American and British English

Муниципальное Бюджетное Общеобразовательное Учреждение

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American and British English

Выполнил: Чубраков Алексей

ученик 10 «А» класса

Руководитель: Шепелева Татьяна Николаевна

преподаватель английского языка

Хабаровск

2014

Contents.

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3

1. Pronunciation differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6

2. Vocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7-9

3. Spelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-13

4. Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-17

5. Minor differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18-

Introduction

Nowadays, English is the language spoken worldwide by millions of people. But there’s a thing which often becomes an unwanted surprise for people who learn this language for years and then go abroad to try out their skills. They come across misunderstanding and difficulties in recognizing the speech. That happens because even though the language is mostly the same in all the English-speaking countries, there are still some differences between its dialects.

While there are certainly many other varieties of English, such as Canadian, New Zealand, Australian, South African etc., American English and British English are the two varieties that are taught the most around the globe.

That led me to a decision of choosing a goal of my project. It is to find out what the differences between American and British English are and why the most important of them appeared, as well as highlight the importance of both accents nowadays.

The subject of my project is English language, and as the object I chose the differences between American and British English.

The four major differences between American and British English are:

• Pronunciation – differences in both vowel and consonants, as well as in stress and intonation
• Vocabulary – differences in nouns and verbs of daily usage
• Spelling – differences mostly in nouns and verbs, often in certain prefix and suffix forms
• Grammar – differences in using verb tenses and forms, in prepositions etc.

Besides, there are some less noticeable differences which include punctuation, idioms, and formatting of dates and numbers.

As my objectives I set the following:

1. Find and explore information sources.
2. Find out what are the main features of American and British dialects.
3. Look into differences in vocabulary.
4. Compare spelling in both dialects and highlight the main of them.
5. Learn about grammatical differences between them.
6. Find useful information about other minor differences.
7. Conduct a survey to find out which dialect my friends and classmates are learning and actually using.
8. Make a conclusion on the basis of my work.

1. Pronunciation differences

Prior to the Revolutionary War and the establishment of American independence from the British in 1776, American and British accents were similar. Both were rhotic i.e. speakers pronounced the letter R in such words as hard and water. Since 1776, the accents diverged but English accent in America has changed less drastically than accents in Britain.

Towards the end of the 18th century, non-rhotic speech took off in southern England, especially among the upper class; this "prestige" non-rhotic speech was standardized, and has been spreading in Britain ever since.

Most American accents, however, remained rhotic.

There are a few fascinating exceptions: New York and New England accents became non-rhotic, perhaps because of the region's British connections. Irish and Scottish accents, however, remained rhotic.

Now, let’s take a more thorough look at the differences themselves.

When the letter r is in the initial position of a word (e.g., rain) or in the middle of a word (e.g., drain) there isn’t a huge difference between the way Americans or British people pronounce it.

However, when the letter r is in the middle position in a monosyllabic word and after a vowel (e.g., turn), in British English it’s dropped. In British English r is also dropped at the end of a word (e.g., other), whereas in American English, it is pronounced as usual.

Here are some examples, with a British and American pronunciation accordingly:

birth – [bɜːθ] (BrE); [bɜrθ] (AmE)     clever – [ˈklevə]; [ˈklevər]

turn – [tɜːn]; [tɜrn]                              learn – [lɜːn]; [lɜrn]

work – [wɜːk]; [wɜrk]                          farm – [fɑːm]; [fɑrm]

The other difference is in the letter t. In standard British English, the letter t is always pronounced as a [t], whether it is at the beginning of a word (table), in the middle of a word (attain) or at the end of a word (cut); whether it's a stressed syllable or unstressed syllable. However, in American English they tend to drop the t in the final position.

Here are a few examples:

what – [wɒt] (BrE); [wɑʔ] (AmE)          cut – [kʌt]; [kʌʔ]

It’s worth a mention that dropping the t sound in the United States doesn’t always occur, and differs from state to state.

In American English, when the letter t is in the middle position in a word, it sometimes changes to a soft d. This happens either when it's between two vowels or when it's between an r and a vowel.

