field hockey,
while in AmE "hockey" means ice hockey.with completely different
meanings are relatively few; most of the time, there are either (1) words with
one or more shared meanings and one or more meanings unique to one variety
(e.g. bathroom and toilet) or (2) words whose meanings are actually common to
both BrE and AmE, but which show differences in frequency, connotation, or
denotation (e.g. smart, clever, mad).differences in usage and/or meaning can
cause confusion or embarrassment. For example, the word fanny is a slang word
for vagina in BrE (often used by small children) but simply means buttocks in
AmE - the AmE phrase fanny pack is called a bum bag in BrE. In AmE the word fag
(short for faggot) is a highly offensive term for a gay male, but in BrE it is
also a normal and well-used term for a cigarette. In AmE the word pissed means
being annoyed, where as in BrE it refers to being drunk (in both varieties,
pissed off means irritated).the confusion is more subtle. In AmE the word quite
used as a qualifier is generally a reinforcement: e.g. "I'm quite
hungry" means "I'm very hungry". In BrE quite (which is much
more common in conversation) can have this meaning, as in "quite
right", "quite mad" or "I enjoyed that quite a lot",
but it more commonly means "somewhat", so that in BrE "I'm quite
hungry" can mean "I'm somewhat hungry" - and this divergence of
use can lead to misunderstanding.
• In
the UK, the word whilst is historically acceptable as a conjunction (as an
alternative to while, especially prevalent in some dialects). In AmE only while
is used in both contexts.
• In
the UK, generally the term fall meaning "autumn" is obsolete.
Although found often from Elizabethan to Victorian literature, continued
understanding of the word is usually ascribed to its continued use in America.
• In
the UK, the term period for a full stop is now obsolete, while in AmE the term
full stop is rarely, if ever, used for the punctuation mark. For example, Tony
Blair said, "Terrorism is wrong, full stop", whereas in AmE,
"Terrorism is wrong, period."
.3
Grammatical Peculiarities of American and British English
English
has always shown a marked tendency to use nouns as verbs. Examples of verbed
nouns are interview, advocate, vacuum, lobby, room, pressure, rear-end,
transition, feature, profile, belly-ache, spearhead, skyrocket, showcase,
service (as a car), corner, torch, exit (as in "exit the lobby"),
factor (in mathematics), gun ("shoot"), author (which disappeared in
English around 1630 and was revived in the U.S. three centuries later) and, out
of American material, proposition, graft (bribery), bad-mouth, vacation, major,
backpack, backtrack, intern, ticket (traffic violations), hassle, blacktop,
peer-review, dope and OD.coined in the U.S. are for instance foothill,
flatlands, badlands, landslide (in all senses), overview (the noun), backdrop,
teenager, brainstorm, bandwagon, hitchhike, smalltime, deadbeat, frontman,
lowbrow and highbrow, hell-bent, foolproof, nitpick, about-face (later verbed),
upfront (in all senses), fixer-upper, no-show; many of these are phrases used
as adverbs or (often) hyphenated attributive adjectives: non-profit, for-profit,
free-for-all, ready-to-wear, catchall, low-down, down-and-out, down and dirty,
in-your-face, nip and tuck; many compound nouns and adjectives are open: happy
hour, fall guy, capital gain, road trip, wheat pit, head start, plea bargain;
some of these are colorful (empty nester, loan shark, ambulance chaser, buzz
saw, ghetto blaster, dust bunny), others are euphemistic (differently abled,
human resources, physically challenged, affirmative action, correctional
facility).compound nouns have the form verb plus preposition: add-on, stopover,
lineup, shakedown, tryout, spin-off, rundown ("summary"), shootout,
holdup, hideout, comeback, cookout, kickback, makeover, takeover, rollback
("decrease"), rip-off, come-on, shoo-in, fix-up, tie-in, tie-up
("stoppage"), stand-in. These essentially are nouned phrasal verbs;
some prepositional and phrasal verbs are in fact of American origin (spell out,
figure out, hold up, brace up, size up, rope in, back up/off/down/out, step
down, miss out on, kick around, cash in, rain out, check in and check out (in
all senses), fill in ("inform"), kick in ("contribute"),
square off, sock in, sock away, factor in/out, come down with, give up on, lay
off (from employment), run into and across ("meet"), stop by, pass
up, put up (money), set up ("frame"), trade in, pick up on, pick up
after, lose out. Noun endings such as -ee (retiree), -ery (bakery), -ster
(gangster) and -cian (beautician) are also particularly productive. Some verbs
ending in -ize are of U.S. origin; for example, fetishize, prioritize,
burglarize, accessorize, itemize, editorialize, customize, notarize,
weatherize, winterize, Mirandize; and so are some back-formations (locate,
fine-tune, evolute, curate, donate, emote, upholster, peeve and enthuse). Among
syntactical constructions that arose in the U.S. are as of (with dates and
times), outside of, headed for, meet up with, back of, convince someone to…,
not to be about to and lack for.formed by alteration of existing words include
notably pesky, phony, rambunctious, pry (as in "pry open," from
prize), putter (verb), buddy, sundae, skeeter, sashay and kitty-corner.
Adjectives that arose in the U.S. are for example, lengthy, bossy, cute and
cutesy, grounded (of a child), punk (in all senses), sticky (of the weather), through
(as in "through train," or meaning "finished"), and many
colloquial forms such as peppy or wacky. American blends include motel,
guesstimate, infomercial and televangelist.and notional agreementBrE,
collective nouns can take either singular (formal agreement) or plural
(notional agreement) verb forms, according to whether the emphasis is,
respectively, on the body as a whole or on the individual members; compare a
committee was appointed... with the committee were unable to agree.... The term
the Government always takes a plural verb in British civil service convention,
perhaps to emphasise the principle of collective responsibility. Compare also
the following lines of Elvis Costello's song "Oliver's Army":
Oliver's Army are on their way / Oliver's Army is here to stay. Some of these
nouns, for example staff, actually combine with plural verbs most of the
time.AmE, collective nouns are usually singular in construction: the committee
was unable to agree... AmE however may use plural pronouns in agreement with
collective nouns: the team takes their seats, rather than the team takes its
seats. The rule of thumb is that a group acting as a unit is considered
singular and a group of "individuals acting separately" is considered
plural. However, such a sentence would most likely be recast as the team
members take their seats. Despite exceptions such as usage in the New York
Times, the names of sports teams are usually treated as plurals even if the
form of the name is singular.difference occurs for all nouns of multitude, both
general terms such as team and company and proper nouns (for example, where a
place name is used to refer to a sports team). For instance,: The Clash are a
well-known band; AmE: The Clash is a well-known band.: Pittsburgh are the
champions; AmE: Pittsburgh is the champion.nouns that are plural in form take a
plural verb in both AmE and BrE; for example, The Beatles are a well-known
band; The Steelers are the champions.morphologyirregular verbs
• The
past tense and past participle of the verbs learn, spoil, spell, burn, dream,
smell, spill, leap, and others, can be either irregular (learnt, spoilt, etc.)
or regular (learned, spoiled, etc.). In BrE, both irregular and regular forms
are current, but for some words (such as smelt and leapt) there is a strong
tendency towards the irregular forms, especially by users of Received
Pronunciation. For other words (such as dreamed, leaned and learned) the
regular forms are somewhat more common. In AmE, the irregular forms are never
or rarely used (except for burnt and leapt).t endings may be encountered
frequently in older American texts. Usage may vary when the past participles
are used as adjectives, as in burnt toast. (The two-syllable form learnèd /ˈlɜrnɪd/, usually written without the grave, is
used as an adjective to mean "educated" or to refer to academic
institutions, in both BrE and AmE.) Finally, the past tense and past participle
of dwell and kneel are more commonly dwelt and knelt in both standards, with
dwelled and kneeled as common variants in the US but not in the UK.
