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. They made new combinations of English words, such as backwoods and bullfrog, or gave old English words entirely new meanings, such as lumber ( which in British English means approximately junk ) and corn ( which in British means any grain, especially wheat ). Some of the new terms were needed, because there were new and un-English things to talk about. Others can be explained only on the general theory that languages are always changing, and American English is no exception.
Aside from the new vocabulary, differences in pronunciation, in grammatical construction, and especially in intonation developed. If the colonization had taken place a few centuries earlier, American might have become as different from English as French is from Italian. But the settlement occurred after the invention of printing, and continued through a period when the idea of educating everybody was making rapid progress. For a long time most of the books read in America came from England, and a surprising number of Americans read those books, in or out of school. Moreover, most of the colonists seem to have felt strong ties with England. In this they were unlike their Anglo-Saxon ancestors, who apparently made a clean break with their continental homes.
A good many Englishmen and some Americans used to condemn every difference that did develop, and as recently as a generation ago it was not unusual to hear all “Americanisms” condemned, even in America. It is now generally recognized in this country that we are not bound to the Queen’s English, but have a full right to work out our own habits. Even a good many of the English now concede this, though some of them object strongly to the fact that Americanisms are now having an influence on British usage.
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.
Lexical difference.
Lexical differences of american variant highly extensive on the strength of multiple borrowing from spanish and indian languages, what was not in british english.
American variant British variant
Subway «метро» underground
the movies «кинотеатр» the cinema
shop «магазин» store
sidewalk «тротуар» pavement
line «очередь» queue
soccer «футбол» football
mailman «почтальон» postman
vacation «каникулы» holiday
corn «кукуруза» maize
fall «осень» autumn
Also claim attention differences in writing some words in american and british variants of language.
For instance, following:
American variant British variant
honor honour
traveler traveller
plow plough
defense defence
jail gaol
center centre
apologize apologise
Grammatical difference.
Grammatical differences of american variant consist in following:
1. In that events, when Britainians use Present Perfect, in Staffs can be used and Present Perfect, and Past Simple.
2. Take a shower/a bath instead of have a shower/a bath.
3. Shall is not used. In all persons is used by will.
4. Needn't (do) usually is not used. Accustomed form -don't need to (do).
5. After demand, insist, require etc should usually is NOT used. I demanded that he apologize (instead of I demanded that he should apologise in british variant).
6. to/in THE hospital instead of to/in hospital in BrE.
7. on the weekend/on weekend instead of at the weekend/at weekend.
8. on a street instead of in a street.
9. Different from or than instead of different to/from
10. Write is used with to or without the pretext.
11. Past participle of "got" is "gotten"
12. To burn, to spoil and other verbs, which can be regular or
irregular in the british variant, in the american variant ALWAYS
regular.
13. Past Perfect, as a rule, is not used completely.
