THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN ENGLISH

Standard AMERICAN

American English variety of the English language spoken in the United

States. Although all Americans do not speak the same way, their speech has

enough in common that American English can be recognized as a variety of

English distinct from British English, Australian English and other

national varieties. American English has grown up with the country. It

began to diverge from British English during its colonial beginnings and

acquired regional differences and ethnic flavor during the settlement of

the ccontinent .Today it influences other languages and other varieties of

English because it is the medium by which the attractions of American

culture – its literature, motion pictures and television programs – are

transmitted to the world.

THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN ENGLISH

HISTORY OF AMERICAN ENGLISH

American English shows many influences from the different cultures and

languages of the people who settled in North America. The nature of the

influence depends on the time and the circumstances of contact between

cultures.

A. COLONIAL PERIOD

The first ssettlements on the East Coast of North America in the 17th

century were composed mostly of British subjects. Accounting for about 90

percent of the people, the British vastly outnumbered French and German

settlers. English was therefore the only real candidate for a common

American language. The settlers spoke varieties of English from various

parts of England, but in the creation of American English, there varieties

were leveled –that is their differences largely disappeared. Michael

Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur, a French born writer who published under the

name J. Hector st. John de Crevecoeur and became famous for his book

Letters from an American farmer (1782), describes the desire of settlers to

“become an American”, their common ideal to own and work their own farms,

without prejudice toward neighbors whatever their neighbor’s religion or

national origin. This shared goal encouraged development of a shared

variety of the languages, which came to be enriched by contributions from

many cultures.

As the European settlers came into contact with Native Americans,

American English collected a large stock of Native American place names

(Allegheny, Chicago, Mississippi, Potomac) and Native American names for

things not founds in Europe or Asia (moose, opossum, squash, moccasin,

tomahawk, totem). Sometimes, Native American words were spelled by settlers

so that they looked more like English words; woodchuck, for example,

probably comes from the Cree word wuchak. Cultural exchange with Native

Americans was more limited than might be expected, because diseases brought

by Spanish explorers and European settlers greatly reduced the Native

American population in eastern North America during early settlement.

In the 118th century people from Ireland and Northern Europe joined the

British settlers. By the time of the American Revolution (1775-1783), there

were comparable numbers of British settlers from other European countries.

Some Europeans formed separate communities, such as the Pennsylvania

Germans, but most mixed with British settlers and contributed to American

English words from their own languages. Examples include pumpkin, bayou,

and bureau from French; cookie, waffle and boss from Dutch; and pretzel,

pinochle, and phooey from German. Scottish and Irish settlers were already

English speakers but they influenced American English with features from

their own varieties for example, pronunciation of r after vowels (while

many British English speakers were losing the r after vowels) and double

verb forms like might could.

Africans were imported as slaves throughout the early settlement of

North America. By the American Revolution one- quarter of the American

population consisted of African Americans, and as much as 95 percent of the

population living in plantation areas was African American. Slaves were not

allowed to share in Crevecoeur’s American ideal, but they learned American

English from their owners, overseers, and other slaves. Some slaves may

have developed Creole languages on plantations. A Creole is made of words

from different languages- in this case, English and the African languages

spoken by the slaves. It also has iits own grammar. Over time, especially

after slavery was abolished, the language of African Americans came to have

fewer Creole characteristics. One authentic American plantation Creole

remains: Gullah, spoken by African Americans in communities on the Sea

Islands off South Carolina and Georgia. African words in American English

include gumbo, okra, and voodoo.

B. TERRITORIAL EXPANSION AND URBANIZATION

During the 19th and 20th centuries settlers pushed westward as the

United States acquired control of land from the French, the Spanish, and

the Native Americans. Crevecoeur’s American ideal of separate farms lasted

well into the 20th century, and a shared sense of purpose maintained social

pressure for immigrants to participate in American language and culture.

This period also saw the rise of great cities, first in the East and later

in other regions. Development of industries brought opportunities for

immigrants to work in cities instead of on farms, and the resulting

concentration of people in urban areas allowed for maintenance of immigrant

languages in some quarters while most people still found it best to learn

and use American English for everyday discourse.

At the same time that settlers from other countries were adapting to

English, they were influencing it as well. Settlement of the West and

Southwest by Northern Europeans meant contact with the Spanish- speaking

settlers who were aalready there. As a result, American English adopted many

words commonly associated with Spanish, such as enchilada, pueblo,

sombrero, tortilla, and also many words not usually thought of as Spanish,

such as alfalfa, cockroach, marina, plaza, and ranch. Scandinavians

established homesteads in the upper Midwest and gave American English the

words smorgasbord and sauna. Other European immigrants are particularly

associated with New York City, for example, and provided such words as

kosher, and kibbitz. Polish immigrants, strongly associated with Chicago,

provided kielbasa and pierogi; Chinese immigrants, associated with San

Francisco or Los Angeles, chow mein and mahjong; Italian immigrants,

associated with many cities, contributed the words spaghetti, pizza. Many

other cultural groups have also had an impact on American English, often

more local than national, as, for example, Cubans in Miami, Florida.