• Lit
as the past tense of light is more common than lighted in the UK; the regular
form is used more in the US, but is nonetheless less common than lit.
Conversely, fit as the past tense of fit is more widely used in AmE than BrE,
which generally favors fitted.
• The
past tense of spit "expectorate" is spat in BrE, spit or spat in AmE.
AmE typically has spat in figurative contexts, e.g. "he spat out the name
with a sneer", but spit for "expectorated".
• The
past participle of saw is normally sawn in BrE and sawed in AmE (as in
sawn-off/sawed-off shotgun).The past participle gotten is never used in modern
BrE, which generally uses got, except in old expressions such as ill-gotten
gains. According to the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, "The form
gotten is not used in British English but is very common in North American
English, though even there it is often regarded as non-standard." In AmE,
gotten emphasizes the action of acquiring and got tends to indicate simple possession
(for example, Have you gotten it? versus Have you got it?). Gotten is also
typically used in AmE as the past participle for phrasal verbs using get, such
as get off, get on, get into, get up, and get around: If you hadn't gotten up
so late, you might not have gotten into this mess. Interestingly, AmE, but not
BrE, has forgot as a less common alternative to forgotten for the past
participle of forget.
• In
BrE, the past participle proved is strongly preferred to proven; in AmE, proven
is now about as common as proved. (Both dialects use proven as an adjective,
and in formulas such as not proven).
• AmE
further allows other irregular verbs, such as dive (dove) or sneak (snuck), and
often mixes the preterit and past participle forms (spring-sprang, US also
sprung-sprung), sometimes forcing verbs such as shrink (shrank-shrunk) to have
a further form, thus shrunk-shrunken. These uses are often considered
nonstandard; the AP Stylebook in AmE treats some irregular verbs as
colloquialisms, insisting on the regular forms for the past tense of dive,
plead and sneak. Dove and snuck are usually considered nonstandard in Britain,
although dove exists in some British dialects and snuck is occasionally found
in British speech.
• By
extension of the irregular verb pattern, verbs with irregular preterits in some
variants of colloquial AmE also have a separate past participle, for example,
"to buy": past tense bought spawns boughten. Such formations are
highly irregular from speaker to speaker, or even within idiolects. This phenomenon
is found chiefly in the northern US and other areas where immigrants of German
descent are predominant, and may have developed as a result of German
influence. Even in areas where the feature predominates, however, it has not
gained widespread acceptance as standard usage.of tenses
• Traditionally,
BrE uses the present perfect tense to talk about an event in the recent past
and with the words already, just, and yet. In American usage, these meanings
can be expressed with the present perfect (to express a factor the simple past
(to imply an expectation). This American style has become widespread only in
the past 20 to 30 years; the British style is still in common use as well.
Recently, the American use of just with simple past has made inroads into BrE,
most visibly in advertising slogans and headlines such as "Cable broadband
just got faster". "I've just arrived home." / "I just
arrived home." "I've already eaten." / "I already
ate."
• Similarly,
AmE occasionally replaces the pluperfect with the preterite.
• In
BrE, have got or have can be used for possession and have got to and have to
can be used for the modal of necessity. The forms that include ‘‘got’’ are
usually used in informal contexts and the forms without got in contexts that
are more formal. In American speech the form without got is used more than in
the UK, although the form with got is often used for emphasis. Colloquial AmE
informally uses got as a verb for these meanings - for example, I got two cars,
I got to go.
• In
conditional sentences, US spoken usage often substitutes would and would have
(usually shortened to [I]'d and [I]'d have) for the simple past and for the
pluperfect (If you'd leave now, you'd be on time. / If I would have [I'd've]
cooked the pie we could have [could've] had it for lunch). This tends to be
avoided in writing because it is often still considered non-standard although such
use of would is widespread in spoken US English in all sectors of society. Some
reliable sources now label this usage as acceptable US English and no longer
label it as colloquial. (There are, of course, situations where would is used
in British English too in seemingly counterfactual conditions, but these can
usually be interpreted as a modal use of would: If you would listen to me once
in a while, you might learn something. In cases in which the action in the if
clause takes place after that in the main clause, use of would in
counterfactual conditions is however considered standard and correct usage in
even formal UK and US usage: If it would make Bill happy, I'd [I would] give
him the money.
• The
subjunctive mood (morphologically identical with the bare infinitive) is
regularly used in AmE in mandative clauses (as in They suggested that he apply
for the job). In BrE, this usage declined in the 20th century, in favor of
constructions such as They suggested that he should apply for the job (or even,
more ambiguously, They suggested that he applied for the job). Apparently,
however, the mandative subjunctive has recently started to come back into use
in BrE.auxiliaries
• Shall
(as opposed to will) is more commonly used by the British than by Americans. Shan't
is almost never used in AmE (almost invariably replaced by won't or am not
going to), and is increasingly rare in BrE as well. American grammar also tends
to ignore some traditional distinctions between should and would; however,
expressions like I should be happy are rather formal even in BrE.
• The
periphrastic future (be going to) is about twice as frequent in AmE as in
BrE.following verbs show differences in transitivity between BrE and AmE.
• agree:
Transitive or intransitive in BrE, usually intransitive in AmE (agree a
contract/agree to or on a contract). However, in formal AmE legal writing one
often sees constructions like as may be agreed between the parties (rather than
as may be agreed upon between the parties).
• appeal
(as a decision): Usually intransitive in BrE (used with against) and transitive
in AmE (appeal against the decision to the Court/appeal the decision to the
Court).
• catch
up ("to reach and overtake"): Transitive or intransitive in BrE,
strictly intransitive in AmE (to catch sb up/to catch up with sb). A transitive
form does exist in AmE, but has a different meaning: to catch sb up means that
the subject will help the object catch up, rather the opposite of the BrE
transitive meaning. In other words, the subject acts more like an indirect
object.
• cater
("to provide food and service"): Intransitive in BrE, transitive in
AmE (to cater for a banquet/to cater a banquet).
• claim:
Sometimes intransitive in BrE (used with for), strictly transitive in AmE.
• meet:
AmE uses intransitively meet followed by with to mean "to have a meeting
with", as for business purposes (Yesterday we met with the CEO), and
reserves transitive meet for the meanings "to be introduced to" (I
want you to meet the CEO; she is such a fine lady), "to come together with
(someone, somewhere)" (Meet the CEO at the train station), and "to
have a casual encounter with". BrE uses transitive meet also to mean
"to have a meeting with"; the construction meet with, which actually
dates back to Middle English, appears to be coming back into use in Britain,
despite some commentators who preferred to avoid confusion with meet with
meaning "receive, undergo" (the proposal was met with disapproval).
The construction meet up with (as in to meet up with someone), which originated
in the US, has long been standard in both dialects.
• provide:
Strictly monotransitive in BrE, monotransitive or ditransitive in AmE (provide
sb with sth/provide sb sth).
• protest:
In sense "oppose", intransitive in BrE, transitive in AmE (The
workers protested against the decision/The workers protested the decision). The
intransitive protest against in AmE means, "to hold or participate in a
demonstration against". The older sense "proclaim" is always
transitive (protest one's innocence).
• write:
In BrE, the indirect object of this verb usually requires the preposition to,
for example, I'll write to my MP or I'll write to her (although it is not
required in some situations, for example when an indirect object pronoun comes
before a direct object noun, for example, I'll write her a letter). In AmE,
write can be used monotransitively (I'll write my congressman; I'll write him).
• The
verbs prevent and stop can be found in two different constructions:
"prevent/stop someone from doing something" and "prevent/stop
someone doing something". The latter is well established in BrE, but not
in AmE.
