Variants and dialects of the English Language: American / British variant of the English language and the lexical peculiarities.
- The present day world status of English is primarily the result of two factors: 1) the expansion of British colonial power, which peaked towards the end of the 19th century, and 2) the emergence of the United States as the leading economic power of the 20th century. The USA contains nearly four times as many English mother-tongue speakers as the UK, and these two countries comprise 70 per cent of all English mother-tongue speakers in the world. Contemporary English stands out in the world linguistic space as a unique phenomenon: it is a multi-ethnic (nationally heterogeneous) language entity whose national variants set up a socio-communicative system with the main function of maintaining mutual intelligibility between the speakers of these variants [Паращук 2000:2].
- British/American English. The development of American English on the American continent has a comparatively short history. It is generally assumed that its starting point was the English language of the 17th century when first English settlers came to America. However, in the course of time (the last two centuries) American English has drifted considerably from British English and has been modified locally, though not enough to give linguists ground to speak of two different languages. The treatment of American English is as the national variant of English in the USA.For almost four centuries the American variant of the English language developed more or less independently of the British stock, and, as a result, it differs from British English in spelling, some features of grammar, but chiefly in pronunciation and vocabulary. The American vocabulary was influenced by the new surroundings. The early American settlers had to coin words for the unfamiliar fauna and flora. They also had to find names for the new conditions of economic life. Numerous contacts with other cultures resulted in a lot of borrowings from other languages.
Recent decades have seen a major increase in the amount of influence the two models (American and British) have had an each other, especially American on British. The influence of US films and television has led to a considerable passive understanding of much American English vocabulary in Britain, and some of this has turned into active use (as in the case of mail), especially among the younger people.
- Lexical differences. American vocabulary has its distinctive features, i.e. there are groups of words that belong to American vocabulary exclusively and constitute its specific feature. They are called Americanisms. The first group is described as historical Americanisms (e.g. fall guess, sick). These words may be found in both American and British vocabulary; 2) proper Americanisms – not likely to be found in British vocabulary, they are specifically American describing landscape, climate, trees and plants, animals and birds (backwoods=uninhabited districts, cold snap=a sudden frost, blue jack=a small American oak). One more group of Americanisms is represented by American shortenings (they were produced in America, though most of them are used in both Am and Br English), e.g. b.f.=boyfriend, n.g.= no good, mo= for a moment just a mo. It is useful to remember the need to be careful with idioms, as well as individual words when crossing the Atlantic.It is unusual for there to be an exact idiomatic equivalent between BrE and AmE. Among the exceptions are the following (BrE variant is given first):a skeleton in the cupboard / closet, cash on the nail / head
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- The spelling differences between British and American English :BrE -re, AmE -er (centre, center); BrE – our, AmE -or (colour, color), and BrE -ogue, AmE -og (catalogue, catalog).
- Grammar peculiarities:
1) In the verb phrase, AmE prefers have to have got for possession (Do you have the time? vs. Have you got the time?); answers tend to vary (I don’t vs. I haven’t);
AmE prefers such forms as burned to burnt, and there are some special past tense forms (colloquial snuck out, dove); AmE also sometimes uses a simple past tense form where BrE has a present perfect (I just ate vs. I’ve just eaten); will/wont is generally found for shall; there are also differences in the use of tag questions (when some words are used which perform the same function as tag questions. They include eh?, OK?, and right?);
2) In the noun phrase there are some differences of word-order (e.g. Hudson River vs. River Thames, a half hour vs. half an hour) and the use of the article (in the future vs. in future, in the hospital vs. in hospital); AmE prefers collective nouns in the singular (the government is), whereas BrE allows plural also (the government are).
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3) Clausal patterns sometimes differ, as in AmE (Come take a look) vs. (Come and take); AmE also makes more use of the subjunctive, as in I asked that he go vs. I asked him to go, and prefers were to was in such sentences as I wish she were here; different than/from is more common than different to/from.
4) There are some ways in which prepositions contrast between AmE and BrE and it considered to be an area of major grammatical differentiation.
5) Gotten is probably the most distinctive of all the AmE/BrE grammatical differences, but British people who try to use it often get it wrong. It is not simply an alternation for have got. Gotten is used in such contexts as They’ve gotten a new boat (=obtain), They’ve gotten interested (=become) and He’s gotten off the chair (=moved), but it is not used in the sense of possession (=have). AmE doesn’t allow I’ve gotten the answer or I’ve gotten plenty, but uses I’ve got as in informal BrE. The availability of gotten does however mean that AmE can make such distinctions as the following: they’ve got to leave (they must leave) vs they’ve gotten to leave (they’ve managed to leave).
- Differencesin punctuation:
- # is used for “number” in AmE (as in #12), but not in BrE (as №12). However, this symbol, often called a “hash”, is increasingly used in BrE because of its role in computational work;
- the raised dot is used for a decimal point in BrE; an ordinary period in AmE;
- a colon plus dash (:-) is very unusual in AmE, but is also now decreasing in BrE.
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