British and American English are two different varieties of English language. Significant differences between American and British English are in:
Vocabulary – different words are used for the same idea or the same words have different meaningsGrammar – include differences in syntax and morphologyPronunciation – the words are spelled the same but pronounced differentlySpelling – the words have similar pronunciation but different spelling
Spelling differences between American and British English
- or vs. – our
American - color, honor
British - colour, honour
- ll vs. – l
American - fulfill, skillful
British - fulfil, skilful
- ck or –k vs. – que
American - check
British - checque
- ze vs. – se
American - analyze, critize
British - analyse, criticise
Other
American - jewelry, draft, program
British - jewellery, draught, programme
Pronunciation Pronunciation is not based on spelling. Language is primarily an oral phenomenon, and in many respects, the written form can be considered as a kind of representation of the spoken. (Paul Tench: Pronunciation skills, page 5)
A person may speak with sounds very different from those of his hearers and yet be clearly intelligible to all of them, as for instance when a Scotsman or an American addresses an English audience with clear articulation. Their speech cannot be described as other than “good”. But if a speaker with an accent similar to that of his hearers articulates in a muffled way so that they cannot readily catch what he says, his way of speaking must be considered „bad“. (Daniel Jones: The Pronunciation of English, page 4)
Naturally one must note that RP is an accent which is not spoken by very many Britons, but it was chosen because it is well studied and therefore a clear example case of British English. AE is considered to be a norm of English in the US.
Basic Pronunciation Differences:
The Standard American Pronunciation and British Received Pronunciation (RP) of the following words are different. Local dialectal pronunciations vary.
1. Barter, larder, centre/center, etc.- Americans curl their tongues to pronounce the “r” sound in these words. British RP speakers do not- they pronounce a schwa instead (i.e. bahtuh, lahduh, sentuh).
One of the basic differences between the British accent and the American accent is the treatment of /r/. British English is non-rhotic, whereas the American accent is rhotic (r is pronounced when found in spelling). For British accent, potential uses of /r/ in such positions, especially in the word-final position, are indicated by a superscript /r/. This occurs only in relation to the linking r. The intrusive r, because it is a controversial element upon which agreement has not been reached by phoneticians, has been avoided. (Rudiments of English Linguistics, page 25)
2. Class, grass, path, etc.- British RP speakers use the /a:/ sound (i.e. clahs, grahs, pahth). Americans use the “short a” /ae/ sound.
3. Opulent, body, etc.- British RP speakers pronounce the “o” sound in these words with their lips rounded and the sound coming from the back of their mouth. The American pronunciation of these words sounds like “ahpyulunt” and ”bahdee”.
4. Pity, party, etc.- British RP speakers pronounce the “t” sound in these words (i.e. pitee, pahtee). Americans pronounce a “d” sound (i.e. pidee, pardee).
- In AE “t” and “d” both have a very light voiced pronunciation “d” between vowels so words like writer and rider sound the same. In BE “t” remains unvoiced between vowels so words writer and rider are pronounced differently.
5. Due, tuna, etc- All British RP speakers pronounce “yoo” in these words (i.e. dyoo, tyoonuh). The majority of (but not all) American speakers pronounce “oo” in these words (i.e. doo, toonuh).
6. Americans have a tendency to reduce words by omitting letters. The words “facts” for example sounds in AE the same as “fax” — the “t” is not spoken. In AE the words “can” and “can’t” sound very much alike while in standard British English you can clearly make out a difference.
7. Words borrowed from French are often stressed differently, especially if their pronunciation ends with “o” vowel sound. The final vowel is usually stressed in AE but not in BE. (e.g. ballet - AE /bæ´lei/ - BE /´bælei/)
WORD
BRITISH PRONUNCIATION
AMERICAN PRONUNCIATION
apricot
eprikat
Herb
hз:b
erb
Leisure - leЗ
li:Зr
Tomato - t ma:t
tomayto
Vase - va:z
veiz
There are also differences between RP and AE in the use of /j/. There is significant variation concerning the speakers of AE and whether they use the /j/ glide or not in certain words. RP generally does use it, which can be seen in the following examples:
RP
AE
Student / ‘stju:dnt /
/ ‘studnt /
New / nju: /
/ nu /
Tuesday / ’tju:zdi /
/ ’tuzdi /
Americans tend to pronounce words like “reduce” more relaxed, that means after the letter “d” there follows the vowel “u”. In British English after the letter “d” you can make out a little “j”.
Nasalisation
Another characteristic very common in AE, and usually not found at all in RP, is nasalisation, -a nasal quality given to vowel sounds preceding a nasal consonant (mainly m, n or ŋ). This is often referred to as ‘nasal twang’, which is one of the features of American English which many English people find disagreeable: they consider it to be indicative of laziness, untidiness, slovenliness. Examples of nasalisation are as follows.
RP
AE
Can’t / ka:nt /
/ k?(n)t /
Ranch / ra:ntS /
/ r?(n)? /
Dance / da:ns /
/ d?(n)s /
Stress
Americans and Britons agree in most cases on where a word is stressed. For example, everyone says pencil and relax, cinema and consider, but the following words from the table are stressed differently in the two dialects:
BE: ballet, address, garage, details, advertisement
AE: ballet, address, garage, details, advertisement
The difference in word stress can generally be seen in relatively long words, or at least they are more prominent there than in short words. For example, the words cigarette, brochure, address, laboratory, garage and harassment have differing stress pattern in AE and RP. They can be seen in the following table, where the stressed syllable is preceded by an apostrophe:
RP: ciga’rette, ‘brochure, ad’dress (noun), la’boratory, ‘garage, ‘harassment
AE: ‘cigarette, bro’chure, ‘address, ‘laboratory, ga’rage, ha’rassment
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