The English Language was
first introduced to the Americans 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.
Оver the past
400 years, the form of the language used in the Americas—especially
in the United States—and that used in the United Kingdom and
the British
Islands have diverged in many ways, leading to
the dialects now
commonly 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.
- British
English (BrE) is the form of English used in
the United
Kingdom. It includes all English dialects used
within the United Kingdom.
- 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.
American
English
In 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. The 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.
Aside 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 American 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.
A 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.
There are thousands of differences in
detail between British and American English, and occasionally they
crowd together enough to make some difficulty. If 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.
It 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.
Lexical
differences
Lexical difference of American variant
highly extensive on the strength of multiple borrowing from Spanish
and Indian languages, what was not in British
English.
American
variant
British
variant
Translation
Subway
Underground
Метро
the movies
The cinema
Кинотеатр
Shop
Store
Магазин
Sidewalk
Pavement
Тротуар
Line
Queue
Очередь
Soccer
Football
Футбол
Mailman
Postman
Почтальон
Vacation
Holiday
каникулы
Corn
Maize
Кукуруза
fall
autumn
Осень
Also claim attention differences in writing
some words in American and british variants of
language.
For instance,
following:
American
variant
British
variant
Honor
Honour
Traveler
Traveller
Plow
Plough
Defense
Defence
Jail
Gaol
Center
Centre
apologize
apologise
Grammatical
difference
Grammatical differences of American variant
consists in following:
-
In that events, when Britainians use
Present Perfect, in Staffs can be used 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 apologize in British
variant).
-
to/in THE hospital instead of to/in
hospital in British English.
-
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.
Most 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.
It 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".
Equivalent
Idioms
A number of English idioms that have
essentially the same meaning show lexical differences between the
British and the American version; for
instance:
British
English
American
English
not touch something with a
bargepole
not touch something with a ten-foot
pole
sweep under the
carpet
sweep under the
rug
touch wood
knock on
wood
see the wood for the
trees
see the forest for the
trees
throw a spanner (in the
works)
throw
a (monkey) wrench (in the
works)
tuppence
worth
also two
pennies' worth, two pence
worth, two
pennyworth,
two
penny'th, or (using a
different coin) ha'penny'th)
two cents'
worth
skeleton in the
cupboard
skeleton in the
closet
a home from
home
a home away from
home
blow one's
trumpet
blow (or toot) one's horn
a drop in the
ocean
a drop in the
bucket
storm in a
teacup
tempest in a
teapot
flogging a dead
horse
beating a dead
horse
haven't (got) a
clue
don't have a
clue or have no clue
a new lease of
life
a new lease on
life
if the cap fits (wear
it)
if the shoe fits (wear
it)
lie of the
land
lay of the
land
In British English, words that end
in -l preceded by a vowel usually double
the -l when a suffix is added, while in American
English the letter is not doubled. The letter will double in
the stress is on the second syllable.
Base Word
American
British
counsel
counseling
counselling
equal
equaling
equalling
model
modeling
modelling
quarrel
quarreling
quarrelling
signal
signaling
signalling
travel
traveling
travelling
excel
excelling
excelling
propel
propelling
propelling