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    ex libris
    While American and British English share a common language, there are significant differences in pronunciation and vocabulary between the two. The document explores 5 key reasons for these differences: 1) American English has retained an older pronunciation pattern. 2) British English has been influenced more by French. 3) American spelling was changed intentionally to assert independence. 4) Americans sometimes omit verbs. 5) Each has borrowed words from different languages due to separate cultural influences. The differences arise from the separate linguistic evolutions in the UK and US over centuries.

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    Uk Us

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    ex libris
    20 views3 pages
    While American and British English share a common language, there are significant differences in pronunciation and vocabulary between the two. The document explores 5 key reasons for these differences: 1) American English has retained an older pronunciation pattern. 2) British English has been influenced more by French. 3) American spelling was changed intentionally to assert independence. 4) Americans sometimes omit verbs. 5) Each has borrowed words from different languages due to separate cultural influences. The differences arise from the separate linguistic evolutions in the UK and US over centuries.

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    While American and British English share a common language, there are significant differences in pronunciation and vocabulary between the two. The document explores 5 key reasons for these differences: 1) American English has retained an older pronunciation pattern. 2) British English has been influenced more by French. 3) American spelling was changed intentionally to assert independence. 4) Americans sometimes omit verbs. 5) Each has borrowed words from different languages due to separate cultural influences. The differences arise from the separate linguistic evolutions in the UK and US over centuries.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    20 views3 pages

    Uk Us

    Uploaded by

    ex libris
    While American and British English share a common language, there are significant differences in pronunciation and vocabulary between the two. The document explores 5 key reasons for these differences: 1) American English has retained an older pronunciation pattern. 2) British English has been influenced more by French. 3) American spelling was changed intentionally to assert independence. 4) Americans sometimes omit verbs. 5) Each has borrowed words from different languages due to separate cultural influences. The differences arise from the separate linguistic evolutions in the UK and US over centuries.

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    of 3

    1.​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEA_2lM1YdA&feature=youtu.

    be 
    2. ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhjUspGsK10 
     

    5 big reasons why US and UK English 


    sound so different 
     
    We may share a language but 
    there’s nothing similar when it 
    comes  to  hearing  someone 
    from  the  US  speak  to 
    someone  from  the  UK. 
    Everything  from  putting  a  ​z 
    everywhere  to  words  that are 
    spelt  the  same  but  sound 
    entirely  different  when  you 
    say  them  –  there’s  a  whole 
    ocean of linguistic differences 
    (plus  an  actual  physical 
    ocean  between  the  world’s 
    two  major  English-speaking 
    players.  But  never  fear!  If  you’re  learning  English  in  London  and  want  to  know  what 
    makes  your  accent  different  from  your  friend  learning  in  New  York,  here’s  what  you 
    need to know. 

    1. American English is actually older 

    This  isn’t  something  you  should  tell  to  a  British  person,  because  we’re  the  country  that 
    gave  birth  to  America  as  we  know  it  today  –  but  this  fact  really  is  true.  When  the  first 
    settlers  set  sail from England to America, they took with them the common tongue at the 
    time,  which  was  based  on  something  called  rhotic  speech  (when  you  pronounce  the  ​r 
    sound  in  a  word).  Meanwhile,  back  in wealthy southern cities of the UK, people from the 
    new  higher  classes  wanted  a way to distinguish themselves from everyone else, so they 
    started  changing  their  rhotic  speech  to  a  soft  ​r  sound,  saying  words  like  ​winter  as 
    “win-tuh”  instead of ​“win-terr”.​  Of course, these people were posh and everyone wanted 
    to  copy  them,  so  this  new  way  of  speaking  –  which  British  people  now  refer  to  as 
    Received  Pronunciation – spread across the rest of the south of England. It also explains 
    why  many  places  outside  the  south  of  England  still  have  rhotic  pronunciation  as  part of 
    their  regional  accents.  Basically,  if  you  speak  English  from  London,  you  sound  more 
    posh. Win. 

