A TO ZED, A TO ZEE

A GUIDE TO THE DIFFERENCES

BETWEEN

BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH

A TO ZED, A TO ZEEA GUIDE TO THE DIFFERENCES

BETWEEN BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH

WRITTEN BYGLENN DARRAGH

PUBLISHED BYEDITORIAL STANLEY

LAYOUTANGELA GOMEZ MARTIN

FRONT PAGE DESIGNDISENO IRUNES

© EDITORIAL STANLEYAPDO. 207 - 20302 IRUN - SPAINTELF. (943) 64 04 12 - FAX. (943) 64 38 63

ISBN: 84-7873-346-9DEP. LEG. BI-930-00

FIRST EDITION 2000

PRINTERSIMPRENTA BEREKINTZA

Contents

Preface

Introduction: Why are they so different? v

Part one: Spelling 2

Part two: Pronunciation 11

Part three: Grammar and Usage 19

Part four: A to Zed: a GB / US lexis 27

Part five: A to Zee: a US / GB lexis 75

Further Reading 121

Preface

This book is intended for Americans andBritons who want to understand eachother better, and for foreign students ofeither American or British English whowant to familiarise (or familiarize)themselves with the other main varietyof the language. According to GeorgeBernard Shaw, the United States andEngland are two great nations separatedby a common tongue. In fact, most ofthe time the two peoples understandeach other fairly well, or think they do.The accent is different, of course, but itpresents no more of a barrier than anyregional accent would. Differences ingrammar, syntax and spelling arerelatively minor. The main differences,and they are huge, are lexical andcultural.

This state of affairs is reflected in thestructure and content of the presentbook, which makes no pretence (orpretense) of being exhaustive, but whichdoes try to be comprehensive. Shortinitial chapters outline the historicalbackground and the differences inpronunciation, spelling and grammar.The main part of the book, however,consists of a dictionary of Britishvocabulary and cultural references whichsomeone from the United States mighthave trouble understanding, and of adictionary of American vocabulary andcultural references that might presentproblems to someone from the BritishIsles. As the book is not aimed atacademics, but at laymen (orlaypersons) who are curious aboutlanguage, phonetic differences areshown, when necessary, by a figuredpronunciation. The A to Zed section iswritten to be read by Americans, the/4to Zee section by Britons. Finally, anumber of older terms have beenretained in both sections of thedictionary for the benefit of the smallnumber of Americans and Britons whohappen to be complete novices in thestudy of English as a foreign language.

Introduction: Why are they so different?

When a Briton and an American meet,even though they are far from mutuallyunintelligible, each is soon aware ofdifferences in the speech of the other.First, the accent is different:pronunciation, tempo, intonation aredistinctive. Next, differences invocabulary, idiom and syntax occur, asthey would in a foreign language:individual words are misunderstood ornot understood at all, metaphoricalexpressions sound bizarre, subtleirregularities become apparent in theway words are arranged, or in theposition of words in a sentence, or inthe addition or omission of words. It isestimated that some 4,000 words andexpressions in common use in Britaintoday either do not exist or are useddifferently in the US. These differencesare reflected in the way British andAmerican English are written, so thatvariations in spelling and punctuationalso emerge. Finally, there are immensecultural divergences, ranging fromdifferent trademarks for everydayproducts to different institutions andforms of government. Little wonder,then, that even in this age of globalcommunications, we are still able tomisunderstand each other. Beforeexamining each of these majordissimilarities in detail, it may be usefulto consider how they have arisen.

In fact, many of the distinctive phoneticfeatures of modern American Englishcan be traced back to the British Isles.To take a single example, the r at theend of words is pronounced in markedlydifferent ways in the 'standard' varietiesof American and British English. In the'received pronunciation' of GB, it isbarely sounded at all, so that words likethere and water are pronounced theahand watuh. This pattern is characteristic