STANDART AMERICAN

All speakers of English share a common linguistic system and a basic

set of words. But American English differs from British English, Australian

English, and other national varieties in many of its pronunciations, words

spellings, and grammatical constructions. Words or phrases of American

origin, and those used in America but not so much elsewhere, are called

Americanisms.

A. PRONUNCIATION

In broad terms Canadian and American speakers tend to sound like one

another. They also tend to sound different from a large group of English

speakers

who sound more British, such as those in Australia, New Zealand,

and South Africa. For example, most Canadians and Americans pronounce an r

sound after the vowel in words like barn, car, and father, while speakers

from the British English group do not. Also, some British English speakers

drop h sound at the beginning of words, so that he and his are pronounced

as if they were spelled ee and is. The English spoken in Australia, New

Zealand, and South Africa sounds more like British English than American

English does because these varieties have had less time to diverge from

British English. The process of separate development began later in these

countries than in North America.

Although Canadians and Americans share many speech habits, Canadian

speakers of English sometimes tend more toward British English because of

the closer historical association of Britain with Canada. One prominent

difference between American English and Canadian English is the vowel sound

in words like out and house. Americans often say that the Canadian

pronunciation sounds as if the wwords were spelled oot and hoose.

In some cases there are differences between American English and

British English in the rhythm of words. British speakers seem to leave out

a syllable in words like secretary, while Americans keep all the syllables.

The opposite iis true of other words, such as specialty, which Americans

pronounce with three syllables (spe- cial-ty) while British speakers

pronounce it with five syllables (spe- cial- i- ty). Vowels and

consonants may also have different pronunciations. British speakers

pronounce zebra to rhyme with Debra, while American speakers make zebra

rhyme with Libra. Canadian and British speakers pronounce the word schedule

as if it began with a sh sound, while Americans pronounce it as if it began

with an sk sound.

B. WORDS

The most frequently used words are shared by speakers of different

varieties of English. These words include the most common nouns, the most

common verbs, and most function words (such as pronouns, articles, and

prepositions). The different varieties of English do however use different

words for many words that aare slightly less common- for example British

crisps for American potato chips, Australian billabong for American pond,

and Canadian chesterfield for American sofa. It is ever more common for the

same word to exist with different meanings in different varieties of

English. Corn is a general term in Britain, for which Americans use grain,

while corn in American, English usually refers to an artificial body of

water, whereas ponds also occur naturally in North America. British English

chemist is the same as American English drugstore, and in CCanada people go

to the druggist. Many of the words most easily recognized as American in

origin are associated with aspects of American popular culture, such as

gangster or cowboy.

C. SPELLING

American English spelling differs from British English spelling

largely because of one man, American lexicographer Noah Webster. In

addition to his well-known An American Dictionary of the English Language

(1828), Webster published The American spelling Book (1783, with many

subsequent editions), which became one of the most widely used schoolbooks

in American history. Webster’s books sought to standardize spelling in the

U.S. by promoting the use of an American language that intentionally

differed from British English. The development of a specifically American

variety of English mirrored the new country’s separate political

development. Webster’s most successful changes were spellings with or

instead of our (honor, labor for the British honour, labour); with er

instead of re (center, theater for the British center, theatre); with an s

instead of a final ck instead of que (check, mask for the British cheque,

masque); and without a final k (traffic, public, now also used in British

English, for the older traffick, publick). Later spelling reform created a

few other differences, such as program for British programme. Canadian

spelling varies between the British and American forms, more British in

Eastern Canada and more AAmerican in Western.

D. GRAMMAR

The grammar of educated speakers of English differs little among

national varieties. In the speech of people with less access to education,

grammatical variations in regional and social varieties of American English

are very common as normal, systematic occurrences (not as errors). One

major difference between British and American English is that the two

attach different verb forms to nouns that are grammatically singular but

plural in sense. In American English, the team is. or the government

is.(because they are viewed as single entities), but in British English the

team are. or the government are.(because teams and government are

understood to consist of more than one person). Sometimes function words

are used differently: The British stay in hospital but Americans stay in

the hospital.

THE OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE

The outlook for the future of the indigenous American languages is not

good; most will probably die out. At present, the aboriginal languages of

the Western Hemisphere are gradually being replaced by the Indo- European

tongues of the European conquerors and settlers of the New World- English,

Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch. The investigation of Native American

languages contributes much to a scientific knowledge of language in

general, since these tongues possess a number of linguistic features not

otherwise, known. Some Native American groups in the United States are

working to revitalize the languages of their peoples as a result of

increased ethnic consciousness and feelings of cultural identify. By the

end of the 20th century there was an increasing number of such language-

learning facilities as tribal classes, language camps, and local college

courses in indigenous languages.