Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Ministry of higher Education
AL Majmaah University
Az Zulfi College of Education
Department of English
Historical Linguistics
Course Instructor: Dr. Abdelfattah Ghazel
Lecture 8: The development of English in America.
General characteristics
Economical: tendency to shorten words, e.g. "math"
Regular: preference for regular grammatical patterns, e.g. burn, burned (instead of burn,
burnt); only "will" ("shall" rarely used)
Democratic: standard, widely embraced dialect
Tolerant: no strict observance of traditional usage rules, e.g. the word "hopefully" used to
mean "it is to be hoped" or "let us hope" is widely used in America ("Hopefully, I'll win the
lottery") but is generally rejected by traditional grammarians who accept it only as
meaning "with hope" or "in a hopeful manner" ("She spoke hopefully of her dream to
become an actress").
Informal and direct: general avoidance of formalisms and polite expressions common in
other languages (e.g. use of first names in conversation); tendency to conciseness,
bluntness,
Inventive: dynamic and highly active word formation mechanisms (e.g. nouns becoming
verbs: "to interface," "to impact," "to access"
Action-oriented: e.g. "take a shower" (instead of "have a shower"), "hit the books," "grab a
sandwich"; widespread influence of sports and business language "make a killing" "play
the field" "play hardball" "touch base" "strike out"
Sources and origins:
British English: historical origins in seventeenth-century colonial English; Jamestown
(Virginia) settlement (1607), Plymouth Plantation (1620); about 90% of the 4 million
inhabitants of the thirteen colonies (around 1790) were of British origin
Contact with other languages: arrival of first African slaves (1619); contacts with Native
American languages, Spanish, French, Dutch, German
Cultural, intellectual, and other influences: Puritanism, rationalism, frontier-life
conditions, utilitarian/pragmatic/exploitative/expansionist mentality of European
immigrants in America
Colonial Period (1607-1789):
Colonial Period begins with settlement at Jamestown (Virginia) (1607); New England
settled by British East Anglian Puritans; Mid-Atlantic regions settled first by the Dutch
(New York was called "New Amsterdam" till 1664), then by the English; English Quakers
in New Jersey; Quakers, Germans, Welsh, Scots, and Irish in Pennsylvania; South Atlantic
areas settled by the English, French Protestant; Irish migrations toward the southwest in
the 1700's; end of Colonial Period with ratification of the Constitution in 1789
National Period (1789-1900)
Frontier life and westward expansion; central role of Scots-Irish immigrants in the
shaping of the language and culture of the period (e.g. Davy Crockett 1786-1836,
Tennessee pioneer, hunter, and politician; quoted as saying, "You can go to hell -- I'm
going to Texas"); 30 million immigrants between 1840-1900 (mostly Irish and Germans);
development of English as the national language; influence of Noah Webster and others
in the shaping of the language
International Period (1900-present)
Repeated waves of immigration from many parts of the world: northern Europeans (e.g.
Swedes in Minnesota); southern and eastern Europeans (e.g. Italians, Austro-Hungarians,
Jews); Hispanics (e.g. Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans); Asians (e.g. Chinese, Japanese,
Vietnamese, Philippinos). Growth in the importance and influence of American English
all over the world (connected to cultural appeal of American life as well as the economic
and political imperialism of US foreign policy since the 19th century)
Some differences from British English:
Archaic features of 17th century English retained in American English but lost in British
English:

retention of r whereas British English lacks r before consonants and in final
position: e.g. 'bar," color," "March," "quarter," (exceptions: New England, New
York, and Southern dialects)

[æ] instead of [a] in words like "fast, ask, path, class, half, can't"

[u] in words like "new" and 'knew" (British English has [iu])

flat short [o] in words like "not, hot, top, lot" (British English uses a more rounded
"o" sound)
conservation of terms and expressions used in pre-revolutionary British English
(e.g. gotten/got, fall/autumn)


use of secondary stresses on penultimate syllables of long words, e.g. sécretàry,
nécessàry, mílitàry (British: sécretry, nécesry, mílitry)
Vocabulary borrowings (selected examples):
American Indian: hickory, pecan, sequoia, caucus, totem, igloo, kayak, squash (also
idioms like "bury the hatchet," "go on the war path")
French: bayou, levee, depot, cache, prairie, rapids, bureau, voyage, cent, dime
Spanish: barbecue, chocolate, tomato, alfalfa, coyote, mustang, bronco, canyon, mesa,
rodeo, ranch
Dutch: Brooklyn, Harlem, Bronx, waffle, coleslaw, cookie, landscape, sleigh, Santa Claus,
Yankee, boss, hay
German: kindergarten, hamburger, frankfurter, noodle, pretzel, sauerkraut, lager,
seminar, semester
Italian: pizza, pasta, spaghetti, espresso, broccoli, zuchini
Yiddish: bagel, lox
Main dialects:
General American: the standard dialect of most Americans, associated with the central
midlands
New England: clipped, featuring r-elision, e.g. r'ally, un'neath, pooty ("pretty")
Southern: also clipped, marked by certain elisions and vowel elongations, e.g. a-doin'
("doing"), wunst ("once"), hoss ("horse").
Ethnic dialects: Chicano English, Black English (Ebonics) measured, careful enunciation
of each syllable (e.g. "sec-ret-ary" and "waist-coat" as