Preview

Differences Between British English and American English

Best Essays
Open Document
Open Document
4398 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Differences Between British English and American English
CONTENTS
Introduction 3
1. British English and American English pronunciation 7
2. British English and American English vocabulary 10
3. British English and American English grammar 13
Conclusions 16
References 17

Introduction

The object of this work is to study, analyse, and most importantly compare differences between two major branches of English language: American English (also called General American) and British English (also called UK English or English English).

The term British English is used to distinguish the standard form of English used in Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the varieties used in other parts of the world (Peters 2004:79). But according to McArthur (2002:45), this term in itself is tautologious and somehow misleading for it could be interpreted in many ways and shows only broad sense of the language that is spoken in Britain because there are many variations, dialects, and usages of this language.

Similarly to the British English, American English is a term that describes a language that is spoken in the United States of America (Peters 2004:34). It is also a broad term and shows the collection of words, pronunciation patterns which are used in the United States but that does not imply that every American speaks American English as it is defined in books.

As these two languages are wealthy with different words and to point out differences between all of the words would be daunting and not particularly useful thing only some group of words will be studied. Also, because of the close relation between American English and British English, some analysis at how these two languages altered will be given. There is an abundant list of authors and books on the subject of differences between American English and British English and this course paper will try to give a comprehensible and concise insight on this case.

Motivational basis of the research: Throughout the decades, specifically



References: • Bryson, B. 2001. The Mother Tongue: English and how it got that way. United States of America: Perennial; • Darragh, G • Davies, Ch. 2005. Divided by a common language: a guide to British and American English, Volume 13. United Stated of America: Mayflower; • Gimson, A • Jespersen, O. 1956. Growth and structure of the English Language. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Co.; • Macmillan English Dictionary • McArthur, T. 2002. Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford: Oxford University Press; • Peters, Pam • Shakhbagova, D. A. 1982. Varieties of English Pronunciation. Moscow: High School; • Rohdenburg, G & Schlüter, J

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Communication may seem easy, but sometimes it is hard to understand between people even though they share the same language. American and British English have the same origin, which is the Elizabethan English. This means that Americans and the British speakers share the same language; but nowadays, these two varieties somewhat differ from each other. We can find both similarities and differences in both varieties. Even though American and British people can communicate and understand one another quite well, there are some aspects of language where comprehension breaks down; such as vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling.…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Society’s need in communication and science, the development of linguistics and that change that occurred in men’s life have led to the progress in the usage of language, in particular the English language. As a result, it became an international language and…

    • 8198 Words
    • 33 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Persuasive Speech

    • 1571 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Lang, Paul. The English Language Debate: One Nation, One Language? Springfield, NJ: Enslow, 1995. Print.…

    • 1571 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    It was about time for me to read another non-fiction book. This is an irreverant and often-humorous look at the history and quirks of the English language, covering both British and American English and the distinctions between them (and touching briefly on Australian as well).…

    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    British vs American Words

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Lisa and Sofia Efthymiou, an American mum and daughter, have listed below a few of the differences between British and American words.…

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    Sanford-Haar, Cathleen. (2007, March 19). English the official language? Not in America :[Third Edition]. St. Louis Post - Dispatch, p. B.7. Retrieved October 21, 2010, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1237740991).…

    • 2747 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sinclair, J. (1993) Foreword in R. Berry (1993) Collins COBUILD English Guides (3): Articles. London: Harper Collins Publishers.…

    • 2846 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Two Kinds of English

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Most of us are familiar with the song lyrics “You say poTAYto and I say poTAHto, You say toMAYto and I say toMAHto.” These lyrics exemplify one of the differences between American and British English, the two most widely spoken varieties of global English. Despite the seemingly endless number of similarities between the two, significant differences between American English and British English in three specific linguistic areas make each one quite distinct from the other.…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    We want to introduce to your attention our scientific work “The differences between American English and British English.” We know that the language of some English speakers differs from that of others, every language allows different kinds of variations: geographical or territorial, perhaps the most obvious, stylistic, the difference between the written and the spoken form of the standard national language and others. For historical and economic reasons the English language has spread over vast territories. It is natural, that, the English language is not used with uniformity in the British Isles and in the world. It is almost a century already that the nature of the two main variants of the English language, British and American has been discussed. Some American linguists, H.L. Mencken for one, speak of two separate languages with a steady flood of linguistic influence first (up to about 1914) from Britain to America, and since then from America to British Isles. Since BE and AE have essentially the same grammar system, phonetic system and vocabulary, they cannot be regarded as different languages. Mor can they be referred to local dialects; because they serve all spheres of verbal communication in society within their territorial area they have dialectal differences of their own; besides they differ far less than local dialects. Another consideration is that AE has its own literary norm. Thus we must speak of two variants of the English national language having different accepted literary standards, one spoken in the British Isles, another spoken in the USA. So, linguistic evidence drawn from the investigation of English gives every reason to say that in spite of all functional differences observed in spelling, pronunciation and uses of words, in word-making and grammar, British and American variants of the English language prove one and the same system and one and the same language…

    • 897 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    16. Burchfield R. The English Language. – Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985. – 278 p.…

    • 18034 Words
    • 73 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    All in all, students of English will notice the differences between the languages used in Britain and in the Unite States, yet they are still learning the same language. The written forms of British and American English vary surprisingly little, while the most noticeable differences will be in the spoken form of British English. Winston Churchill once said: “England and America are two countries separated by a common language.” True then, true…

    • 339 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Cited: Brady, Tanya. “The History of the English Language-Concisely.” A.P. English Language and Composition 427. Tahquitz High School. Hemet, 28 August 2012.…

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    References: 1. McArthur, T. (ed.) The Oxford Companion To The English Language [abridge edition], (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) p.736.…

    • 2693 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    | This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. (October 2012)…

    • 2729 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    3. Crystal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.…

    • 16638 Words
    • 67 Pages
    Powerful Essays