Slide 1

Differences between American English & British English Lily Chang 97501015 English Department Slide 2 Outline A. Differences between A.E. and B.E. Spelling Vocabulary Grammar Pronunciation & accent Speech B. Backgrounds leading to the differences Geographic separation National identity Spelling reform C. Conclusion & future development Slide 3 Differences between A.E. and B.E. Slide 4 The Americans are identical to the British in all respects except, of course,. ~ Oscar Wilde language Slide 5 Differences: spelling Examples (A.E. / B.E.): color / colour traveling / travelling theater / theatre check / cheque tire / tyre AE is more economically and phonetically spelled. Exception (A.E. / B.E.): skillful / skilful Slide 6 Differences: vocabulary -1 Examples: potato chips / crisps gasoline (gas) / petrol elevator / lift first floor / ground floor / panda car / nappy / coach / rubber police patrol car diaper intercity bus eraser Slide 7 Differences: vocabulary -2 The differences can sometimes cause embarrassment and even misunderstanding! Examples: pants trousers in A.E. BUT underwear in B.E. Date: A.E. 12/21/2012 B.E. 21/12/2012 Number: billion A.E. a thousand million B.E. a million million Expiration: 9/1/2013 Slide 8 Differences: vocabulary -3 Slangs & Dialogue One day, a blighter called Tom went to a noshery to have a nosh-up with his parents because the nosh there was fantastic. Because he liked to have banger very much, he argued to his parents. Tom Tom: Id like to try all kinds of banger in this noshery! Parents Parents: Dont talk balls! Its too expensive to do that! Tom Tom: Why not? Its not cricket! My friend, Tony, has tried all of them! Not cricket, not cricket, not cricket!!! Parents Parents: (narked) Belt up! Ive heard that, too. But do you know that contributed a lot to his weight, too? annoying boy restaurant meal sausage food sausage restaurant nonsense fair annoyed Shut up Slide 9 Differences: grammar Use of subjunctive AE: It is important that she be told. BE: It is important that she is told. Quotation marks AE: Do you want to have lunch together in the new cafe called Light House with me? BE: Do you want to have lunch together in the new caf called Light House with me? Slide 10 Differences: pronunciation & accent -1 Stress: stress on different syllables (A.E. / B.E.): garage / garage advertisement / advertisement stress on different vowels (A.E. / B.E.): vase [ve s]/ vase [v z] leisure [ li . ] / leisure [ le . r] Retroflex (A.E. / B.E.): clerk [kl k] / clerk [kl rk] Slide 11 Differences: pronunciation & accent -1 Accent: How British People Sound to Americans Slide 12 Differences: speech A.E.: more general B.E.: care about nuances of meaning Reason: British peoples emphasis on social status A.E.: more hyperbole B.E.: more understatement Example: A.E. grab some food Reason: Americans are more influenced by exaggerations of the media. A.E.: disobey grammatical rules more often B.E.: obey grammatical rules Example: AE: author a book Slide 13 Backgrounds leading to the differences Slide 14 Background: geographic separation The populations in the US and UK are divided. Americans and British people have interactions with different people. Noah Webster: These causes will produce in the course of time a language in North America as different from the future language of England as the modern Dutch, Danish and Swedish are from German or from one another. Slide 15 Background: National identity Noah Websters American Dictionary of the English Language Purpose: to have cultural independence from Britain Principle: Words should be spelled more like they sound. Reform of English spelling: 10 classes "-our" to "-or" (colour color) "-re" to "-er" (centre center) dropping final "k" (publick public) changing "-ence" to "-ense" (defence defense) use single "l" in inflected forms (travelled traveled) use double "l" in some words (fulfil fulfill) "-or" to "-er" (visiter visitor) drop final "e" (axe ax) use single "f" at the end (plaintiff plaintif) ~ failed "-ise" to "-ize" (realise realize) Slide 16 Background: spelling reform Background: start from the mid-1870s The American Philosophical Association adopted 11 new spellings. ar, catalog, definit, gard, giv, hav, infinit, liv, tho, thru, wisht Advocators: Noah Webster Benjamin Franklin Andrew Carnegie President Theodore Roosevelt Slide 17 Background: spelling reform Opposition to the spelling reform Mark Twain: For example, in Year 1 that useless letter c would be dropped to be replased either by k or s, and likewise x would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which c would be retained would be the ch formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform w spelling, so that which and one would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish y replasing it with i and Iear 4 might fiks the g/j anomali wonse and for all. Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez c,y and x bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez tu riplaisch, sh, and th rispektivli. Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld. Slide 18 Conclusion Slide 19 Difference: spelling, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation & accent, speech Be careful of the differences when talking with English speakers. Future development: Difference between A.E. and B.E. will decrease. Increasing transatlantic travel and trade Mass media: TV, Hollywood films American GIs during WWII Conclusion Slide 20 References http://iteslj.org/Articles/Barton-UK-USwords.html http://www.bu.edu/mfeldman/Slang/glossary.html http://www.davidappleyard.com/english/britishglossary/N.ht m http://www.davidappleyard.com/english/britishglossary/N.ht m http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/regionalisms.aspx http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/british-american- english-differences.aspx http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/british-american- english-differences.aspx http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/through-threw- thru.aspx http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/through-threw- thru.aspx http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/easy/aebe.htm#8 http://www.projectbritain.com/langdiffer.htm http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/spell/histsp.html http://history1900s.about.com/od/1900s/qt/trspelling.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Spelling_Board http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12qqU9wkzzY Slide 21 Thank you for your attention!