American English
Read Graddol et al timeline
Map & lexicon photocopy
1584 – failed attempt to settle in
the North
Roanoke Colony ‘The
Lost Colony
http://en.wikipedia.org/w
iki/Roanoke_Colony
• The most significant
step in the progress
of English towards it’s
status as a world
language took place
when Raleigh went to
the ‘New World’.
• 1607 – Jamestown
Virginia was settled.
This settlement was
named after King
James I and the
region was named
Virginia after recently
deceased Queen
Elizabeth (the Virgin
Queen).
• Then the ‘Pilgrim
fathers’ came on the
Mayflower and settled
in Plymouth
Massechusetts.
• The southern explorers
(Chesapeake) came mainly
from the West Country with
its ‘Zummerset’ voicing of ‘s’
sounds, and the ‘r’
pronounced after the
vowels. In this area the
accent can still be heard.
They are called ‘Tidewater
accents’ and are considered
to be the closest to
Shakespeare still surviving.
Cart, car – Elizabethan
English had this feature
though present day London
has lost it.
• The Puritans came
mainly from East
Anglia and had a
different accent – like
current modern
English they lacked a
‘r’ after vowels. This
is still a feature of a
New England
Acccent.
Other features of 17th C English
• Are still found in Modern American speech.
Short flat ‘a’ – British RP later developed the
long ‘a’ – e.g. dance. And later British
English pronounces ‘not’ with lip-rounding but
in the USA the earlier unrounded vowel ‘nat’
remains. They have kept ‘gotten’ for ‘got’
and ‘eight’ for ‘et’. ‘Mad’ means angry and
‘fall’ means Autumn – semantics have
changed in current British English. ‘I guess’
can also be traced back to Middle English.
• During the 17th C
new ship loads of
settlers brought new
linguistic backgrounds
and the ‘Middle’
Atlantic areas opened
up. New York
developed rapidly.
Pennsylvania was
settled by
Quakers who
were mostly from
the Midlands and
the North of
England.
In the early 18th C there
was a wave of
immigration from Northern
Ireland (Scots-Irish)–
many in Philadelphia,
others went inland.
Davy-Crockett was of this
descent. The accent was
described as ‘broad’.
This is the ‘Sunbelt’
accent that we associate
with present-day
American speech.
The three major dialects of the east
Coast & Migration
•
(North) New England moved into the
Great Lakes. Began with smallholdings.
Say ‘see’. North has tried to Standardize
linguistically but South has resisted.
Settlers named their settlements after
towns and villages in East Anglia.
•
Southerners moved along the gulf coast
and into Texas. Began with rice & cotton
plantations. People from South & West
England settled here, many had been
deported or were political refugees. The
labour was slaves. (This is where West
African languages started to influence
new forms re: Pidgin & Creole.) Say
‘seed’. Values here are older,
agricultural, hierarchical and different
from mainstream. They enjoy their
linguistic difference.
•
Midlanders spread across the Midwest,
across the Mississippi and into California.
Native American Influence
•
Note that Native American, like Celtic, is the language of a conquered
people and it has had little influence on American English as Native
Americans did not want to mix as servants with settlers…. However the
settlers needed some words to describe their new experiences e.g. Racoon
– in 1672 this spelling was standardized - comes from Algonquian word
ara’kun (‘he scratches with his hands’). Algonquian includes these tribes :
Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree, Delaware, Fox, Mimac,
Ojibwa/Chippewa, Penobscot. This is the only one of many Native
American languages that has provided around initially around 150 source
words ‘loanwords’ for the colonists. E.g powwow. But their pronunciation
has changed from the original. – spellings were changed or the word was
incorrectly analysed for meaning. E.g. muskwessu (muskrat). As
expansion continued only another 150 were adopted as the Native
Americans were hostile but places such as Mississippi and Chattanooga
were given native names. Webster felt this was showing respect to the
Native Americans. However this did coincide with taking the ownership of
the land from the Native Americans. (In England the Celtic names were
preserved for rivers…)
Early Settler Language & Culture
Influence
Early settlers also changed the meanings of some English words. E.g. ‘creek’
meant saltwater inlet was changed to mean freshwater stream. English
commentators found this ‘barbarous’.
•
Spanish & Portuguese Late 15th C. (Mexicans, often illegal
immigrants speak
this)
•
French Louisiana
•
New York was originally New Amsterdam (Dutch)
•
Germans (hamburger)
•
African-Americans
•
Italians pizza (food word)
•
Welsh in Pennsylvania
•
Jews
E.g. Wigwam, Skunk, cookie, chowder, delicatessen, espresso, coyote, kosher
etc.
Also new words were COINED to reflect the new culture around cattle ranches
(cowboy), the railroad (freight), gambling (hit the jackpot), the goldrush
(prospecter), and new politics.
Noah Webster
• Saw English language as corrupted and in decline.
He was successful in introducing spelling reforms
e.g. color, center, defense, traveller. Also music
and logic without ‘k’ succeeded. He was
unsuccessful at remaking the final ‘e’ though he
tried e.g. ‘medicin’. Webster saw Johnson as
‘class bound’ – Johnson opposed US
independence. Webster viewed the Latin, Greek
& French origins of owrds in Johnson’s dictionary
as elitist. He found Johnson pompous.
• There has been a tendency in modern times to
encourage diverse cultures to name themselves
so ‘negro’ had become ‘African-American’.
Lesson 2
Text 3
http://bbqpitboys.com/recipes/hamb
urger-recipes
As before, prepare your comparison of key constituents for
presentation to the class.
Phonology (group 1/3)
• Vowel change in ‘tomato’ typically
associated with American English.
• Elision of initial consonant ‘-m’ in ‘them’ is
an informal feature which is found in a
range of Englishes.
• Reduction of vowel sounds is also
common in a range of Englishes e.g. ‘and’
reduced to ‘-n’
Grammar (group 2/3)
• Use of non-standard demonstrative pronoun
’them’ instead of ‘those’ e.g. ‘toast up them buns’
‘lock in them juices’. This is a common feature
of many English dialects.
• Ellipsis of subject/auxialliary verb in some
clauses where it is predictable in context e.g.
going to move these burgers off’ ‘look good’.
This saves time and is a common feature of
many varieties of spoken English.
Morphology (3/3)
• The uninflected adverb ‘real’ is a key
morphological feature of American
English.
Lexis (3/3)
• Some limited difference e.g. ‘chuck’ and
others which reflect cultural differences
e.g. baseball.
Discourse/pragmatics (3/3)
• The idiolect of the speaker and the
informal relationship shown by the
frequent use of exclamations, which are
stereotypically associated with American
English such as ‘man’ ‘boy’.
• Work as a pair to write up a paragraph on
a key constituent of your choice for
presentation to the class.
• Gullah Text – research for next week.