The history of the word american

The meaning of the word American in the English language varies according to the historical, geographical, and political context in which it is used. American is derived from America, a term originally denoting all of the Americas (also called the Western Hemisphere). In some expressions, it retains this Pan-American sense, but its usage has evolved over time and, for various historical reasons, the word came to denote people or things specifically from the United States.

In modern English, American generally refers to persons or things related to the United States of America; among native English speakers this usage is almost universal, with any other use of the term requiring specification.^[1] However, some linguists in the past have argued that «American» should be widened to also include people or things from anywhere in the American continents.^[2][3]

The word can be used as either an adjective or a noun (viz. a demonym). In adjectival use, it means «of or relating to the United States»; for example, «Elvis Presley was an American singer» or «the man prefers American English». In its noun form, the word generally means a resident or citizen of the U.S., but is also used for someone whose ethnic identity is simply «American». The noun is rarely used in English to refer to people not connected to the United States when intending a geographical meaning.^[1] When used with a grammatical qualifier, the adjective American can mean «of or relating to the Americas», as in Latin American or Indigenous American. Less frequently, the adjective can take this meaning without a qualifier, as in «American Spanish dialects and pronunciation differ by country» or the names of the Organization of American States and the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN). A third use of the term pertains specifically to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, for instance, «In the 16th century, many Americans died from imported diseases during the European conquest», though this usage is rare, as «indigenous», «First Nations» or «Amerindian» are considered less confusing and generally more appropriate.

Compound constructions which indicate a minority ethnic group, such as «African-Americans» likewise refer exclusively to people in or from the United States of America, as does the prefix «Americo-«. For instance, the Americo-Liberians and their language Merico derive their name from the fact that they are descended from African-American settlers, i.e. Blacks who were formerly enslaved in the United States of America.

Other languages[edit]

French, German, Italian, Japanese,^[a] Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian^[b] speakers may use cognates of American to refer to inhabitants of the Americas or to U.S. nationals. They generally have other terms specific to U.S. nationals, such as the German US-Amerikaner,^[6] French étatsunien,^[7] Japanese beikokujin (米国人),^[8] and Italian statunitense.^[9] These specific terms may be less common than the term American.^[7]

In French, états-unien, étas-unien or étasunien, from États-Unis d’Amérique («United States of America»), is a rarely used word that distinguishes U.S. things and persons from the adjective américain, which denotes persons and things from the United States, but may also refer to «the Americas».^[7]

Likewise, German’s use of U.S.-amerikanisch and U.S.-Amerikaner^[6] observe this cultural distinction, solely denoting U.S. things and people. Note that in normal parlance, the adjective «American» and its direct cognates are usually used if the context renders the nationality of the person clear.

This differentiation is prevalent in German-speaking countries, as indicated by the style manual of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (one of the leading German-language newspapers in Switzerland) which dismisses the term U.S.-amerikanisch as both ‘unnecessary’ and ‘artificial’ and recommends replacing it with amerikanisch.^[10] The respective guidelines of the foreign ministries of Austria, Germany and Switzerland all prescribe Amerikaner and amerikanisch in reference to the United States for official usage, making no mention of U.S.-Amerikaner or U.S.-amerikanisch.^[11]

Portuguese has americano, denoting both a person or thing from the Americas and a U.S. national.^[12] For referring specifically to a U.S. national and things, some words used are estadunidense (also spelled estado-unidense, «United States person»), from Estados Unidos da América, and ianque («Yankee»)—both usages exist in Brazil, but are uncommon in Portugal—but the term most often used, and the only one in Portugal, is norte-americano, even though it could, as with its Spanish equivalent, apply to Canadians and Mexicans as well.

In Spanish, americano denotes geographic and cultural origin in the New World, as well as (infrequently) a U.S. citizen;^[13][14][c] the more common term is estadounidense («United States person»), which derives from Estados Unidos de América («United States of America»). The Spanish term norteamericano («North American») is frequently used to refer things and persons from the United States, but this term can also denote people and things from Canada and Mexico.^[16] Among Spanish-speakers, North America generally doesn’t include Central America or the Caribbean.

In other languages, however, there is no possibility for confusion. For example, the Chinese word for «U.S. national» is měiguórén (simplified Chinese: 美国人; traditional Chinese: 美國人)^[17][d] is derived from a word for the United States, měiguó, where měi is an abbreviation for Yàměilìjiā («America») and guó is «country».^[18][19][20] The name for the American continents is měizhōu, from měi plus zhōu («continent»).^[21] Thus, a měizhōurén is an American in the continent sense, and a měiguórén is an American in the U.S. sense.^[e]

Conversely, in Czech, there is no possibility for disambiguation. Američan (m.) and američanka (f.) can refer to persons from the United States or from the continents of the Americas, and there is no specific word capable of distinguishing the two meanings. For this reason, the latter meaning is very rarely used, and word američan(ka) is used almost exclusively to refer to persons from the United States. The usage is exactly parallel to the English word.

Korean and Vietnamese also use unambiguous terms, with Korean having Migug (미국(인)) for the country versus Amerika (아메리카) for the continents,^[22] and Vietnamese having Hoa Kỳ for the country versus Châu Mỹ for the continents.^{[citation needed]} Japanese has such terms as well (beikoku(jin) [米国(人) versus beishū(jin) [米洲人]), but they are found more in newspaper headlines than in speech, where amerikajin predominates.^[a][23]

In Swahili, Marekani means specifically the United States, and Mmarekani is a U.S. national, whereas the international form Amerika refers to the continents, and Mwamerika would be an inhabitant thereof.^{[24][25][26][f]} Likewise, the Esperanto word Ameriko refers to the continents. For the country there is the term Usono. Thus, a citizen of the United States is an usonano, whereas an amerikano is an inhabitant of the Americas.^{[28][29][30][31]}

History[edit]