of the south-eastern part of England,which is where, in the early 17th century,the first British colonists originated.Their peculiar treatment of the final rsurvives in New England and the South,but it is exceptional in the US as awhole. The distinctive American r, a kindof muffled growl produced near the backof the mouth, is fully sounded. It is verysimilar to the r still pronounced in partsof the west and north of England, and inScotland and Ireland, and was almostcertainly brought to America bysubsequent colonists from those parts.Since most of the British settlement inNorth America in the 19th century camefrom the north and west of England andfrom Ireland, especially from thenorthern counties of Ulster, rhoticspeech, as it is called, eventually spreadacross the continent. In many other littleways, standard American English isreminiscent of an older period of thelanguage. For example, Americanspronounce either and neither-with thevowel of teeth or beneath, while inEngland these words have changed theirpronunciation since the Americancolonies were founded and are nowpronounced with an initial diphthong,like the words eye and nigh. (For afuller discussion of these and otherpronunciation differences, see Part 2.)

It is said that all emigrant languages arelinguistically nostalgic, preservingarchaic pronunciations and meanings.The word vest provides an interestingexample of one of the ways in which thevocabularies of Britain and Americawere to grow apart. The first recordeduse of the word occurs in 1666 (in thediary of Samuel Pepys), referring to 'asleeveless jacket worn under an outercoat'. The direct descendant of thisusage is the modern American vest,

A TO ZED, A TO ZEE STANLEY v

meaning waistcoat. In the interveningcenturies, however, the meaning of theword has shifted in Britain, so that itnow applies to 'a piece of clothing wornon the top half of the body underneath ashirt'. Americans have retained anumber of old uses like this or old wordswhich have died out in England. Theiruse of gotten in place of got as the pastparticiple of get was the usual form inEngland two centuries ago; in modernBritish English it survives only in theexpression ill-gotten gains. Americanstill use mad as Shakespeare did, in thesense of angry ('Don't get mad, geteven.'), and have retained old words liketurnpike, meaning a toll road, and fall asthe natural word for the season. TheAmerican I guess is as old as Chaucerand was still current in English speech inthe 17th century. The importance of suchdivergences was compounded by twoparallel processes. Some words whichthe pilgrims and subsequent settlersbrought to the New World did nottransplant, but in England they survived:e.g. fortnight, porridge, heath, moor,ironmonger. Far more important,however, was the process by which,under the pressure of a radicallydifferent environment, the colonistsintroduced innovations, coining newwords and borrowing from other cultures.

Many living things, for example, werepeculiar to their new environment, andterms were required to describe them:mud hen, garter snake, bullfrog, potatobug, groundhog. Other words illustratethings associated with the new mode oflife: back country, backwoodsman,squatter, clapboard, corncrib, bobsled.This kind of inventiveness, dictated bynecessity, has of course continued tothe present day, but many of the mostdistinctive Americanisms were in factformed early: sidewalk, lightning rod,

spelling bee. low-down, to have an axto grind, to sit on the fence, to sawwood, and so on. At the same time,other words were being assimilatedready-made into the language from thedifferent cultures the settlers came intocontact with. Borrowings from theIndians include pecan, squash,chipmunk, raccoon, skunk, andmoccasin', from the French, gopher,pumpkin, prairie, rapids, shanty, dime,apache, brave and depot; from theSpanish, alfalfa, marijuana, cockroach,coyote, lasso, taco, patio, cafeteria anddesperado; from the Dutch, cookie,waffle, boss, yankee, dumb (meaningstupid), and spook. Massive immigrationin the 19th century brought new wordsfrom German (delicatessen, pretzel,hamburger, lager, check, bummer,docent, nix], from Italian [pizza,spaghetti, espresso, parmesan,zucchini] and from other languages.Jews from Central Europe introducedmany Yiddish expressions with a widecurrency in modern America: chutzpah,kibitz, klutz, schlep, schmaltz, schlock,schnoz, and tush. Likewise, manyAfricanisms were introduced by theenforced immigration of black slaves:gumbo, jazz, okra, chigger. Evensupposedly modern expressions likewith-it, do your thing, and bad-mouthare word-for-word translations ofphrases used in West African languages.Eventually many of these enrichmentswould cross the Atlantic back toEngland, but by no means all of them.Those that did not cross back form thebasis of the differentiation that hastaken place between the American andthe British vocabulary (Parts 4 and 5, foran examination of current lexicaldifferences and explanations of many ofthe terms cited above).

