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Two Nations separated by the same language
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Two Nations separated by the same language
Once a famous Irish playwright Bernard Show said that America and England were two nations separated by the language. What are the main differences between British and American English now?
There are a fewU grammatical Udifferences.
To begin with, some British irregular verbs (e. g. burn, learn, etc. ) turned into regular ones in America. Past participle of get became gotten.
Americans say “Do you have a car? ” where British people would prefer to say: “Have you got a car?
The auxiliary word shall is used more seldom, and model verb may in the meaning “permission” has been changed for can.
So-called “bare infinitive” (without to) is used after help, insist, suggest, etc.: The doctor insisted / suggested that the injured man be taken to hospital.
Past Simple (not Present Perfect) is often used with modifiers just, already, yet: ” I’m not hungry. I just had lunch”. “Don’t forget to mail the letter. I already mailed it”.
One may say that Americans tend to use articles more loosely than Englishmen. The definite article is often omitted in America after “all” in cases where it would be considered necessary in English. So Americans say “all day”, “all night”, “all morning”, “all week, ” “all summer”. A difference in the order of words may be noted in the use of the indefinite article. An American might say “a half dozen”or “a half hour”, whereas an Englishman would say “half a dozen”, “a half of an hour”.
On the matter of prepositions there is some difference between English and American usage, too. Thus Americans say: “the worst accident in (not for) years”, “five minutes after (not past) three”, a quarter of three, the man on (not in) the street, on the train, (not in it). He is the best player on the team (not in the team); to write someone (without to).
American English also tends to coin and use more freely nouns compounded from a verb and a preposition, such as blowout, checkup, fallout, feedback, etc. New words are frequently created by shifting the function of an existing word. Nouns are used as verbs: to park, to package, to program, to vacation, adjectives can become nouns: briefs, comics, reds.
Punctuation
- Use of commas and periods inside quotation marks;
-Word order in date writing;
-Business letter salutations, colons vs. commas
Though British and American U spelling U is the same in most cases, it differs in a few details owing to N. Webster’s reforms. The British word reflection is written in America as reflexion,
Centre as center,
Catalogue as catalog,
Programme as program,
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Organisation, analyse as organization, analyze,
Defence, licence as defense, license,
Travelling, cancelling as traveling, canceling,
Practise as practice.
There are differences in the intonation and pronunciation in two languages. as well.
American English intonation does not rise or fall as much as that of British English, it sounds more monotonous. American voices usually have a higher pitch. That is why American English often seems too emphatic and American voices seem louder than those of British speakers.
American pronunciation is more nasalized than English. There are certain differences in the pronunciation of both consonants and vowels: AE [ae] – BE [a: ] in class, last, bath; [ju: ] is pronounced like [u: ] in such words as «tube», «duty», «new» that are after the initial t, d, n, s, and z. ^ instead of [ O ] e. g. “hot” [h^t], “body’ [b^di], “college” [k^lidз]. American [r] unlike the British [r] is pronounced with no friction and the tip of the tongue is curled backward.
- American [L] is always dark (твердое)
- [t] is often omitted after [n]: “twenty” [‘tweni]
- Voiceless consonants become voiced in the intervocalic position, e. g. “better” [‘bedэ]
Here are some other examples of these differences:
Pronunciation in B. E. Pronunciation in A. E.
Chance, last, past [‘tIa: ns, ‘la: st, ‘pa: st] [ ‘chains, ‘laest, ‘paest]
Duke, suit [‘dju: k, ‘sju: t } [ ‘du: k, ‘su: t ]
Doctor, stop, pot [‘dоkta, ] [‘d^kt, ’st^p, ‘p^t]
Butter, atom [‘b^tэ, ‘aetэm] [‘ b^ dэ, ‘aedэ m]
Plenty, twenti [‘plenti, ‘twenti] [‘pleni, ‘tweni]
Clerk [‘ klэ: k] [k’la: k]
Either, neither ( A. E. - [i: ], B. E. - [ai]), advertisement (A. E. -[ai], B. E. -[э: ]tomato- B. E. {a: }, A. E. {ei}; process-B. E. {эu}, A. E. {a}; candidate(, A. E. [ei] B. E. [I]).
It is necessary to keep in mind, that pronunciation and intonation may be different in different American dialects. The major dialect areas, recognized in American English are Eastern New England, Western or Middle American, and Southern Americans can easily identify a man as a New Englander or a Southerner after hearing him say a few words. There are people who believe that the New England variety is a truly cultural form of speech, and there are many Southerners who are quite sure that their way of speaking is the American best.
The speech of New England (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont) is characterized by the retention of rounded vowel in words like ”hot” and “path” and flat a . The Connecticut River is an important regional dialect boundary, separating the r-less dialect of Boston from the other regions. Southern dialect is characterized by the loss of r finally before the consonants and by the unrounded vowel (as in father, grass, dance, path). Instead of diphthong [ aw] southerners pronounce sound [ a] house, South, out. Many speakers insert glide in Tuesday [tyua-] and make no distinction between vowels in pin/pen. Final consonant cluster reduction occurs in words like last and kept (these are pronounced something like lass and kep). People in the southern states speak with a drawl - they tend to speak slowly and lengthen the last sound of each word. They use contracted Y’all for You all, expressions like “Howdy, y’all” for “Hello, everybody”. President Clinton, from Arkansas, had a southern accent.
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In New York City, especially in the boroughs outside Manhattan, many people speak so- called New Yorkese. Speakers of New Yorkese often speak very fast and tend not to pronounce “ r ” in words that end in “er”. A word like “water’ sounds like “wata”. The presence or absence of “r” has become class marker. The pronunciation of curl as coil and bird as boid is characteristic of working-class speech.
The language which teenagers often like to use is strongly influenced by popular music and fashion. The immediate examples: Yinz, yunz, you’uns (plural you): Hey yoy, gues; My peoples = my parents; I were = I was; I didn’ have no money; there ain’t no sense= there is no sense; got’em=got them; gimme=give me; I ain’t got= I haven’t got; oughtta=ought to; nigger gal= black girl; Whaddaya think she’s talkin’ about? (What do you think she’s talking about? ), wysi-wyg (what you see is what you get)
Black American or Afro-American Speech has also some peculiarities. One theory holds that this variety of American English developed from so-called pidgin English – the language first used by black slaves of different African languages forced to communicate with each other and their owners. Another view holds that Black English results from the retention of British English features that have not been retained in other varieties of American English.
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