Transcript American English and British English – the Two Major

American English and British
English
The Two Major Endonormative
Varieties of Present-day English
Rodica Albu
“Al. I. Cuza” University of Iasi
[email protected]
The Spread of English
A four-phase model for the overseas development of
English:
(1) Transportation to overseas coasts by explorers,
traders, settlers. The English language establishes its
dominant position.
(2) Spread inland through conquest, prepared by
geographical surveys, supported by railroad building;
treks and goldrush; romantic legends (the American
Dream, the Australian Legend) of frontiersmen (Davy
Crockett, Paul Bunyan), slaughter of the aboriginal
population (except in South Africa).
(3) National Consciousness. Political independence
from the Mother Country, democratic ideology;
attempts to set up a 'national language' different from
(British) 'English' (Noah Webster, Sidney J Baker);
cult of regional slang (witness the reception of
Salinger's novel Catcher in the Rye).
(4) International Prestige The overseas varieties of
English influence usage in Europe instead of
inversely, e.g., Australian English black tea 'tea
without milk', American English square 'old
fashioned'. Technically, we say that the FOCAL
AREA (i.e. the area whence innovations spread) shifts
overseas from London.
Divergence…
“The isolation of America from England will
produce, in a 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.”
(Noah Webster, c. 1800)
"England, America, and Australia will be speaking
mutually unintelligible languages, owing to their
independent changes of pronunciation."
(Henry Sweet, 1877)
… or convergence?
Webster revised his outlook and wrote in 1828
that “in all essentials, our two nations speak the
same language and it is highly desirable to
perpetuate that sameness”.
English may "be called justly the language of the
world". (Jakob Grimm, lecture published in
1852 )
Factors of relative homogeneity
(1) the diffusion of English throughout the world is a
recent phenomenon, and widely disparate dialects
simply have not had time to develop;
(2) nearly universal literacy in most English-speaking
countries has retarded change, especially in written
English;
(3) modern developments in communications - telephone,
radio, motion picture, tape recordings, satellite
television - have united English speakers, retarding
dialectal differences, familiarizing all speakers with the
sound of other Englishes, and superimposing a kind of
world standard over regional varieties. LISTEN! =>
Capital cities of English-speaking countries
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6.
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What kind of English is your
English?
Domestic violence is a pattern of abusive
behaviour that profoundly affects our
relationships, family units and social
network. Abuse centers around the need
for control and occurs when an individual is
attacked by another person emotionally,
psychologically, physically or sexually to
gain or exert power and control.
(Telecare Distress Centre Brampton)
Spelling
Choose the spelling you prefer in each pair:
1. pajamas  pyjamas 
2. analyze 
analyse 
3. program  programme 
4. favor 
favour 
5. tire 
tyre 
6. center 
centre 
7. aluminum  aluminium 
8. jewelry  jewellery 
Pronunciation
Look at the word in CAPITALS before reading each
question and say it to yourself. Then you’ll usually
find the question easy to answer.
1. Does ATE rhyme with eight  or with pet ?
2. Does SHONE, as in “The sun shone brightly”, rhyme
with John  or with Joan ?
3. Is the EI of EITHER pronounced like the EI in pie  or
the EE in bee ?
4. Does the SCH in SCHEDULE sound like SCH in school
 or like SH in shed ?
5. Does LEISURE rhyme with measure  or with seizure ?
6. Does the U in STUDENT sound like OO in too  or the
U in use ?
Vocabulary
1. What do you call the knob you turn to get water in
a sink? .....................
2. Telling the time. It is 11:40. Please write in words
what you would say.
....................................................
3. Please write in words what you would say when
you read the number 107 (as in “107 envelopes”)
..................................
4. Which do you say? Where is the
(1) toilet?
(2) rest room?
(3) washroom?
5. Compare the following two dialogues. Which of the
two is closer to your way of speaking English?
Dialogue A
Dialogue B
• Dan: Hi, George. How are you? • Hello, George. How are you?
• George: Fine. How about you?
• Fine. What about you?
• Dan: OK. Going downtown?
• All right. Going to town?
• George: Yeah. How about
coming along?
• Yes. Like to come with me?
• Dan: Fine. Let's go.
• Fine. Let's go.
Language sections:
• Pronunciation
• Spelling
• Vocabulary
• Grammar (and usage)
Questions:
(1) Do these change in time?
(2) Which of the four above change(s) more slowly
and which change(s) faster?
Focus on Vocabulary
Text 1:
The psittiacosis group of organisms, including the
agents of trachoma and lymphogranuloma venereum
are obligate intercellular parasites. The infectious
particles or elementary bodies measure about 0.3µ
diameter. They are commonly described as viruses
though such classification is not easily reconciled
with available evidence on their chemical composition
and biological properties.
(Supplementary): The piston-type fountain pen
In the piston-type fountain pen a screw spindle is connected
to the filling cap and engages with a screw thread with
which the hollow piston rod is internally provided. Attached
to the front end of this rod is the piston which forms an airtight and liquid-tight seal to the rear of the ink reservoir.
