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In the early part of the seventeenth century English settlers began to bring their language to America, and another series of changes began to take place. The settlers borrowed words from Indian languages for such strange trees as the hickory and persimmon, such unfamiliar animals as raccoons and woodchucks. Later they borrowed other words from settlers from other countries - for instance, chowder and prairie from the French, scow and sleigh from the Dutch.
There are thousands of differences in detail between British and American English, and occasionally they crowd together enough to make some difficulty. If you read that a man, having trouble with his lorry, got out his spanner and lifted the bonnet to see what was the matter, you might not realize that the driver of the truck had taken out his wrench and lifted the hood. It is amusing to play with such differences, but the theory that the American language is now essentially different from English does not hold up. It is often very difficult to decide whether a book was written by an American or an English man. Even in speech it would be hard to prove that national differences are greater than some local differences in either country. On the whole, it now seems probable that the language habits of the two countries will grow more, rather than less, alike, although some differences will undoubtedly remain and others may develop.
It also seems probable that there will be narrow-minded and snobbish people in both countries for some time to come. But generally speaking, anybody who learnsto speak and write the standard English of his own country, and to regard that of the other country as a legitimate variety with certain interesting differences, will have little trouble wherever he goes.
Studying foreign languages is important for everybody. People learn foreign languages from various reasons. They want to travel abroad a lot, they want to read foreign materials (books, newspaper, magazines..). Many people need knowledge of foreign languages for their work, for example translators, interprets airport staff, shop assistants, waiters etc. People working in so called tourist industry or in export section of a firm can't work without knowing foreign languages. The students make the largest group of people who learn foreign languages.
Most students in the world study English. It is one of the compulsory subjects at school all over the world. English is the most widely spread language. It's the mother tongue for people in the English speaking countries. It means in Great Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It is the second language in former British colonies (India, Pakistan, African countries…).
English is working language of many international organizations and events. And if somebody wants to take place in a world congress or to be successful in business he must master 4 skills in every language. 4 skills mean reading, speaking, writing and understanding. I think that all four skills are necessary but speaking is the most important.
English belong together with European languages to a large family of Indo-European languages. This family has seven branches. English is one of Germanic languages. It is coming form three languages - from Old German, Old Norse and French. These three languages merged.
Nowadays about 420 million people use English which means that English is the most widespread language in the world. It is used not only as a native language but also for practical purposes - in administrative, business, technology, education, sport etc. English become so important only in the 17th century with the first settlements outside Europe.
The English language is of Germanic origin. Old English had many inflections to show various grammar forms (e.g. singular, plural, tense, person). The pronunciation was different as well. But over centuries words have been simplified and in fact have very few inflections now, but pronunciation and spelling become more difficult. English borrowed words from many other languages - French, Spanish, even Czech.
There ate five main types of English which differ in pronunciation, spelling and vocabulary but the differences are not so crucial. There are: British English, American English, Australian English, Indian English and African English.
Now we will meet with some differences between British (so called “King's “) English and American English. American English has been the language of American continent for more that three centuries. These two versions of English are the results of the different historical development of England and America.
There is number of similar differences in vocabulary, there are also differences in spelling, grammar, intonation and pronunciation.
1. Spelling: reading American books without having been told about peculiarities of American spelling, we might regard as a misprint what is in fact correct American spelling. E.g. the endings “-our”, “-re”, are written “-or”, “-er” (color, labor, center, theater). The “l” isn't doubled in such word as traveller, travelling etc. The Americans have also adopted a simplified way of spelling certain words as program, catalog, check, thru, tho instead of programm, catalogue, cheque, through, though.
2. Grammar: the differences in grammar are also so few. E.g. most American say: „Do you have? I don't have” where an Englishman would say:“ Have you got? I haven't got”.
3. Vocabulary: there are the great differences in vocabulary. These differences are important, because our ignoring them may lead to unpleasant misunderstanding. There are many differences in the names of foodstuffs, shop and clothing.
In the USA in Great Britain
a billion is called a thousand million
a trillion is called a billion
first floor is called ground floor
check is called bill
bill is called banknote
gasoline (or “gas”) is called petrol
pants is called trousers
store is called shop
general store is called department store
4. Pronunciation: the American pronunciation has preserved a feature of the language in its earlier stages of development while the British pronunciation of these days appears to be more developed in comparison with it. The American speak somewhat more slowly than the English.
A. The /-r/ sound is also pronounced when final (e.g. far, four, were) or when followed by a consonant (farm, force, work)
B. The /-o/ sound is so open that is sometimes seems to us as if the Americans pronounced /-a/ instead (e.g. on, not, dollar).
C. The /-a:/ sound in such words as class, past half, after, can't dance, example is pronounced something like “a” is bad.
5. Intonation: intonation is “melody” of speech. In comparison with the lively British intonation, the American intonation seems to be somehow monotonous. The melody of the speech is simpler as there are not rises and falls of the speech and that is why American English is easier to understand than British English.
We must not begin to mix the two, but to concentrate on learning either British or American English.
