american and british english differences

Contents

Introduction 3

1 Historical review of British and American English 5
1.1 History of English language 5
1.2 History of American English 9
1.3 American and British have changed and go on changing 11

2 Differences between modern British and modern American English 14
2.1 Lexical difference between American and British English 14
2.2 Grammatical difference between American and British English 18
2.3 Spelling differences between American and British English 24

Conclusion 27

Bibliography 29

Introduction

All the sounds in all languages are always in process of change. During those times when people from different regions communicated with each other not often, it was natural that the speech of all communities did not develop in one direction or at the same rate. Moreover, different parts of the country were subjected to different extreme influences, which were the reasons for different phonetic structures of the language. Especially, for the last five centuries, in Great Britain has existed the notion that one kind of pronunciation of English is preferable socially to others. One regional accent began to acquire social prestige. For reasons of politics, commerce and the presence of the Court, it was the pronunciation of the south-east of England and more particularly to that of the London Region, that this prestige was attached. This pronunciation is called Received Pronunciation which is regarded as a model for correct pronunciation, particularly for educated formal speech.
In the early part of the seventeenth century English settlers began to bring their language to America, and another series of changes began to take place. The settlers borrowed words from Indian languages for such strange trees as the hickory and persimmon, such unfamiliar animals as raccoons and woodchucks. Later they borrowed other words from settlers from other countries – for instance, chowder and prairie from the French, scow and sleigh from the Dutch. They made new

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