Appunto 3 british english vs american english

British English vs American English

The English language was first introduced to the Americas by British colonizers, but over the past 500 years, the form of the language used in the USA, the UK, and the British Isles have diverged, leading to the varieties now referred to as American English and British English. In the USA, the spoken language is mostly the same around the land, while in the UK, it is really different in the different regions. Scholars on American English have often commented it as a consequence of the greater mobility of Americans.

Pronunciation differences

As regards pronunciation, we can say that American English is slower and more linear, while British English uses more different tones. American English intonation doesn’t rise or fall as suddenly as that of British English but has a higher pitch. The tempo of American English is rather slower than that of British English speech; for this reason, the English tend to speak of the American drawl, and Americans often speak of the obsession with clippings of the British.

Characteristics of American English

So we can say that in American English there is:

• A tendency for the preservation of the –a in “secretary”
• A tendency to follow the spelling more closely than does British English
• Fewer silent consonants
• The loss of –d in “kindness”

Dictionaries and vocabulary differences

There are also differences between dictionaries published in Britain (which tend to give full and accurate information concerning Ame/Bre variations) and those published in the USA (that are less reliable sources).

There are also different words used:

• Bre film → Ame movie
• Queue → line
• Homely → blame
• Vest → undershirt
• Waistcoat → vest
• Pushchair → stroller
• Theater → theatre

Influences and typical words

The early settlers in America borrowed many words from Native American languages: cannibal, chocolate, cocoa, etc. Typical American words are: hickory, sequoia, moose, opossum, raccoon, and terrapin.

Lexical relations

Lexical relations between British English and American English have been analyzed according to three different approaches:

• Developmental approach
• Causal approach