The name America was coined by Martin Waldseemüller from Americus Vespucius, the Latinized version of the name of Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512), the Italian explorer who mapped South America’s east coast and the Caribbean Sea in the early 16th century. Later, Vespucci’s published letters were the basis of Waldseemüller’s 1507 map, which is the first usage of America. The adjective American subsequently denoted the New World.^[33]

In the 16th century, European usage of American denoted the native inhabitants of the New World.^[34] The earliest recorded use of this term in English is in Thomas Hacket’s 1568 translation of André Thévet’s book France Antarctique; Thévet himself had referred to the natives as Ameriques.^[34] In the following century, the term was extended to European settlers and their descendants in the Americas. The earliest recorded use of «English-American» dates to 1648, in Thomas Gage’s The English-American his travail by sea and land: or, a new survey of the West India’s.^[34]

In English, American was used especially for people in British America. Samuel Johnson, the leading English lexicographer, wrote in 1775, before the United States declared independence: «That the Americans are able to bear taxation is indubitable.»^[34] The Declaration of Independence of July 1776 refers to «[the] unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America» adopted by the «Representatives of the United States of America» on July 4, 1776.^[35] The official name of the country was reaffirmed on November 15, 1777, when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the first of which says, «The Stile of this Confederacy shall be ‘The United States of America'». The Articles further state:

In Witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in Congress. Done at Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania the ninth day of July in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Eight, and in the Third Year of the independence of America.

Thomas Jefferson, newly elected president in May 1801 wrote, «I am sure the measures I mean to pursue are such as would in their nature be approved by every American who can emerge from preconceived prejudices; as for those who cannot, we must take care of them as of the sick in our hospitals. The medicine of time and fact may cure some of them.»^[36]

In The Federalist Papers (1787–88), Alexander Hamilton and James Madison used the adjective American with two different meanings: one political and one geographic; «the American republic» in Federalist No. 51 and in Federalist No. 70,^[37][38] and, in Federalist No. 24, Hamilton used American to denote the lands beyond the U.S.’s political borders.^[39]

Early official U.S. documents show inconsistent usage; the 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France used «the United States of North America» in the first sentence, then «the said United States» afterwards; «the United States of America» and «the United States of North America» derive from «the United Colonies of America» and «the United Colonies of North America». The Treaty of Peace and Amity of September 5, 1795, between the United States and the Barbary States contains the usages «the United States of North America», «citizens of the United States», and «American Citizens».^{[40][improper synthesis?]}

U.S. President George Washington, in his 1796 Farewell Address, declaimed that «The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation.»^[41] Political scientist Virginia L. Arbery notes that, in his Farewell Address:

«…Washington invites his fellow citizens to view themselves now as Americans who, out of their love for the truth of liberty, have replaced their maiden names (Virginians, South Carolinians, New Yorkers, etc.) with that of “American”. Get rid of, he urges, “any appellation derived from local discriminations.” By defining himself as an American rather than as a Virginian, Washington set the national standard for all citizens. «Over and over, Washington said that America must be something set apart. As he put it to Patrick Henry, ‘In a word, I want an American character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves and not for others.'»^[42]

As the historian Garry Wills has noted: «This was a theme dear to Washington. He wrote to Timothy Pickering that the nation ‘must never forget that we are Americans; the remembrance of which will convince us we ought not to be French or English’.»^[43] Washington’s countrymen subsequently embraced his exhortation with notable enthusiasm.

This semantic divergence among North American anglophones, however, remained largely unknown in the Spanish-American colonies. In 1801, the document titled Letter to American Spaniards—published in French (1799), in Spanish (1801), and in English (1808)—might have influenced Venezuela’s Act of Independence and its 1811 constitution.^[44]

The Latter-day Saints’ Articles of Faith refer to the American continents as where they are to build Zion.^[45]

Common short forms and abbreviations are the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., and America; colloquial versions include the U.S. of A. and the States. The term Columbia (from the Columbus surname) was a popular name for the U.S. and for the entire geographic Americas; its usage is present today in the District of Columbia’s name. Moreover, the womanly personification of Columbia appears in some official documents, including editions of the U.S. dollar.

Usage at the United Nations[edit]

Use of the term American for U.S. nationals is common at the United Nations, and financial markets in the United States are referred to as «American financial markets».^[46]

American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States, is a recognized territorial name at the United Nations.^[47]

Cultural views[edit]

Spain and Hispanic America[edit]

The use of American as a national demonym for U.S. nationals is challenged, primarily by Hispanic Americans.^[2] Spanish speakers in Spain and Latin America use the term estadounidense to refer to people and things from the United States (from Estados Unidos), while americano refers to the continents as a whole.^[13][48] The term gringo is also accepted in many parts of Latin America to refer to a person or something from the United States;^[49] however, this term may be ambiguous in certain parts. Up to and including the 1992 edition, the Diccionario de la lengua española, published by the Real Academia Española, did not include the United States definition in the entry for americano; this was added in the 2001 edition.^[13][g][50] The Real Academia Española advised against using americanos exclusively for U.S. nationals:^[16][51]

[Translated] It is common, and thus acceptable, to use norteamericano as a synonym of estadounidense, even though strictly speaking, the term norteamericano can equally be used to refer to the inhabitants of any country in North America, it normally applies to the inhabitants of the United States. But americano should not be used to refer exclusively to the inhabitants of the United States, an abusive usage which can be explained by the fact that in the United States, they frequently abbreviate the name of the country to «America» (in English, with no accent).^[g]

Canada[edit]

Modern Canadians typically refer to people from the United States as Americans, though they seldom refer to the United States as America; they use the terms the United States, the U.S., or (informally) the States instead.^[52] Because of anti-American sentiment or simply national pride, Canadians never apply the term American to themselves.^[53][54][55] Not being an «American» is a part of Canadian identity,^[56][57] with many Canadians resenting being referred to as Americans or mistaken for U.S. citizens.^[58] This is often due to others’ inability, particularly overseas, to distinguish Canadians from Americans, by their accent or other cultural attributes.^[52] Some Canadians have protested the use of American as a national demonym.^[59] People of U.S. ethnic origin in Canada are categorized as «Other North American origins» by Statistics Canada for purposes of census counts.^[60]

