Lingua inglese - differenze tra lingua americana e inglese

American and British English differences

This article outlines the differences between American English, the form of the English language spoken in the United States, and British English, which is used to denote what is more precisely known as Commonwealth English.

Definitions and assumptions

For the purposes of this article:

American English is the language spoken by U.S. government officials, the U.S. media, etc. It does not include Canadian English, which falls outside of this definition of "American English". Canadian pronunciation is similar to that in the United States, but spelling more often than not takes the Commonwealth form. American English is also used by countries and organisations, such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Liberia, and the Organization of American States, whose use of English is most influenced by the United States.

British English is assumed to be the form of English spoken in southeast England and the BBC and understood in other parts of the United Kingdom. The section on pronunciation assumes the received pronunciation of British English, from which there are many regional variations.

Commonwealth English refers to the language written in most of the English-speaking world, including Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The language may vary slightly from country to country or even between those countries' regions, states, provinces, and territories, but it is in all cases distinct from American English. Commonwealth English is mostly interchangeable with British English, and where "Britons" is used, "inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Nations" might be a more accurate, if more unwieldy, replacement. Commonwealth English is also used by countries and organisations, such as Ireland and the European Union, whose use of English is most influenced by the United Kingdom. International organizations like the United Nations, the IOC, and the WTO also use Commonwealth English as a standard.

English in various countries

English usage in other countries has traditionally followed one model or the other. Throughout most of the Commonwealth, spoken English has its roots in the language as spoken in England, though local expressions abound. Canadian English is something of an exception, taking its cue from both the UK and the US.

British English is also the dialect taught in most countries where English is not a native language, though there are a few exceptions where American English is taught, such as in the Philippines and in Japan. Ireland's version of English, sometimes described as Hiberno-English, differs in some respects from British English, in so far as phrases and terms often owe their origin to the original Irish language (Gaelic). English is one of the official languages of the European Union, and the form used within the EU follows usage in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Although American and British English are generally mutually intelligible, there are enough differences to occasionally cause awkward misunderstandings or even a complete failure to communicate. George Bernard Shaw said that the United States and United Kingdom are "two countries divided by a common language". A similar comment is ascribed to Winston Churchill.

Henry Sweet predicted in 1877 that within a century, American English, Australian English, and British English would be mutually unintelligible, but it may be the case that increased worldwide communication through radio, television, the Internet, and globalisation has reduced the tendency to regional variation. This can result either in some variations becoming extinct (as, for instance, truck has been gradually displacing lorry in much of the world) or in the acceptance of wide variations as "perfectly good English" everywhere.

In addition to its use in English-speaking countries, English plays an important role as a technical language around the world, in medicine, computer science, air traffic control, and many other areas of concentrated expertise and formal communication among international professionals. Such speakers may be fluent in English within their discipline, but not generally fluent in English.

Spelling

Some words shared by all English speakers are spelled one way by Americans but are spelt differently in other English-speaking countries. Many of the differences were introduced into the United States by Noah Webster's dictionary in an artificial attempt to restore "etymologically correct" Latin (or Greek) spellings, often to words which English had borrowed from French and which were spelled accordingly, thus L. color, center, Gk. διάλογος > Fr. couleur, centre, dialogue > E. colour, centre, dialogue.

Although many of Webster's spellings became standardized in the U.S., they never spread to other English-speaking countries, which were more influenced by Samuel Johnson's dictionary. However, in some cases, the American versions have become common Commonwealth usage, for example, program (in the computing sense).

Spelling and pronunciation

In a few miscellaneous cases, essentially the same word has a different spelling which reflects a different pronunciation:

Latin-derived spellings

-our / -or

American words ending in -or may end in -our in Commonwealth English. For example, in American English, one would use color, flavor, honor, whereas in Commonwealth English one would use colour, flavour, and honour. In addition, Americans replace "ou" with "o" in derivatives and inflected forms such as favorite, savory in American English versus favourite, savoury in Commonwealth English.