For example:

Saturday – [ˈsætə(r)deɪ] (BrE); [ˈsæ(d)ərˌdeɪ] (AmE)

waiter – [ˈweɪtə]; [ˈweɪ(d)ər]                 matter – [ˈmætə]; [ˈmæ(d)ər]

at a – [ætə]; [æ(d)ə]                              what about – [wɒtəˈbɑʊt]; [wɒ(d)əˈbɑʊʔ]

party – [ˈpɑːti]; [ˈpɑr(d)i]                      sort of – [sɔːtɒv]; [sɔr(d)ʌv]

And finally, in American English, the letter t is sometimes dropped after an n.

Examples of such difference are:

center – [ˈsɛntə] (BrE); [ˈsɛnər] (AmE)  interview – [ˈɪntəˌvjuː]; [ˈɪnərˌvju]

internet – [ˈɪntəˌnɛt]; [ˈɪnərˌnɛt]

There are some other differences in pronunciation, and here are some of quite common words that are pronounced differently in British and American English:

z – [zɛd] (BrE); [zi] (AmE)          new – [njuː]; [nu]

adult – [ˈædʌlt]; [əˈdʌlt]             brochure – [ˈbrəʊʃə]; [broʊˈʃʊr]

garage – [ˈɡærɪdʒ]; [ɡəˈrɑʒ]       laboratory – [ləˈbɒrət(ə)ri]; [ˈlæbrəˌtɔri]

route – [ruːt]; [raʊt]                    advertisement – [ədˈvɜːtɪsmənt]; [ˌædvərˈtaɪzmənt]

patent – [ˈpeɪt(ə)nt]; [ˈpæt(ə)nt]  apricot – [ˈeɪprɪˌkɒt]; [ˈæprɪˌkɑt]

vase – [vɑːz]; [veɪs]                     hurricane – [ˈhʌrɪkən]; [ˈhʌrɪˌkeɪn]

leisure – [ˈleʒə]; [ˈliʒər]              either – [ˈaɪðə]; [ˈiðər]

As you might already realized, even though the pronunciation differences aren’t that numerous and can be divided into certain groups, they have a huge effect on speech. This always makes them the easiest to notice, and the main factor when defining someone’s accent.

2. Vocabulary

The next huge difference between American and British English is the divergent usage of words and phrases which often brings confusion and lack of understanding between speakers of British and American accent.

For instance, people in the United States are not embarrassed to show their pants, but in the United Kingdom, they definitely are. Why? It’s because pants in the States are what people from the UK call trousers. And instead of the word pants, in the US they use underpants.

There are many other examples of such differences. Chips in the UK are what people from USA call French fries, whereas US chips are called crisps in United Kingdom.

So to avoid such embarrassing mistakes and misunderstanding in the future, let’s take a look at the differences in other quite common English words:

As we can see from the list above, the words which differ in British and American English are mostly modern. This divergence in their usage appeared because from the 19th century to the mid-20th century new words were coined independently in British and American English. Due to that almost the entire vocabularies of the car/automobile (BrE/AmE) and railway/railroad industries are different between the UK and US.

3. Spelling differences

As you might know, many words used in American English nowadays tend to be simplified and spelled the way they sound. But why did this happen and who was the initiator of these changes?

British English has tended to keep the spelling of words it has absorbed from other languages (e.g., from French), while American English has adapted the spelling to reflect the way that the words actually sound when they're spoken.

The person who brought most of the changes which were adopted and are widely used today is the nineteenth century American lexicographer Noah Webster. According to "A History of English Spelling" by D.G. Scragg, Webster's dictionary of 1828 is largely responsible for standardizing the accepted spelling of American English.

Before 1828, many words, such as humour (AmE humor), defence (AmE defense) and fibre (AmE fiber), had two acceptable spellings in both UK and USA, because they were introduced in England via both Latin and French, which used different spellings. Webster picked his preferred forms (the latter ones in each example above), justifying his choices in various ways, but partly because he wanted American spelling to be distinct from, and, in his opinion, superior to British spelling.

"Since the book was successful in establishing its authority throughout the States, Webster's spelling variants have been generally recognized as American forms," Scragg writes. "In that sense Webster was the first to differentiate between British and American usage, and in that it was frequently he who chose the variant of two spellings in early nineteenth-century use which have subsequently been preferred in the United States, he can be said to have influenced the development of spelling. He is in a way 'responsible' for such forms as center, color and defense." [source 2]

Some of Webster's changes even spread to England, such as dropping the k at the end of words like musick and publick. However, though many of the other word forms adopted by Webster in his dictionary were originally acceptable in England, they began to be used less frequently there over time, because they were regarded as "Americanisms." Today, British newspapers and magazines such as The Times and The Economist use -ise at the end of words such as realise, organise and recognise, even though the -ize ending is also technically correct in the U.K.