Portugal and Brazil[edit]

Generally, americano denotes «U.S. citizen» in Portugal.^[12] Usage of americano to exclusively denote people and things of the U.S. is discouraged by the Lisbon Academy of Sciences,^{[citation needed]} because the specific word estado-unidense (also estadunidense) clearly denotes a person from the United States. The term currently used by the Portuguese press is norte-americano.^{[citation needed]}

In Brazil, the term americano is used to address both that which pertains to the Americas and that which pertains to the U.S.; the particular meaning is deduced from context. Alternatively, the term norte-americano («North American») is also used in more informal contexts, while estadunidense (of the U.S.) is the preferred form in academia. Use of the three terms is common in schools, government, and media. The term América is used exclusively for the whole continent, and the U.S. is called Estados Unidos («United States») or Estados Unidos da América («United States of America»), often abbreviated EUA.^{[citation needed]}

In other contexts[edit]

«American» in the 1994 Associated Press Stylebook was defined as, «An acceptable description for a resident of the United States. It also may be applied to any resident or citizen of nations in North or South America.» Elsewhere, the AP Stylebook indicates that «United States» must «be spelled out when used as a noun. Use U.S. (no space) only as an adjective.»^[61]

The entry for «America» in The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage from 1999 reads:

[the] terms «America», «American(s)» and «Americas» refer not only to the United States, but to all of North America and South America. They may be used in any of their senses, including references to just the United States, if the context is clear. The countries of the Western Hemisphere are collectively ‘the Americas’.

Media releases from the Pope and Holy See frequently use «America» to refer to the United States, and «American» to denote something or someone from the United States.^[62]

International law[edit]

At least one international law uses U.S. citizen in defining a citizen of the United States rather than American citizen; for example, the English version of the North American Free Trade Agreement includes:

Only air carriers that are «citizens of the United States» may operate aircraft in domestic air service (cabotage) and may provide international scheduled and non-scheduled air service as U.S. air carriers…

Under the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, a «citizen of the United States» means:

(a) an individual who is a U.S. citizen;

(b) a partnership in which each member is a U.S. citizen; or

(c) a U.S. corporation of which the president and at least two-thirds of the board of directors and other managing officers are U.S. citizens, and at least 75 percent of the voting interest in the corporation is owned or controlled by U.S. citizens.^[63]

Many international treaties use the terms American and American citizen:

• 1796 – The treaty between the United States and the Dey of the Regency of Algiers on March 7, 1796, protected «American citizens».^[64]
• 1806 – The Louisiana Purchase Treaty between France and United States referred to «American citizens».^[65]
• 1825 – The treaty between the United States and the Cheyenne tribe refers to «American citizen»s.^[66]
• 1848 – The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo between Mexico and the U.S. uses «American Government» to refer to the United States, and «American tribunals» to refer to U.S. courts.^[67]
• 1858 – The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United States and Japan protected «American citizens» and also used «American» in other contexts.^[68]
• 1898 – The Treaty of Paris ending the Spanish–American War, known in Spanish as the Guerra Hispano–Estadounidense («Spain–United States War») uses «American» in reference to United States troops.^[69]
• 1966 – The United States–Thailand Treaty of Amity protects «Americans» and «American corporations».^[70]

U.S. commercial regulation[edit]

Products that are labeled, advertised, and marketed in the U.S. as «Made in the USA» must be, as set by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), «all or virtually all made in the U.S.» The FTC, to prevent deception of customers and unfair competition, considers an unqualified claim of «American Made» to expressly claim exclusive manufacture in the U.S: «The FTC Act gives the Commission the power to bring law enforcement actions against false or misleading claims that a product is of U.S. origin.»^[71]

Alternatives[edit]

There are a number of alternatives to the demonym American as a citizen of the United States that do not simultaneously mean any inhabitant of the Americas. One uncommon alternative is Usonian, which usually describes a certain style of residential architecture designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Other alternatives have also surfaced, but most have fallen into disuse and obscurity. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage says:

The list contains (in approximate historical order from 1789 to 1939) such terms as Columbian, Columbard, Fredonian, Frede, Unisian, United Statesian, Colonican, Appalacian, Usian, Washingtonian, Usonian, Uessian, U-S-ian, Uesican, United Stater.^[72]

Nevertheless, no alternative to American is common.^[1]

See also[edit]

• Americas (terminology)
• Hyphenated Americans
• Names of the United States
• Naming of the Americas
• Totum pro parte

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Works cited[edit]

• Allen, Irving L. (1983). The Language of Ethnic Conflict: Social Organization and Lexical Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Condon, J.C. (1986). «…So near the United States». In Valdes, J.M. (ed.). Culture bound: Bridging the cultural gap in language teaching. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 85–93. ISBN 978-0-521-31045-1.
• Herbst, Philip H. (1997). Color of Words: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States. ISBN 1-877864-42-0.

External links[edit]

• Ryle, John (September 7, 1998). «The trouble with Americans». The Guardian.

Use of the word «American» in the English language differs according to the historic, geographic, and political context in which it is used. It derives from «America» , a term originally denoting all of the New World (also the Americas), and its usage has evolved.

The standard way to refer to a citizen of the United States is as an «American.» Though «United States» is the formal adjective, «American» and «U.S.» are the most common adjectives used to refer to the country («American values,» «U.S. forces»). «American» is rarely used in American English to refer to people not connected to the United States [Wilson, Kenneth G. (1993). «The Columbia Guide to Standard American English». New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 27–28. ISBN 0231069898.] . In British English «American» can refer to somebody or something from the «Americas», or from the USA, depending on context.Fact|date=August 2008

The word can be used as both a noun and an adjective. In adjectival use, it is generally understood to mean «of or relating to the United States of America»; for example, «Elvis Presley was an American singer» or «the American president gave a speech today;» in noun form, it generally means U.S. citizen or national. When used with a grammatical qualifier the adjective «American» can mean «of or relating to the Americas,» as in Latin American or Indigenous American. Less frequently, the adjective can take this meaning without a qualifier, as in «American Spanish dialects and pronunciation differ by country,» or «the ancient American civilizations of the pre-Columbian period were advanced in mathematics and astronomy.» A third use of the term pertains specifically to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, for instance, «In the 15th century, many Americans died from imported diseases during the Spanish conquest».