• Some
verbs can take either a to+infinitive construction or a gerund construction
(e.g., to start to do something/doing something). For example, the gerund is
more common: In AmE than BrE, with start, begin, omit, enjoy; In BrE than
AmE, with love, like, intend.or absence of syntactic elements
• Where
a statement of intention involves two separate activities, it is acceptable for
speakers of AmE to use to go plus bare infinitive. Speakers of BrE would
instead use to go and plus bare infinitive. Thus, where a speaker of AmE might
say I'll go take a bath, BrE speakers would say I'll go and have a bath. (Both
can also use the form to go to instead to suggest that the action may fail, as
in He went to take/have a bath, but the bath was full of children.) Similarly,
to come plus bare infinitive is acceptable to speakers of AmE, where speakers
of BrE would instead use to come and plus bare infinitive. Thus, where a
speaker of AmE might say come see what I bought, BrE speakers would say come
and see what I've bought (notice the present perfect tense: a common British
preference).
• Use
of prepositions before days denoted by a single word. Where British people
would say She resigned on Thursday, Americans often say She resigned Thursday,
but both forms are common in American usage. Occasionally, the preposition is
also absent when referring to months: I'll be here December (although this
usage is generally limited to colloquial speech).
• In
the UK, from is used with single dates and times more often than in the United
States. Where British speakers and writers may say the new museum will be open
from Tuesday, Americans most likely say the new museum will be open starting
Tuesday. (This difference does not apply to phrases of the pattern from A to B,
which are used in both BrE and AmE.) A variation or alternative of this is the
mostly American the play opens Tuesday and the mostly British the play opens on
Tuesday.
• American
legislators and lawyers always use the preposition of between the name of a
legislative act and the year it was passed, while their British colleagues do
not. Compare Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to Disability
Discrimination Act 1995.definite article
• A
few 'institutional' nouns take no definite article when a certain role is
implied: for example, at sea (as a sailor), in prison (as a convict), and at/in
college (for students). Among this group, BrE has in hospital (as a patient)
and at university (as a student), where AmE requires in the hospital and at the
university (though AmE does allow at college and in school). When the implied
roles of patient or student do not apply, the definite article is used in both
dialects.
• Likewise,
BrE distinguishes in future ("from now on") from in the future
("at some future time"); AmE uses in the future for both senses.
• AmE
omits, and BrE requires, the definite article in a few standard expressionssuch
as tell (the) time.
• In
BrE, numbered highways usually take the definite article (for example "the
M25", "the A14") while in America they usually do not
("I-495", "Route 66"). Upstate New York, Southern
California and Arizona are exceptions, where "the 33", "the
5" or "the 10" are the standard. A similar pattern is followed
for named roads (for example, Strand in London is almost always referred to as
the Strand), but in America, there are local variations and older American
highways tend to follow the British pattern ("the Boston Post Road").
• AmE
distinguishes in back of [behind] from in the back of; the former is unknown in
the UK and liable to misinterpretation as the latter. Both, however,
distinguish in front of from in the front of.
• In
the United States, the word through can mean "up to and including" as
in Monday through Friday. In the UK Monday to Friday, or Monday to Friday
inclusive is used instead; Monday through to Friday is also sometimes used. (In
some parts of Northern England the term while can be used in the same way, as
in Monday while Friday, whereas in Northern Ireland Monday till Friday would be
more natural.)
• British
sportsmen play in a team; American athletes play on a team. (Both may play for
a particular team.)
• In
AmE, the use of the function word out as a preposition in out the door and out
the window is standard to mean "out through". For example, in AmE,
one jumps "out of a boat" by jumping "out the porthole,"
and it would be incorrect in standard AmE to "jump out the boat" or
climb "out of the porthole." In BrE, out of is preferred in writing
for both meanings, but out is common in speech. Several other uses of out of
are peculiarly British (out of all recognition, out of the team; cf. above);
all of this notwithstanding, out of is overall more frequent in AmE than in BrE
(about four times as frequent, according to Algeo).
• The
word heat meaning "mating season" is used with on in the UK and with
in in the US.
• The
intransitive verb affiliate can take either with or to in BrE, but only with in
AmE.
• The
verb enrol(l) usually takes on in BrE and in in AmE (as in "to enrol(l)
on/in a course") and the on/in difference is used when enrolled is dropped
(as in "I am (enrolled) on the course that studies....").
• In
AmE, one always speaks of the street on which an address is located, whereas in
BrE in can also be used in some contexts. In suggests an address on a city
street, so a service station (or a tourist attraction or indeed a village)
would always be on a major road, but a department store might be in Oxford
Street. Moreover, if a particular place on the street is specified then the
preposition used is whichever is idiomatic to the place, thus "at the end
of Churchill Road."
• BrE
favours the preposition at with weekend ("at (the) weekend(s)"); the
constructions on, over, and during (the) weekend(s) are found in both varieties
but are all more common in AmE than BrE. See also Word derivation and
compounds.
• Adding
at to the end of a question requesting a location is common in AmE, for
example, "where are you at?", but would be considered superfluous in
BrE. However, some south-western British dialects use to in the same context;
for example "where are you to?", to mean "where are you".
• After
talk American can also use the preposition with but British alwaysuses to (that
is, I'll talk with Dave / I'll talk to Dave). The American form is sometimes
seen as more politically correct in British organisations, inducing the ideal
of discussing (with), as opposed to lecturing (to). This is, of course, unless
talk is being used as a noun, for example: "I'll have a talk with
him" in which case this is acceptable in both BrE and AmE.
• In
both dialects, from is the preposition prescribed for use after the word
different: American English is different from British English in several
respects. However, different than is also commonly heard in the US, and is
often considered standard when followed by a clause (American English is
different than it used to be), whereas different to is a common alternative in
BrE.
• It
is common in BrE to say opposite to as an alternative to opposite of, the only
form normally found in AmE. The use of opposite as a preposition (opposite the
post office) has long been established in both dialects, but appears to be more
common in British usage.
• The
noun opportunity can be followed by a verb in two different ways: opportunity
plus to-infinitive ("the opportunity to do something") or opportunity
plus of plus gerund ("the opportunity of doing something"). The first
construction is the most common in both dialects, but the second has almost
disappeared in AmE and is often regarded as a Briticism.
• Both
British and Americans may say (for example) that a river is named after a
state, but "named for a state" would rightly be regarded as an
Americanism.
• BrE
sometimes uses to with near (we live near to the university), while AmE avoids
the preposition in most usages dealing with literal, physical proximity (we
live near the university), although the to reappears in AmE when near takes the
comparative or superlative form, as in she lives nearer/nearest to the deranged
axe murderer's house.
• In
BrE, one calls (or rings) someone on his or her telephone number; in AmE, one
calls someone at his or her telephone number.
• When
referring to the constituency of a US Senator the preposition "from"
is usually used: "Senator from New York," whereas British MPs are
"for" their constituency: "MP for East Cleveland."
• In
AmE, the phrases aside from and apart from are used about equally; in BrE,
apart from is far more common.
• In
AmE, the compound "off of" may be used where BrE almost always uses
"off". Compare AmE "He jumped off of the box" and BrE
"He jumped off the box".verbs
• In
the US, forms are usually but not invariably filled out, but in Britain they
can also be filled in. However, in reference to individual parts of a form,
Americans may also use in (fill in the blanks). In AmE the direction fill it
all in (referring to the form as a collection of blanks, perhaps) is as common
as fill it all out.
• Britons
facing extortionate prices may have no option but to fork out, whereas
Americans are more likely to fork (it) over or sometimes up; the out usage is
however found in both dialects.
• In
both countries, thugs will beat up their victim; AmE also allows beat on (as
both would for an inanimate object, such as a drum) or beat up on, which are
often considered slang.
• When
an outdoor event is postponed or interrupted by rain, it is rained off in the
UK and rained out in the US.grammatical differences
• In
AmE, some prescriptionists feel that which should not be used as an antecedent
in restrictive relative clauses. According to The Elements of Style (p. 59),
"that is the defining, or restrictive pronoun, which the nondefining, or
nonrestrictive." This distinction was endorsed by Fowler's Modern English
Usage, but the use of which as a restrictive pronoun is common in great
literature produced on both sides of the Atlantic.
