The American English ( American English ) refers to the dialects group and accents of the English language which one speaks with the the United States. The American English is distinguished from English of Great Britain primarily by the pronunciation and the vocabulary but also by the orthography and certain grammatical rules.

History

The English brought their language to North America during the 17th century. In this same century, there were also in the continent of the speakers Dutch, French, Spanish, German, Swedish, Scottish, Welsh, Finnois and Irish, in addition to various the indigenous languages.

Phonology

The phonology of the American English is regarded as more preserving than that of the British English. Most of that is perhaps due to the fact that it represents a mixture of various dialects spoken in Great Britain a few centuries ago. Spoken about the Eastern coast has more varieties that in the remainder of the country; perhaps this is explained by the fact why this area maintained more contacts with England, and the inhabitants of the Eastern coast imitated the English accents of this time. The interior of the country was colonized by people who already did not have any more bonds with England, and which did not have any more access to the ocean; thus these areas spoke one more homogeneous.

In English spoken in North America, one pronounces the R in all the positions. At the 17th century, it was typical for all the english-speaking. Nowadays, the majority of the anglophone countries do not pronounce the R at the end of a syllable, therefore one regards it today as an Americanism. However, there are some American accents which also lost the “R” at the end, for example the English New Yorkean, in New England and in some areas in the south of the United States (especially the old ports Southerners like New-Orleans, Mobile, Savannah and Charleston).

There were other changes in the British English since the 17th century who does not find himself in the American English.

In addition, there were changes in America which cannot be seen in the spoken British English nor international one:

Other differences include:

The two phonemes/ɑ/and/ɒ/in British English represent one phoneme in American English: /ɑ/. Thus father and bother is pronounced with the same vowel.

Orthography

During the year 1828, the first dictionary of the American use was published by the American Noah Webster. Webster in its dictionary included some suggestions to reform the English orthography. Many of its suggestions were adopted. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean of other spelling reforms were adopted which are not used in the United States, whereas in Canada in fact roughly speaking the British rules are followed.

Rules of orthography

1. Majority of the words ending in - our in standard English finishes in - but in American English. Example: behavior is written behavior in American English. This rule also applies to the words derived from words in - our . Example: as favor becomes favor , favorite becomes favorite . Only short words (ex: furnace, your, sour ) and words foreign (ex: glamor ) makes exception to the rule.

2. Words having the termination - tre in British English has the termination - for the third time American . Examples: center becomes center , theater becomes theater

3. Words having the termination - bre as a British has the termination - ber in American. Example: fiber is spelled fiber in the USA.

4. Many verbs in - ise finishes in - ize in American. Example: to carried out is written to realize in the United States. A small score of words do not follow this rule and remain unchanged, among them one can quote: to advertize , to surprised , to disguise , to small channel , to promised , to compromised

5. Often (but not in all the cases) - ogue becomes - og in American. Examples: catalog/catalog, dialog/dialog

Here some examples:

Some examples of differences in the orthography:

Vocabulary

New words of American origin

Many words which are included/understood by everyone anglophone are of American origin, for example:

  • O.K. - " bon" , or " suffisant" ; it is used as interjection, adjective, and adverb.

  • belittle - to scorn

  • gerrymander - to benefit from divisions and the sectors in elections

  • blizzard - a great snowstorm

  • teenager - adolescent old from 13 to 19 years

A big number of words born in the USA became common to international English:

  • political Terms: caucus , filibuster , exit poll , landslide , run for office ;

  • Businesses and finances: employee , breakeven , human resources , blue chips , CEO , downsize , disintermediation ;
  • automobile: hatchback , compact because , SUV , station coach , tailgate , motorhome , truck ;
  • forms of names plus preposition: backup , stopover , lineup , shakedown , tryout , spinoff , rundown (" summary"), shootout ;
  • constructions grammatical: ace off , outside off , headed for , meet up with , lack for ;
  • expression familieres: cool , screw up , fool around , nerd , nip and tuck , 24/7 , heads-up ;
  • spoken: get the hang off , make the rank , take for has wrinkle , bark up the wrong tree , keep tabs , run scared , take has backseat , cuts year edge over ;
  • other: belittle , motel , will waterfront , gridlock , fix (" to repair, ") overview , backdrop , butt-face , cash register , automated teller machine

Words which are not used out of North America

There is a quantity of old words of English origin which are not used out of the United States and Canada, and nowadays are regarded as being “American English”, for example:

  • Fall , literally " chute" , which wants to say " automne". In England one says autumn .

  • Gotten instead of got , takes part last of to get , which wants to say “to obtain”.

  • Creek , smaller than a to rivet (river)

Being given its proximity with the Latin America, American uses many loans of Hispanic origin in their language. to see chapter corresponding in the file on the Slang of the United States .

Moreover the form of the subjunctive is used a little in the American English.

External bonds

  • English Freelang Dictionary American-French French-English American - of Ali Msahé
  • 16 specialized Freelang Dictionaries - French/American and American/French

Simple: American English

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