American And British English example essay topic

American English and British English are two main language subgroups of contemporary English. These subgroups have diverged some three hundred years ago. Today, there are present differences in pronunciation of vowels, some grammar differences like the u sage of the verb to have in the question. However, the main difference is in the vocabulary. The main reasons that caused these differences are the fact that British English has changed since that time, while the American has not. Then, there is a tendency in British English to turn the verbs into the weak one and finally, in both subgroups originated many new words naming new objects and these words naturally differ.

The American dialects have developed according to the geographical regions and social groups. Major dialect regions are the Northern, the Midland and the Southern. The Midland region could be divided into North Midland and South Midland. Differences are again in pronunciation, grammar and in vocabulary. Within these dialects there could be found features typical not only for American English. Simply, we cannot say that all American dialects have some common features different from those of British English.

For example, the pronunciation of the letter r. Some germs of American dialects were probably brought by the Englishmen having settled in the North America. However, today it is not possible to find any direct correspondence among British and American dialects. American and British English also differ in the pronunciation. This often helps us to distinguish between an American or British speaker.

Nevertheless, one cannot exactly determine, how should be pronounced some word by the American or Englishman. We can find some groups of vowels like "a" or "o" that may determine speakers into several groups. These groups are not strictly corresponding to Americans or Englishmen. A little bit easier situation appears when trying to distinguish between American and British speaker according to intonation.

The Englishmen give a longer word one heavy stress and several weak one, while the Americans often would give it a secondary stress. This appears, for example, in words ending in -ary, like military and temporary. In general, English tends to have equal spacing of stresses no matter what subgroup of English are we talking about. On the other hand some British dialects tend to have more reduced vowels than for example American English.

The differences between American and British English grammar usage are not great in grammar and syntax. Among the main ones belong the verbs have got in Britain and do have in America, where the Englishmen do not use the form have gotten meaning in American English have acquired. Differences also appear in using pronouns he, his, she, her instead of British one, one's. Then we can continue with difference in using plural in connection with public institutions in American English and the preposition on used in connections with the street instead of the British in. Finally, the most obvious divergences could be found in the vocabulary. Each country has developed in different nature and social conditions.

Americans got mainly into the contact with Indians, Spanish, French and Dutch settlers and German immigrants. These groups of non- English speaking people enabled Americans to borrow many words from their languages and this formed the specifically American vocabulary. The frontier spirit and the novelty of the American society encouraged Americans to experiment a bit with their tongue language. Americans probably tried to express their independence through the language usage. Nowadays, the difference between these languages is just a memory of very strong national feelings belonging to the past.