• In
names of American rivers, the word river usually comes after the name (for
example, Colorado River), whereas for British rivers it comes before (as in the
River Thames). Exceptions in BrE include the Fleet River, which is rarely
called the River Fleet by Londoners outside of official documentation, and also
where the river name is an adjective (the Yellow River). Exceptions in the US
are the River Rouge and the River Raisin, both in Michigan and named by the
French. This convention is mixed, however, in some Commonwealth nations, where
both arrangements are often seen.
• In
BrE speech, titles may precede names, but not descriptions of offices
(President Roosevelt, but Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister and Mr Jones,
the team's coach), while both normally precede names in AmE (President
Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Coach Jones).
• In
BrE the word sat is often colloquially used to cover sat, sitting and seated:
I've been sat here waiting for half an hour. The bride's family will be sat on
the right-hand side of the church. This construction is not often heard outside
the UK. In the 1960s, its use would mark a speaker as coming from the north of
England but by the turn of the 21st century this form had spread to the south.
Its use often conveys lighthearted informality, when many speakers
intentionally use a dialect or colloquial construction they would probably not
use in formal written English. This colloquial usage is widely understood by
British speakers. Similarly stood can be used instead of standing. To an
American, these usages are passive, and may imply that the subject had been
involuntarily forced to sit or stand, or directed to hold that location.
• In
most areas of the United States, the word with is also used as an adverb: I'll
come with instead of I'll come along, although it is rarely used in writing.
Come with is used as an abbreviation of come with me, as in I'm going to the
office - come with by speakers in Minnesota and parts of the adjoining states.
This possibly arises from German (kommst du mit?) in parts of the United States
with high concentrations of German American populations. It is similar to South
African English, where the expression comes from Dutch, and is used by
Afrikaans speakers when speaking English. These contractions are not used by
native BrE speakers.
• The
word also is used at the end of a sentence in AmE (just as as well and too are
in both dialects), but not so commonly in BrE, although it is encountered in
Northern Ireland. Additionally, sentence ending as well is more formal in AmE
than in BrE.
• Before
some words beginning with h with the first syllable unstressed, such as
hallucination, hilarious, historic(al), horrendous, and horrific, some British
writers prefer to use an over a (an historical event, etc.). An is also
preferred before hotel by some writers of BrE (probably reflecting the
relatively recent adoption of the word from French, where the h is not
pronounced). The use of "an" before words beginning with an
unstressed "h" is more common generally in BrE than American. Such
usage would now be seen as affected.{{cn} American writers normally use a in
all these cases, although there are occasional uses of an historic(al) in AmE.
Unlike BrE, AmE typically uses an before herb, since the h in this word is
silent for most Americans.
• In
AmE absent is sometimes used to introduce an absolute construction (Absent any
objections, the proposal was approved.). This usage does not occur in
BrE.derivation and compounds
• Directional
suffix -ward(s): British forwards, towards, rightwards, etc.; American forward,
toward, rightward. In both dialects, distribution varies somewhat: afterwards,
towards, and backwards are not unusual in America; while in Britain forward is
common, and standard in phrasal verbs like look forward to. The forms with -s may
be used as adverbs (or preposition towards), but rarely as adjectives: in
Britain as in America, one says "an upward motion". The Oxford
English Dictionary in 1897 suggested a semantic distinction for adverbs, with
-wards having a more definite directional sense than -ward; subsequent
authorities such as Fowler have disputed this contention.
• AmE
freely adds the suffix -s to day, night, evening, weekend, Monday, etc. to form
adverbs denoting repeated or customary action: I used to stay out evenings; the
library is closed Saturdays. This usage has its roots in Old English, but many
of these constructions are now regarded as American (for example, the OED
labels nights "now chiefly N. Amer. colloq."; but to work nights is
standard in BrE).
• In
BrE, the agentive -er suffix is commonly attached to football (also cricket;
often netball; occasionally basketball). AmE usually uses football player.
Where the sport's name is usable as a verb, the suffixation is standard in both
dialects: for example, golfer, bowler (in Ten-pin bowling and in Lawn Bowls),
and shooter. AmE appears to sometimes use the BrE form in baller as slang for a
basketball player, as in the video game NBA Ballers. However, this is derived
from slang use of to ball as a verb meaning to play basketball.
• English
writers everywhere occasionally (and from time immemorial) make new compound
words from common phrases; for example, health care is now being replaced by
healthcare on both sides of the Atlantic. However, AmE has made certain words
in this fashion that are still treated as phrases in BrE.
• In
compound nouns of the form <verb><noun>, sometimes AmE favours the
bare infinitive where BrE favors the gerund. Examples include (AmE first): jump
rope/skipping rope; racecar/racing car; rowboat/rowing boat; sailboat/sailing
boat; file cabinet/filing cabinet; dial tone/dialling tone; drainboard/draining
board.
• More
generally, AmE has a tendency to drop inflectional suffixes, thus favoring
clipped forms: compare cookbook vs. cookery book; Smith, age 40 vs. Smith, aged
40; skim milk vs. skimmed milk; dollhouse vs. doll's house; barbershop vs.
barber's shop. This has recently been extended to appear on professionally
printed commercial signage and some boxes themselves (not mere greengrocers'
chalkboards): can vegetables and mash potatoes appear in the U.S.
• Singular
attributives in one country may be plural in the other, and vice versa. For
example, the UK has a drugs problem while the United States has a drug problem
(although the singular usage is also commonly heard in the UK); Americans read
the sports section of a newspaper, while the British are more likely to read
the sport section. In America, software is referred to as computer codes,
whereas the same software in the UK would be computer code., BrE maths is
singular, just as AmE math is: both are abbreviations of mathematics.
.4
Social and cultural differences
items
that reflect separate social and cultural development.education, Secondary
education in the United Kingdom, and Secondary education in the United
Statesnaming of school years in British (except Scotland) and American
Englishrange British English American English
Name Alternative
name Syllabus Name Alternative name
- 4 Preschool
(optional)
Nursery Playgroup Foundation
Stage 1
- 5 Primary
school Preschool
Reception Infants
reception Foundation Stage 2 Pre-kindergarten
- 6 Year
1 Infants year 1 Key Stage 1 Kindergarten
Elementary
school
- 7 Year
2 Infants year 2 1st grade
- 8 Year
3 Junior year 3 Key Stage 2 2nd grade
- 9 Year
4 Junior year 4 3rd grade
- 10 Year
5 Junior year 5 4th grade
- 11 Year
6 Junior year 6 5th grade
- 12 Secondary
school Middle school Junior high school
Year
7 First form Key Stage 3 6th grade
- 13 Year
8 Second form 7th grade
- 14 Year
9 Third form 8th grade
- 15 Year
10 Fourth form Key Stage 4, GCSE High school
9th
grade Freshman year
- 16 Year
11 Fifth form 10th grade Sophomore year
- 17 Sixth
form (optional) 11th grade Junior year
Year
12 Lower sixth Key Stage 5, A level
- 18 Year
13 Upper sixth 12th grade Senior yearthe UK, the US
equivalent of a high school is often referred to as a secondary school
regardless of whether it is state funded or private. Secondary education in the
United States also includes middle school or junior high school, a two or three
year transitional school between elementary school and high school.public
school has opposite meanings in the two countries. In the US this is a
government-owned institution supported by taxpayers. In England and Wales, the
term strictly refers to an ill-defined group of prestigious private independent
schools funded by students' fees, although it is often more loosely used to
refer to any independent school. Independent schools are also known as private
schools, and the latter is the correct term in Scotland and Northern Ireland
for all such fee-funded schools. Strictly, the term public school is not used
in Scotland and Northern Ireland in the same sense as in England, but
nevertheless, Gordonstoun, the Scottish private school which Charles, Prince of
Wales attended, is sometimes referred to as a public school. Government-funded
schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland are properly referred to as state
schools - but are sometimes confusingly referred to as public schools (with the
same meaning as in the US); whereas in the US, where most public schools are
administered by local governments, a state school is typically a college or
university run by one of the states.in both the United States and the United
Kingdom use several additional terms for specific types of secondary schools. A
US prep school or preparatory school is an independent school funded by tuition
fees; the same term is used in the UK for a private school for pupils under
thirteen, designed to prepare them for fee-paying public schools. An American
parochial school covers costs through tuition and has affiliation with a
religious institution. In England, where the state-funded education system grew
from parish schools organised by the local established church, the Church of
England (C. of E., or C.E.), and many schools, especially primary schools (up
to age 11) retain a church connection and are known as church schools, C.E.