Other languages

The Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, and Italian languages use cognates of the word «American», in denoting «U.S. citizen». In Spanish, «americano» denotes geographic and cultural origin in the New World; the adjective and noun, denoting a U.S. national, «estadounidense» (United Statesman), derives from «Estados Unidos de América» (United States of America). Portuguese, has «americano», denoting a person or thing from the Americas, and for a U.S. national and things «estadunidense» (United Statesman), from «Estados Unidos da América», «norteamericano» (North American), and «ianque» (Yankee). Fact|date=December 2007 In French, «étasunien», from «États-Unis d’Amérique», distinguishes U.S. things and persons from the adjective «américain» denoting persons and things from «the Americas»; like-wise, the German usages «U.S.-amerikanisch» and «U.S.-Amerikaner» observe said «cultural» distinction, solely denoting U.S. things and people.

The Spanish words «estadounidense» (United Statesman), «norteamericano» (North American), «yanqui» (Yankee), and gringo are Mexican, Central American, and South American usages denoting U.S. things and persons. In personal denotation, «gringo» means a «norteamericano», in particular, and anglophones in general, and, linguistically, any speech not Spanish, i.e. «She is speaking gringo, not Spanish».Fact|date=September 2008 Cognate usages may cause cultural friction between U.S. nationals and Latin Americans who object to American English’s exclusionary denotations of «American».

History of the word

The derivation of «America» has several explanatory naming theories. The most common is Martin Waldseemüller’s deriving it from «Americus Vespucius», the Latinised version of Amerigo Vespucci’s name, the Italian merchant and cartographer who explored South America’s east coat and the Caribbean sea in the early 1500s. Later, his published letters were the basis of Waldseemüller’s 1507 map, which is the first usage of «America». (See cite web|last=Cohen|first=Jonathan|title=The Naming of America: Vespucci’s Good Name|url=http://muweb.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/his/COHEN-01.HIS|accessdate=2007-06-26)

In 1886, Jules Marcou said Vespucci renamed himself from «Alberigo» Vespucci («Albericus Vespucius») to «Amerigo» Vespucci after meeting the native inhabitants of the eponymous Amerrique mountain ranges of Nicaragua Fact|date=June 2007 that connect North America and South America, an important geographic feature of New World maps and charts. Moreover, there is the 1908 theory that «America» derives from Richard Amerike of Bristol, England, financier of John Cabot’s 1497 expedition. Cabot is believed the first Western European on the mainland. In the event, the adjective «American» subsequently denotes the New World’s peoples and things.

The 16th-century European usage of «American» denoted the native inhabitants of the New World, soon extended to include European settlers, namely Spaniards and their children. In 1776, the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation proclaimed the country named «The United States of America». The confederation articles state: «In Witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in Congress. Done at Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania the ninth day of July in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Eight, and in the Third Year of the independence of America.»

The first, official usage of the formal country name is in the Declaration of Independence: » [the] unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America» adopted by the «Representatives of the united States of America» on July 4, 1776. [cite web|url=http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/charters_downloads.html|title=The Charters of Freedom|publisher=National Archives|accessdate=2007-06-20] The current name was established on November 15, 1777, when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the first of which says, «The Stile of this Confederacy shall be ‘The United States of America’ «. Common short forms and abbreviations are the «United States», the «U.S.», the «U.S.A.», and «America». Colloquial versions are the «U.S. of A.» and «the States». The term «Columbia» (from the Columbus surname), was a popular name for the U.S. and for the entire geographic Americas; its usage is restricted to the District of Columbia name. Moreover, the womanly personification of Columbia appears in some official documents, including editions of the U.S. dollar.

In the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison use «American» with two different meanings, political and geographic; «the American republic» in Federalist Paper 51 and in Federalist Paper 70, [cite web|url=http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa51.htm|title=The Federalist no. 51|author=James Madison] [cite web|url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Federalist_No._70|author=Alexander Hamilton|title=The Federalist no. 70] and, in Federalist Paper 24, Hamilton’s «American» usage denotes the lands beyond the U.S.’s political borders. [cite journal | first = Alexander | last = Hamilton | journal = The Federalist Papers | volume = 24 | url = http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/federalist/federalist-20-29/federalist.24.shtml | title = The Powers Necessary to the Common Defense Further Considered]

President Washington’s farewell in 1796 says: «The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation.» [ [http://www.eagleforum.org/psr/2002/may02/psrmay02.shtml The Premier American Hero-George Washington-May 2002 Phyllis Schlafly Report ] ]

Originally, the name «the United States» was plural — «the United States are» — a usage found in the U.S. Constitution’s Thirteenth Amendment (1865), but its common usage is singular — «the United States is» — since the turn of the twentieth century. The plural is set in the idiom «these United States». [cite web|url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002663.html|author=Zimmer, Benjamin|date=2005-11-24|title=Life in These, Uh, This United States|publisher=University of Pennsylvania—Language Log|accessdate=2008-02-22]

Before the Constitutional Convention, several country names were proffered, the most popular being «Columbia». The problems of «the United States of America» as a name (long, awkward, imprecise) were discussed; the Constitution ignores the matter, using «the United States of America» and «the United States». The name «Colombia» (derived from Christopher Columbus; Sp: «Cristóbal Colón», It: «Cristoforo Colombo»), was proposed by the revolutionary Francisco de Miranda to denote the New World — especially Spain’s and Portugal’s American territories and colonies; it was used in the (short-lived) country name «United States of Colombia».

