Lingua inglese III - American English

South and North East: British colonization

1607: first permanent colony in North America is Jamestown, Virginia

(1619: African “slaves” – indentured servants)

1620: Puritan colonization of present day Massachusetts (Plymouth)

Alabama and Mississippi were characterized by French colonization. The origin of Detroit

is French. But the French were uninterested settle in the north, they made other choices,

they decide to colonize the northern part which is Canada. Another meaningful linguistic

and cultural group where the Africans, African people were brought in the US. They were

people deported from the west coast of Africa to the coast of Virginia by ships, specifically

a Portoguese slave ship in order to serve for a few years. After a period of time they would

by their freedom. Some of them didn’t pay for their voyage, African people came to the US

and then turned into slaves. The institutional slavery was especially in the south, there

were large plantations, extent of lands. th th

17 -20 century

th

 During the 17 century: arrival of Dutch, Germans, Bohemians, Irish, Scots,

Swedes, Finns and other groups (1624: the Dutch founded New Amsterdam, re-

baptized by the British New York in 1664)

 1770-1830: relatively little immigration

 1830-1917: first major wave of Asian immigration

 1820-1860: almost 2 million Irish (great famine 1845)

 1830-1890: 5 million Germans

 1880-1920: millions of Italians, Central and Eastern Europeans, Jews, Swedes and

Norwegians, people from the Middle East

Migrants from Italy, millions of Italian especially from the South (the poorest area of the



country), some were not allowed to enter the country and sent back. The US authority

people started to worry about the presence of different people with different culture and



language. The US congress set quotas, 1924 no more of 2% of the 1890 immigrant



stops were allowed in the country. Melting pot US as harbour of people, positive image.

Europeans were not the only ethnic presence, there were migrants from China to get an

opportunity for a new life. Thousand of Chinese died in the attempt to prosper in the

country building the railroad system. The building of railroads occupied thousand of

migrants, especially Chinese. In 1882 Chinese exclusion act, Chinese were no longer

accepted. The huge phenomenon of the migration prepares the ground for the existence of

many borrowings from many languages. You would expect that migrants left an important

trace of their origin, we can talk about three different conditions that concern the migrants

in terms of their relationship to the English language. The first generation doesn’t speak



English but only master broken English very limited proficiency in the language.

The second generation can’t communicate in their original language, they don’t use the

language of their grandparents, they were assimilated in the American society. The third

generation no longer speaks Russian, polish, Italian and so on. Until the beginning of the

20 century people were allowed to communicate in their native language. One community



created many worries german community was described as the most representative

community of migrants creating their own area, at the time of the first world war. People of

german origin were considered enemies. After 60s and the end of the 60s the period of

civil rights, the bilingual education is put on the forefront (possibility to promote activities



and actions that foster the languages other than English). In 1968 bilingual education

act, federal program that found resources in teaching training, helping these communities

different than English. This act at the end of the 60s has a controversy that is still very

much hot nowadays. There are many enemies of this policy and people have started

especially in the 1980s the create pressure (adopt English as an official language). There

is no official language about it. How can we consider African American? The Spanish

community has a benefit from bilingual education act. Should the US preserve this

diversity or put limits to this variety?

Principal loanwords from other languages

Dutch: places names; boss, caboose, coleslaw, cookie, dope, snoop, yankee

Spanish: barrio, bonanza, chino, corral, macho, ranch, vamoose

French: bayou, cache, caribou, chowder, crevasse, gopher, levee, prairie

German: pretzel, noodle, sauerkraut, phooey, spiel, angst, verboten

Italian: pizza, spaghetti, capo, mafia

Yiddish: kosher, mensch, schlemiel, schmuck, yenta

Japanese: tycoon, sushi, tsunami, karaoke

Hawaiian: hula

African: juke, jukebox, voodoo, zombie

American English from the point of view of phonetics. The pronunciation of American

English, communicative competence and we’ll consider the varieties of American English,

the main differences of American English. We have spelling differences:

 

Our or

 

Re er

 Final/l/ in verbs is not doubled (but other words have double/l/)

 

Logue log

 

Ence ense

 

Ae e

 

Ise ize

 

Other unpredictable differences in the spelling of several words on tottie’s book

white

Wasp anglosaxon protestants (north European immigrants).