One seeming exception (the word comes from Scots, not Latin or French) to this distinction is glamour, which is usually spelled that way in American English as well as in Commonwealth usage. In both systems, the adjectival forms that end in -ous are spelled without the u in the stem (e.g. glamorous, vigorous, humorous, and laborious) as are certain other compounds (invigorate, humorist but (Commonwealth) colourist).

Words in which the stress falls on the "our", such as hour, our, flour, velour, sour, and soury, are the same in both usages. Also note that words with Latin-derived agentive endings, such as professor and conductor, never end in -our, despite the corresponding French forms professeur and conducteur.

-re / -er

In Commonwealth English, some words of French or Greek origin end with a consonant followed by -re, with the -re unstressed and pronounced / (r)/. Most of these words have the ending -er in the US. This is especially true of endings -bre and -tre: fibre/fiber, sabre/saber, centre/center (though some places in the United States have "Centre" in their names, such as the Circle Centre mall in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the Long Island town of Rockville Centre, New York), spectre/specter, theatre/theater (however, some American theaters have the spelling Theatre in their names).

The ending -cre is retained in America: acre, massacre, and so on; this prevents the c losing its hard k sound. There are not many other -re endings, even in Commonwealth English: louvre, manoeuvre, meagre, ochre, ogre, sepulchre. In the US, ogre is standard, manoeuvre is usually maneuver, and the other -re forms listed are variants of the equivalent -er form.

Of course, the above relates to root words; -er rather than -re is universal as a suffix for agentive (reader, winner) and comparative (louder, nicer) forms. One consequence is the Commonwealth distinction of meter for a measuring instrument from metre for the unit of measurement. However, while poetic metre is often -re, pentameter, hexameter, etc. are always -er.

The e preceding the r is retained in US derived forms of nouns and verbs, e.g. fibers, reconnoitered, centering, which are, naturally, fibres, reconnoitred, and centring respectively in Commonwealth English. It is dropped for other inflections, e.g. central, fibrous, spectral. However, such dropping cannot be regarded as proof of an -re Commonwealth spelling: e.g. entry derives from enter, which is never spelled entre.

-ce / -se

Nouns ending in -ce with -se verb forms: American English retains the noun/verb distinction in advice / advise and device / devise (pronouncing them differently), but has lost the same distinction with licence / license and practice / practise that British English retains. American English uses practice exclusively for both meanings, and license for both meanings (although licence is an accepted variant spelling). Also, Commonwealth defence, offence, pretence; American defense, offense, pretense.

-xion / -ction

The spellings connexion, inflexion, deflexion, reflexion are now somewhat rare, perhaps understandably as their stems are connect, inflect, deflect, and reflect and there are many such words in English that result in a -tion ending. The more common connection, inflection, deflection, reflection have almost become the standard internationally.

However, the Oxford English Dictionary lists the older spellings as the etymological form, since these four words actually derive from the Latin root -xio. In both forms, complexion is used in preference to complection, as it comes from the stem complex in British and in American English, although one frequently sees complected as an adjective, like dark-complected. The words crucifix and crucifixion are also the same. (Etymologically, the spelling *crucifiction would in any case mean not "fixing to a cross" (Lat. figere) but "moulding into a cross" (Lat. fingere)). British Methodism retains the eighteenth-century spelling "connexion" to describe its national organisation, for historical reasons.

Greek-derived spellings

-ise / -ize

American spelling accepts only colonize, harmonize, and realize. These -ize spellings are sometimes used in the Commonwealth as well, but many Commonwealth writers and publications use colonise, harmonise, and realise instead. Although most authoritative Commonwealth sources, including the Oxford English Dictionary and Fowler's Modern English Usage, prefer -ize, some give the -ise spelling first, including the Australian Macquarie Dictionary. The same pattern—the spelling -s- in Commonwealth only, -z- in either Commonwealth or American—applies to derivatives and inflexions such as colonisation and colonization.