Early official U.S. documents betray inconsistent usage; the 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France uses the «the United States of North America» in the first sentence, then uses «the said United States» afterwards; «the United States of America» and «the United States of North America» derive from «the United Colonies of America» and «the United Colonies of North America». The Treaty of Peace and Amity, of September 5 1795, [cite web | url = http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/barbary/bar1795t.htm | title = The Barbary Treaties: Treaty of Peace and Amity] contains the usages «the United States of North America», «citizens of the United States», and «American Citizens».

Semantic divergence among Anglophones did not affect the Spanish colonies. In 1801, the document titled «Letter to American Spaniards» — published in French (1799), in Spanish (1801), and in English (1808 — might have influenced Venezuela’s Act of Independence and its 1811 constitution. [cite web | url = http://www.histal.umontreal.ca/espanol/documentos/la%20carta%20dirigida%20a%20los%20espanoles%20americanos.htm | title = La “Carta dirigida a los españoles americanos”, una carta que recorrió muchos caminos… es icon]

The Latter-day Saints’ Articles of Faith refer to the American continent as where they are to build Zion. [ [http://scriptures.lds.org/en/a_of_f/1/10#10 Articles of Faith 1 ] ] . The Old Catholic Encyclopedia’s usage of «America» is as «the Western Continent or the New World». It discusses American republics, ranging from the U.S. to the «the republic of Mexico, the Central American republics of Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Leon, and Panama; the Antillian republics of Haiti, Santo Domingo, and Cuba, and the South American republics of Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, the Argentine, and Chile». [ [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01409c.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: America ] ] .

Different meanings

The use of «American» as a national demonym for U.S. nationals is challenged, primarily by Latin Americans. [cite journal | first = H. L. | last = Mencken | url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-1283(194712)22%3A4%3C241%3ANFA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0 | title = Names for Americans | journal = American Speech | volume = 22 | number = 4 | month = December | year = 1947 | pages = 241–256 | doi = 10.2307/486658]

Political and cultural views

Latin America

The Luxury Link travel guide Fact|date=October 2008 advises U.S. nationals in Mexico to not refer to themselves as Americans, because Mexicans consider themselves Americans. The Getting Through Customs website advises business travellers not to use «in America» as a U.S. reference when conducting business in Brazil. [cite web| last =Morrison| first =Terri| authorlink =|coauthors =|title =Doing business abroad — Brazil| work =| publisher =| date =| url =http://www.getcustoms.com/2004GTC/Articles/oag_11.html| format =| doi =| accessdate =]

In Latin America, usage not distinguishing between the word «American» denoting the Western hemisphere’s landmass, and «American» exclusively denoting U.S. nationals is perceived as disadvantageous to Latin American countries dealing with U.S. foreign policy. Fact|date=December 2007

pain

The «Diccionario de la Lengua Española» (Dictionary of the Spanish Language) published by the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy), defines «estadounidense» (United Statesman) as «someone or something from or relating to the United States», the common Spanish usage for U.S. people and things. People originating from, or who have lived in, the Western Hemisphere might be called «americanos».

Moreover, the Royal Spanish Academy advises against using «americanos» exclusively for U.S. nationals: [ [http://buscon.rae.es/dpdI/SrvltConsulta?lema=americano Real Academia Española ] ]

English translation:

Canada

Prior to Confederation in 1867, the word «Canadian» referred only to residents of the colony of Canada, which consisted of the territory of modern Quebec and Ontario. The term did not apply to residents of the colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island or Newfoundland. Collectively, the British colonies were known as British North America, and their residents referred to themselves as «British Americans.» Only after 1867 did the term «Canadian» come to describe all the residents of the Dominion of Canada and the word «American» come to be seen a semi-pejorative.

In Canada, their southern neighbor is seldom referred to as «America», with «the United States», «the U.S.», or (informally) «the States» used instead,Fee, Margery and McAlpine, J. 1997. «Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage.» (ISBN 0-19-541619-8) Toronto: Oxford University Press; p. 36.] although «American» is the usual «demonym» in modern Canadian English. Modern Canadians rarely apply the term American to themselves — some Canadians resent being referred to as Americans because of mistaken assumptions that they are U.S. citizens or an inability—particularly of people overseas—to distinguish Canadian English and American English accents. Some Canadians protested the use of «American» as a national demonym in the past. [cite journal|last=de Ford|first=Miriam Allen|year=1927|month=April|title=On the difficulty of indicating nativity in the United States|journal=American Speech|pages=315] When Canadians need to refer to the larger continental context, «North American» (or «North and South American»), not «American», is the term in current usage.

People of U.S. ethnic origin in Canada are categorized as «American (U.S.)» by Statistics Canada for purposes of census counts. [ [http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/themes/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?Temporal=2001&PID=62911&APATH=3&GID=431515&METH=1&PTYPE=55440&THEME=44&FOCUS=0&AID=0&PLACENAME=0&PROVINCE=0&SEARCH=0&GC=99&GK=NA&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=&FL=0&RL=0&FREE=0 97F0010XCB2001001 ] ]

The terms «Étasunien» and «Étatsunisien» are sometimes used in Québec French as a demonym for American citizens in place of the more common «Américain».Fact|date=December 2007

Portugal and Brazil

Generally, «Americano» denotes «U.S. citizen» in Portugal. Currently, Brazilians are «brasileiros» (Brazilians), rarely «americanos» (Americans), although the usage was different in the nineteenth century. Usage of «americano» to exclusively denote people and things of the U.S. is discouraged by the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa (Lisbon Academy of Sciences), because the specific word «estado-unidense» (also «estadunidense») clearly denotes a «United Statesman» and a «United Stateswoman».

