14. Territorial Differentiation of the English Word-Stock

In Modern linguistics the distinction is made between Standard English and territorial variants and local dialects of the English language.

Standard English may be defined as that form of English which is current and literary, substantially uniform and recognized as acceptable wherever English is spoken or understood either within an English-speaking country or throughout the entire English-speaking world.

Variants of English are regional varieties possessing a literary norm. There are distinguished variants existing on the territory of the United Kingdom (British English, Scottish English and Irish English), and variants existing outside the British Isles (American English, Australian English, Canadian English, New Zealand English, South African English and Indian English). Each of these developed a literature of its own, and is characterized by peculiarities in phonetics, spelling, grammar and vocabulary. British English is often referred to the written Standard English and pronunciation known as Received Pronunciation (RP).

Local dialects are varieties of English peculiar to some districts, used as means of oral communication in small localities; they possess no normalized literary form.

American English is the variety of the English language spoken in the USA. The first wave of English-speaking immigrants was settled in North America in the 17^th century. In this century, there were also speakers in North America of the Dutch, French, German, native American, Spanish, Swedish and Finnish languages. That’s why the vocabulary used by American speakers has distinctive features of its own. There are whole groups of words which belong to American vocabulary exclusively and constitute its specific features. These words are called Americanisms, e.g. sorority, dry goods.

The first group of such words may be described as historical Americanisms, e.g. fall ‘autumn’, to guess ‘to think’, sick ‘ill, unwell’. In American usage these words still retain their old meanings whereas in British English their meanings have changed or fell out of use.

The second group of Americanisms includes words which are not likely to be discovered in British vocabulary. These words may be called proper Americanisms. They were coined by the early Americans which had to find names for the new environment (flora and fauna) and new conditions of life, e.g. redbud ‘an American tree that has heart-shaped leaves and small budlike pink flowers, the state tree of Oklahoma’; bluegrass ‘any of several North American bluish-green grasses grown for forage’.

Another group of Americanisms consist of words which may be described as specifically American borrowings. These borrowings reflect the historical contacts of the Americans with other nations on the American continent, e.g. ranch, sombrero (Spanish borrowings), toboggan, caribou (Indian borrowing).

One more group of Americanisms is represented by American shortenings. These are shortenings which were produced on American soil, but may be used in other variants of English as well, e.g. dorm (dormitory), mo (moment), cert (certainty).

The American variant of the English language differs from British English in pronunciation, some minor features in grammar, spelling and punctuation standards and vocabulary.

Pronunciation

In American English we have r-coloured fully articulated vowels, in the combinations: ar, er, ir, or, ur, our, etc. In BE the sound [ɔ] corresponds to the AE [ʌ], e.g. not. In BE before fricatives and combinations with fricatives the letter a is pronounced as [a:], in AE it is pronounced [æ], e.g. class, dance, answer, fast, etc.

There are some differences in the position of the stress: add'ress – 'address, la'boratory – 'laboratory, re'cess – 'recess, re'search – 'research, in'quiry – 'inquiry, ex'cess – 'excess. Some words in BE and AE have different pronunciation, e.g. clerk [kla:k] – [klə:rk], neither ['naiðə] – ['ni:ðə], schedule ['shedju:l] – ['skedju:l].

Punctuation

Periods (.): A period is used after initials of abbreviations. Americans tend to write U.S., U.N., Mr., Mrs., Dr. etc., while most British will write US, UN, Mr, Mrs, Dr (or even D’r), etc., following the rule that a period is used only when the last letter of the abbreviation is not the last letter of the complete word. However, many British writers would tend to write without a full stop other abbreviations, such as Prof, etc, eg, and so on.

Quotations: Americans will usually put commas and periods inside quotation marks, whereas Britons put the punctuation inside if it belongs to the quote and outside otherwise.

Letter-writing: When starting a formal letter, Americans usually write a colon after the greeting (“Dear Sir:”), while Britons usually write a comma (“Dear Sir,”).

Dates: 11^th of September 2001 is put down as 11/09/01 in British English and 09/11/01 in American English.

# (often called a hash) is used for ‘number’ in American English, but not in British English (№).

Spelling

The American spelling is in some respects simpler than its British counterpart, in other respects just different. Some other spelling differences between the variants are shown in Table 7 below.

Table 7.

Буквосочетания	British English	American English
-our/-or	colour, honour	color, honor
-ou-/-o-	favourite	favorite
-re/-er	centre, theatre	center, theater
-gue/-g	catalogue, dialogue	catalog, dialog
-ise/-ize, -yse/-yze	realise, harmonise, analyse	realize, harmonize, analyze
-xion/-ction	connexion, reflexion	connection, reflection
-ll-/-l-	counsellor, modelling	counselor, modeling
-ae-/-e-	encyclopaedia, anaemia	encyclopedia, anemia

Grammar

Grammatical differences between the variants are shown in Table 8.

Table 8.

British English	American English
I’ve lost my key. Can you help me look for it?	I lost my key. Can you help me look for it?
I’ve just had lunch.	I just had lunch.
I’ve already seen that film.	I already saw that film.
Have you finished your homework yet?	Did you finish your homework yet?
Have you got a car?	Do you have a car?
He hasn’t got any friends.	He doesn’t have a car.
Have you any food? Yes, I have.	Have you any food? Yes, I do.
He’s got much better at playing tennis.	He’s gotten much better at playing tennis.
After they had paid for their dinner …	After they paid for their dinner …
After she has had lunch, she will go.	After she has lunch, she will go.
The team/company are concerned …	The team /company is concerned …
One cannot succeed unless one tries hard.	One cannot succeed unless he tries hard.
They suggested he should apply for the job.	They suggested he apply for the job.

Prepositions

There are some differences between British and American English in the usage of prepositions, such as prepositions with dates, days of the week British English requires on: I start my holiday on Friday; in American English there is no preposition: I start my vacation Friday. In British English they use by day, by night/ at night, in American English the corresponding forms are days and nights. In British English they say at home, a quarter to five, in the street, to chat to somebody, different to something, in American English – home, a quarter of five, on the street, to chat with somebody, different from something are used correspondingly.