Once you have thoroughly studied intonation and word connections, you can begin to address pronunciation.
The three most important vowels are [æ], [ä], and [ ].
This last symbol, called the schwa, is represented with an upside down e, and is the most common sound in the English language. These are the vowels found in cat, caught and cut.
When people in NYC meet, they always ask where the other is from. Actual New Yorkers are something of a rarity here. But when I tell them I'm from Georgia, people are quick to point out that I really don't have much of a southern accent.
Point of fact, I make an effort not to have much of an accent. Last night, my roommate's boyfriend excoriated me for this.
His argument is that I should just be myself and I shouldn't pander to ignorant people who would judge me based on something so superfluous as my accent. He also says that by accepting and embracing the "cultural marker" that is the way I speak, I am doing more to effect social change and eradicate that same ignorance.
He went so far as to say that intentionally masking one's accent or affecting another is fraudulent.
My argument is that I don't care about society. I have to deal with individuals and even ignorant ones may have something that I want. I adopt a neutral American accent to avoid distracting people from the more important items on the agenda.
Southerners in particular regard their accents as charming and enjoy the attention it gets them. They object vehemently to those who would assume that they are uneducated based on the fact that they have an accent.
But they like to ignore the fact that the South is a region whose population is afflicted with a few types of rather pernicious stupidity, namely racism, homophobia, sexism, and religion.
The NIL/NALS report confirms once again that Southern US states continue to have the most deplorable social conditions in the country, including the highest rates of adult illiteracy. Mississippi ranked worst among the 50 states, with every third adult in the state, 30 percent of its adult population, placed in Level I. Louisiana has the second highest illiteracy rate with 28 percent of its adult population in Level I, followed by Alabama, Florida and South Carolina, each with 25 percent. In these states the combined Level I and Level II literacy rates would push the level of illiteracy and near-illiteracy to nearly 70 percent of the adult population.
III. Conclusion
3.1 Illiteracy on the rise in America
So, the southern reputation for ignorance and stupidity is not unwarranted.
I also contend that an accent is not like skin color in that you aren't born with it and you can change it. I don't disagree that it's difficult to get rid of an accent because so often one can't hear it, but that is beside the point. You can be rid of it.
And most fundamentally, being rid of an accent aids clarity and understanding when communicating verbally.
I have a friend named Brian. The name "Brian" has two syllables, Bri-an, in standard American pronunciation. My friend pronounces it with one syllable, "Braan." Last night, we went out to a bar and every single person we met could not get his name right until I repeated his name for them.
Southerners also add syllables where none are in standard American pronunciation. Take the word "pet." Now, that is a simple, one-syllable word. Pet. But a southerner with a particular type of accent will turn it into two syllables, "pay-et." To many, this pronunciation mangles the word to the point of unintelligibility.
In business school, we were encouraged to rid ourselves of our accents. The point was that even though it might be cute and help you with the ladies (or gentlemen), in business it is a distraction and may cost you business with people who find it difficult to take you seriously when you speak like Scarlet O'Hara or Foghorn Leghorn.
To the argument that it is dishonest to change one's accent, I think this contradicts the premise behind the other arguments. If accents shouldn't matter, then what difference should it make if one changes them? But I regard changing one's accent as similar to changing one's shirt.
If you are American and you put on a British accent, I may not notice that you're a faker, but if I find out you're a faker, I will think of you as I do those 50 year-old men who wear clingy, ripped up Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirts, as a person with pretentions.
If you adopt a neutral American accent, which originates in the Midwest, by the way, there's nothing to think of you by the way you speak. You could say you're from wherever you please and the worst that people will say is, "Where's your accent?" And you can simply say, "I don't have one."
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Contents
I. Introduction.
1.1 General American
II. Main Part.
2.1 Pronunciation symbols
2.2 Pronunciation challenges
2.2.1 Use of the present perfect
2.2.2 Possession
2.2.3 The verb “get”
2.2.4 Vocabulary
2.2.5 Prepositions
2.2.6 Past Simple
2.2.7 Spelling
2.3 Differences between American English and British English
3.2.1 Lexical differences
3.2.2 Grammatical differences
3.2.3 Punctuation
4.2 Sound system
4.2.1 Voiced and unvoiced consonants
4.2.2 The American R.
5.2 Another set of “Ears”
5.2.1 Spectrography
5.2.2 The low-back merger
5.2.3 The Northern cities shift
5.2.4 The southern shift
5.2.5 The California shift
6.2 Americans are Ruining English
6.2.1 American English is very corrupting
6.2.2 A language that doesn't change is dead
III. Conclusion
Bibliography
1 F.R.Palmer. Semantics. A new outline. - M. V.Sh. 1982
2 F.R.Palmer. Semantics. A new outline. - M. V.Sh. 1982
3 London I. Martin Eden. - М., 1954
4 London I. Martin Eden. - М., 1954
5 Green G. Quet Amerikan. - М., 1956
6 Green G. Quet Amerikan. - М., 1956
7 Green G. Quet Amerikan. - М., 1956
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