Differences of American and British English.docx

1、Differences of American and British EnglishDifferences of American and British English1.IntroductionAmerican English is the form of English used in the United States. It includes all English dialects used within the United States of America. British English is the form of English used in the United

2、Kingdom. It includes all English dialects used within the United Kingdom. While there are certainly many more varieties of English, American and British English are the two varieties that are taught in most ESL/EFL programs. As the Non-Native English speakers, most of the English learners in China t

3、hink that the language used by British and American English are the same one-English, and there are no differences between British and American English. In fact, there are many unquestioned discrepancies between they two. This paper will pay attention on the section of phonology, morphology and synt

4、ax that will be scoped at the pronunciation, grammar，vocabulary and spelling between the two English of British and American. We will take a look at the differences and try to deliver message whether it could help or hinder the learning of English language.2. torical BackgroundBasically, British Eng

5、lish is the form of English used in the United Kingdom. It includes all English dialects used within the United Kingdom. American English has the same form of English usage as British and all dialects used within the United States of America. As history, the first English was first introduced to Ame

6、ricas by British Colonization, beginning in the early 17th century. By the history overview, Britain was a great country that had enough power to move their imperialism on other countries. America itself was a colonized of British and all the period British had play their role of colonization to spr

7、ead away their language. And now, America is using English as a result of British trade, communication and colonization. The spreading of the language made United States used it as well but there are differences of the usage of the language and finally leading to a new dialects and accent. Consequen

8、tly, there are two supremely language of the world that renown and used all over the world. It is American language and British language (Standard English). Now, the differences of the two languages include pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary (lexis), spelling, punctuation, idioms, formatting of date

9、s, and numbers. This told us that the two languages are family because they came from the same root of language establishment from British and there was a historical background of trade, colonization and great efforts to lift up the language to the entire world. The world-wide experience emerged the

10、 two families of English language, one stemming from linguistic contact with British, the other from contact with the United States . From the linguistic contact of Britain, its family could be fallen into pieces of West Indies, British Isles, Australasia of Australia and New Zealand, and Africa of

11、Rhodesia and South Africa. The contact of American English family could be seen from the United States itself and Canada. As the explanation of the first historical background, we could assume to British and American as national varieties in the scope of language. This is because the two countries s

12、hared the same language but there be a great transformation of the language that made them different. These two varieties are the ones spoken by most native speakers of English and furthermore studied by most foreign learners. This put up the international language of English contain a special statu

13、s as the principle national varieties of the language of the two countries. Furthermore, what more differences would we find to state that they are holding varieties of English? Let me started initially from the differences between the two is English spoken in different places. Moreover it also diff

14、erent accents that refer to pronunciation only and the last are about dialects. The term dialects relates to patterns of grammar or vocabulary.2.1 Analysis of Discussion In this section we will take a look at the four scopes of the study of a language between British and American. There are among pr

15、onunciation, grammer, vocabulary and spelling. Now, the most obvious difference between British and American is in the “tune” of the language, that is, the intonation that accompanies sentences . This could be noticed when a Briton or an American talk, they identify themselves primarily by the tunes

16、 of their respective varieties. However, in singing the prose tune is overridden by the musical tune, making it much harder to distinguish British and American singers. Most people or learners of language would like to differ the two English by the tune they produced. This is the basis of learners t

17、o be able to differentiate it as well. For the next sub topic we will learn and study more about the differences of the two English and make us clear of that universal language. 3. Differences3.1 Differences in PronunciationPronunciation is one part of a study of language. Here, all foreign learners

18、 have to know three elements as a pace to go further in English. There are acoustic phonetics refers to a study of the physical characteristics of speech sound, auditory phonetic refers to a study of perception of speech sounds (how learners perceive speech sounds), and the one is articulatory phone

