ENGLISH IN THE
UNITED STATES
• American English 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 twothirds of native speakers of English live in
the United States.
English language prevalence in the United
States. Darker shades of blue indicate higher
concentrations of native English speakers
• The 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 of
other languages such as Spanish, French, Dutch,
German, Norwegian, Swedish, Scots, Welsh, Irish,
Scottish Gaelic, Finnish, Russian (in Alaska), and
numerous Native American languages.
• There were already other indigenous group
that speak Native American languages ex.
Eskima –Aleut, Uto-Aztecan, Yunan and
Navajo.
• The language the immigrant brought to
Jamestown, Virginia was early modern English
and the South-East England.
Linguistic map of the United States
Development of English
in America
• Influenced by:
1. Source of the original British dialect
2. Maintenance of contact with the
“home”country
3. Pattern of settlement
4. Influence of other languages spoken by
other immigrants
5. Social and geographical mobility
Settlement in America
• Took place in three stages:
• Stage 1
The first thirteen colonies in the mountainous
region of Appalachian
Stage 2
Settlers moved into the South and Midwest
Stage 3
Settlers moved into Southwest and West
Settlement of America
• English is the most common language in
the United States
• English is considered the de facto language
of the United States because of its
widespread use.
• Immigrants from Southeastern England began
arriving on the North American continent in
the early 1600's.
• The American English language is
characterized by archaisms (words that
changed meaning in Britain, but remained in
the colonies) and innovations in vocabulary
(borrowing from the French and Spanish who
were also settling in North America).
• Noah Webster was the most vocal about the
need for an American national identity with
regards to the American English language. He
wrote an American spelling book, The
Blueback Speller, in 1788 and changed several
spellings from British English
• Ex: colour became color, theatre became
theater, etc.
NOAH WEBSTER
• An American scholar responsible for divorcing
AE from BrE.
• He wrote three elementary books:
• 1. Grammatical Institute of the English
Language
• 2. The American Spelling Book
• 3. Dissertation of the English Language
• His influence is most significant in spelling
British
American
honour, neighbour
honor, neighbor
traveller, waggon
traveler, wagon
fibre, theatre
fiber, theater
defence, offence
defense, offense
axe, plough
ax, plow
tyre
tire
storey
story
gaol
jail
judgement
judgment
mediaeval, oestrogen
medieval, estrogen
masque, cheque
mask, check
Development of
American English
• How, Why and When American English
began to Diverge from British English
• The divergence took place due to:
• 1. Physical separation of Britain from
America
• 2. Different physical condition encountered
by the settleers.
• 3. Contact with non-native speakers of
English
• 4. Growing American sense of national
identity
• Although the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand have English as an
official language, the United States does not have
an official language.
• Canada also has French as an official language,
though it is mostly spoken in the province of
Quebec. Because many of the English speakers
who originally inhabited Canada came from the
US, there is little difference in the American and
Canadian dialects of English.
American English and its
dialects
• Besides British English, American English is
now regarded as an equivalent standard
variety of English. Sociolinguistically, it must
be regarded as even more influential than
modern British English.
• It has diverse dialects just as BrE
18
LANGUAGE VARIATION IN THE
UNITED STATES
• Variation from BrE occurs in :
• Phonology - consonant and vowel
pronounced differently in different regions of
US
• Spelling – some words vary from Br E ex.
center / centre
• Lexicon – meaning change from Br E ex. boot
of a car / trunk of a car.
• Phonology: Consonants
Feature
Example
Pronounced
Region
intervocalic
/s/ vs. /z/
greasy
[grisi]
[grizi]
Northern
Midland, Southern
/ð/ vs. /θ/
with, wihtout [wið]
[wiθ]
Northern
Midland
/hw/ > /w/
whether,
weather
New York City,
North Midland
Feature
Example
/h/ deleted
before /iu/
human,
Hugh
Pronounced Region
Eastern United States,
especially New York City
/i/ deleted before help, bulb,
/p/, /b/, /f/
wolf, gilf
/r/ deleted after
vowels
park, car,
sister
Southern
[pa:k]
[ka:]
Eastern New England, New
York City, plantationinfluenced South
• Phonology: Vowels
• In American Vowel System, there are two
categories
1. Northern Cities Vowel Rotation
2. Southern Vowel Shift
Northern Cities Vowel Rotation
Southern Vowel Shift
Social and Ethnic
Dialects
• Characteristic that affect the way people
speak are:
1. Social status – not obvious like RP in
Britain.
2. Ethnicity
– most prominent is the
Black AE
3. Gender
– biasness towards
masculinity
Linguistic Atlas
The linguistic landscape of the US still
reflects the settlement history of this
country and the corresponding origins of
old world dialects. Generally speaking,
the US can be divided into three dialect
areas: the northern, the midland, and
the southern zone.
28
• The northern dialects – spreading from New
England to the North West of America
(Washington) were influenced by the dialect
of the Puritans. These people mainly came
from counties in the east of England.
• These eastern dialects were non-rhotic (as is
RP), i.e. the / r/ was not pronounced after
vowels. The tendency not to pronounce /r/ is
still a feature of New England dialects.
30
• In contrast, the southern dialects –
originating in the earliest settlements in
Virginia are rhotic. This is due to the fact
that many of these settlers came from
England’s ‘West Country’.
• It is argued that these Tidewater accents
are the closest one will ever get to the
sound of Shakespeare’s English.
31
32
• The Midland dialects reflect the
cosmopolitan immigration patchwork of the
‘middle’ Atlantic areas. The settlers brought
a variety of different linguistic backgrounds
with them; this caused regional dialect
divisions to be blurred. However, in this
region – which now extends into California
due to the pioneering into the west – the
accent of the so-called Sunbelt emerged.