Schools or C.E. (Aided) Schools. There are also faith schools associated with
the Roman Catholic Church and other major faiths, with a mixture of funding
arrangements.the US, a magnet school receives government funding and has
special admission requirements: students gain admission through superior
performance on admission tests. The UK has city academies, which are
independent privately sponsored schools run with public funding, and which can
select up to 10% of pupils by aptitude. Also, in the UK four Local Education
Authorities retain selection by ability at eleven. They maintain Grammar Schools
(State funded secondary schools) which admit pupils according to performance in
an examination (known as the 11+) and Secondary Modern Schools for those who
fail. Secondary modern schools are often referred to as High Schools. Grammar
Schools cream from 10% to 23% of those who sit the exam. Private schools can
also call themselves Grammar schools.the UK, a university student is said to
study, to read or informally simply to do a subject. In the recent past the
expression 'to read a subject' was more common at the older universities such
as Oxford and Cambridge. In the US, a student studies or majors in a subject
(although concentration or emphasis is also used in some US colleges or
universities to refer to the major subject of study). To major in something
refers to the student's principal course of study, while to study may refer to
any class being taken.:
"She
did biology at Warwick." (informal)
"She
studied biology at Cambridge."
"She
read biology at Cambridge.":
"She
majored in biology at Harvard."
"She
concentrated in biology at Harvard."university level in BrE, each module
is taught by a lecturer or tutor, while professor is the job-title of a senior
academic. In AmE, each class is generally taught by a professor (although some
US tertiary educational institutions follow the BrE usage), while the position
of lecturer is occasionally given to individuals hired on a temporary basis to
teach one or more classes and who may or not have a doctoral degree.word course
in American use typically refers to the study of a restricted topic (for
example, a course in Early Medieval England, a course in Integral Calculus)
over a limited period of time (such as a semester or term) and is equivalent to
a module at a British university. In the UK, a course of study is likely to
refer to a whole program of study, which may extend over several years, and be
made up of any number of modules.termsthe UK, a student is said to sit or take
an exam, while in the US, a student takes an exam. The expression he sits for
an exam also arises in BrE, but only rarely in AmE; American lawyers-to-be sit
for their bar exams, and American master's and doctoral students may sit for
their comprehensive exams, but in nearly all other instances, Americans take
their exams. When preparing for an exam, students revise (BrE)/review (AmE)
what they have studied; the BrE idiom to revise for has the equivalent to
review for in AmE.are supervised by invigilators in the UK and proctors (or
(exam) supervisors) in the US (a proctor in the UK is an official responsible
for student discipline at the University of Oxford or Cambridge). In the UK, a
teacher sets an exam, while in the US, a teacher writes or gives an exam.:
"I
sat my Spanish exam yesterday."
"I
plan to set a difficult exam for my students, but I don't have it ready
yet.":
"I
took my exams at Yale."
"Professor"
has different meanings in BrE and AmE. In BrE, it is the highest academic rank,
followed by Reader, Senior Lecturer and Lecturer. In AmE "Professor"
refers to academic staff of all ranks, with (Full) Professor (largely
equivalent to the UK meaning) followed by Associate Professor and Assistant
Professor.is additionally a difference between American and British usage in
the word school. In British usage "school" by itself refers only to
primary (elementary) and secondary (high) schools, and to sixth forms attached
to secondary schools - if one "goes to school", this type of
institution is implied. By contrast, an American student at a university may
talk of "going to school" or "being in school". US law
students and medical students almost universally speak in terms of going to
"law school" and "med school", respectively. However, the
word is used in BrE in the context of higher education to describe a division
grouping together several related subjects within a university, for example a
"School of European Languages" containing departments for each
language, and also in the term "art school". It is also the name of
some of the constituent colleges of the University of London, e.g. School of
Oriental and African Studies, London School of Economics.high school and
college students in the United States, the words freshman (or the
gender-neutral term frosh or first year), sophomore, junior and senior refer to
the first, second, third, and fourth years, respectively. For first-year
students, "frosh" is another gender-neutral term that can be used as
a qualifier, for example "Frosh class elections". It is important
that the context of either high school or college first be established, or else
it must be stated directly (that is, She is a high school freshman. He is a
college junior.). Many institutions in both countries also use the term
first-year as a gender-neutral replacement for freshman, although in the US
this is recent usage, formerly referring only to those in the first year as a
graduate student. One exception is the University of Virginia; since its
founding in 1819, the terms "first-year", "second-year",
"third-year", and "fourth-year" have been used to describe
undergraduate university students. At the United States military academies, at
least those operated directly by the federal government, a different
terminology is used, namely "fourth class", "third class",
"second class", and "first class" (the order of numbering
is the reverse of the number of years in attendance). In the UK, first year
university students are often called freshers, especially early in the academic
year; however, there are no specific names for those in other years, or for
school pupils. Graduate and professional students in the United States are
known by their year of study-such as a "second-year medical student"
or a "fifth-year doctoral candidate." Law students are often referred
to as "1L", "2L", or "3L" rather than
"nth-year law students"; similarly, medical students are frequently
referred to as "M1", "M2", "M3", or
"M4").anyone in the US who finishes studying at any educational
institution by passing relevant examinations is said to graduate and to be a
graduate, in the UK only degree and above level students can graduate. Student
itself has a wider meaning in AmE, meaning any person of any age studying at
any educational institution, whereas in BrE it tends to be used for people
studying at a post-secondary educational institution.names of individual
institutions can be confusing. There are several "University High
Schools" in the United States that are not affiliated with any
post-secondary institutions and cannot grant degrees, and there is one public
high school, Central High School of Philadelphia, which does grant bachelor's
degrees to the top ten percent of graduating seniors. British secondary schools
often have the word 'college' in their names./Transportationrefer to
transportation and British people to transport. (Transportation in Britain has
traditionally meant the punishment of criminals by deporting them to an
overseas penal colony.) British use of the word communications encompasses the
movement of goods and people as well as of messages, whereas in America the
word primarily refers to facilities established for the sending and receiving
of messages by post or electronic transmission. The latter are normally
referred to in British English as telecommunications.in terminology are
especially obvious in the context of roads. The British term dual carriageway,
in American parlance, would be a divided highway. Central reservation on a
motorway in the UK would be a median or center divide on a freeway, expressway,
highway, or parkway in the US. The one-way lanes that make it possible to enter
and leave such roads at an intermediate point without disrupting the flow of
traffic are generally known as slip roads in the UK, but US civil engineers
call them ramps, and further distinguish between on-ramps (for entering) and
off-ramps (for leaving). When American engineers speak of slip roads, they are
referring to a street that runs alongside the main road (separated by a berm)
to allow off-the-highway access to the premises that are there, sometimes also
known as a frontage road - in both the US and UK this is also known as a
service road.the UK, the term outside lane refers to the higher-speed
overtaking lane (passing lane in the US) closest to the center of the road,
while inside lane refers to the lane closer to the edge of the road. In the US,
outside lane is only used in the context of a turn, in which case it depends on
which direction the road is turning (i.e., if the road bends right the left
lane is the outside lane, but if the road bends left the right lane is the
outside lane). Both also refer to slow and fast lanes (even though all actual
traffic speeds may be at or even above the legal speed limit).the UK, drink
driving is against the law, while in the US the term is drunk driving. The
legal term in the US is driving while intoxicated (DWI) or driving under the
influence of alcohol (DUI). The equivalent legal phrase in the UK is drunk in
charge of a motor vehicle (DIC), or more commonly driving with excess
alcohol.auto parts and transport terms have different names in the two
dialects, for example: US hood trunk fenderpark
parking lot overpass trucklorry trailer truck sidewalk
gasoline sedan muffler wrenchover idling
windshieldAmerican television, the episodes of a show first broadcast in a particular
year constitute a season, while the entire run of a show - which may span
several seasons - is called a series. In British television, on the other hand,
the word series may apply to the run of a show in one particular year, e.g.