Brazilians refer to themselves as «americanos», in general, and «Latino-americanos», in particular. Still, the word «América» has, in the past fifteen years, become a popular synonym for the U.S., especially in the big cities influenced by U.S. consumerism culture, especially after the great Brazilian immigration to the U.S. in the mid-1990s. In parts of the country «norte-americano» denotes someone from the U.S. and «América» denotes the other American countries. Fact|date=August 2007

United States

The United States Census Bureau reports 7.3 percent of U.S. residents to be of «United States or American» ancestry [ [http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-state=qt&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U_QTP13&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U&-CONTEXT=qt&-_caller=geoselect&-geo_id=01000US&-format=&-_lang=en United States — QT-P13. Ancestry: 2000 ] ] based on responses to the 2000 Census long-form questionnaire (1 in 6 sample). Discrete responses of «United States» and «American» or an ambiguous response or a state-name response (excluding Hawaii) were aggregated as «United States or American». Distinct racial and ethnic groups such as «American Indian», «Mexican American», «African American», and «Hawaiian» were coded separately.

Diplomatic usage of «American» varies; in a speech given in Honduras, ex-President Clinton, speaking in Spanish, said: «. . . todos somos americanos» (. . . we are all Americans), as translated by the «Washington Post» newspaper and the CNN television program. [cite news | url = http://www.marrder.com/htw/mar99/national.htm | title = Clinton promises to lobby for more aid |date= 15 March 1999 | edition = 149 | first = Suyapa | last = Carias | publisher = HondurasThisWeek] [cite news | title = Clinton Hails U.S. Efforts in Storm Zone | url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/march99/honduras10.htm |date= 10 March 1999 | first = Charles | last = Babington | publisher = Washington Post] [cite web | url = http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/americas/9903/09/clinton.latam.04/index.html | title = Clinton surveys hurricane relief efforts in Central America |date= 9 March 1999 | publisher = CNN]

«American» in other contexts

«American» in the «Associated Press Stylebook» (1994) is defined as: «An acceptable description for a resident of the United States. It also may be applied to any resident or citizen of nations in North or South America». Elsewhere, the «AP Stylebook» indicates that «United States» must «be spelled out when used as a noun. Use U.S. (no space) only as an adjective».

«The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage» (1999) «America» entry reads: the «terms «America», «American(s)» and «Americas» refer not only to the United States, but to all of North America and South America. They may be used in any of their senses, including references to just the United States, if the context is clear. The countries of the Western Hemisphere are collectively «the Americas» «.

«American» in international law

International law uses «U.S. citizen» in defining a citizen of the United States, not «American citizen», which is an informal, non-legal usage; an excerpt from the North American Free Trade Agreement:

«American» in U.S. Law (general)

«American» is defined in the sixth edition (1990) of «Black’s Law Dictionary» as: «Of or pertaining to the United States». The two more recent (1999 and 2004) editions have no such entry.

«American» in U.S. commercial regulation

Products that are labelled, advertised, and marketed in the U.S. as «American Made» must be «all or virtually all made in the U.S.» The Federal Trade Commission, to prevent deception of customers and unfair competition, considers an unqualified claim of «American Made» to expressly claim exclusive manufacture in the U.S. «The FTC Act gives the Commission the power to bring law enforcement actions against false or misleading claims that a product is of U.S. origin.» [ [http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/madeusa.htm Complying with the Made In the USA Standard ] ]

«U.S. national» in other languages

English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic, popular Portuguese and Russian speakers may use «American» (Japanese: アメリカ人 roma-ji: amerika-jin), ( _ru. американец, американка,) (Mandarin Chinese: pinyin- «měiguórén», traditional- 美國人, simplified- 美国人) to refer to U.S. citizens. These languages generally have other terms for U.S. nationals; for example, there is «US-Amerikaner» in German, «étatsunien» in French, or «statunitense» in Italian.

In Spanish, «estadounidense», «estado-unidense» or «estadunidense» are preferred to «americano» for U.S. nationals; the latter tends to refer to any resident of the Americas and not necessarily from the United States. [cite book | title = Pequeño Larousse Ilustrado 1992 edition, look up word Americano: Contains the Observation: Debe evitarse el empleo de americano con el sentido de norteamericano o de los Estados Unidos (trans. Usage of the word with the meaning of US citizen or the United States must be avoided) | url = ] In Portuguese, «estado-unidense»(or estadunidense) is the recommended form by language regulators but today it is less frequently used than «americano» and «norte-americano».Latin Americans also may employ the term «norteamericano» («North American»), which itself conflates the United States and Canada. However, this term may also refer to anyone from the North American continent, which also includes Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Worldwide, speakers of Esperanto refer to the United States of America with the term «Usono», which is borrowed from Frank Lloyd Wright’s word Usonia [cite web | url = http://reta-vortaro.de/revo/art/uson.html#uson.0o | title = Reta Vortaro: Usono] . Thus a citizen or national of the United States is referred to as an «usonano». The Esperantist terms for North Americans and for South Americans, by continent rather than country, are Nordamerikano and Sudamerikano, respectively.

Adjectives derived from «United States» (such as «United Statian») appear awkward in English, but similar constructions exist in Spanish («estadounidense» or «estadinense»), Portuguese («estado-unidense», «estadunidense») and Finnish («yhdysvaltalainen»: from «Yhdysvallat», United States); and also in French («états-unien») and Italian («statunitense»).

The word Gringo is widely used in parts of Latin America in reference to U.S. residents, often in a pejorative way but not necessarily. «Yanqui» («Yankee») is also very common in some regions. In Argentina, Uruguay and some regions of Brazil, the word «Gringo» is also used for any foreigner, not just for U.S. Citizens.

With the 1994 passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the following words were used to label the «United States Section» of that organization: in French, «étatsunien»; in Spanish, «estadounidense». In English the adjective used to indicate relation to the United States is «U.S.»

