British English versus American English
The English tongue has never been a one-lobed leaf; it has always been divided into numerous lobes – dialects – ever since ancient times – even before its arrival in Albion. Between the 1300s and 1500s, the common word ‘church’ per se could be spelt over 100 (!) ways. Leastwise since the instable Medieval Era, the English spelling has come a long way to becoming standardised. But is it truly and one-hundred-percentedly standardised? Even up to this date, there are countless words that the dictionaries label in various ways either apropos of spelling or pronunciation, not to mention all those words that are exclusively used in particular regions of our planet.
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Whereas some are of the assessment that it is definitely a feature that makes English beautiful, some would rather call it a nightmare. Whichever of the two claims be true, if we recall the history of England and how her folks wondered all over the globe by her well-knownformidable naval force, it post-haste begins to dawn upon us as to why English has always been considered the language of a thousand dialects. Let us picture the first colonies of modern day USA cut off from the motherland by thousands of miles on the sea. Of course it eventually started to develop their own linguistic alterations, and thus dialects took roots. One of such global dialects is now called the American English, but to name the others as well, there are Canadian English, Australian English, and South African English, Scottish English, Welsh English, and Irish English, each of which carrying dozens, if not hundreds, of further local dialects, e.g. Cockney, Glaswegian, Texan, etc. At the end of the day,we can in total count hundreds of differing local dialects throughout the whole world!
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At the dawn of the 21st century, American English and British English are the commonest ‘Englishes’, constantly circulating the work-a-day life of our world. But what exactly is the difference between these two mighty Englishes?Book a lesson with me, and I shall shed light on this mystery.
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Pronunciation:
When our ears alight upon an Englishman and then an American, the very first thing that looms up is the differing pronunciation. Everyday words such as water, vase, tomato, advertisement, moustache all sound considerably different from the mouth of a Brit and a Yank.
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Word-hoard:
The second element that becomes apparent in the difference of the two is their word-hoard. To exemplify just a few, what theEnglishmen call tap, underground, first floor, lift, bloke/cove/lad/chap/fellow the Americans call faucet, subway, second floor, elevator, guy.
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Spelling:
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Another significant divergence is the official spelling. Whilst British newspapers print out such words as draught, colour, aeroplane, realise, centre, in American newspapers these words can be read as draft, color, airplane, realize, center.
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Grammar:
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After some meticulous observation, another – the third – major difference also sheds its foggy exterior, namely grammar. Whilst in Britain ‘Have you got some tea?’ is the prevalent question, it is ‘Do you have some tea?’ in the States. Or ‘I will die soon’, which in American grammar implies mere futurity, in British grammar it suggests personal insistence, ‘I shall die soon’ expressing the notion of mere futurity. Present perfect simple ('I have just done it') is often thought superfluous by Americans and simplifying it to past simple ('I just did it').
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Mentality:
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If we were to spend a long time in the company of an Englishman and an American lad/lass one by one, we should also notice a substantial difference in their mentality. Whereas Americans prefer the direct informality, the Englishmen choose to remain rather polite, maintaining a few steps of personal distance. Therefore, a normal greeting in the States would be a simple ‘Hey, man’ even amongst utter strangers; in the UK that would be deemed quite rude – instead, they would naturally say ‘Good morning, sir’. Or during classes, an American student is likely to ask ‘Can I go to the toilet?’ whereas an English one prefers the politer ‘May (or even ‘might’) I go to the toilet’?
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Although a thorough analysis between the two regional dialects would be exceedingly detailed, in a nut-shell, these are the brief recorded differences. Normally, I point out the differences in my lessons whenever such a topic comes up, however I am also open to elucidating the differences in a separate module. If the latter should be the case, please remember to make mention of it in your request(s).
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