"The 1998 series of Grange Hill", referring to a programme which ran
on British television for 30 years.of buildingsare also variations in floor
numbering between the US and UK. In most countries, including the UK, the
"first floor" is one above the entrance level while the entrance
level is the "ground floor". On (BrE) lift / (AmE) elevator buttons
in the UK the Ground Floor is often denoted by the letter G, or the number 0.
Normal American usage labels the entrance level as the "first floor"
or the "ground floor", the floor immediately above that is the
"second floor".(AmE) apartment buildings / (BrE) blocks of flats
frequently are exceptions to this rule. The ground floor often contains the
lobby and parking area for the tenants, while the numbered floors begin one
level above and contain only the apartments themselves.Units and measurementof
numbers in Englishsaying or writing out numbers, the British will typically
insert an and before the tens and units, as in one hundred and sixty-two or two
thousand and three. In America, it is considered correct to drop the and, as in
two thousand three.American schools teach students to pronounce decimally
written fractions (e.g. .5) as though they were longhand fractions (five
tenths), such as thirteen and seven tenths for 13.7. This formality is often
dropped in common speech and is steadily disappearing in instruction in
mathematics and science as well as in international American schools. In the
UK, 13.7 would be read thirteen point seven, and 13 7⁄10 would be
pronounced thirteen and seven tenths.counting, it is common in both varieties
of English to count in hundreds up to 1,900 - so 1,200 may be twelve hundred.
However, Americans use this pattern for much higher numbers than is the norm in
British English, referring to twenty-four hundred where British English would
most often use two thousand four hundred. Even below 2,000, Americans are more
likely than the British are to read numbers like 1,234 as twelve hundred
thirty-four, instead of one thousand two hundred and thirty-four. In BrE, it is
also common to use phrases such as three and a half thousand for 3,500, whereas
in AmE this construction is almost never used for numbers under a million.the
case of years, however, twelve thirty-four would be the norm on both sides of
the Atlantic for the year 1234. The year 2000 and years beyond it are read as
two thousand, two thousand (and) one and the like by both British and American
speakers. For years after 2009, twenty ten, twenty twelve etc. are becoming
common.the house number (or bus number, etc.) 272, British people tend to say
two seven two while Americans tend to say two seventy-two.is also a historical
difference between billions, trillions, and so forth. Americans use billion to
mean one thousand million (1,000,000,000), whereas in the UK, until the latter
part of the 20th century, it was used to mean one million million
(1,000,000,000,000). The British prime minister, Harold Wilson, in 1974, told
the House of Commons that UK government statistics would now use the short
scale; followed by the Chancellor, Denis Healey, in 1975, that the treasury
would now adopt the US billion version. One thousand million was sometimes
described as a milliard, the definition adopted by most other European
languages. However, the "American" version has since been adopted for
all published writing, and the word milliard is obsolete in English, as are
billiard (but not billiards, the game), trilliard and so on. However, the term
yard, derived from milliard, is still used in the financial markets on both
sides of the Atlantic to mean "one thousand million". All major
British publications and broadcasters, including the BBC, which long used
thousand million to avoid ambiguity, now use billion to mean thousand
million.people have no direct experience with manipulating numbers this large,
and many non-American readers may interpret billion as 1012 (even if they are
young enough to have been taught otherwise at school); also, usage of the
"long" billion is standard in some non-English speaking countries.
For these reasons, defining the word may be advisable when writing for the
public. See long and short scales for a more detailed discussion of the
evolution of these terms in English and other languages.referring to the
numeral 0, British people would normally use nought, oh or zero, although nil
is common in sports scores. Americans use the term zero most frequently; oh is
also often used (though never when the quantity in question is nothing), and
occasionally slang terms such as zilch or zip. Phrases such as the team won
two-zip or the team leads the series, two-nothing are heard when reporting
sports scores. The digit 0, for example, when reading a phone or account number
aloud, is nearly always pronounced oh in both language varieties for the sake
of convenience. In the internet age, the use of the term oh can cause certain
inconveniences when one is referencing an email address, causing confusion as
to whether the character in question is a zero or the letter O.reading numbers
in a sequence, such as a telephone or serial number, British people will
usually use the terms double or triple/treble followed by the repeated number.
Hence, 007 is double oh seven. Exceptions are the emergency telephone number
999, which is always nine nine nine, and the apocalyptic "Number of the
Beast", which is always six six six. In the US, 911 (the US emergency
telephone number) is usually read nine one one, while 9/11 (in reference to the
September 11, 2001 attacks) is usually read nine eleven.amounts
• Monetary
amounts in the range of one to two major currency units are often spoken
differently. In AmE one may say a dollar fifty or a pound eighty, whereas in
BrE these amounts would be expressed one dollar fifty and one pound eighty. For
amounts over a dollar, an American will generally either drop denominations or
give both dollars and cents, as in two-twenty or two dollars and twenty cents
for $2.20. An American would not say two dollars twenty. On the other hand, in
BrE, two pounds twenty would be the most common form. It is more common to hear
a British-English speaker say one thousand two hundred dollars than a thousand
and two hundred dollars, although the latter construct is common in AmE. The
term twelve hundred dollars, popular in AmE, is frequently used in BrE but only
for exact multiples of 100 up to 1900. Speakers of BrE very rarely hear amounts
over 1900 expressed in hundreds, for example twenty-three hundred.
• In
BrE, particularly in television or radio advertisements, integers can be
pronounced individually in the expression of amounts. For example, on sale for £399
might be expressed on sale for three nine nine, though the full Three hundred
and ninety-nine pounds is at least as common. An American advertiser would
almost always say on sale for three ninety-nine. In British English the latter
pronunciation implies a value in pence, so three ninety-nine would be
understood as £3.99.
• The
BrE slang term quid is roughly equivalent to the AmE buck and both are often
used in the two respective dialects for round amounts, as in fifty quid for £50
and twenty bucks for $20. A hundred and fifty grand in either dialect could
refer to £150,000
or $150,000 depending on context. Quid was formerly also used in Ireland for
the punt and today is used for the euro.
• A
user of AmE may hand-write the mixed monetary amount $3.24 as $324 or $324
(often seen for extra clarity on a check); BrE users will always write this as £3.24,
£3•24
or, for extra clarity on a cheque, as £3-24. In all cases there may or
may not be a space after the currency symbol, or the currency symbols may be
omitted depending on context.
• In
order to make explicit the amount in words on a check, Americans write three
and 24⁄100 (using this solidus construction or with a horizontal division
line): they do not need to write the word dollars as it is usually already
printed on the check. UK residents, on a cheque, would write three pounds and
24 pence, three pounds ‒ 24 or three pounds ‒
24p, since the currency unit is not preprinted. To make unauthorized amendment
difficult, it is useful to have an expression terminator even when a whole
number of dollars/pounds is in use: thus Americans would write three and 00⁄100
or three and no⁄100 on a three-dollar check (so that it cannot easily be
changed to, for example, three million) and UK residents would write three
pounds only, or three pounds exactly.