19、tics that refers to a study of how the vocal tract produces speech sounds.Differences in pronunciation between American English (AmE) and British English (BrE) can be divided into: 3.1.1 Pronunciation of vowel1) Pronunciation of oIn Britain, the “o” vowel, , in words like dog, hod, pot, is pronounce

20、d with rounded lips and the tongue back in the mouth. Americans do not have this vowel, instead pronouncing the same words using the “ah” vowel, , with the lips unrounded and the tongue back but more relaxed. This is the same vowel in card or bard. In some cases in the US the “o” is pronounced using

21、 the “or” vowel in words like long (Central East Coast) and horrid (especially in the western US). The “plumy” quality of some RP speakers is probably due to an exaggeration of this “o” vowel, and other vowels, by pushing the tongue as far back as possible, accomplished by speaking whilst imagining

22、a mouth full of plums. 2) The “or” vowel (or the “aw” vowel) This is the vowel in oar, law, Borg, Bork, pork and so on. If I was American, I would have called it the “aw” vowel, but I think American “aw” varies more regionally, and English “or” is more consistently closer to (as long as you dont pro

23、nounce the r). Many “or” words in Britain such as paw, saw, talk, all, bought, launch, taught, port are pronounced in America using the “ah” vowel, . Ive even heard “awesome possum” rhyme perfectly sm psm. But many words in American retain the “or” vowel, such as poor, such that the British homophon

24、es poor paw are pronounced differently in American. In the Central US East Coast the “or” vowel occurs in most of the same words as British, but it is slightly shorter, rather than :. In American, “dawg”, as written in cartoons and such, uses the “or” vowel, and the spelling emphasizes the pronuncia

25、tion as unusual. Oddly enough, quark, correctly pronounced to rhyme with quart by most Americans is often pronounced to rhyme with dark by most British people. 3) Pronunciation of a The British have the “a” vowel, (cat, hat) and the “ah” vowel , as do Americans, but often in different places. Trudgi

26、ll notes that words with “a” followed by f s nt ns nt nd mp (laugh, path, grass, plant, dance, branch, demand, sample) have in American and : in southern British. Northern British bends a-s pretty flat in general compared to Southern English, and is generally the same as American, but there are exce

27、ptions like banana, cant, half, where the a is more like in the south. In Britain, words like what are pronounced using the same vowel as in dog, above, and so is phonetically spelled wot rather than wat. Perhaps this is why baloney (nonsense) is so spelled in American dictionaries, but primarily as

28、 boloney in some British ones. It should be noted that in America the “ah” vowel (father, bard, calm) is usually shorter and sometimes sounds a little closer to the “u” vowel in cup. So the long, firm : in Britain really stands out in bath and dance where Americans have the short mentioned above. Ev

29、en this southern English accent, with the long “a” : in words like father and bath, is not consistent. 3.1.2 Proununcation of non-vowel1) D-d t-s in American; glottal stops in British In many areas the American “t”, when not the initial consonant in a word, is pronounced closer to a “d”, and in some

30、 cases can disappear altogether. Thus latter and butter sounds more like ladder and budder, and words like twenty and dentist can sound like twenny and Dennis. In Britain, “t” is generally pronounced like a “t”, but there are areas the glottal stop is very well known. This is the sound in between th

31、e two vowels in uh-oh, or the initial consonant in honest. In these two examples, and others like them, the glottal stop occurs as much in America as in Britain. But the glottal stop that replaces the “t” in the Cockney and Glasgow dialects is much stronger; imagine bracing for a punch in the belly

32、when you make the sound. Words like butter become b. 2) Rhotic r in American, non-rhotic r in British Rhotic speakers will pronounce the r in barn, park, cart, fart, whereas non-rhotic speakers wont, making no distinction between barn and (auto)bahn. Most of America is rhotic, with the notable exception of the Boston area and New York City. SE Britain is apparently the source of non-rhotic. England is non-rhotic, apart from the SW and some ever-diminishing northern areas. Scotland and Ireland are rhotic. In the movie The Princess Bride, the bishop (Pet