33
• This accent is most commonly associated
with present-day American speech and
forms the basis of the standard: General
American.
• General American has retained a great
number of features of 17th century English.
Thus, for instance, words such as bath,
path, grass are pronounced with an [æ]
sound, while present-day RP has an [a:].
34
SOCIAL CLASS AND
LANGUAGE CHANGE
• social strata does influence language usage
similarly, it happens in the US
• social class distinctions ultimately based on
status and power.
– status: amount of respect and deference accorded
to a person
– power: social and material resources a person can
command to make decisions and influence events
35
Cont’d
• In every society, there are majority and
minority / ethnic groups
• In the US, there are many immigrants varieties
of English such as the Chicanos, Asian, Red
Indians and Black American
Ethnicity
• from a sociolinguistic point of view “ethnicity”
is difficult to separate from other social factors
like region and class
– e.g. the notion of “Jewish English” is strongly
associated with New York
– African American English often linked to
social status and has Southern roots
• parameters for the definition of an ethnic
group (National Councilof Social Studies):
– origins that precede or are external to the
state
– group membership is involuntary
– ancestral tradition rooted in a shared sense
of peoplehood
– distinctive value orientations and
behavioral patterns
– influence of the group on the lives of its
members
– group membership influenced by how
members define themselves and how they
are defined by others
African American
Vernacular English
 When listening to Jazz, Blues, or Hip-Hop a distinct
form of American English can be recognised:
African American Vernacular English (AAVE),
formerly described as Black English. Of course, the
development of this variety is closely connected to
the dismal history of black slaves.
40
 In the US, the West Indian slave pidgins
developed into a distinct plantation creole
that also contained a great number of features
from non-standard dialects of English.
41
 These plantation creoles form
the basis of African American
Vernacular English, whose
actual development is very
complex and controversial.
With the strong influence of
black music, AAVE became
known throughout the United
States. It also found a very
eloquent rhetoric in the
speeches of Martin Luther
King, the famous proponent of
the civil rights movement in the
1960ies.
42
The difference between
British English and American
English
• American English and British English (BrE)
differ at the levels of
»Phonology
»Phonetics
» vocabulary
» grammar
»orthography.
PHONOLOGY
• Compared to BrE, AE is more homogeneous.
Some distinctive features in
i.
East Coast ( New England & New York City)
because they are in contact with England.
They tend to imitate the prestigious BrE.
ii. East Coast pronunciation is rhotic. (A rhotic
speaker pronounces the letter R in hard; a
non-rhotic speaker does not pronounce the R
in hard)
iii. /r/ is not a trill sound but rather a retroflex
sound [ɻ]
iv. Loss of final syllabler “r” especially in east New
England ex “r” is not pronounced in words like
bird, hard, first, work
v. The loss of ‘r’ often changed to schwa [ə] ex. fur,
butter
Further examples, refer to text, pg 226 & 227
PHONETICS
WORD
aluminium
privacy
route
schedule
tomato
vitamin
BrE
aluminium
priv-acy
root
shedule
tom-ah-to
vit-amin
AmE
aluminium
pry-vacy
rout
skedule
tom-ay-do
vie-tamin
VOCABULARY
BRITISH ENGLISH
AMERICAN ENGLISH
flat
lift
first floor
ground floor
apartment
elevator
second floor
first floor
biscuits
chips
rubbish
cookies
French fries
garbage
sweets
candies
rubber
eraser
GRAMMAR
BRITISH ENGLISH
I have lost my pen.
He has gone home.
I have already seen this
movie.
Have you got a car?
Shall I help you with the
homework?
She suggested that I
should see a doctor.
AMERICAN ENGLISH
I lost my pen.
He went home.
I already saw this movie.
Do you have a car?
Should I help you with the
homework?
She suggested that I see a
doctor.
ORTHOGRAPHY.
• Orthography is the language’s writing
system.
• because English spelling is changing
gradually American and British standards
often disagree.
• Here are some rules for choosing between
competing spellings in Modern English.
• The combinations "ae" and "oe", generally
occurring in words of Greek origin, are
seldom present in American English. Also, a
few words, such as "algae" and "cristae",
would be rendered a bit confusing.
Therefore, "ae" and "oe" must be preserved
in words like "aeon" and "amoeba".
• In British English, variation between words
ending in "ce" and "se" is supposed to
indicate related noun-verb pairs such as
"practice" and "practise".
• Many verbs end in "ce" and many nouns
end in "se", this rule is not a reliable
indication of word class.
• Where variation exists between "or" and
"our", British English often, but not always,
prefers the latter (ex. labor / labour) In
many words such as "laboratory", both
varieties of English prefer the Latin "or" to
the Old French "our". Therefore, "or" is
preferred over "our" for consistency.
• Words ending in "re" in British English are
generally (except for a few exceptions such
as "acre" and "ogre") modified to end in
"er" for American English example, “centre”
vs “center”
Differences in lexicon / vocabulary
is noticeable in idioms too
Equivalent Idioms
A number of English idioms that have essentially the
same meaning show lexical differences between the
British and the American version.
BRITISH ENGLISH
not touch something with
a bargepole
sweep under the carpet
touch wood
AMERICAN ENGLISH
not touch something with
a ten-foot pole
sweep under the rug
knock on wood
see the forest for the
see the wood for the trees
trees
CONCLUSION
• AE is not a monolithic language
• AE is a salad bowl of many ethnic dialects
• Due to United States position as the
superpower of this era, it is likely that it will be
the dominant lingua franca in the future
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