3.6.9

American English

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American English

American English grew from English settlers colonising America.

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Squanto

  • The British settlers made use of the Native Americans and their existing settlements in order to survive.
  • A native named ‘Squanto’ who learned English from being enslaved by some English fisherman taught the settlers how to farm and grow food.
  • As a result, the Americans now hold Thanksgiving.
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Lexical borrowings

  • We get some lexical borrowings from the Native Americans like skunk, squash and wigwam.
  • Despite these changes, initially, there were very few changes to the English lexicon in order to preserve the original English.
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Place names

  • The English settlers wanted place names which reminded them of home and so we have many place names prefixed with ‘New’, like ‘New York’ and ‘New Hampshire’.
  • In addition, the settlers were from all over the England, so there was no clear majority on accent, meaning there is much less variation in American accents.
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Webster

  • As America and Britain moved further away from each other and, post-revolution, America decided it wanted to be as separate from Britain as possible, they became less similar to each other.
  • Noah Webster wrote a book which was to be used in school called the ‘Blue Back Speller’, which made edits to the orthography of words.
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Blue Back Speller

  • In this, Webster wanted to simplify orthography, and so:
    • Removed the ‘u’ from words like colourful.
    • Reversed the ‘re’ digraph in words like ‘theatre’.
    • Eliminated double letters in words like ‘travelled’.
    • Removed the end/final position in words like ‘axe’.

The Debate: AmE v BE

The debate over America’s influence on Britain fiercely divides linguists. Here are some of the arguments:

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American English

  • As America grew into an economic and political power, it began to create new words, which have ultimately seeped into British English.
  • Some estimates say that we use 300 to 400 Americanisms every single day (and according to Engel, this is more for teenagers).
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Engel

  • Engel – passionate believer that Americanisms are bad. He says that:
    • Americanisms are ‘ugly’.
    • AmE (American English) is driving out BE (British English).
    • BE has lost identity as a result of AmE.
    • English is in crisis.
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Murphy

  • Lynne Murphy – an American living in Britain who believes that there is nothing wrong with Americanisms:
    • Americanisms are not ruining BE.
    • The exchange works both ways.
    • BE and AmE are still very different.
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Pyles and Algeo

  • Pyles and Algeo argue that the differences between AmE and BE are trivial and that there is no ‘essential difference’ between the two.

Case Studies

How do varieties of English differ from British Standard English? Covered below are case studies of South African English (SAE), African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and Indian English.

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South African English (SAE)

  • Lexically: ‘robot’ is used instead of traffic light.
  • Grammatically: unstandardised plurality in words like ‘furniture’ and repetition of words to increase meaning (‘the teddy is a big big tiger’).
  • Phonologically: /p/, /t/ and /k/ are stressed in word initial positions.
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African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

  • Lexically: ‘homie’, ‘blood’ and ‘fam’ are all used as terms of endearment.
  • Grammatically: multiple negation is in use, ‘ain’t’ is popular and the copula is elided.
  • Phonologically: the /in/ is used instead of the /iŋ/.
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Indian English

  • Lexically: use of ‘upgradation’ as a noun.
  • Grammatically: use of the progressive form of a stative verb (e.g. ‘he is thinking he knows the answer’ rather than ‘he thinks he knows the answer’.
  • Phonologically: /ɔ/ (or) is articulated as /o/ (oo).

