1. Differences between American English & British English
Lily Chang
English Department

2. Outline A. Differences between A.E. and B.E.
Spelling
Vocabulary
Grammar
Pronunciation & accent
Speech
B. Backgrounds leading to the differences
Geographic separation
National identity
Spelling reform
C. Conclusion & future development

3. Differences between A.E. and B.E.

4. “The Americans are identical to the British in all respects except, of course, .” ~ Oscar Wilde
language

5. Differences: spelling
Examples (A.E. / B.E.):
color / colour
traveling / travelling
theater / theatre
check / cheque
tire / tyre
 AE is more economically and phonetically spelled.
Exception (A.E. / B.E.): skillful / skilful

6. Differences: vocabulary -1
Examples:
potato chips / crisps
gasoline (gas) / petrol
elevator / lift
first floor / ground floor
/ panda car
/ nappy
/ coach
/ rubber
police patrol car
diaper
intercity bus
eraser

7. Differences: vocabulary -2
The differences can sometimes cause embarrassment and even misunderstanding!
Examples:
“pants” – “trousers” in A.E.
BUT “underwear” in B.E.
Date: A.E.12/21/2012
B.E.21/12/2012
Number: “billion”
A.E. a thousand million
B.E. a million million
Expiration: 9/1/2013

8. Differences: vocabulary -3
Slangs & Dialogue
One day, a blighter called Tom went to a noshery to have a nosh-up with his parents because the nosh there was fantastic. Because he liked to have banger very much, he argued to his parents.
Tom: “I’d like to try all kinds of banger in this noshery!”
Parents: “Don’t talk balls! It’s too expensive to do that!”
Tom: “Why not? It’s not cricket! My friend, Tony, has tried all of them! Not cricket, not cricket, not cricket!!!”
Parents: “(narked) Belt up! I’ve heard that, too. But do you know that contributed a lot to his weight, too?”
annoying boy
restaurant
meal
food
sausage
sausage
restaurant
nonsense
fair
fair
fair
fair
annoyed
Shut up

9. Differences: grammar Use of subjunctive
AE: It is important that she be told.
BE: It is important that she is told.
Quotation marks
AE: “Do you want to have lunch together in the new cafe called ‘Light House’ with me?”
BE: ‘Do you want to have lunch together in the new café called “Light House” with me?’

10. Differences: pronunciation & accent -1
Stress:
stress on different syllables (A.E. / B.E.):
garage / garage
advertisement / advertisement
stress on different vowels (A.E. / B.E.):
vase [veɪs]/ vase [vɑːz]
leisure [ˈliː.ʒɚ] / leisure [ˈleʒ.ər]
Retroflex (A.E. / B.E.): clerk [klɑːk] / clerk [klɜːrk]

11. Differences: pronunciation & accent -1
Accent:” How British People Sound to Americans”

12. Differences: speech A.E.: more general
B.E.: care about nuances of meaning
Reason: British people’s emphasis on social status
A.E.: more hyperbole
B.E.: more understatement
Example: A.E. grab some food
Reason: Americans are more influenced by exaggerations of the media.
A.E.: disobey grammatical rules more often
B.E.: obey grammatical rules
Example: AE: “author” a book

13. Backgrounds leading to the differences

14. Background: geographic separation
The populations in the US and UK are divided.
Americans and British people have interactions with different people.
Noah Webster: “These causes will produce in the course of time a language in North America as different from the future language of England as the modern Dutch, Danish and Swedish are from German or from one another.”

15. Background: National identity
Noah Webster’s “American Dictionary of the English Language”
Purpose: to have cultural independence from Britain
Principle: Words should be spelled more like they sound.
Reform of English spelling: 10 classes
"-our" to "-or" (colour  color)
"-re" to "-er" (centre  center)
dropping final "k" (publick  public)
changing "-ence" to "-ense" (defence  defense)
use single "l" in inflected forms (travelled  traveled)
use double "l" in some words (fulfil  fulfill)
"-or" to "-er" (visiter  visitor)
drop final "e" (axe  ax)
use single "f" at the end (plaintiff  plaintif) ~ failed
"-ise" to "-ize" (realise  realize)

16. Background: spelling reform
Background: start from the mid-1870s
The American Philosophical Association adopted 11 new spellings.
ar, catalog, definit, gard, giv, hav, infinit, liv, tho, thru, wisht
Advocators:
Noah Webster
Benjamin Franklin
Andrew Carnegie
President Theodore Roosevelt

17. Background: spelling reform
Opposition to the spelling reform
Mark Twain: “For example, in Year 1 that useless letter c would be dropped to be replased either by k or s, and likewise x would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which c would be retained would be the ch formation, which will be dealt with later.
Year 2 might reform w spelling, so that which and one would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish y replasing it with i and Iear 4 might fiks the g/j anomali wonse and for all.
Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.
Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez c,y and x — bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez — tu riplaisch, sh, and th rispektivli.
Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.”

18. Conclusion

19. Conclusion
Difference: spelling, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation & accent, speech
Be careful of the differences when talking with English speakers.
Future development: Difference between A.E. and B.E. will decrease.
Increasing transatlantic travel and trade
Mass media: TV, Hollywood films
American GIs during WWII

20. References http://iteslj.org/Articles/Barton-UK-USwords.html m
english-differences.aspx
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21. Thank you for your attention!