Alternative adjectives for U.S. citizens

There are a number of alternatives to the demonym «American» (a citizen of the United States) that do not simultaneously mean any inhabitant of the Americas. One uncommon alternative is «Usonian,» which usually describes a certain style of residential architecture designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Over the years, many other alternatives have also surfaced, but most have long fallen into disuse and obscurity. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage says, «The list contains [in approximate historical order from 1789 to 1939] such terms as Columbian, Columbard, Fredonian, Frede, Unisian, United Statesian, Colonican, Appalacian, Usian, Washingtonian, Usonian, Uessian, U-S-ian, Uesican, United Stater.» [cite web | title = EDline Vol. 4, no. 9, American versus US | url = http://www.electriceditors.net/edline/vol4/4-9.txt] Nevertheless, with the exception of «U.S.» or «U.S. citizen», no alternative to «American» is common. [cite book | title = The Columbia Guide to Standard American English | url = http://www.bartleby.com/68/37/337.html]

ee also

* Americas (terminology)
* Alternative words for British
* Adjectives for U.S. citizens

References

cholarly sources

*
* Chapter 8: “…So near the United States”.
*

External links

*
* [http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?LEMA=americano&TIPO_BUS=3 «Diccionario de la Lengua Española» entry for «americano»]

A list of French borrowings will include examples like: pumpkin, prairie (ˈprɛri), chute (ʃut), bureau (ˈbjʊroʊ), chowder (ˈtʃaʊdər), cent, dime, and others. Some of the French words that made their way into the English language were coined by French inventors, discoverers or pioneers, or scientists: cinema, television, helicopter, bathyscaphe, lactose, bacteriophage, chlorophyll, mastodon, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, photography, stethoscope, thermometer, troposphere. The political/economic lexicon include many words of French origin like money (from the French ‘monnaie’), liberalism, capitalism, materialism, nationalism, plebiscite, coup d’état, regime, sovereignty.The judicial lexicon has also been heavily influenced by French (justice, judge, jury, attorney, court, case). Here we have some peculiarities with pronunciation of these words, because they are not agreed with the general rules of English pronunciation. Some of these words have both American and British pronunciation. E. g., praline (AEˈpreɪˌlin, BE ˈprɑˌlin), depot (AEˈdipoʊ, BEˈdɛpoʊ). The existence of French elements in English is due, among other reasons, to the contact with the French when the westward expansion was taking place. The colonists’ coming into such contact was linguistically relevant to the same extent that the impact of New Orleans was the center of French influence in the United States. Spanish influence in AE can be perceived particularly in the South, since when moving southward toward the Gulf of Mexico the English colonists were exposed to Spanish, which had been spread over the South.”Some of the previously adopted Spanish words are now extinct in English; however, the body of terms in current use is still vast: marijuana, cockroach, coyote, mustang, sombrero, lasso, hacienda, wrangler, cafeteria, pueblo, bonanza, canyon, sierra, filibuster, rumba, tornado, etc. Although the Dutch influence in America was not long-lasting (New Amsterdam was captured by the English in 1664), certain Dutch expressions made their way through the linguistic «crowd» and gained for them-selves a fixed place in the English vocabulary.” The following serve as examples: spook, Santa Claus, dope, yankee, boodle, coleslaw. The list of German loanwords in AE is also quite extensive. Since the German immigration groups began coming to America as late as the end of the seventeenth century (the first flocks) and then in the thirties and forties of the nineteenth century, most of the words listed below were adopted into English long after the first Indian, Dutch and French items had been adopted. The list includes words like: delicatessen, frankfurter, hamburger, noodle, pretzel, pumpernickel, kraut, wiener, seminar, etc. Each of the lists of English words of foreign origin could be easily expanded, but the difficulty to be wrestled with is the problem of which items to include and which to omit.

The article reviews and analyzes the past, present, and future of American English as a young and rapidly developing variant of the English language.

Keywords: English, English language, British English, American English, variant, divergence.

Introduction

The English language is known for having a number of relatively independent variants widely spoken in different parts of the world. By variants of English in this case we understand its regional varieties possessing a literary norm, i.e. historically determined aggregates of linguistic means in common use and the rules that govern the choice and use of such means and that have become generally accepted by a specific linguistic community during a specific historical period [13]. Linguists usually distinguish between the variants existing on the territory of the United Kingdom (British English, Scottish English and Irish English) and the variants existing outside the British Isles (American English, Canadian English, Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English and Indian English) [14, p. 145].

Among the mentioned variants of the English language the most important ones are British English and American English. These variants undoubtedly share some common features but are at the same time quite different. The existing differences were sometimes exaggerated by academic and public figures. For instance, in 1919

H. L. Mencken, a German-American journalist, satirist and cultural critic, published his book «The American Language», in which he on the basic of some observations tries to show that the differences between American English and British English are considerable enough to treat these variants as separate independent languages, the American language being the dominant one. Similar thoughts can be found in the works by world-famous writers. For example, Oscar Wilde once said that «We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language». There is another popular aphorism of this kind widely ascribed to Bernard Shaw: «The English and the Americans are two nations divided by a common language» [9; 2, p. 259].

Such statements and the like obviously did not appear out of nowhere and have some validity. Our task within this paper is to trace the history of the American variant of the English language, point out and explain its most significant distinctive characteristics, define its position and role in the modern world, outline the possible ways of its future development and finally make a conclusion about its being a separate language or not.

§1. History of American English

The emergence of different variants of the English language was caused by England’s colonial expansion and, consequently, penetration of the English language to other parts of the world where it underwent some changes according to the local circumstances. This penetration began mainly in the 16th century which was an age of great adventurers and England’s tremendous progress in the discovery and colonizing field. For example, it is in the 16th century that Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe, the East India Company was established and English seamen left their mark in many parts of the world.

The 16th century also marked the beginning of England’s colonial expansion to the so-called New World — the first colonies were set up in Newfoundland in 1583. But the real start came a little later. In 1607 the first permanent settlements were founded in Jamestown, and in 1620 the famous ship Mayflower brought a group of English settlers to what became known as New England. These fugitives from the Old World came from the London area, from East Anglia and Yorkshire. This was the first period in the history of American English, it can also be called the colonial period. Some scholars consider this the linguistically most important period, since this was the time when the settlement of the original thirteen colonies along the Atlantic seaboard took place, and thus the first speakers of what would later become American English appeared on the North American continent. At this stage the degree of divergence between American English and British English was very low, because American English had just begun its existence, had not yet undergone any considerable changes and thus was almost absolutely identical with British English. The first period in the development of American English closes with the ratification of the federal constitution in 1789, in the wake of the War of Independence [11, p. 70; 10, p. 182; 7, p. 20].