Moving away from the history, let’s take a look at what the main differences in spelling are and how they can be categorized.

Words that end in -re in British English often end in -er in American English, for example:

BrE: centre; fibre; litre; theatre.

AmE: center; fiber; liter; theater

British English words ending in -our usually end in -or in American English:

BrE: colour; flavour; humour; labour; neighbour.

AmE: color; flavor; humor; labor; neighbor.

Verbs in British English that can be spelled with either -ize or -ise at the end are always spelled with -ize in American English:

BrE: apologise; organise; recognise.

AmE: apologize; organize; recognize.

Verbs in British English that end in -yse are always spelled -yze in American English:

BrE: analyse; breathalyse; catalyse.

AmE: analyze; breathalyze; catalyze.

In British spelling, verbs ending in a vowel plus l double the l when adding endings that begin with a vowel. However, in American English, the l is not doubled:

BrE: travel – travelled – travelling – traveller; fuel – fuelled – fuelling.

AmE: travel – traveled – traveling – traveler; fuel – fueled – fueling.

However, even though it might seem like fulfill is a British English spelling, and fulfil is American, it’s not. While British people use a single l in such words, such as fulfil and enrol, Americans prefer doubling it and say fulfill and enroll. It also includes spelling nouns deriving from them: fulfilment and enrolment are British spellings, while fulfillment and enrollment are American.

British English words that are spelled with the double vowels ae or oe are spelled with an e in American English:

BrE: leukaemia; manoeuvre; oestrogen; paediatric, encyclopaedia.

AmE: leukemia; maneuver; estrogen; pediatric, encyclopedia.

It’s worth mentioning that in American English certain terms, such as archaeology, keep the ae spelling as standard, although the spelling with the e (i.e. archeology) is usually acceptable as well.

Some nouns ending with -ence in British English are spelled with -ense in American English:

BrE: defence, licence, offence, pretence.

AmE: defense, license, offense, pretense.

Some nouns that end with -ogue in British English end with -og in American English:

BrE: analogue; catalogue; dialogue.

AmE: analog; catalog; dialog.

The spelling analogue is acceptable but not very common in American English; catalog has become the US norm, but catalogue is not uncommon; dialogue is still preferred over dialog.

Some British English nouns ending with –mme are spelled with –m in American English:

BrE: programme, kilogramme.

AmE: program, kilogram.

Besides what I’ve listed above, there are some other differences, and I will try to describe them below:

4. Grammar

British and American grammar are mostly the same, but there are however some interesting differences between them.

The word got has a slightly different meaning in American English, describing a possession of something, having something, while to describe a past event Americans use gotten instead. For example:

Both BrE and AmE: Have you got any children?

BrE: He has got much better at Spanish since last year.

AmE: He has gotten much better at Spanish since last year.

Gotten is also typically used in American English as the past participle for phrasal verbs using get, such as get off, get on, get into, get up, and get around.

Differences are also found in using verb forms. British English speakers have a strong favour to irregular forms of certain words, but the regular forms are not uncommon, while in American English the irregular forms are never or rarely used. Here are some examples:

However, irregular forms of some words have become more common in the US, while in British English their regular forms remain prevalent. As an example, in American English the past tense of fit is fit, while in British it is fitted. The same goes for some other words:

When using the past participle of the word prove, British speakers strongly prefer proved over proven, while in the US the situation is opposite. For example, where a British person would say, "I’ve proved it to you" American might say, "I’ve proven it to you". However, both dialects use proven as an adjective, e.g. not proven.

In American English irregular forms of verbs like dive (dive – dove - dived) and sneak (sneak – snuck – sneaked) are allowed, but they are often considered nonstandard. These forms are usually considered nonstandard in Britain too, although dove exists in some British dialects and snuck is occasionally found in British speech.

In British English the present perfect tense is used when talking about an event in the recent past and with the words already, just and yet. In American English using past simple tense is also possible and gained popularity over the past decades. For example, British English speakers would be more likely to say "I've just seen him" or "I've already done it" whereas in American English it would be common to hear "I just saw him" or "I already did it".

Recently the American use of just with simple past has made its way into British English, most visibly in advertising slogans and headlines such as "Cable broadband just got faster".