    2. British English is more like French 

    French  has  influenced  English  in  more  ways  than  English speakers would care to admit. 


    The  first  time  was  when  William  the  Conqueror  invaded  Britain  in  the  11th  Century, 
    bringing  Norman  French  with  him  and  making  it  the  high  language  –  used  in  schools, 
    courts,  universities, and the upper classes. It didn’t stick around, but instead evolved into 
    Middle  English,  which  was  a  mashup  of  all  the  linguistic  influences  around  at  the  time. 
    The  second  time  was  during  the  1700s,  when  it  became  super  trendy  in  the  UK  to  use 
    French-style  words  and  spelling.  Of  course,  Americans  were  already  living  their  lives 
    across  the  Atlantic  and  didn’t  take  part  in  this  trend  at all. This is why British English has 
    more  linguistic  similarities  to  French  than  American  English,  and  also  explains  our 
    obsession with croissants. Or maybe that’s just me. 

    3. American spelling was invented as a form of protest 

    The  American  and  British dictionaries are very different, because they were compiled by 


    two  very  different  authors  with  two  very  different  perspectives  on  language:  the  UK’s 
    dictionary  was  compiled  by  scholars  from  London  (not  Oxford,  for  some  reason)  who 
    wanted  to  just  collect  all  known  English  words,  while  the  American  one  was  made  by a 
    lexicographer  called  Noah  Webster.  Webster  wanted  American  spelling  to  not  only  be 
    more  straightforward  but  different  from  UK  spelling,  as  a  way  of  America  showing  its 
    independence  from  the  former  British  rule.  He  dropped  the  letter  ​u  from  words  like 
    colour  and  ​honour  –  which  had  developed  from  the  French  influence  in  England  –  to 
    make  them  ​color  and  ​honor  instead.  He  did  the  same  to  words  ending  in  ​-ise  to  make 
    them  ​-ize​,  because  he  thought  American  English  spelling  should  reflect  the  way  it  was 
    said. Plus, ​z​ is a much cooler letter to write, so there’s that. 

    4. American English likes to drop words completely 

    Sometimes  there  are differences in American English that make no sense to speakers of 


    British  English  –  like  when  Americans  remove  entire  verbs  from  a  sentence.  When  an 
    American  person  tells  someone  they’ll  write  a  letter  to  them,  they  say  “I’ll  write  them”. 
    When  you  ask  an  American  if  they  want  to  go  shopping,  they  might say “I could”. In the 
    UK  these  replies  would  sound  really  weird,  as  we  would  say  “I’ll  write  ​to  ​you”  and  “I 
    could  ​go​”.  Dropping  the  verb  might  be  because  Americans  want  to  say  stuff  faster – or 
    maybe  it’s  because the British just like to spell out exactly what they’re saying. Nobody’s 
    right  here,  but  if we were to declare a winner it would be British English, because frankly 
    the American way doesn’t make sense. Not that I’m biased. 
    5.  The  two  types  of  English  have  borrowed  words  from  different 
    languages 

    It’s  clear  that  British  and  American  English  have  evolved  differently  when  you  consider 
    the  cultural  influences  that  have  affected  each  independently,  and  how  they’ve 
    borrowed  words  from  those  languages.  For  some  reason  this  is  very  common  with 
    words  for  food:  examples  include  ​coriander  ​(British,  derived  from  French)  and  ​cilantro 
    (American,  derived  from  Spanish),  and  ​aubergine  (British,  derived  from  Arabic)  and 
    eggplant  (American,  so  called  because  it  looks  like  a purple egg). There are many more 
    examples,  but  the  important  thing  to  remember  is  to  get  it  right  in  the  country  you’re 
    studying  in.  After  all,  you  don’t  want  to  be  asking  British  people for some aluminium foil 
    and pronouncing it ​aloo-minnum​. Let’s just not even go there. 

    UK  US 

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       
     

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