• The
term pound sign in BrE always refers to the currency symbol £,
whereas in AmE pound sign means the number sign, which the British call the
hash symbol, #. (From the 1960s through the 1990s, the British telephone
company The GPO and its successors Post Office Telecommunications, British
Telecom and BT Group, referred to this as gate on telephone keypads.)
• In
spoken BrE, the word pound is sometimes colloquially used for the plural as
well. For example, three pound forty and twenty pound a week are sometimes both
heard in British English. Some other currencies do not change in the plural;
yen, rand and euro being examples. This is in addition to normal adjectival
use, as in a twenty pound a week pay-rise.
• In
BrE, the use of p instead of pence is common in spoken usage. Each of the
following has equal legitimacy: three pounds, twelve p, three pounds and twelve
p, three pounds, twelve pence, three pounds and twelve pence, as well as just
eight p or eight pence.
• AmE
uses words like nickel, dime, and quarter for small coins. In BrE, the usual
usage is 10-pence piece or 10p piece for any coin below £1,
with piece sometimes omitted, but pound coin and two-pound coin. BrE did have
specific words for a number of coins before decimalisation.are usually written
differently in the short (numerical) form. Christmas Day 2000, for example, is
25/12/00 or 25.12.00 (dashes are occasionally used) in the UK and 12/25/00 in
the US, although the formats 25/12/2000, 25.12.2000, and 12/25/2000 now have
more currency than they had before the Year 2000 problem. Occasionally other
formats are encountered, such as the ISO 8601 2000-12-25, popular among
programmers, scientists, and others seeking to avoid ambiguity, and to make
alphanumerical order coincide with chronological order. The difference in
short-form date order can lead to misunderstanding. For example, 06/04/05 could
mean either June 4, 2005 (if read as US format), 6 April 2005 (if seen as in UK
format), or even 5 April 2006 if taken to be an older ISO 8601-style format
where 2-digit years were allowed.consequence of the different short-form of
dates is that, in the UK, many people would be reluctant to refer to "9/11",
although its meaning would be instantly understood. On the BBC, "September
the 11th" is generally used in preference to 9/11. However, 9/11 is
commonplace in the British press to refer to the events of September 11,
2001.using the word of the month, rather than the number, to write a date e.g.
April 21, both that and 21 April are used in the UK, but as a rule only April
21 would be seen in the U.S.such as the following are common in Britain but are
generally unknown in the U.S: "A week today", "a week tomorrow",
"a week on Tuesday", "a week Tuesday", "Tuesday
week" (this is found in central Texas), "Friday fortnight",
"a fortnight on Friday" and "a fortnight Friday" (these
latter referring to two weeks after "next Friday"). In the US the
standard construction is "a week from today", "a week from
tomorrow" etc. BrE speakers may also say "Thursday last" or
"Thursday gone" where AmE would prefer "last Thursday".
"I'll see you (on) Thursday coming" or "Let's meet this coming
Thursday" in BrE refer to a meeting later this week, while "Not until
Thursday next" refers to one next week.24-hour clock (18:00 or 1800) is
considered normal in the UK and Europe in many applications including air, rail
and bus timetables; it is largely unused in the US outside of military, police
and medical applications.minutes after the hour is called quarter past in
British usage and a quarter after or, less commonly, a quarter past in American
usage. Fifteen minutes before the hour is usually called quarter to in British
usage and a quarter of, a quarter to or a quarter till in American usage; the
form a quarter to is associated with parts of the Northern United States, while
a quarter till is found chiefly in the Appalachian region. Thirty minutes after
the hour is commonly called half past in both BrE and AmE; half after used to
be more common in the US. In informal British speech, the preposition is
sometimes omitted, so that 5:30 may be referred to as half five. The AmE
formations top of the hour and bottom of the hour are not commonly used in BrE.
Forms like eleven forty are common in both dialects.greetingsChristmas is
explicitly mentioned in a greeting, the universal phrasing in North America is
Merry Christmas. In the UK, Happy Christmas is also heard. It is increasingly
common for Americans to say Happy Holidays, referring to all winter holidays
(Christmas, Yule, New Year's Day, Hanukkah, Diwali, St. Lucia Day and Kwanzaa)
while avoiding any specific religious reference, though this is rarely, if
ever, heard in the UK. Season's Greetings is a less common phrase in both
America and Britain.differencesof speechBrE and AmE use the expression "I
couldn't care less" to mean the speaker does not care at all. Speakers of
AmE sometimes state this as "I could care less", literally meaning
precisely the opposite. Intonation no longer reflects the originally sarcastic
nature of this variant, which is not idiomatic in BrE.both areas, saying,
"I don't mind" often means, "I'm not annoyed" (for example,
by someone's smoking), while "I don't care" often means, "The
matter is trivial or boring". However, in answering a question like
"Tea or coffee?", if either alternative is equally acceptable, an
American may answer, "I don't care", while a British person may answer,
"I don't mind". Either sounds odd to the other.BrE, the phrase I
can't be arsed (to do something) is a vulgar equivalent to the British or
American I can't be bothered (to do it). To non-BrE speakers this may be
confused with the Southern English pronunciation of I can't be asked (to do
that thing), which sounds either defiantly rude or nonsensical.BrE often uses
the exclamation "No fear!" where current AmE has "No way!"
An example from Dorothy L. Sayers:.: Wilt thou be baptized in this faith?.: No
fear!
from A
Catechism for Pre- and Post-Christian Anglicansusage may confuse users of AmE,
who are likely to interpret and even use "No fear!" as enthusiastic
willingness to move forward.Idiomsnumber of English idioms that have
essentially the same meaning show lexical differences between the British and
the American version; for instance:English American Englishtouch
something with a bargepole not touch something with a ten-foot poleunder the
carpet sweep under the rugwood knock on woodthe wood for the trees see
the forest for the treesa spanner (in the works) throw a (monkey) wrench
(in the works)in the cupboard skeleton in the closethome from home a
home away from homeone's trumpet blow (or toot) one's horndrop in the
ocean a drop in the bucketin a teacup tempest in a teapota dead
horse beating a dead horse't (got) a clue don't have a clue or have no
cluenew lease of life a new lease on lifethe cap fits (wear it) if
the shoe fits (wear it)of the land lay of the landsome cases, the
"American" variant is also used in BrE, or vice versa.and headlines,
the words in titles of publications, newspaper headlines, as well as chapter
and section headings are capitalized in the same manner as in normal sentences.
That is, only the first letter of the first word is capitalized, along with
proper nouns., publishers sometimes require additional words in titles and
headlines to have the initial capital, for added emphasis, as it is often
perceived as appearing more professional. In AmE, this is common in titles, but
less so in newspaper headlines. The exact rules differ between publishers and
are often ambiguous; a typical approach is to capitalize all words other than
short articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. This should probably be
regarded as a common stylistic difference, rather than a linguistic difference,
as neither form would be considered incorrect or unusual in either the UK or
the US. Many British tabloid newspapers (such as The Sun, The Daily Sport, News
of the World) use fully capitalized headlines for impact, as opposed to
readability (for example, BERLIN WALL FALLS or BIRD FLU PANIC). On the other
hand, the broadsheets (such as The Guardian, The Times, and The Independent)
usually follow the sentence style of having only the first letter of the first
word capitalized.