A further important change was to take

vi STANLEY A TO ZED, A TO ZEE

place, in the domain of spelling. In theyears immediately following theAmerican Revolution, many Americanssought to declare their linguistic as theyhad their political independence. In1780, John Adams, a future president ofthe United States, proposed thefounding of an 'American Academy forrefining, improving, and ascertaining theEnglish Language'. The plan came tonothing but it is significant as anindication of the importance Americanswere beginning to attach to theirlanguage. The more ardent patriots weredemanding the creation of a distinctlyAmerican civilization, free of theinfluence of the mother country. Defenceof this attitude was the life-work ofNoah Webster (1758 - 1843), author ofThe American Spelling Book, firstpublished in 1783 and destined to sellan estimated 80,000,000 copies overthe next hundred years. This work, fromwhich countless immigrants learnt theirEnglish, introduced such typicalspellings as honor, color, traveler,defense, offense, center, theater, ax,plow, and jail. The influence ofWebster's American Spelling Book andof his later American Dictionary of theEnglish Language (1828) wasenormous. It is true to say that themajority of distinctively Americanspellings are due to his advocacy of theprinciples underlying them. (The maindifferences are outlined in Part 1.)Moreover, some of the characteristics ofAmerican pronunciation must also beattributed to Webster, especially itsrelative homogeneity across so vast acontinent and its tendency to give fullervalue to the unaccented syllables ofwords (see Part 2).

As regards the basic grammar andstructure of the language, there are

surprisingly few major differences. Onthe whole, however, Americans, asthough impelled by an urgent need toexpress themselves, appear lessconstrained by the rules of grammaticalform. For instance, they tend to bulldozetheir way across distinctions betweenthe various parts of speech. New nounsare compounded from verbs andprepositions: fallout, blowout, workout,cookout, the runaround, a stop-over, atry-out. Nouns are used as verbs - toauthor, to fund, to host, to alibi (anearly example of the practice was toscalp] - and verbs are used just ascasually as nouns: an assist, a morph.Any number of new verbs can becreated by adding the suffix -ize to anoun or to the root of an adjective:standardize, fetishize, sanitize,prioritize, diabolize. If the exuberanceof American English is reminiscent ofanything, it is of the linguistic energy ofthe Elizabethans. In the early part of the20th century, H.L. Mencken was alreadymaking the point. American English, hesaid, 'still shows all the characteristicsthat marked the common tongue in thedays of Elizabeth I, and it continues toresist stoutly the policing that ironed outStandard English in the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries'.

The present geopolitical, technological,financial and commercial supremacy ofthe United States unquestionablyunderlies the expansiveness and spreadof its language, nowhere more so thanon the level of colloquial or popularspeech. Occasionally words in BritishEnglish become fashionable enough tocross the Atlantic, but the vast majorityof words - like the vast majority offilms, television programmes, bestsellers, news magazines, and pop musiclyrics which convey them - no longer

A TO ZED, A TO ZEE STANLEY vii

travel westwards, but eastwards. Thissituation is not without irony. In the1780s, some patriots were proposingthat English be scrapped altogether asthe national language and replaced byanother: French, Hebrew and Greekwere candidates. The last of these wasrejected on the grounds that 'it wouldbe more convenient for us to keep thelanguage as it was, and make theEnglish speak Greek'. Two hundred andsome years later, it seems fairly obviousthat the Americans will keep anddevelop their variety of English just asthey please, and the British will have toadapt as best they can. It is a processthat is already well under way, withthousands of words and expressionsthat were exclusively American a fewyears ago now part of the written andspoken language in both its varieties.But there is no reason to deplore thisfact. It is simply a sign that the languageis doing what it has always done: it ischanging and revitalizing itself.

