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1、Differences 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 Kingdom. It includes all English dialects
2、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 think that the language used by British and
3、 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 syntax that will be scoped at the pronunciatio
4、n, 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 English is the form of English used in the Un
5、ited 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 Americas by British Colonization, beginning i
6、n 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 spread away their language. And now, America
7、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. Consequently, there are two supremely language of t
8、he 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 dates, and numbers. This told us that the two
9、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 two families of English language, one ste
10、mming 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 Rhodesia and South Africa. The contact of
11、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 shared the same language but there be a gre
12、at 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 status as the principle national varieties of t
13、he 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 different accents that refer to pronunciation
14、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 pronunciation, grammer, vocabulary and spell
15、ing. 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 of their respective varieties. However, i
16、n 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 to be able to differentiate it as well. For
17、 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 have to know three elements as a pace to
18、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 phonetics that refers to a study of how the voc
19、al 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 pronounced with rounded lips and the tongue back in
20、 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 the “or” vowel in words like long (Centra
21、l 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 a mouth full of plums. 2) The “or” vowel (
22、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 pronounce the r). Many “or” words in Britain
23、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 homophones poor paw are pronounced differently in
24、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 pronunciation as unusual. Oddly enough, quark, corr
25、ectly 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. Trudgill notes that words with “a” followed by f
26、 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 exceptions like banana, cant, half, where the
27、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 boloney in some British ones. It should b
28、e 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. Even this southern English accent, with the
29、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 cases can disappear altogether. Thus latt
30、er 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 the two vowels in uh-oh, or the initial cons
31、onant 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 when you make the sound. Words like butter
32、 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.
33、 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 (Peter Cook) over-emphasized the non-rhotic accent by loudly announcing “mawidge” (marri
34、age), and Americans often joke about eastern New Englanders who “pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd”. In Britain, the non-rhotic accent gives rise to linking “r”s, where an otherwise unpronounced “r”, in “clear”, is pronounced if followed by a vowel, “clear away”. An intrusive “r” is an “r” added in such
35、a situation where none actually exists, so “law and order” becomes “law ran order”. In some cases, there is even hypercorrection, such as adding an “r” (Louisa Louiser), especially when a non-rhotic person moves to a rhotic area. But if Clair hears the “r” shell correct you. 3) “Yoo” words losing th
36、e y in American (tune: tyoon toon)There are many less words in American that pronounce a “y” in front of a “u” than in British (as in mule, mute). Most American words dont: assume, new, nude, tune, student, duke, due. In England most of these words are pronounced with a “y” in front of the “u”. Amon
37、gst older speakers, this is true for words like suit and lute, and sometimes even in words like Susan and super. I have noticed that my American teachers natural (SE English) way of saying tune, tuna, Tuesday, sand dune is “choon, choona, choosday, san June”, and that “tyoon, tyoona, tyoosday, sand
38、dyoon” sounds a little formal. I imagine this to be regional. Americans generally say “toon, toona, toosday, san doon”. This also applies to words like perpetual and situation. 3.1.3 Particular words Although there are relatively few words pronounced completely differently, many are well known. This
39、 list（tab1） shows some of these, but the examples are not restrictive - leisure is pronounced both leezhure and lezhure in the US, but leezhure is prevalent.Tab1 Differences of Particular Words Pronuncation between British and American Englishword US UK aluminium aluminum aluminium apricot a-pricot
40、ay-pricot bayda beeta charade char-ay-d char-ah-d cordial corjul cordee-al fillet filay filit herb -erb herb leisure leezhure lezhure lever l-e-ver leever privacy pry-vacy priv-acy route rout root schedule skedule shedule semi sem-eye sem-ee strychnine strich-9 strich-neen thayta theeta tomato tom-a
41、y-do tom-ah-to vase vayz vahz vitamin vie-tamin vit-amin 3.2 Differences in Grammar Grammar is one part of discussion. However, in efforts of making sentences we have to follow the Standard English. Standard EnglishS is the embodiment of what all educated speakers of English agree to be internationa
42、lly accepted usage, that is, it is the dialect agreed by native speakers of English to be the most suitable one for teaching their young, and it is the obvious and automatic choice of a model and a target for foreign learners of English . Let we prolong our discussion into the differences of grammar
43、 that will be followed by differences of the verb, differences of the noun and differences of prepositions.3.2.1 Differences of the Verb The first discussion of this, let we take a look at got-gotten. This is absolute difference because British have no past participle gotten. However, in American th
44、ey have gotten as the followings example. I wish I could have gotten here sooner. This word is common used in American but in British they have got as the only past form. Moreover, talking about the verb of the two English also have difference of the usage of Did you have.? in American and Have you
45、had.? in British. This also is same from the first difference of got-gotten. Here is example. In British: Have you had your holiday yet? And in American: Did you have your vacation yet?3.2.2 Differences of the Noun In British English, talking about grammatical they like to repeat subject after one.
46、But, in American English they will change the treatment of a subject with another noun. For detail and clearer let we take a look at the example here. American English: When one has seen the size of the problem, he realizes but in British English: When one has seen the size of the problem, one reali
47、zes. Besides that, invariable “you and I” also become a difference of the noun. Basically, you and I is more common to be used in American English than British. This is because most of users of British English would like to say you and me when the phrase forms the object. However, they also used to
48、say you and I in minority of users. To differentiate the noun used in both of the English, we noticed that American used to say you and I but in British you and me. For example, “He wont let you and I talk to them” and “He wont let you and me talk to them” are the clearest difference of the noun used.3.2.3 Differences of Prepositions Studying about prepositions, there are some differences of prepositions that could be attached here as an effort to deliver the differences of the two English usages. First of all about the usage of different from, different than, di