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1、The variety of English spoken in the USA is called American English.American English and British English, the two main varieties of English, have essentially the same grammar system, phonetic system and vocabulary, they cant be regarded as different languages. They are two equitable variants of the
2、English national language having different accepted literary standards, one spoken in the USA and the other spoken on the British Isles. Before IndependenceFrom Independence to the Early Nineteenth CenturyFrom the early 19th century to the present timeThe impact of American English on British Englis
3、hAmerican expressions began to make their way to the British Isles about 1820. Together with the progress in all fields and the growth of the power of the United States, the status of American English has been on the rise. Two factors have strengthened this tendency: The two varieties of English are
4、 basically the same in phonetic and morphemic structure.American movies, popular songs, newspapers, magazines, novels, and radio and television programs are so popular in England that they serve as effective media through which the British people accept American expressions almost unconsciously.A. C
5、reativeness in enriching the languageB. Conservativeness or retention of archaic featuresC. HeterogeneityD. Relative uniformity in speechE. Popularity of slangF. Use of big wordsG.Verbose and plain style in writingCreativeness has been retained up to this date because the United States has never cea
6、sed to experience rapid progress of production and transportation, development of science and technology, constant change of institutions and ways of living, and endless strife at home and abroad.Facing the urgent requirement of naming new things and expressing new concepts, the early settlers forme
7、d great numbers of expressive compounds. The practice has been carried on up to this day. skyscraper, bell-hop, cloudburstAnother handy way frequently used by Americans to form words is conversion, especially from noun to verb.To holidayTo modelSome affixes are preferred by Americans and used rather
8、 freely.Super-: superfilm, superstarde-: dehire, deescalate, debug-nik: protestnik, peacenik, computernik, filmnik, citynik, beatnik, peacenikAmerican readiness for making neologisms also finds expression in blends and back-formation.Amerind: American IndianMedicaid: medical aidCommute, enthuse, emo
9、teClippings and acronymsCo-edNASANew meanings for existing wordsFireSuckerPhrases originating in AmericaTo have an ax to grindTo bark up the wrong treeAmerican English has also preserved a number of old features in pronunciation and grammar. Thus archaism or conservativeness is often regarded as ano
10、ther characteristic of American English. A typical example is I guess.Druggistchemist; railroadrailway;Jeans, loadIn pronunciationMast, half; car, fordIn grammaraim to (as against aim at in current Britain English)Get-got-gottenAmerican English has in the course of its development incorporated treme
11、ndous numbers of expressions from numerous tongues and has become heterogeneous in nature.American IndianTo bury (to dig up) the hatchetFather of WatersFrenchSpanishDutchGerman ItalianAfrican elementsYiddishPortage, prairie, shantyRanch, desperado, bonanzaSanta Claus, bossFrankfurter, hamburgerPizza
12、Bonjo, jazznebbishAmerican English is relatively uniform. In this connection it should be pointed out that the early colonists were from different parts of England and different walks of life, hence the English they brought to American was a language of marked dialectal differences.Constant improvem
13、ent of transportation and communication, particularly of talkies, radio, and TV have combined to accelerate the leveling.Nevertheless regional and social dialects do exist, and have been observed and recorded by linguistic geographers.Americans also like to use big words, or high-sounding, mouth-fil
14、ling words, for they like to impress people with forceful and often exaggerating expressions.Another feature which has been labeled by Ernest Gowers as American style is the verbose style found in American official writing. The occupational incidence of the demand change is unlikely to coincide with
15、 the occupational profile of those who registered at the employment office.The job may not fit the people.Nonetheless we should not fail to see the simple effective language used in American popular writing. In fact a very widespread notion among Americans is that anything really worth saying can be
16、 said in plain English.In the early stage of Modern English, differences can be found between American and British English in pronunciation, spelling, grammar and vocabulary. But the concept of difference must not be taken too far, as the basic word stock, grammar and phonetic system of both variant
17、s are essentially the same, and the similarities are more than the differences between them.Differences in vowels: BrE AmE a: fast fa:st fst e i: premier premj pri:miDifferences in diphthongs: BrE AmE r r hero hirou hi:rou r :r hurry hri h:ri Differences in consonants On the whole, the American cons
18、onant system is the same as that of British English with the following exceptions:1. BrE leaves out the letter r before consonants while General American retains. BrE AmE park pa:k pak2. wh w in BrE wh hw in AmE when wen hwenDifferences in the pronunciation of individual words: BrE AmE clerk kla:k k