Viii • STANLEY A TO ZED, A TO ZEE

P A R T O N E

P A R T T W O

Spelling 2

1. The color/colour group 32. The center / centre group 33. The realize / realise group 44. The edema / oedema group 55. The fulfill / fulfil group 66. One letter differences 77. Miscellaneous 8

Pronunciation 9

1. Pronunciation of 'r' 92. Pronunciation of 'a' 103. Pronunciation of 'o' 104. Pronunciation of 'u' 115. Pronunciation of 't' 116. Pronunciation of particular words 127. Stress and articulation 14

THREEGrammar and Usage 15

1. Irregular verbs 162. Use of Past Simple

and Present Perfect tenses 173. Auxiliary and modal verbs 184. Expressions with 'have' and 'take' 195. Position of adverbs 196. Use of 'real' as an intensifier 197. Collective nouns 208. Prepositions 209. Use of 'one' 21

10. Other usages 22

P A R T T H R E E

P A R T O N E

Spelling

A complete list of spelling differences

between American and British English,

assuming such a list could be compiled,

would be a daunting and not particularly

useful thing. For example, among many

other factors, it would have to take

account of differences of hyphenation

and spacing in compound words (US

antiaircraft/GB anti-aircraft, US

bookkeeper/GB book-keeper, US

ultramodern/GB ultra-modern, and so

on). Since American English tends to

drop the hyphen much faster than British

English, this factor alone would make

the list potentially endless.

The difficulties arising from hyphenation

also illustrate the complexity of the

subject in general, for not only do

variant spellings exist for many words on

both sides of the Atlantic, often the

authorities in each country-i.e. the

dictionary-makers -are in disagreement

as to which spelling of a word is to be

preferred over other possibilities. Rather

than attempt a complete inventory of

spelling differences, then, we have

chosen to identify a number of broad

categories. The following lists are

illustrative rather than exhaustive. One

important point should be noted: if two

versions of a word are given as accepted

US or GB spelling, the first is the

preferred spelling and the second a

variant. (Our authorities are Merriam-

Webster's Collegiate Dictionary for

American words and the Concise Oxford

Dictionary for British.)

STANLEY A TO ZED, A TO ZEE2

1. The color / colour group. 2. The center/centre group.

Most GB words ending in -our endin -or in the US. This difference isalso apparent in derivatives.

Most GB words ending in -tre, usuallyderiving from French, end in -ter in theUS. This difference is also apparent inderivatives.

arbor

ardor

armor

armorer

armory

behavior

behavioral

candor

clamor

color

demeanor

enamor

endeavor

favor

favorite

favoritism

fervor

flavor

glamor, glamour

harbor

honor

humor

labor

misdemeanor

neighbor

neighborhood

odor

parlor

rancor

rigor

rumor

savior

savor, savour

splendor

succor

tumor

valor

vapor

vigor

arbour

ardour

armour

armourer

armoury

behaviour

behavioural

candour

clamour

colour

demeanour

enamour

endeavour

favour

favourite

favouritism

fervour

flavour

glamour

harbour

honour

humour

labour

misdemeanour

neighbour

neighbourhood

odour

parlour

rancour

rigour

rumour

saviour

savour

splendour

succour

tumour

valour

vapour

vigour

accoutre, accouter

accouterment,accoutrement

amphitheater

caliber, calibre

center

centerfold

fiber, fibre

fiberboard,fibreboard

fiberglass,fibreglass

goiter

liter

luster

maneuver

meager, meagre

meter

miter, mitre

niter

ocher, ochre

philter, philtre

reconnoiter,reconnoitre

saber, sabre

saltpeter

scepter

somber, sombre

specter, spectre

theater, theatre

accoutre

accoutrement

amphitheatre

calibre

centre

centrefold

fibre

fibreboard

fibreglass

goitre

litre

lustre

manoeuvre

meagre

metre

mitre

nitre

ochre

philtre

reconnoitre

sabre

saltpetre

sceptre

somber

spectre

theatre

A TO ZED, A TO ZEE STANLEY

US GB

US GB

3

3. The realize / realise group.

In this group, differences between GBand US spelling are far from systematic.Some verbs, regardless of the country,can only have -ize (capsize, seize)while in others only -ise is possible(advertise, advise, surprise).Dictionaries in both countries prefer thesuffix -ize in words such as apologize,legalize and realize. Many Britons,however, (not to mention the spellingcheckers of popular word-processingprograms) do not agree with thedictionary-makers and in GB these wordsare still usually written with -ise.

