Summary:
The English Language spoken in the United States differs from traditional British language due to isolation from the parent language, independent growth and associated terminology, varying philosophies and politics and the American character.
Appearance of American English:
I believe that most of us must have this experience that when we look up a word in a dictionary we'll find the word "BrE' or "AmE" marked behind the very word. "BrE" here means British English (herein called BrE) while AmE means American English (herein called AmE). So I can say that AmE has been more and more popular throughout the English--speaking countries, especially among the young people. To a certain extend it has become more common than BrE.
Then how does it come into being? I think the reason is various. To get a general idea of it let us go back to American past.
I think the formation of AmE can be traced back to 17th century., when the Englishmen began to establish colonial land. In the late 15th century Christopher Columbus, an Italian navigator, believed that by sailing west from Europe, he could reach the Far East. So when he reached some small islands in 1492, he thought he had reached Asia and didn't know he had discovered a New Continent. Columbus made great contributions to Europe. Just as a coin has two sides it the beginning of great disaster to people living in the New Continent. The Englishmen began to establish permanent settlements in North America by the beginning of the 17th century. Because at that time capitalism in English had undergone a high development and the colonial expansion was the first thing to do. Unfortunately America was its target. The first English permanent settlement was found at Jamestown in 1607 in Virginia. This was organized by the London Company and the Polymouth Company with a charter from the English king James the first. Between 1607 and 1733 the British establish 13 colonials along the east coastal of North America. They were Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, New England, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Opportunity and seeking for religious persecution drew a lot of Englishmen to America. By 1750, nearly 2 million people were living in these colonies. So they brought lots of things to America, of which the language was one. At the same time the commonly used language was English--Elizabethan English. The economy in the 13 colonies developed very fast. With the development of economy the people in the colonies wanted more freedom in every aspect of social life. The War of Independence began. Finally America won the war and American people gained the independence, which marked the termination of British colonial rule in America. Independence of politics brought a serious of chain reaction. Again language was an important one among them. In 1780 American people adopted the
word " American" to referring to their language for the first time. In 1789 Noah Webster wrote it down that: " As America is an independent state we should have our own system no matter in aspect of politics or language, which is a kind of honor." In 1806 Noah Webster created the word " American English" So from then on AmE went up on the historical stage.
Causes:
Historical Causes:
As what I have mentioned above, America used to be a colony of England and the former was oppressed greatly by the latter. So after independence American people not only acquired freedom in politics but also wanted the independence of language. Just as what Noah Webster said it is honor. Furthermore it is a sort of national confidence and national pride. (please see overleaf for further information.)
Other Causes:
Besides historical causes social, technology and political changes bring about an increasing number of new words.
Melting Pot: America is called "Melting Pot." Consequently AmE shows this character also. People emigrating from other counties, such as Germany, France and Spain, add new words to AmE. For example "hamburger" and "noodle" are brought from Germany while "potage" and "rapid" from France. America also absorbs a lot of words from black people's English such as Uncle Tom and Doctor Thomas which are used to described a person who meekly submits to oppression
Developed Science and Technology: Rapid growth of science and technology breeds new words or gives the old one a new meaning (Semantic Change). With the arrival of the space age, it brings such new words "soft landing" "command module" and "space sickness" etc. When TV sets become popular among the ordinary people it coins new words such as " daytime soap opera" "channel swimmer" and " ghost" etc.
Special Events: It involves some political events. Take Watergate for example. After this event some new words appear such as "deep six" and " game plan" etc. And the wars are often another source of AmE such as " adviser" "birdfarm" and "defoliate" etc.
Differences between BrE and AmE:
Differences:
Difference in pronunciation: I think pronunciation is the main point.
The extinguished example is the word "class" I still remember when I was a pupil in the primary school I knew it should be pronounced kla:s. So when I heard somebody pronounced klaes I always thought they had made a mistake. But the more I learn, the more times I hear this pronunciation, especially these days. Now I know it is AmE. There are some examples below:
a:/ (BrE)-- /ae (AmE)
e (BrE)--I:/ (AmE)
Difference in Spelling: Besides the pronunciation the spelling is another point.
Waggon (BrE)--Wagon (AmE)
Traveller (BrE)--traveler (AmE)
From the examples given above I find that AmE is always more simple than BrE in spelling by omitting one or two letters. As to the reason I will discuss in the following part.
I think in spite of these two main points there are other differences such as meaning and usage etc. Here I don't discuss further. Now let us move to the next part.
Reasons for Differences
First I think I have to mention historical background again. Americans want to be independent totally from England. They were proud of national independence. So language was a good way to express this feeling and thoughts. About this I have said much. So I'll pay more attention to the another reason. I think it is a matter of American character. It is known to all that Englishmen are conservative, Compared with them Americans are more casual. Take /a:/ and /ae
for example. When we pronounce a:/, we have to open mouth bigger than when we pronounce /ae. No wonder the latter is easier to be pronounced and this expresses why Americans like to use the latter. Also when Englishmen brought words to America, because of geographic reason and different accents, the pronunciation was changed and some letters were omitted.
In a word historical reason, geographic reason and the American character lead to the difference between AmE and BrE.
Now English is an International Language. Both AmE and BrE play important role on the world stage. I can't deny that there are differences between AmE and BrE. But there's no need to say which is better. As an English learner I think it's important to know the differences between AmE and BrE. But to learn how to use it and to accumulate it is more important. In my point of view language learning doesn't just mean learning how to read and write. To learn how the origin of a foreign language will do benefits to language learning and at the same time it will help to broad one's outlook.
This is the complete article, containing 1,212 words
(approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page).
