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Differences Between American English and British English ANU/EN/2018/P/0005

 Difference Between American English And British English


“England and America are two countries divided by a common language.”

~George Bernard Shaw~


AMERICAN ENGLISH
  • American English (AmE) is the form of English
    used in the United States. 
  • American English in its written form is
    standardized across the U.S. (and in schools
    abroad specializing in American English). 
  • American speech is somewhat uniform throughout
    the country, largely because of the influence of
    mass communication and geographical and social
    mobility in the United States 


BRITISH ENGLISH
  • British English (BrE) is the form of English used
    in the United Kingdom and the rest of the British
    Isles. It includes all English dialects used
    within the British Isles. 
  • British English has a reasonable degree of
    uniformity in its formal written form. On the
    other hand, the forms of spoken English
    dialects and vocabulary used across the British
    Isles vary considerably more than in most other
    English-speaking areas of the world.


Historical background
  • The English language was first introduced to the
    Americas by British, beginning in the late 16th
    century. Similarly, the language spread to
    numerous other parts of the world as a result of
    British colonization elsewhere and the spread of
    the former British Empire, which, by 1921, held
    sway over a population of about 470570 million
    people approximately a quarter of the world's
    population.

How did this divergence occur?
n The Atlantic Ocean served as a major divide, allowing the two dialects to develop.
n American English picked up words from Native American languages as well as from Dutch, Spanish, and French settlers.
n Noah Webster decided to solidify and standardize American English in his dictionary.


Noah Webster
n Writer of the first American dictionary in 1806.
n Believed that Americans’ language should reflect the way they spoke, and be distinct from British English.
n Came of age during the American Revolution, and therefore placed great emphasis on America’s cultural separation from England.
n Simplified spellings of many words, such as ploughàplow centreàcenter colouràcolor.
n Added uniquely American words, such as squash and chowder.

The languages diverge…and converge
n The differences in the languages reached its peak right after the industrial revolution.
n With the spread of modern technology, more terms are becoming common.


n http://blog.languagetranslation.com/public/item/118655
n http://www.effingpot.com/
n http://www.slideshare.com/


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