As another example, Americans are much more likely to be technically correct in the agreement of collective noun and verb form than British people. So in American English it would be correct to say: "The team is playing well this season" whereas in British English it is common and acceptable to say: "The team are playing well this season". Similar differences can be seen in the use of words such as government, committee etc. For example:

BrE: "The government are..."; AmE: "The government is...".

Shall is more commonly used by the British than by Americans. Shan't is almost never used in American English. Instead, it is almost always replaced by won't or am/are/is not going to. It is worth noting that a form "be going to" is about twice as frequent in American English as in British.

There are some examples of using different prepositions in phrases, so let’s take a look at some of them:

BrE: My name stands first in the list.

AmE: My name stands first on the list.

BrE: These shirts are in a sale.

AmE: These shirts are on sale.

BrE/AmE: He will come here at a quarter to three.

AmE: He will come here at a quarter before (or of; till) three.

Similarly, "five past nine" can be expressed in American English by "five after nine" or "nine five".

With words like weekend or Christmas British English prefers at or over, while American English also uses on:

BrE: at the weekend; at Christmas.

AmE: on the weekend; on Christmas.

Both BrE and AmE: over the weekend; over Christmas.

Where a statement of intention involves two separate activities, it is acceptable for speakers of American English 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 may say "I'll go take a bath", BrE speakers would say "I'll go and have a bath".

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 may say "come see what I bought", BrE speakers would say "come and see what I've bought" (notice the present perfect: a common British preference).

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 or on Tuesday".

There are many other minor grammatical differences, but it would take twice as many pages as this project allows me to use, so I’ll have to skip them.

5. Minor differences

1. Punctuation

Americans tend to write Mr., Mrs., St., Dr. whereas people from Britain using "open punctuation" style will write Mr, Mrs, St, Dr, following the rule that a full stop (AmE period) 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. The use of full stops (periods) after most abbreviations was once standard in the UK, but current publications generally tend to follow the modern open style. Unit symbols such as kg and Hz are never punctuated.

The next difference is that Americans begin their quotations with double quotation marks (") and use single quotation marks (') for quotations within quotations. In British English usage varies, with some authoritative sources such as The Economist and The Times recommending the same usage as in the US, whereas other authoritative sources, such as The King's English, recommend using single quotation marks. In journals and newspapers, using double or single quotation mark depends on the individual publication's house style.

Another difference related to quotation mark usage is that when a sentence ends with a quote, in American English the full stop (period) is put before the quotation marks, whereas in British English, if the quotation itself has no punctuation marks, the full stop (period) goes after the quotation marks. However, British often ignore the details and always put it after quotation marks.

For example:

BrE: I heard him say "I’ll be back soon".

AmE: I heard him say "I’ll be back soon."

2. Idioms

In both American and British English, 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 such as "Tea or coffee?", although both options are equally acceptable, an American person would rather answer, "I don't care", while a British person would say, "I don't mind". Either sounds odd to the other.

British English uses the exclamation "No fear!" whereas current American English has "No way!". The British version may confuse American English speakers, who are likely to interpret "No fear!" as enthusiastic willingness to move forward no matter what (because the speaker has "no fear" of doing so!).

Some English idioms, having the same meaning in both American and British English, yet show lexical differences between them. Here are some of the most popular ones:

3. Naming dates and numbers

When saying or writing out numbers, the British insert an and before the tens and units, as in one hundred and sixty-two or two thousand and three. In the United States the and is dropped, as in one hundred sixty-two or two thousand three.

The 24-hour clock (18:00, 18.00 or 1800) is considered normal in the UK and Europe and being used in different applications including air, rail and bus timetables. However, it is almost unused in the US outside of military, police, aviation and medical applications. Instead, they use 12-hour clock (6:00 AM). British English speakers tend to use the full stop (or period in AmE) when telling time, while those who prefer American English use colons (i.e. 11:15 PM or 23:15 for AmE and 11.15 pm or 23.15 for BrE).

In British English fifteen minutes after the hour is called quarter past, while in American people say a quarter after.

Fifteen minutes before the hour is usually called quarter to in British usage, whereas in American it’s a quarter of, a quarter to or a quarter 'til.

Thirty minutes after the hour is commonly called half past in both British and American English. Remarkably, half after used to be more common in the US in the past.