19、l:k tourist turist tu:ristStress American English tends to give nearly even stress to different syllables, while BrE tends to make the syllables receiving the primary stress especially conspicuous. In AmE words with two or more syllables following the chief stress often have a stronger secondary str
20、ess than in BrE. AmE BrE library laibri laibrri address, advertisement Intonation In intonation American English is flatter than British English, which has more rises and falls. On the whole, the spelling system remains essentially the same in both BrE and AmE except that American spelling has some
21、simplifications. Hundreds of American spellings have won acceptance in England. BrE centre favour Analysetheatre labour Realisemetre honour moderniseAmEcenterfavoranalyzetheaterlaborrealizemeterhonormodernizeAmE spelling conforms to the pronunciation.BrETravellerProgrammeWaggoncigaretteBrEgood-byeax
22、e BrEtyre GreytsarAmE TravelerProgramWagoncigaret AmEgood-byAxAmEtireGraytzarthe substitution of one consonant for two consonantsthe omission of all final silent eirregular spellingDifferences in the use of certain verbsAmE has two past participles for get (got, gotten) while BrE only one (got).“wil
23、l” has displaced shall in AmE while BrE retains the distinction between will and shall.Decline in the use of modal verbs in AmE and gradual formation of some new modal verbs in AmE wanna= want to gonna= (be) going to gotta= (have) got to betta= had betterDifferences in the use of articlesThere is mo
24、re decline of the use of articles in AmE than in BrE.1)The definite article “the” is often omitted in AmE after all.2) all the night all night all the winter all winter all the morning all morning2) The definite article “the” is often omitted before “day” the day before yesterday day before yesterda
25、y the day after tomorrow day after tomorrow3) A noun in apposition is not accompanied by an article in AmE Xiao Wang, monitor of our class, is tall. Li, writer of this book, is a peasant.4) The use of the order of the indefinite articles may be different: BrE AmE half a dozen a half dozen half an ho
26、ur a half hourDifferences in the use of prepositions1) On the whole, the Americans are more lavish in the use of prepositions than the British. AmE BrE in back of behind start in start stand for stand face up face try out try 2) Different choice of prepositions in certain connections BrE AmE five mi
27、nutes to three five minutes of three five minutes past three five minutes after three at hand on hand take totes of take notes on From the point of view of their currency in Britain and the USA all lexical units may be subdivided into general English (those found on both sides of the Atlantic), Amer
28、icanisms (those specific of present-day American usage) and Briticisms (typical of British English).Causes of lexical differences between BrE and AmEQuite a number of words that were once in current usage in England have survived in America after becoming obsolete in England, e.g. to loan as to to l
29、end, fall as autumn, guess as think or suppose, homely as ugly, etc.New words were coined or borrowed from the languages with which American English came into contact, e.g. Indian hickory, moose; Spanish canyon, mustang; German semester, to loaf, dumb (stupid).In the course of time with the developm
30、ent of the modern means of communication the lexical differences between British English and American English show a tendency to decrease. A large number of Americanisms have gained currency in British English, e.g. reliable, lengthy, talented, belittle, etc.At the same time a number of Briticisms a
31、re passing into the language of the USA, e.g. smog; to brief.Sometimes the Briticisms adopted in America compete with the corresponding American expressions, the result being the differentiation of meaning or spheres of application, e.g. store (AmE) and shop (BrE); luggage (BrE.) and baggage (AmE).T
32、he existing cases of lexical differences between British and American English in vocabulary cases where words are used only in one country BrE: prince, duke, marquis, count, viscount, etc. AmE: bayou, caribou, etccases where different words are used for the same denotationcan tin; candy sweets; mail
33、box pillarbox; truck lorry, etc.cases where the same word signifies different denotation BrE AmE 万亿万亿 十亿十亿 内衫内衫 背心背心 短裤短裤 长裤长裤 爆竹爆竹 白干白干 二层二层 一层一层cases where otherwise equivalent words are different in distribution. ride (BrE) a horse (a bicycle) ride (AmE) on the train, ride in a boat billionvestpa
34、ntcrackerFirst floorThe question of divergence There are certain differences in vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling and grammar between BrE and AmE but the basic word stock, grammar system and phonetic system of American English and British English are essentially the same. Today the differences bet
35、ween BrE and AmE go on decreasing instead of increasing.The question of supremacy Now the American forms of English are accepted, either side by side with the British forms or even in preference to them.The question of convergence Divergence has given way to convergence. Convergence characterizes ou
36、r shrinking-world but we cant say English is on the way to becoming entirely uniform.The following list of current Americanisms have been picked up in modern American newspapers, advertisements and novels.big fishblack studiesfour eyesan important personstudies relating to the culture of American blacksperson wearing spectaclespop quiz top dogTGFTunexpected small testthe highest ranking personThank God! Its Friday (shows relief at the end of the week)
