What are the basic differences between British and American English?

What are the basic differences between British and American English?


There are considerable divergences between British and American English
in spelling, vocabulary and pronunciation. Especially vowel sounds as
in 'home', 'hot', and 'aunt' are differently used by the British and
American English speakers. The differences in grammars are also
obvious. This is the reason why an American can say "Do you have the
time? while and Englishman says "Have you got the time? There are
differences in vocabulary also so that every after dinner speaker knows
that British braces are American suspenders, while British suspenders
are American garters. Some of the divergences are due to the fact that
British English has changed, while American has not. In other cases,
both English men and Americans have made innovations but different
ones. For example, in the naming of new objects we find American
'rail-road', 'auto', 'antenna', 'sidewalk' and 'subway' instead of
British 'railway', 'car', 'aerial', 'pavement' and 'underground'.

AMERICAN SPELLING

We find that the distinctive features of American spelling are mainly
the legacy left by Noah Webster (1758-1843) whose "American Spelling
Book" appeared in 1783 and was followed by his "American Dictionary of
the English Language" in 1828. 'Commonsense' and 'convenience', he
said, had led him to write public, favor, nabor, hed, proov, flem,
hiz(hiss), gir, det, ruf, etc., instead of traditional spelling for
these words. But because Noah Webster wanted a market for his new book
on both sides of the Atlantic, he later modified his drastic spelling
changes considerably.

AMERICAN PRONUNCIATION

There are certain distinctive features of pronunciation in American
English that are considerably different from those of British English.
For example, in the words like 'four', 'door', 'farm', 'lord', and
'fire', the letter 'r' is still pronounced in American English as a
fricative whereas in British English it is kept silent except when
immediately followed by a vowel. Also Americans pronounce words like
'dance', 'fast', 'grass', 'half', and 'path' with the low front 'ae'
heard as in 'cat', 'sat', etc. Again in American pronunciation words
like 'dock', 'fog', 'hot', and 'rod' are pronounced with a low back 'a'
as heard in 'father' (shortened). Words like 'duke' and 'steward' are
pronounced as if the first syllable contained a (u:) sound. Again the
't' sound in 'beating', 'matter', and 'metal' become voiced sound very
much like 'd'. word stress and sentence stress both are also weaker in
American English pronunciation and intonation is more level. American
speech is therefore more monotonous in sound, but at the same time it
is generally more distinct than the English speech. Unstressed
syllables are pronounced with more measured detachment and hence with
greater clarity than in British English. On the whole we feel that the
American English is slower in utterance. Also in certain parts of
America the speakers speak so slowly as to drag out and diphthongize
the stressed vowels, instead of 'yes' we hear 'yeis' and instead of
'class' we hear 'kleis'.

AMERICAN GRAMMAR

In grammar and syntax the differences between British and American
usage are not great. We have already noticed two minor differences: the
form 'dove' for 'dived', and the American use of 'do have' for 'have
got'. Of course, we find the use of 'do have' in British English also
as in (Do you have dances in your village?). Again American has the two
forms 'I have got' (meaning I have) and 'I have gotten' (meaning I have
acquired or I have become) whereas British English uses only the first
form. An American can use impersonal 'one', and then continue with
'his' and 'he', for instance- "If one loses his temper, he should
apologize." This pattern of sentences is not acceptable for an English
man who wants to replace 'his' and 'he' by 'one's' and 'one' and then
the sentence becomes "If one loses one's temper, one should apologize."
The American in his turn is likely to be surprised to have heard the
British use of a 'plural verb' and 'plural intrusive pronoun' in
sentences like "The government are considering the matter themselves."
Prepositions, too, are sometimes used differently in American English.
An English man lives in Oxford street, whereas an American will usually
live on it. An English man caters for somebody, while an American
caters to him. But besides all these minor things, British and American
English syntaxes are identical in all essentials.

AMERICAN VOCABULARY

The largest divergences between British English and American English
are perhaps in vocabulary. Usually the words that are used by Americans
pertaining to travel and transport are different from those used by the
English men. The Americans use 'travel by rail' instead of 'travel by
train'. Instead of 'registering of luggage', they use 'checking of
baggage'. The 'luggage van' is referred to as the 'baggage car'.
Instead of 'notice board', they have 'bulletin board'. 'Time-table' is
known as 'schedule'. The 'driver' of the train is the 'engineer' and
the 'guard' is the 'conductor'. A 'railway station' is known as 'a
railroad depot'. The 'car' is invariably an 'automobile' and it is
taken to a 'gas station' for being supplied with petrol. But these
differences are not such as to cannot be easily removed and are not
very formidable to any intelligent traveler. The films and American
literature have made people in England quite familiar with the new
words and terms of expression in America at the same time.

There are so many reasons that bear a great impact upon the American
English vocabulary. In the USA many features of the language of the
17th century English settlers have been retained as such. For example,
'old senses of words', 'old words and phrases' that have been totally
vanished from the British English region are still retained in American
English. Thus we find words

like 'critter', 'figger', 'git', 'jine', 'ketch', 'sartin', 'vermint',
and 'afeared' instead of modern British English like 'creature',
'figure', 'get', 'join', 'catch', 'certain', 'vermin' and 'afraid'
respectively.

American English has borrowed words from those who have come into its
contact. From the Red-Indian words such as 'catalpa' (a flowery tree),
'hickory', 'tapioca', 'canoe', etc. have been borrowed. Also there are
American terms which are translated from Red Indians language like
'fire water', 'pale face', 'pipe of peace' and 'war path'. From the
French have been borrowed the words like 'leave', 'seep', 'shanty',
'prairie', 'rapids', 'portage', and 'caribou'. From Spanish have come
'creole', 'quadroon', 'stampede', 'chile', 'ranch', etc. There are also
many Spanish place names, especially saint's names like 'St. Barbara',
and 'San Francisco'. From Dutch have been borrowed 'boss', 'cold', etc.
From Irish 'cadger', to let on (pretend), jumpy, jaw (impudent, talk),
wad (bundle), to quit (stop), etc. have been taken. But the largest
number of loans are from German has given the words like 'dumb' (slow,
stupid), 'loafer', 'frank-furter', 'hamburger', and educational terms
like 'semester' and 'seminar'.

The American pioneers have also invented new uses for older English
words as in 'run' (brook), 'bluff' (steep, broad faced, head land),
'clearing' (cleared land), 'rolling
country' (undulating plains). American plants and animals have also
required the invention of new names like 'eel grass', 'blue grass',
'egg plant' and 'monkey nut'. Indeed, in the coining of new words and
phrases the Americans in modern times have been more exuberant and
uninhibited than the British.

It is a fact that the literary language of the USA and that of Great
Britain are more or less the same. At least they have not diverged
perceptibly so as to give the feeling that British English and American
English are two entirely different things.

In spite of all that has been said it has still to be admitted that:

1. American vocabulary is in the main the same as English.
2. Even it differs from English, it can be understood with a little
effort.
3. Specifically American objects and ideas are becoming more and more
familiar to
English day by day.

The above discussed facts are more or less an obvious record of the
distinctive features of the American English and the British English.



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