1 / 21

Differences between American English & British English

Differences between American English & British English. Lily Chang 97501015 English Department. 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

Download Presentation

Differences between American English & British English

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Differences between American English & British English Lily Chang 97501015 English Department

  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

  3. Differences between A.E. and B.E.

  4. “The Americans are identical to the British in all respects except, of course, .” ~ Oscar Wilde language

  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

  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

  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

  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 noshthere was fantastic. Because he liked to have bangervery much, he argued to his parents. Tom: “I’d like to try all kinds of bangerin this noshery!” Parents: “Don’t talk balls! It’s too expensive to do that!” Tom: “Why not? It’s not cricket! My friend, Tony, has tried all of them! Not cricket, not cricket, not cricket!!!” Parents: “(narked) Beltup! I’ve heard that, too. But do you know that contributed a lot to his weight, too?” restaurant annoying boy food meal sausage sausage restaurant nonsense fair fair fair fair Shut up annoyed

  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 café called “Light House” with me?’

  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 [veɪs]/ vase [vɑːz] • leisure [ˈliː.ʒɚ] / leisure [ˈleʒ.ər] • Retroflex (A.E. / B.E.): clerk [klɑːk] / clerk [klɜːrk]

  11. Differences: pronunciation & accent -1 • Accent:” How British People Sound to Americans”

  12. Differences: speech • A.E.: more general B.E.: care about nuances of meaning • Reason: British people’s emphasis on social status • A.E.: more hyperbole B.E.: more understatement • Example: A.E. grabsome 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

  13. Backgrounds leading to the differences

  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.”

  15. Background: National identity • Noah Webster’s “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)

  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

  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 wspelling, so that which and one would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish yreplasing it with i and Iear 4 might fiks the g/janomaliwonse and for all. Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinueiearbaiiear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiingvowlz and the rimeiningvoist and unvoistkonsonants. BaiIear 15 or sou, it wudfainalibiposibltumeikiusovthiridandantletezc,y and x — bai now jast a memori in the maindzovoulddoderez — turiplaisch, sh, and thrispektivli. Fainali, xen, aaftesam 20 iersovorxogrefklriform, wiwudhev a lojikl, kohirntspeling in iusxrewawtxeIngliy-spikingwerld.”

  18. Conclusion

  19. Conclusion • 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

  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.htm • http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/regionalisms.aspx • http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/british-american-english-differences.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

  21. Thank you for your attention!

More Related