Автор: Пользователь скрыл имя, 02 Декабря 2014 в 20:33, творческая работа
Prior to the Revolutionary War and American independence from the British in 1776, American and British accents were similar. Both were rhotic i.e. speakers pronounced the letter R in hard. Since 1776, the accents diverged but English accent in America has changed less drastically than accents in Britain. Non-rhotic speech is used in Britain today. While most American accents, however, remained rhotic.
American English
is a set of dialects
of the English language used mostly in the United States.
English is the most common language in the
United States and it is considered the de facto language of the United States because of its widespread use. The use of English in the United States was a result of English colonization. The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North America in the 17th century. Since then, American English has been influenced by the languages of the Native American population.
American accent
Prior to the Revolutionary War and American independence from the British in 1776, American and British accents were similar. Both were rhotic i.e. speakers pronounced the letter R in hard. Since 1776, the accents diverged but English accent in America has changed less drastically than accents in Britain. Non-rhotic speech is used in Britain today. While most American accents, however, remained rhotic.
Differences between General
American and British
Differences in use of tenses
British English
American English
Have you heard the news?
Did you hear the news?
He’s just gone out.
He just went out.
I've misplaced my pen
I misplaced my pen.
In British English the present perfect is used to express an action that has occurred in the recent past that has an effect on the present moment, while in American English, the use of the past tense is also permissible
Differences in Vocabulary
British English
American English
Athlete (is one who participates in track and field events)
Athlete (is one who participates in sports in general)
Rubber (tool to erase pencil markings)
Rubber (condom)
advert, anticlockwise, barrister, cat's eye (are widely used in British English and seldom in American English)
Airplane, catsup, cell phone etc. (are common in American English and not used very often in British English)
While some words may mean something in British English, the same word might be something else in American English and vice versa.
Differences in Spelling
There are many words that are spelt differently in both forms of English.
American English spelling
British English spelling
Color
Colour
Fulfill
Fulfil
Center
Centre
Analyze
Analyse
Aging
Ageing
Dialog
Dialogue
Spelling differences fall into the following
categories:
Latin-derived spellings
Greek-derived spellings
--yze (American) e.g. analyse vs analyze
Differences in the use of prepositions
American English
British English
on a team
in a team
on the weekend
at the weekend
in school
at school
please write me soon
please write to me soon
Differences in Verb usage
Differences in Pronunciation
American English
Word
British English
«eight»
ate
«et»
«bin»
been
«bean»
«e-ther, ne-ther»
either, neither
«I-ther, ni-ther»
«ish-you»
issue
«is-sue»
«le-sure»
leisure
«laysure»
«nef-hew»
nephew
«nev-hew»
Time telling in British vs American English
American English
Time
British English
quarter after or even a quarter after ten.
10.15
quarter past ten
half past
thirty minutes after the hour
half past
6:00 (colon)
digital times
6.00 (point)
Video explaining the differences
Conclusion
The reasons of American English appearance was the massive wave of emigration from the West Europe, concurred the North America. The main goal for the wave of migrants was to create a common well-understood language for everybody, the main function of which was the logic and austerity as in the understanding as in the writing. And even now the modern American English continues simplify.