Conclusion
the
early part of the seventeenth century English settlers began to bring their
language to America and another series of changes began to take place.settlers
borrowed words from Indian languages for such strange trees as the hickory and
persimmon, such unfamiliar animals as raccoons and woodchucks. Later they
borrowed other words from settlers from other countries - for instance, chowder
and prairie from the French, scow and sleigh from the Dutch. They made new
combinations of English words, such as backwoods and bullfrog, or gave old
English words entirely new meanings, such as lumber (which in British English
means approximately junk) and corn (which in British means any grain,
especially wheat). Some of the new terms were needed, because there were new
and un-English things to talk about. Others can be explained only on the
general theory that languages are always changing, and American English is no
exception.from the new vocabulary, differences in pronunciation, in grammatical
construction, and especially in intonation developed. If the colonization had
taken place a few centuries earlier, American might have become as different
from English as French is from Italian. But the settlement occurred after the
invention of printing, and continued through a period when the idea of
educating everybody was making rapid progress. For a long time most of the
books read in America came from England, and a surprising number of Americans
read those books, in or out of school. Moreover, most of the colonists seem to
have felt strong ties with England. In this they were unlike their Anglo- Saxon
ancestors, who apparently made a clean break with their continental homes.good
many Englishmen and some Americans used to condemn every difference that did
develop, and as recently as a generation ago it was not unusual to hear all
“Americanisms” condemned, even in America. It is now generally recognized in
this country that we are not bound to the Queen’s English, but have a full
right to work out our own habits. Even a good many of the English now concede
this, though some of them object strongly to the fact that Americanisms are now
having an influence on British usage.are thousands of differences in detail
between British and American, and occasionally they crowd together enough to
make some difficulty.you read that a man, having trouble with his lorry, got
out his spanner and lifted the bonnet to see what was the matter, you might not
realize that the driver of the truck had taken out his wrench and lifted the
hood. It is amusing to play with such differences, but the theory that the
American language is now essentially different from English does not hold up.
It is often very difficult to decide whether a book was written by an American
or an English man. Even in speech it would be hard to prove that national
differences are greater than some local differences in either country. On the
whole, it now seems probable that the language habits of the two countries will
grow more, rather than less, alike, although some differences will undoubtedly
remain and others may develop.also seems probable that there will be
narrow-minded and snobbish people in both countries for some time to come. But
generally speaking, anybody who learns to speak and write the standard English
of his own country, and to regard that of the other country as a legitimate
variety with certain interesting differences, will have little trouble wherever
he goes.studied the main peculiarities of British and American variants in the
English Language we came to the conclusion that exist the following
differences:differencesdifferences of American variant highly extensive on the
strength of multiple borrowing from Spanish and Indian languages, what was not
in British English.variant British variant«метро» undergroundmovies «кинотеатр»
the cinema«магазин» store«тротуар» pavement«очередь» queue«футбол»
football«почтальон» postman«каникулы» holiday«кукуруза» maize«осень»
autumnclaim attention differences in writing some words in American and British
variants of language.instance, following:variant British
varianthonourtravellerploughdefencegaolcentreapologisedifferencesdifferences of
American variant consist in following:
. In
that events, when Britainians use Present Perfect, in Staffs can beused and
Present Perfect, and Past Simple.
. Take
a shower/a bath instead of have a shower/a bath.
.
Shall is not used. In all persons is used by will.
.
Needn't (do) usually is not used. Accustomed form -don't need to (do).
.
After demand, insist, require etc should usually is NOT used. I demanded that
he apologize (instead of I demanded that he should apologies in British
variant).
.
to/in THE hospital instead of to/in hospital in BrE.
. on
the weekend/on weekend instead of at the weekend/at weekend.
. on a
street instead of in a street.
.
Different from or than instead of different to/from
.
Write is used with to or without the pretext.
. Past
participle of "got" is "gotten"
. To
burn, to spoil and other verbs, which can be regular or irregular in the
British variant, in the American variant ALWAYS regular.
. Past
Perfect, as a rule, is not used completely.. English is the national language
of England proper, the USA, Australia and some provinces of Canada. It was also
at different times imposed on the inhabitants of the former and present British
colonies and protectorates as well as other Britain- and US-dominated
territories, where the population has always stuck to its own mother tongue..
British English, American English and Australian English are variants of the
same language, because they serve all spheres of verbal communication. Their
structural peculiarities, especially morphology, syntax and word-formation, as
well as their word-stock and phonetic system are essentially the same. American
and Australian standards are slight modifications of the norms accepted in the
British Isles. The status of Canadian English ‘has not yet been established..
The main lexical differences between the variants are caused by the lack of equivalent
lexical units in one of them, divergences in the semantic structures of
polysemantic words and peculiarities of usage of some words on different
territories.. The British local dialects can be traced back to Old English
dialects. Numerous and distinct, they are characterized by phonemic and
structural peculiarities. The local dialects are being gradually replaced by
regional variants of the literary language, i. e. by a literary standard with a
proportion of local dialect features.. The so-called local dialects in the
British Isles and in the USA are used only by the rural population and only for
the purposes of oral communication. In both variants local distinctions are
more marked in pronunciation, less conspicuous in vocabulary and insignificant
in grammar.. Local variations in the USA are relatively small. What is called
by tradition American dialects is closer in nature to regional variants of the
national literary language.
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Appendix
following phonetic differences should be
mentioned:
. Vowel system:
[æ] is used in
AE where in BC they have [a:], as in plant, grass, half, bath
[Λ] occurs in AE
where in BE [o], is implied as in body, shot, hot.
[І] or [ə] is used in AE where the BE uses [ai], as in
civilization, specialization, but in some cases the reverse can be observed,
when the BE monophthongs is diphthonized in AE, as in simultaneously, direct.
[u] is used in AE instead of [ju] in BE, as in
suit, duty, knew, Tuesday, student.
. Consonant system:
[t] Is voiced in the intervocalic position and
before “l”, as in letter, little, bitter, battle.
[t] Is lost after “n”: twenty, wanted.
[l] Is clear or soft in BE and in AE as in lamp,
luck, look.
[r] Is pronounced in such positions as father,
dirt, far, car.grammatical system of the language is more or less stable. Still
we can find some differences there:
. Verb system:verbs regarded as irregular in
British English, are treated as regular in American English.: learnt, dreamt,
spelt, smelt: learned, dreamed, spelled, smelled
. Usage of prepositions:English American
Englishthe street On the streetof doing something Nervous about doing
somethingof Membership into Chat withJune to December From June
through Decemberthe weekend On the weekendspeaking, Americans tend to
omit prepositions where British carefully insert them. This tendency to
simplify grammatical constructions can be illustrated by different forms of
grammatical tenses and moods:English American Englishyou got a pencil? Do
you have a pencil?said that I should go with him. He said to go with
him.colloquial speech Americans very often omit auxiliary “have” in the
constructions: I had better go (АА: I better go) or use
adverbs without -ly:English American Englishwent out slowly. He went out
slow.felt awfully sleepy. I felt awful sleepy.the sphere of vocabulary
the difference between British and American English lies in the intensity of
the process. American English is more open to neologisms. Among the most
productive ways of word-formation conversion must be mentioned. Back formation
is also very productive:bus, to edit, to laze, to fax etc.kinds of shortenings
are very popular with the Americans:, copter (helicopter), motel, auditeria
etc.is possible to distinguish three types of vocabulary in American English:
. General English word-stock
. Common ideas, expressed by different words
. The same words having different meanings
. Words, expressing realia, with no counterpart
in the other variant:
British English
|
American
English
|
to fly into
rage
|
to blow one's
top
|
to
work at a second job
|
to moonlight
|
to
take over a plane, ship or motor vehicle by force
|
to hijack
|
Nowadays the difference in the vocabulary is very
difficult to trace because a great number of Americanisms are borrowed into
British English.differences
British English American
Englishdown breakdownup makeupup blowup
Thus, we can see that the most popular tendency
in American English is to simplify spelling, grammar and phonetics. American
English has its own peculiarities and can be distinguished between other
variants of the English language.