aggrandize

Americanize

apologize

burglarize

capitalize

categorize

characterize

colonize

criticize

dramatize

emphasize

equalize

extemporize

finalize

liberalize

mobilize

naturalize

normalize

organize

popularize

realize

recognize

satirize

stabilize

standardize

symbolize

vaporize

aggrandize, aggrandise

Americanise,Americanize

apologise, apologize

burglarise, burglarize

capitalise, capitalize

categorise, categorize

characterise,characterize

colonise, colonize

criticise, criticize

dramatise, dramatize

emphasize, emphasise

equalise, equalize

extemporise,extemporize

finalize, finalise

liberalize, liberalise

mobilise, mobilize

naturalise, naturalize

normalize, normalise

organise, organize

popularise, popularize

realise, realize

recognise, recognize

satirise, satirize

stabilize, stabilise

standardise,standardize

symbolise, symbolize

vaporise, vaporize

4 • STANLEY A TO ZED, A TO ZEE

US GB

4. The edema / oedema group.

In words of Greek origin, GB English hasoe- where US English has e- or lesscommonly oe-. Similarly, words withan ae combination in GB English(orthopaedics, anaesthesia)'are speltwithout the a in US English.

anemia

anemic

anesthetic

anesthetist

cesarean

diarrhea

edema

enology, oenology

esophagus

estrogen

estrus

fecal

feces

fetal

fetus

gonorrhea

gynecology

hemoglobin

hemophilia

hemorrhage

hemorrhoid

leukemia

maneuver

orthopedics,orthopaedics

Paleolithic

Paleozoic

anaemia

anaemic

anaesthetic

anaesthetist

caesarean

diarrhoea

oedema

oenology

oesophagus

oestrogen

oestrus

faecal

faeces

foetal

foetus

gonorrhoea

gynaecology

haemoglobin

haemophilia

haemorrhage

haemorrhoid

leukaemia

manoeuvre

orthopaedics

Palaeolithic

Palaeozoic

A TO ZED, A TO ZEE STANLEY

US GB

5

5. The fulfill/fulfil group.

A certain number of disyllabic verbsstressed on the second syllable arewritten in British English with a singlebut in American English with -II. Thisaffects the spelling of derivatives.

appall, appal

distill, distil

enroll, enrol

enrollment

enthrall, enthral

fulfill, fulfil

fulfillment

install, instal

installment, instalment

instill, instil

skillful

willful, wilful

appal

distil

enrol

enrolment

enthral

fulfil

fulfilment

install, instal

instalment

instil

skilful

wilful

In American spelling, when you add asuffix like -ing, -ed, or -er to aword, you double the final consonantonly if the stress falls on the secondsyllable of the root word. Thus, as inBritish English, the verb 'pat-rol' gives'patrolling' and 'patrolled'. On the otherhand, the verb 'trav-el' becomes'traveling', 'traveled', 'traveler' (GB'travelling', 'travelled', 'traveller'). Somefurther examples:

canceled, cancelled

counseled, counselled

equaled, equalled

fueled, fuelled

groveling, grovelling

leveled, levelled

modeling, modelling

quarreling, quarrelling

worshiper, worshipper

cancelled

counselled

equalled

fuelled

grovelling

levelled

modelling

quarrelling

worshipper

STANLEY A TO ZED, A TO ZEE

US GB

US GB

6

6. One letter differences.

An interesting group is comprised of

words which are spelt with a single

different or additional letter. The

difference affects pronunciation. aluminum(a-loom-in-um)

behoove

carburetor(kar-boor-ate-er)

check (in banking)

divorce/divorcee(di-vor-say)

doodad

mom

plunk

putter

specialty(spesh-al-tee)

tidbit

aluminium(a-lyoo-min-yum)

behove

carburettor(kar-boor-et-ah)

cheque

divorcee(di-vor-see)

doodah

mum

plonk

potter

speciality(spesh-ee-al-it-tee)

titbit

A TO ZED, A TO ZEE STANLEY • 7

US GB

7. Miscellaneous.

Important spelling differences notalready noted are listed below.

airplane

analyze

artifact

assax, axe

balk

bisulfate

caliper

catalog, catalogue

catalyze

chili, chile, chilli

connection

cozy, cosy

crayfish, crawfish

curb(at edge of road)

czar, tsar, tzar

defense

dependent,dependant (n.)

