AMERICAN AND BRITISH ENGLISH
The Development of American English
Three periods:
1607-1790 (ratification of Constitution): Colonial period: New England (East Midlands
and North) and Virginia (West Country): English of southern counties (c17th).
Pennsylvania: Immigrants from Ulster and Germans, from 1683.
This period accounts for archaisms: gotten (in the sense of acquire, cause, become...
I’ve gotten old); although got is used as pp in other sense. Variations in past participles
noted in Quirk and Greenbaum (3.14-16).
I guess so (= I suppose so). But such archaisms are covered over by massive linguistic
innovation. (It is not true that Elizabethan English survives in the Appalachians.)
Borrowings from Indian language and other European languages: canoe, hickory,
moccasin, opossum, pecan, raccoon, skunk, tapioca, toboggan.
From Dutch: boss, cookie (biscuit), coleslaw
From French: chowder, bureau.
Corn = maize (originally ‘Indian corn’), at the same time as maize entered British
English from Spanish.
1790-1860 (Civil War): Expansion southwards and westwards from 13 Atlantic
colonies, across the Appalachian Mountains.
Immigration from Ireland after Great Famine of 1845, from Germany after 1848.
Movement of Loyalists to Canada:
Canadian English is
- a mixture of spelling conventions (Tire Centre)
- rhotic
- flaps (Ottawa)
- no yod-dropping
- /a / and /a / before voiceless consonants: ‘out’ sounds like ‘oat’, ‘isle’ like ‘oil’. In
these diphthongs the first vowel is higher: Canadian raising.
- eh? (Crystal).
SEE VIDEO ON CANADIAN
Three large speech areas:
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Northern (New England and New York state)
Midland (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, south to Georgia)
Southern: southern Delaware, Virginia, west to the Carolinas).
18 varieties within these areas.
1860 to present: Immigration from Southern Europe (Italians) and Slavonic countries
(Poland, Russia). Effects only on eastern seaboard (Marx: like fluvial remains):
vocabulary and accents in and around New York.
Retention of postvocalisc /r/ in Midland, but not in Eastern New England or all
Southern varieties (from c.17th English).
Vowel /æ/ as in fast, laugh, grass, although a broad /a/ is found in Eastern New England
and Virginia, as in British English.
Unrounded o, as in /a/, in rob, stop, hop (from c.17th English).
Use of /i:/ in either and neither (from c.17th English).
Tendency to pronounce words like duke, new, Tuesday with /u:/ instead of /ju:/.
FOR SPELLING, PRONUNCIATION AND LEXICAL DIFFERENCES, SEE
CRYSTAL 307, 309. ON SYNTACTIC DIFFERENCES, P. 311. (SEE ALSO
PUNCTUATION DIFFERENCES ON THE SAME PAGE.)
tomato, not potato.
Words ending in -ory, -ary and -ery preserve the secondary accent. ordinary, dictionary,
secretary, temporary.
Different pronunciation of:
aluminium, ancillary, ate, clerk, comrade, corollary, laboratory, lieutenant, medicine,
missile, patriot, privacy, schedule, vitamin.
Reduction of differences between British and American varieties in c.20th, thanks to
films, radio, television and international youth culture, usually in favour of the
American variant.
Radio: valves in BrE, tubes in AmE. But televisions have transistors in both.
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US
apartment
baby carriage
broiled
candy
cookie
absorbent cotton
daylight-saving time
druggist
UK
flat
pram
grilled
sweets
biscuit
cotton wool
summer time
chemist
elevator
installment plan
oatmeal
second floor
sidewalk
spigot, faucet
suspenders
undershirt
water heater
lift
hire-purchase
porridge
first floor
pavement
tap
braces
vest, singlet
geyser
checkers
fall
deck of cards
gasoline, gas
hood of car
intermission (theatre)
legal holiday
railroad
vacation
draughts
autumn
pack of cards
petrol
bonnet
interval
bank holiday
railway
holiday
windshield
windscreen
Dangerous differences:
I’m pissed.
I’m done.
Chips / crisps.
Spelling differences (since Webster’s American Dictionary, 1828):
center, fiber, theater
honor, color, humor
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defense, offense
jeweler, marvelous, traveling
curb (Br. Kerb)
pajamas
tire
Syntax:
Apart from different pps:
One cannot succeed at this unless ONE tries hard.- (BrE)
One cannot succeed at this unless HE tries hard.- (BrE)
Practice session: Algeo 1.2, 1.3. (photocopy for whole class).
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1
1607-1790 (ratification of Constitution): Colonial
period: New England and Virginia: English of
southern counties (c17-18th).
gotten / got
I guess so (=I suppose so).
canoe, hickory, moccasin, opossum, pecan, raccoon,
skunk, tapioca, toboggan.
From Dutch: boss, cookie (biscuit), coleslaw
From French: chowder (Fr. chaudière), bureau
Corn = maize (originally ‘Indian corn’)
1790-1860 (Civil War): Expansion southwards and
westwards from 13 Atlantic colonies, across the
Appalachian Mountains.
Immigration from Ireland after Great Famine of 1845,
from Germany after 1848.
Three large speech areas:
Northern (New England and New York state)
Midland (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, south to
Georgia)
Southern (southern Delaware, Virginia, west to the
Carolinas).
Retention of postvocalic /r/ in Midland, but not in
Eastern New England or all Southern varieties.
Vowel /æ/ as in fast, laugh, grass
Unrounded o, as in /a/, in rob, stop, hop.
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2
Use of /i:/ in either and neither (from c.17th English).
duke, new, Tuesday with /u:/ instead of /ju:/
tomato, not potato.
ordinary, dictionary, secretary, temporary
aluminum, ancillary, ate, clerk, comrade, corollary,
laboratory, lieutenant, medicine, missile, patriot,
privacy, schedule, vitamin.
US
apartment
baby carriage
broiled
candy
cookie
absorbent cotton
daylight-saving time
druggist
elevator
installment plan
oatmeal
second floor
sidewalk
spigot, faucet
suspenders
undershirt
water heater
checkers
fall
deck of cards
UK
flat
pram
grilled
sweets
biscuit
cotton wool
summer time
chemist
lift
hire-purchase
porridge
first floor
pavement
tap
braces
vest, singlet
geyser
draughts
autumn
pack of cards
2
3
gasoline, gas
hood of car
intermission (theatre)
legal holiday
railroad
vacation
windshield
petrol
bonnet
interval
bank holiday
railway
holiday
windscreen
center, fiber, theater
honor, color, humor
defense, offense
jeweler, marvelous, traveling
pajamas
tire
One cannot succeed at this unless ONE tries hard.(BrE)
One cannot succeed at this unless HE tries hard.(AmE)
The book which/that you gave me. (BrE)
The book that you gave me. (AmE)
Everybody / everyone
It is good that you have come.
I’m pleased you have come.
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