General American English network English. Because the English is used in radio or tv,

is a common variety of language that can be considered, used and understood by the



majority of people. Midwestern English spoken in the mid west, a large portion of

territory (flying over country). American English sounds easier to understand than british

English especially if they talk fast. We need to consider non-varieties of American English

and there are some differences.

Network English

Slow and loud

Even

Communicative competence

American English is perceived to be slower and louder than British English. It also has

fewer variations of pitch. American English is more even, smaller differences in sounds.

Women tend to use more question tags than men. Why? There are so many factors



related to the identity of the speaker, also age is a relevant factor. Intonation a variation

in pitch.

English guys dress very well, well mannered, well put together (sistemati, curati)

American guys are straightforward and open in situations of courtship, they’re rude to the

girls.

Americans are perceived to be more easygoing, informal, outgoing, self confident in the

way they speak and interact socially.

British people are emotionally repressed, and that’s why they show more embarrassment

when they speak. They introduce their sentences by using modifiers to make their

statements softer and acceptable to their speakers.

Varieties of American English

“Standard English” 

Geographical origins, social origins, speech situations context

Gender, age

Spoken vs. Written language

Writing styles (genre, register) 

Ethnic dialects: African American vernacular English (AAVE), Chicano English (shicano,

pronounced so, which is from Mexico, spoken by members of Chicano community of

Mexico, an area originally colonized by the Spanish).

Pronunciation differences

 Post-vocalic /r/ (rhotic accent)

 

Intervocalic /t/ D

 Dark /l/

 

/a/ [ae] vs british a

 

Diphthongs monophthongs

 Yod-dropping

 “Special cases”

 Stress

Before the American revolution, british English was commonly spoken in both areas, was a

rhotic accent language. The dropping of the r in such places occurred only when the british

left their colonies. American English was considered a pure form of English, not

conditioned by dialects. In some areas of England we find the rhotic accent, Scottish

people have a rhotic accent nowadays. Another big differences between of the two

varieties is the sound t that is intervocalic (between vowels) that become D for example:

beder.

better NORTHEAST

New England, New York State

Eastern New England (Boston)

-R-lessness



-/a/ tends to [a] and special words



New York city, sociolect a sort of sociologic approach. What most differs among

speakers in New York is the speaker conditions (social class). We include New York state,

but not New York city. An example of the very representative way to show varieties is

J.F.K, major figure and very important president for most people (killed in 1963 in Dallas).

He went to Harvard and in his speech there are many different features of American

English. The way in which people speak depends on many factor. He uses the American

languages in specific situations in public speech (different from the everyday language).

JFK was called in the tension with Russian Federation and his speech represents an effort

to basically offer the Soviet Union the possibility attenuating the tension with peace.

he

Kennedy talks about peace is famous for his power and charisma, he caught the

attentions of his speakers. Repetition at the beginning of the sentence, he repeats the

word “peace” and he creates a new content for every time he pronounces “peace”. What

kind of peace does he mean? Genuine peace, peace for everybody in the world.

The southern dialect, we consider southern regions. The south is not a very consistent

area in term of its geography, it’s a compound made of south areas in which we mention

the upper and lower south. In Virginia, Carolina belong to the upper. Region of the south

are: Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. There are some features that are common with the

general southern speech, the most consistent is the pronunciation, intonation.

- “Souther drawl” (the intonation is particularly slow). Alabama and Mississippi well

know areas where people recognize these traits

- R-lessness: is less true among young speakers because television and the Internet

play a major role, they uniform the way of speaking and younger are most

influenced by them. 

- [e] > [i] before nasals pen pin

 tam

- [ai] > [an] fine fan, time

- You-all [yal]

- A -ing form es: she was a-singing

- Done

- Combination of modals bread

- Special words: hominy grits, cornpone made of corn.

Django Unchained film con Leonardo Di Caprio



27/04/2018

Grammatical differences between American and British English

 

Article At the moment my mother is in the hospital; I am at the university.

 

Concord/agreement the committee has just decided that the candidate should

be rejected. Italy is winning against Germany. (sports)

 

Verb form in time, she smelled the rat. The child has been totally spoiled. I have

dreamed of a white Christmas. She’s got a car. She’s gotten a car.

11/05/2018 Metaphors in American English

Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of

object, idea or experience, is used in place of another