dialogue, dialog

dialyze

disk

disulfidedoughnut, donut

draft

draftsman

font

furor

gray, grey

jeweler, jeweller

jewelry

judgment, judgement

karat

aeroplane

analyse

artefact

arse

axebaulk

bisulphate

calliper

catalogue

catalyse

chilli, chili

connection,connexion

cosy

crayfish

kerb

tzar, czar

defence

dependant (n.)

dialogue

dialyse

disc (except inComputing,where 'disk' isalso employed)

disulphide

doughnut

draught (aircurrent, liquids)

draughtsman,draftsman

fount, font

furore

grey

jeweller

jewellery

judgement

carat

ketchup, catsup

license, licence

license, licence

licorice

matinee, matinee

mold, mould

molt, moult

mustache, moustache

naive, naive

naught, nought

night, nite

offense, offence

pajamas

panelist

paralyze

peddler, pedlar

persnickety

pickaninny, picaninny

plow

practice, practise

practice, practise

pretense, pretence

program, programme

program

reflection

scalawag

skeptic

skeptical

smolder, smoulder

snowplow

sulfate

sulfur

through, thru

tire (on a vehicle)

tonight, tonite

vise

whiskey, whisky

ketchup

license (v.)

licence (n.)

liquorice

matinee

mould (rot)

moult

moustache

naive, naive

nought

night

offence

pyjamas

panellist

paralyse

pedlar

pernickety

picaninny

plough

practice (n.)

practise (v.)

pretence

programme (v.)

programme (n.)(except in com-puting, where'program' isalso used)

reflection,reflexion

scallywag

sceptic

sceptical

smoulder

snowplough

sulphate

sulphur

through

tyre

tonight

vice (tool)

whisky (as ageneric name)

8 • STANLEY A TO ZED, A TO ZEE

US GB

US GB

P A R T T W O

Pronunciation

The first point to settle in any discussionof pronunciation differences is: whichpronunciations are we talking about?

Although a dialect is defined in terms of

grammar and vocabulary while accent isa matter of pronunciation, differentregional accents generally coincide withdialect regions. It is therefore worthbearing in mind that phonologists have

identified 16 modern dialect regions inEngland alone (with others in Ireland,

Scotland and Wales) and 26 in theUnited States. This being so, it isobvious that the distinctions described

below are by no means absolute. Theyapply mainly to those abstract notions,

Standard American English or GA(General American) and Standard BritishEnglish or RP (Received Pronunciation).

1. Pronunciation of 'r'

One of the most noticeable differencesbetween English and American

pronunciation is the treatment of the r.In RP, this sound has disappeared

except before vowels. It is not heard

when it occurs before another

consonant or at the end of a wordunless the next word begins with avowel, as in Clear away those papers.In the US, eastern New England, NewYork City and most of the South follow

the English practice (Americans jokeabout New Englanders who pahk thecah in the yahd or New Yorkers who

feed de holds in de pahk), but

elsewhere in the States the r ispronounced in all positions. In RP, lordhas the same sound as laud, while inwords like car or there the r is notsounded at all but replaced by

indeterminate vowels at the end. The

American r, on the other hand, ispronounced before vowels andconsonants and also at the end ofwords: air, are, arm, hear, beer, more,

care, deer, fear, hair, or, peer, pure,

wear, work, etc. In phonetics, thisphenomenon -the pronunciation ofpostvocalic rs- is known as rhoticity.Apart from the south-west and somenorthern areas, England is non-rhotic,while Scotland and Ireland are rhotic.

The first pilgrims to arrive in America in1620 were mainly from the Midlands andEast Anglia. Presumably, the non-rhotic

speech in the New England area today

ultimately derives from them. If this is so,later colonists from the West Country,Scotland and Ireland are responsible forthe rhotic speech heard in most of the US

today.