When the filling cap is rotated, the screw spindle, rotating
inside the piston rod, causes the latter to move
longitudinally. […]
When the pen is in use, the ink flows from the reservoir
through capilary grooves in the feed; it thus reaches the
underside of the nib and eventually finds its way along the
slit to the tip of the nib. […]
Text 3:
Mother Tongue
by Richard Armour (1906-1989)
Oh, to be in England
If only ‘arf a mo’,
Where, when they speak
of wireless,
They mean the radio,
Where private schools are
public
And public schools are
snobby
And insurance is
assurance
And a cop is called a
bobby,
Sir Robert Peel
Where a cracker is a
biscuit
And a trifle is dessert
And bloody is a curse
word
And ad is an advert,
Where gasoline is petrol
And a stone is fourteen
pound
And motocars have
bonnets
And you take the
underground,
Where holding up your
trousers
It’s braces that you use
And a truck is called a
lorry
And boots are really
shoes,
Where a druggist is a
chemist
And the movies are the
flicks
And you queue up on the
pavement
For a stall at three and
six…
/zed/???
/zi:/???
There is no language barrier
The tourist needs to dread
As long as he knows English
From A to Z (no, zed).
Grammar and usage
Which do you say?
1. (1) I burned my finger.  (2) I burnt my finger. 
2. (1) The submarine dove to the floor of the sea. 
(2) The submarine dived to the floor of the sea. 
3. (1) He is in the hospital for surgery.  (2) He is in
hospital for surgery. 
4. (1) two heads of lettuce 
(2) two lettuces 
5. (1) like I said… 
(2) as I said …
6. (1) Did you ever see an elephant?
(2) Have you ever seen an elephant?
7. (1) Shall I ask him? 
(2) Should I ask him? 
8. (1) I live in Molde but my family lives in Bergen. 
(2) I live in Molde but my family live in Bergen. 
9. (1) the River Thames (2) the Thames River
10. (1) the Mississippi River (2) the River Mississippi 
11. (1) the River Olt  (2) the Olt River
Exercise
• Scotland Yard police are looking for a
famous American bank robber called
Dirty Dan. Dirty Dan robbed a bank in
London last Friday night. They are
interviewing three different people. All
three have British accents, but the
police know that Dirty Dan can imitate a
British accent. Read parts of each of the
transcript. Can you identify Dirty Dan
from the language he uses?
• Suspect 1: I already said this. I didn’t
do anything special on the weekend.
Friday night I took a shower in my
apartment and then went out to see a
movie. It was a movie I had already
seen, Matrix Revolutions. I really like
action movies. I went with my girlfriend
Samantha.
• Suspect 2: I wasn’t in town at the
weekend, and I certainly wasn’t
anywhere near the bank on Friday
night. I was at a hotel in Paris with a
special friend of mine. Shall I give you
the hotel phone number? You needn’t
bother asking me any more questions.
You’ve got the wrong man.
• Suspect 3: I’ve already said this. On
Friday night I went to see a film at the
cinema. It was Matrix Revolutions. I
don’t really like action films, but my
friends really wanted to see it. It was
rather boring. After that I went home
and had a nice hot bath. I went to bed
around midnight.
Non-standard varieties illustrated
in literature:
1. "I knowed you wasn't Oklahoma folks."
(John Steinbeck, The Graphes of Wroth, 1940)
2. "Womenfolks, mostly. All the grown women around my way
look just the same. They all big – stout. They got big bosoms
and big hips and fat legs, and they always wearing runover
house shoes and them shapeless, flowered numbers with the
buttons down the front. 'Cept on Sunday. Sunday morning they
all turn into glamour girls, in them big hats and long gloves,
with they skinny high heels and they skinny selves in them tight
girdles-wouldn't nobody ever know what they look like the rest
of the time."
(Becky Birtha, Johnnieruth, in Breaking Ice. An Anthology of
Contemporary African-American Fiction, Penguin Books,
1990)
3. He beat me like he beat the children. Cept he
don't never hardly beat them. He say, Celie, git
the belt. The children be outside the room peeking
through the cracks. It all I can do not to cry. I
make myself wood. I say to myself, Celie, you a
tree. That's how come I know trees fear man.
(Alice Walker, The Color Purple, New York,
1982)
Useful sites::
American Vs. British English
British vs. American English vocabulary tool
English Around The World
United Kingdom English for the American Novice
• Lesley Milroy (University of Michigan) (2001).
“Britain and the United States: Two Nations Divided
by the Same Language (and Different Language
Ideologies)”. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology
10(1):56-89. <www.anthrosource.net>
• “American vs. British English. Basic Differences and
Influences of Change” (Introductory Outline for First
Course Segment). FAST-US-1 Introduction to
American English (Hopkins), Department of
Translation Studies, University of Tampere
<http://www.uta.fi/FAST/US1/REF/usgbintr.html>
Thank you!
See you in Iasi!