Jump to other topics

1Language Levels

1.1Assessment Objectives

1.1.1Assessment Objectives

1.2Lexis

1.2.1Introduction

1.2.2Common, Proper, Abstract & Concrete Nouns

1.2.3Collective Nouns

1.2.4Adjectives

1.2.5Main, Auxiliary & Copular Verbs

1.2.6Dynamic & Stative Verbs

1.2.7Transitive, Intransitive, Active & Passive Verbs

1.2.8Mood of Verbs

1.2.9Adverbs

1.2.10Personal, Possessive & Reflexive Pronouns

1.2.11Relative & Demonstrative Pronouns

1.2.12Determiners

1.2.13Conjunctions

1.2.14Synonyms, Antonyms & Phonological Features

1.2.15End of Topic Test - Lexis

1.3Grammar

1.3.1Morphology

1.3.2Clauses

1.3.3Phrases

1.3.4Present Tense

1.3.5Past Tense

1.3.6Future Tense

1.3.7End of Topic Test - Grammar

1.4Semantics & Pragmatics

1.4.1Semantics

1.4.2Pragmatics

1.5Discourse Structure, Graphology & Orthography

1.5.1Discourse Structure

1.5.2Graphology & Orthography

1.5.3End of Topic Test - Semantics, Graphology etc.

2Language, The Individual & Society

2.1Children’s Language Development

2.1.1The Exam

2.1.2Phonemes, Vocal Tract & Articulation

2.1.3Writing About Phonemes

2.1.4Phonological Simplification

2.1.5A Child's First Year & Consonant Acquisition

2.1.6Beginning Stages of Language

2.1.7Lexical Development

2.1.8Stages of Development

2.1.9End of Topic Test - Child Language Development

2.2Children's Language Development - Theories

2.2.1Behaviourism

2.2.2Interactionism

2.2.3Challenging Interactionism

2.2.4Nativism

2.2.5Nativism - Exam Answer

2.2.6Cognitivism

2.2.7Social Constructionism

2.2.8Writing About Spoken Acquisition

2.2.9End of Topic Test - Development Theories

2.3Literacy Development: Reading

2.3.1Introduction

2.3.2Phonics vs Whole Word

2.3.3Debates in Reading

2.3.4Modelling Reading Acquisition

2.3.5Other Reading Theories

2.3.6End of Topic Test - Reading

2.4Literacy Development: Writing

2.4.1Orthography

2.4.2Kroll's Theory

2.4.3Barclay's Theory

2.4.4Creativity vs Accuracy

2.4.5Other Writing Theories

2.4.6The Exam

2.4.7End of Topic Test - Writing

3Language Diversity & Change

3.1The Importance of Gendered Language

3.1.1Writing About Gender

3.1.2Dominance Theory

3.1.3Interruptions - Zimmerman & West

3.1.4Deficit Theory

3.1.5Difference Model

3.1.6Difference Model - Men

3.1.7Diversity Model

3.1.8End of Topic Test - Gendered Language

3.2Social Groups

3.2.1Writing About Social Groups

3.2.2Social Class

3.2.3Social Class 2

3.2.4Age

3.2.5Age - Teen Speak

3.2.6Milroy’s Belfast Study

3.2.7Labov’s Martha’s Vineyard Study

3.2.8End of Topic Test - Social Groups

3.3Occupational Groups

3.3.1Writing About Occupational Groups

3.3.2Jargon

3.3.3Conversations

3.3.4Hierarchy & Power

3.3.5End of Topic Test - Occupational Groups

3.4Accents & Dialects

3.4.1Writing About Accent & Dialect

3.4.2Introduction to Accents & Dialects

3.4.3Accents - Matched Guide Experiment

3.4.4Accents - Received Pronunciation & Brummie

3.4.5Dialects - Dialectal Variations

3.4.6Accent & Dialect Case Study - London

3.4.7End of Topic Test - Accents & Dialects

3.5Language Change

3.5.1Writing About Language Change

3.5.2Modelling Change

3.5.3Modelling Change 2

3.5.4Lexical Change

3.5.5Semantic Change

3.5.6End of Topic Test - Language Change

3.6History of English

3.6.1Old English

3.6.2Old English 2

3.6.3Middle English

3.6.4Middle English 2

3.6.5Early Modern English

3.6.6Late Modern English

3.6.7Present Day English

3.6.8Global English

3.6.9American English

3.6.10Modelling Global English

3.6.11End of Topic Test - History of English

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Global English

Modelling Global English