A TO ZED, A TO ZEE STANLEY • 9

2. Pronunciation of 'a'. 3. Pronunciation of 'o'.

Another major difference is in thepronunciation of the vowel sound insuch words as laugh, fast,path,grass,dance, branch, demand, can't, half.Short in US speech, in British speech itis long and firm: Returning from thedaaanse claaase, she ran a baaath.Near the end of the 18th century,southern England began to change fromwhat is called a flat a to a broad a inthese words, i.e. from a sound like thea in man to one like the a in father.The change affected words in which thevowel occurred before f,sk, sp, st, ss, th,and n followed by certain consonants. Inparts of New England the same changetook place, but in most other parts ofthe country the old sound waspreserved, and fast,path, etc., arepronounced with the vowel of man.This, the flat a, must now be regardedas the typical American pronunciation.Although highly distinctive, however, thedifference between the broad a and theflat a probably affects fewer than 250words in common use.

The pronunciation of the o in suchwords as not, lot, hot, top, dog, hod,potis also noticeably different. In England,this is still an open o pronounced withthe lips rounded and the tongue at theback of the mouth. In America, however,except in parts of New England, it hascommonly lost its rounding and in mostwords has become a sound very similarin quality to the a in father, onlyshorter. This illustrates a generaltendency in American speech towardsthe neutralisation of vowel sounds. Non-essentials are dropped so that wordslike don and dawn are pronouncedidentically. In England vowels tend toretain their sharpness.

10 • STANLEY A TO ZED, A TO ZEE

4. Pronunciation of 'u'. 5. Pronunciation of 't'.

The u in words like mule, mute, mutual,cube, butane, Houston is pronouncedidentically on both sides of the Atlantic,i.e. with an imaginary y inserted beforeit: myool, myoot, myoo-tyoo-al, etc. Inthe US, however, such words areexceptions; the usual pronunciation iswithout the y sound. Thus, new, nude,tune, student, duke, Tuesday' arepronounced noo, nood, toon, stoodent,dook, toosday. In England, these wordsare all pronounced with the y sound,and this is generally the case.Exceptions exist, of course, such asassume, suit, lute, which are usuallypronounced assoom, soot, loot. It maybe noted, however, that English stageactors are still trained to say assyoom,syoot, lyoot.

In British English t is usually pronouncedquite clearly but in many instances ofAmerican speech, when it is not theinitial consonant in a word, it mayeither be pronounced like a d or it maydisappear entirely. When the t occursbetween two vowel sounds, it is oftenpronounced as d: bitter, latter, shutter,water, waiting, writing, etc. In Britain,on the other hand, the pronunciation ofsuch pairs as bitter/bidder, latter/ladder,shutter/shudder, waiter/wader, writing/riding I eaves no room for ambiguity,even when the context is unknown. Thet in American speech tends todisappear after nasal sounds like m, n,and ng. Thus, words like dentist,twenty, understand, intercontinentalbecome dennist, twenny, unnerstann,innerconninennal. The only comparablephenomenon in Britain, in well-definedareas like Cockney London, Glasgow inScotland, or Ballymena in NorthernIreland, is the use of the glottal stop toreplace the t in words like butter,matter, water, and so on.

A TO ZED, A TO ZEE STANLEY • 11

6. Pronunciation of particular words.

Other differences inpronunciation are lessimportant, since they concernonly individual words or smallgroups of words. For example,in Britain been has the samesound as bean, but in Americait is like bin. In Britain, the lastsyllable of words like fertile,sterile and missile rhymeswith aisle. In the US, thevowel is much shorter, or amere vocalic I - fert-il, ster-il,miss-il or miss'l. Americans donot suppress the final t oftrait, as Britons do, orpronounce an f in lieutenant.The following table showsexamples of such minordifferences, but it should beborne in mind that relativelyfew words are pronounced sodifferently as to cause any butthe most fugitive confusion.Nor are these examplesrestrictive: in the US leisure ispronounced both with a longvowel (leezhure] and to rhymewith pleasure (lezhure], butthe former is more common.