 In informal British speech, the preposition is sometimes omitted, so that 5:30 may be referred to as half five instead of standard half past five.

Interestingly, the American English formations top of the hour (i.e., when an hour just began) and bottom of the hour (i.e., half of an hour has past) are not used in British English.

Forms such as eleven forty are common in both dialects.

5. Survey

As the research of my work, I conducted a survey to find out the following:

1. Which dialect of English language do my friends and classmates learn in educational institutions
2. Which one do they prefer to use themselves
3. Do they actually keep their choice when speaking English

To do that, I asked them some questions in a test form, basing them on the information from my work.

According to the results of the survey, I came to the following conclusions:

Despite the fact that most of the educational institutions of our city teach British English (see Appendix 1), more than a half of the respondents answered they prefer the American dialect (see Appendix 2). They said one of the reasons for them choosing American English over British was that it’s somewhat easier to learn. However, to my great surprise, the results of the test part were quite controversial. One’s quantities of answers matching American and British versions turned out to be almost equal, with just a little bias towards the preferred dialect. (see Appendices 3-6) It tells us an important thing: most of the people don’t really know much about the differences between English language dialects, and their speech combines features of various dialects. In my understanding, British forms get into their speech mostly through educational institutions, while American forms, especially vocabulary, exclamations and grammar, come from an enormous flow of media content from the United States. American movies (or films in BrE), series, music and dominance in the Internet highly influence average English language speaker’s speech, so that nowadays British speakers understand many words and idioms used in American English and sometimes even use it in their own speech. It particularly affects young people, since they’re more open to foreign media.

6. Conclusion

On the results of the work done I have made the following conclusions:

I’ve done a research on the differences between American and British English. Differences were found in literally every part of the English language, and some of them can even be noticed by an inexperienced person who began learning English just recently. And of course, there are dozens of minor differences, which are not that easy to spot, but they still pop up in speech sometimes. It has been a long time since English diverged into American and British dialects, and the difference gap keeps getting bigger each year.

And yet, in the age of technology and globalization, when people share information more often than ever and consume media content, the boundary between speakers of American and British English gets thinner and thinner. Accents make a huge impact on each other, as well as adopt new words and grammar preferences. They, however, generally tend to keep their unique features and only adopt those changes which won’t make harm to the accent integrity.

You can’t definitely say that one accent is better than the other. It all depends on a man’s personal preference, his interests and the specialization he wants to associate his life with. As for me, I’ve made a choice long ago, and it fell onto American English. There are lots of reasons for such a decision, but the crucial one for me was its enormous popularity as compared with British English. It can be easily explained by the influence USA has on the international community these days, including foreign relationships and media content production. Another advantage for some of those who learn American English is that it’s relatively easier than British.

On the other hand, many developed countries, such as Canada and Australia, still remain in British sphere of influence, and therefore their local dialects are highly influenced by British English too. In addition, British English remains the language of science and is often considered as a standard, original form of English language, and plenty of great works of English literature were written in it. Thus choosing British language is also very reasonable.

At least one thing can be said for sure: choosing English dialect and learning it afterwards is worth it. This is especially true for those who have plans to visit or even move to an English-speaking country, because just speaking the language fluently isn’t enough to fit into the new environment perfectly.

It’s worth mentioning that if you already speak one dialect quite well, learning a new one won’t be a problem.

After all, despite all the differences, English language dialects have one thing in common. They’re all parts of one single language. This language is spoken by more than half a billion people all over the world, and it opens truly exciting opportunities in life to its speakers.

List of references

1. Lowler, H.W., "A Dictionary of Modern English Usage", Oxford University Press, 1965
2. Scragg, D.G., "A History of English Spelling", Manchester University Press, 2011
3. Differences Between American and British English

http://esl.about.com/od/toeflieltscambridge/a/dif_ambrit.htm

4. British vs American | English Pronunciation Lesson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nAnT3PASak

5. American English vs British English

http://www.diffen.com/difference/American_English_vs_British_English

6. British and American terms - Oxford Dictionaries

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/british-and-american-terms

7. Comparison of American and British English

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_American_and_British_English

8. Why Do Brits and Americans Spell Words Differently? | Live Science

http://www.livescience.com/33844-british-american-word-spelling.html

9. British and American spelling

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/british-and-american-spelling

10. British and American English

http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/easy/aebe.htm

Appendices

      №1

   №2

      №3

      №4

   №5

     №6