Endings in -yze are possible only in American English. Thus, Commonwealth analyse, catalyse, hydrolyse, paralyse; American analyze, catalyze, hydrolyze, paralyze.

Mind that not all spellings are interchangeable; some verbs take the -z- form exclusively, for instance capsize, seize (except in the legal phrase to be seised of/to stand seised to), size and prize (to value: but prize "to lever open" is in the Commonwealth often prise), whereas others take only -s-: advertise, advise, apprise, arise, chastise, circumcise, comprise, compromise, demise, despise, devise, disguise, excise, exercise, enterprise, (en)franchise, improvise, incise, merchandise, premise, promise, previse, poise, praise, raise, reprise, revise, rise, supervise, surmise, surprise, televise, and uprise.

-ogue / -og

Commonwealth analogue, catalogue, dialogue; American analog, catalog, dialog; and inflected forms: American cataloging, Commonwealth cataloguing. This applies with any consistency only to the various words ending in -log(ue) deriving from Greek λόγος, although demagog is a possible U.S. variant spelling of demagogue. All the -gue forms are also relatively common in the United States, and other words ending in -gue in Commonwealth usage generally retain -gue in America; e.g. vogue, rogue, plague, monologue (although monolog is fairly common), intrigue, fugue, colleague, tongue, harangue.

Greek– and Latin-derived words with æ and œ

The current trend seems to be to replace the ligatures æ and œ with ae and oe respectively. When so spelt and at the same time capitalised, as in the beginning of a sentence, only the first letter is usually a majuscule: Aesthetic (but Æsthetic), Oenology (but Œnology).

Commonwealth manoeuvre seems to be a special case: its oe was not derived from Greek or Latin, but was apparently changed to maneuver in American English on the mistaken belief that it was. Conversely, Commonwealth foetus is apparently the result of the same mistake (the word derives directly from L. fetus).

British aeroplane and American airplane is a special case in that it is not a straight ae → e substitution; in fact, it is a different word rather than a different spelling. Americans frequently used the accented spelling aëroplane at the beginning of the 20th century, and it was the official government spelling throughout the First World War and beyond. Some words retain the ae in American usage, such as aesthetic and archaeology, although esthetic and archeology are also encountered. (Conversely, some words which in Greek contained ae or oe have only e even in British, such as economics (the spelling œconomics is possible, but is now considered archaic)). The spelling encyclopedia is commonly used in British English, although the earlier form encyclopaedia is also commonly used.

Common suffixes

Commonwealth English generally doubles final -l when adding suffixes that begin with a vowel if -l is preceded by a single vowel, whereas American English doubles it only on stressed syllables. (Thus American English treats -l the same as other final consonants, whereas Commonwealth English treats it irregularly.)

• Commonwealth: counsellor, equalling, modelling, quarrelled, signalling, travelled
• American: counselor (but chancellor), equaling, modeling, quarreled, signaling, traveled

But compelled, excelling, propelled, rebelling in both (notice the stress difference); revealing, fooling (double vowel before the l); hurling (consonant before the l).

But Commonwealth fuelling, woollen; American fueling, woolen.

Commonwealth writers also use a single l before suffixes beginning with a consonant where Americans use a double:

• Commonwealth: enrolment, fulfilment (but fulfilled), instalment, skilful
• American: enrollment, fulfillment, installment, skillful

The infinitives of these verbs are also different:

• Commonwealth: to enrol, fulfil, and instal (although install is also common)
• American: to enroll, fulfill, and install

Commonwealth English often keeps silent e when adding suffixes where American English doesn't. British ageing, routeing; American aging, routing. Both systems retain the silent e when necessary to preserve a soft c or g: traceable, judgement (although judgment is also standard in both Commonwealth and American English).

Miscellaneous spelling differences

Proper names formed as acronyms are often rendered in title case by Commonwealth writers, but usually as upper case by Americans: e.g. Nasa / NASA or Unicef / UNICEF. This never applies to initialisms, such as