WORD US GB

address

advertisement

agile

alternate (adj.)

apricot

aristocrat

asphalt

ate

ballet

bitumen

buoy

Byzantine

Caribbean

charade

chassis

chimpanzee

cigarette

clerk

composite

cordial

cremate

croquet

debris

detail

dislocate

dynasty

figure

frustrate

garage

inquiry

interesting

jaguar

laboratory

ah-dress

ad-ver-tize-ment

a-jil

ault-er-n't

a-pri-cot

a-ris-to-crat

as-fault

ate

bal-ay

bi-too-men

boo-ee

biz-an-teen

k'-rib-ean

sha-raid

oha-see

chim-pan-zee

sig-a-ret

klerk

k'm-pos-it

cor-jil

cree-mate

cro-kay

d'-bree

dee-tail

dis-lo-cate

die-nas-tee

fig-yer

frus-trate

ga-rahzh

in-kwi-ree

in-ter-est-ing

jag-wah

lab-ra-tor-ee

a-dress

ad-vert-tis-ment

a-jile

aul-tern-et

ay-pri-cot

ar-is-to-crat

as-felt

et

bal-ay

bich-er-men

boy

bi-zan-tine

kari-bee-an

sha-rahd

sha-see

chimp-'n-zee

sig-a-ret

klark

kom-p'-zit

oor-dee-al

cr'-mate

cro-kay

deb-ree

dee-tail

dis-lo-cate

din-as-tee

fig-ger

frus-trate

gar-ij

in-kwir-ee

in-trest-ing

jag-u-ahr

la-bor'-tree

12 • STANLEY A TO ZED, A TO ZEE

WORD US GB

lever

lieutenant

literally

marquis

migraine

omega

perfume

premature

premier

privacy

process

produce (n.)

progress (v.)

recluse

renaissance

route

schedule

semi-

status

strychnine

tomato

trait

trauma

vase

vitamin

Z

lev-er

loo-ten-ant

lit-er-al-ee

mar-kee

my-grain

o-may-g'

per-fume

pree-m'-toor

pr'-meer

pry-va-see

praw-cess

pro-doos

pro-gres*

rec-loos

ren-a-sens

rout

sked-ule

sem-eye

stat-us

strik-nine

tom-ay-doe

trayt

trah-ma

vayz

vy-ta-min

zee

lee-ver

lef-ten-ant

lit-ral-ee

mar-kwis

mee-grane

o-m'-g'

per-fume

pre-m'-tyoor

prem-e

priv-a-see

pro-cess

praw-dyoos

praw-gress

re-cloos

re-nay-sens

root

shed-ule

sem-ee

state- US

strik-neen

tom-ah-toe

tray

trau-ma

vahz

vit-a-min

zed

A TO ZED, A TO ZEE STANLEY • 13

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Suggestions for Further Reading

Baugh, Albert C. and Cable, Thomas:A History of the English Language.London, 1951.

Cheshire, Jenny (ed.):English Around the World.Cambridge, 1991.

Crystal, David:The English Language.London, 1988.

Ekwall, Eilert:American and British Pronunciation.Upsala, 1946.

Finnegan, Edward:Attitudes Towards English Usage:The History of a War of Words.New York, 1980.

Flexner, Stuart:/ Hear America Speaking.New York, 1976.

Lewis, J. Windsor:A Concise Pronouncing Dictionary ofBritish and American English.London, 1972.

McArthur, Tom:The Oxford Companion to theEnglish Language.Oxford, 1992.

McCrum, Robert; Cran, William;MacNeil, Robert:The Story of English.London, 1986.

Marckwardt, Albert H.:A Common Language: British andAmerican English.London, 1964.

Mencken, H.L.:The American Language, 4th ed.New York, 1936.

Rubinstein, Mary: Twenty-First CenturyAmerican English Compendium.Rockville, 1997.

Strevens, Peter: British and AmericanEnglish.London, 1972.

Trudgill, Peter and Hannah, Jean:International English: A Guide to theVarieties of Standard English, 3rd ed.London, 1994.

And on the Internet...

A wealth of useful recent material is available on the Internet. Sites comeand go, but the following are some of the better ones dealing with thesubject at the time of printing this book:

BritSpeak:http://pages.prodigy.com/NY/NYC/britspk/main.html

Dictionary of American and British Usage:http://www.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionary/dict.html

English (British)-American Dictionary, http://www.bg-map.com/us-uk.html

Notes on American English:http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/wwlib/american.html

United Kingdom English for the American Novice:http://www.hps.com/~tpg/ukdict/

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