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AMERICAN AND BRITISH ENGLISH The Development of American English Three periods: 1607-1790 (ratification of Constitution): Colonial period: New England (East Midlands and North) and Virginia (West Country): English of southern counties (c17th). Pennsylvania: Immigrants from Ulster and Germans, from 1683. This period accounts for archaisms: gotten (in the sense of acquire, cause, become. I’ve gotten old); although got is used as pp in other sense. Variations in past participles noted in Quirk and Greenbaum (3.14-16) I guess so (= I suppose so). But such archaisms are covered over by massive linguistic innovation. (It is not true that Elizabethan English survives in the Appalachians) Borrowings from Indian language and other European languages: canoe, hickory, moccasin, opossum, pecan, raccoon, skunk, tapioca, toboggan. From Dutch: boss, cookie (biscuit), coleslaw From French: chowder, bureau. Corn = maize (originally ‘Indian corn’), at the same time as maize entered British English

from Spanish. 1790-1860 (Civil War): Expansion southwards and westwards from 13 Atlantic colonies, across the Appalachian Mountains. Immigration from Ireland after Great Famine of 1845, from Germany after 1848. Movement of Loyalists to Canada: Canadian English is - a mixture of spelling conventions (Tire Centre) - rhotic - flaps (Ottawa) - no yod-dropping - /a / and /a / before voiceless consonants: ‘out’ sounds like ‘oat’, ‘isle’ like ‘oil’. In these diphthongs the first vowel is higher: Canadian raising. - eh? (Crystal). SEE VIDEO ON CANADIAN Three large speech areas: 1 Northern (New England and New York state) Midland (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, south to Georgia) Southern: southern Delaware, Virginia, west to the Carolinas). 18 varieties within these areas. 1860 to present: Immigration from Southern Europe (Italians) and Slavonic countries (Poland, Russia). Effects only on eastern seaboard (Marx: like fluvial remains): vocabulary and accents in and around New

York. Retention of postvocalisc /r/ in Midland, but not in Eastern New England or all Southern varieties (from c.17th English) Vowel /æ/ as in fast, laugh, grass, although a broad /a/ is found in Eastern New England and Virginia, as in British English. Unrounded o, as in /a/, in rob, stop, hop (from c.17th English) Use of /i:/ in either and neither (from c.17th English) Tendency to pronounce words like duke, new, Tuesday with /u:/ instead of /ju:/. FOR SPELLING, PRONUNCIATION AND LEXICAL DIFFERENCES, SEE CRYSTAL 307, 309. ON SYNTACTIC DIFFERENCES, P. 311. (SEE ALSO PUNCTUATION DIFFERENCES ON THE SAME PAGE.) tomato, not potato. Words ending in -ory, -ary and -ery preserve the secondary accent. ordinary, dictionary, secretary, temporary. Different pronunciation of: aluminium, ancillary, ate, clerk, comrade, corollary, laboratory, lieutenant, medicine, missile, patriot, privacy, schedule, vitamin. Reduction of differences between British and American varieties in c.20th, thanks

to films, radio, television and international youth culture, usually in favour of the American variant. Radio: valves in BrE, tubes in AmE. But televisions have transistors in both 2 US UK apartment flat baby carriage pram broiled grilled candy sweets cookie biscuit absorbent cotton cotton wool daylight-saving time summer time druggist chemist elevator lift installment plan hire-purchase oatmeal porridge second floor first floor sidewalk pavement spigot, faucet tap suspenders braces undershirt vest, singlet water heater geyser checkers draughts fall autumn deck of cards pack of cards gasoline, gas petrol hood of car bonnet intermission (theatre) interval legal holiday bank holiday railroad railway vacation holiday windshield windscreen Dangerous differences: I’m pissed. I’m done. Chips / crisps. Spelling differences (since Webster’s American Dictionary, 1828): center, fiber, theater honor, color, humor defense, offense

3 jeweler, marvelous, traveling curb (Br. Kerb) pajamas tire Syntax: Apart from different pps: One cannot succeed at this unless ONE tries hard.- (BrE) One cannot succeed at this unless HE tries hard.- (BrE) Practice session: Algeo 1.2, 13 (photocopy for whole class) 4 1 1607-1790 (ratification of Constitution): Colonial period: New England and Virginia: English of southern counties (c17-18th). gotten / got I guess so (=I suppose so). canoe, hickory, moccasin, opossum, pecan, raccoon, skunk, tapioca, toboggan. From Dutch: boss, cookie (biscuit), coleslaw From French: chowder (Fr. chaudière), bureau Corn = maize (originally ‘Indian corn’) 1790-1860 (Civil War): Expansion southwards and westwards from 13 Atlantic colonies, across the Appalachian Mountains. Immigration from Ireland after Great Famine of 1845, from Germany after 1848. Three large speech areas: Northern (New England and New York state) Midland (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, south to Georgia) Southern (southern

Delaware, Virginia, west to the Carolinas). Retention of postvocalic /r/ in Midland, but not in Eastern New England or all Southern varieties. Vowel /æ/ as in fast, laugh, grass Unrounded o, as in /a/, in rob, stop, hop. Use of /i:/ in either and neither (from c.17th English) duke, new, Tuesday with /u:/ instead of /ju:/ tomato, not potato. ordinary, dictionary, secretary, temporary aluminum, ancillary, ate, clerk, comrade, corollary, laboratory, lieutenant, medicine, missile, patriot, privacy, schedule, vitamin. 1 2 US UK apartment flat baby carriage pram broiled grilled candy sweets cookie biscuit absorbent cotton cotton wool daylight-saving time summer time druggist chemist elevator lift installment plan hire-purchase oatmeal porridge second floor first floor sidewalk pavement spigot, faucet tap suspenders braces undershirt vest, singlet water heater geyser checkers draughts fall autumn deck of cards pack of cards gasoline, gas

petrol hood of car bonnet intermission (theatre) interval legal holiday bank holiday railroad railway vacation holiday windshield windscreen center, fiber, theater honor, color, humor defense, offense jeweler, marvelous, traveling pajamas tire One cannot succeed at this unless ONE tries hard.- (BrE) One cannot succeed at this unless HE tries hard.- (AmE) 2 3 The book which/that you gave me. (BrE) The book that you gave me. (AmE) Everybody / everyone It is good that you have come. I’m pleased you have come. 3