When the War of Independence ended, the long process of westward movement began. Tens of thousands of settlers moved west of the seaboard area toward and beyond the Mississippi River. This «march» opens the second major period in the history of American English, sometimes called the national period. As new settlers arrived, there was an increasing demand for new, unexplored, and unoccupied territories. The main feature of the period that seems to be assumed by most scholars is that this is the time when the English spoken in the United States became and, as a result of the efforts of men like Noah Webster, was made the national language of the new country. Noah Webster, a famous lexicographer, was the first person to claim American English to be an independent language. He worked in the period when the Americans were fighting for their independence and for their rights. They tried to create their own culture, and getting their own independent language was a very important part of that strategy. At that time such a behavior had a progressive political meaning not only in terms of getting rid of England’s domination, but also in terms of uniting thirteen separate colonies into one nation that later formed the USA. In his thesis on the English language Noah Webster wrote that it was a matter of honor for the Americans to have both their own system of government and system of language. Noah Webster’s patriotic activities were crowned by publishing «American Dictionary of the English Language» (1828) [3, p. 256; 7, p. 20].

Although Webster’s statements about American English being an independent language were overconfident and mainly politically and ideologically motivated, they in a way reflected the objective state of things. The matter is that the communities speaking American English were cut off from the land where British English was actively spoken and could not but develop step by step. There was no regular communication between the two territories, and the contacts that did take place were rather scarce and could not provide any considerable linguistic interaction. This geographical division contributed to the increasing of differences between the two variants of English — British English was developing the way it had done before, while American English after, we can say, making a short pause in its development was beginning a new life. So, in this period the two variants of English were already going separate ways and the number of differences between them started to grow.

This final period that can be termed as the international period stretches from the late 19th century to the present time. This period is characterized by new waves of immigration. The new immigrants came to the United States from all parts of the world, but several categories of immigrants stand out in number and importance. Thus, the first wave of immigrants was formed especially by Northern European immigrants. Later a large number of Southern and Eastern Europeans chose the United States as their new home. The latest, but one of the most important, wave of immigration came from Spanish-speaking countries — Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba [7, p. 21–22]. These contacts with other languages have played a very important role in the development of American English, which will be elucidated in this paper later. At this stage the same factors that increase the number of discrepancies — geographical isolation from British English and contacts with other languages — continue to be in power, which results in a still greater degree of divergence.

So, what we have speaking about the history of American English in general is that a group of British English speakers moved from their homeland to a different part of the world where in the course of time the language they brought gradually grew different from the language they left back in Europe, thus forming a new variant of the English language. This new variant, American English, has its own historically determined peculiarities and differs from its British counterpart in some aspects of phonetics, vocabulary and grammar. The next paragraph of the paper is dedicated to the description and analysis of these very differences that can be observed nowadays.

§2. Differences between American English and British English viewed historically

Since American English can be treated as a relatively young offshoot of British English, the latter will constitute the basis for comparison. It should also be noted that the differences to be analyzed are rather numerous, but at the same time they are often very specific, unimportant and unsystematic. That is why we are going to shed light only on the most significant and noticeable divergences.

§2.1. Phonetics

The presence of rhotic accent

The presence of rhotic accent is one of the most noticeable and recognizable differences between British and American English. Rhotic accent refers to the manner the letter r is pronounced after a vowel in such words as bar, hard, here, etc. In American English it is pronounced distinctly and is never left unread. It is documented that up to 1776, when the American Revolution broke out, there was no such thing as British and American accents, both were indistinguishable and both were rhotic. But towards the end of the 18th century the upper classes of Southern England started to remove the rhotic accent as a way of marking their class distinction. Gradually the new version of pronunciation spread all over Britain, while over the ocean it remained the same in the absence of reason to introduce any changes. As we can see, this difference is the result of the loss of direct connection between the two variants. It is not even of much importance what exactly caused a particular historical change in British English — the thing is that this change was not reflected in its American counterpart, which added one more point to the list of differences.

The sound /uː/ in such words like new instead of the classical /juː/

A similar process is observed in the following case. As is known, American English is characterized by the sound /u:/ in words like new and knew, where British English has /ju:/. This pronunciation was typical of speech in East Anglia at the time the first settlers left England and it is still recognizable in some rural parts of eastern England. However, the Americans preserved the /j/-less pronunciation, while the pronunciation with /j/ became the standard in British English.

Reading of the letter a in words like fast

It can be pointed out that the use of /æ/ in words such as fast and path was abandoned in Southern England, that is, the speech area influenced by London, at the end of the 18th century. The sound corresponding to the letter a was mainly flat in England, even in words like father. This means that it was pronounced unrounded, with the lips slightly spread. There are about 150 common words in American English that have this vowel, instead of the vowel used in British English today. The /æ/ is present in American pronunciation in words in which the letter a is followed by the so-called voiceless fricatives f, s, and th. This flat a, pronounced /æ/, was common throughout England until the 18th century.

The analyzed differences show that American English sounds preserve qualities that were found in the English of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Stress patterns

Elizabethan stress patterns were different from those of today. The words secretary and necessary had secondary stress on the penultimate syllable in Shakespeare’s time. This is general American practice today, a practice which has changed in British English, where the pronunciation of these words has only primary stress on the first syllable. The same applies to the stress pattern of words like circumstance, where American English has secondary stress on the final syllable.

Loanwords

Loanwords from French were adapted by American English in a different way than they were by British English. Change of stress is the most noticeable difference. In American English French loanwords have a final-syllable stress, while British English stresses an earlier syllable. It seems that the American English phonology has respected the fixed accent of the French language, which in most cases falls on the last syllable, while British English speakers tried to adapt the new words for their accentuation system. A few examples of this change of stress are as follows: adult, baton, brochure, etc.

Accent leveling

There was a great deal of accent leveling in the speech of the first Americans. For example, the people from East Anglia and the West Country mixed freely in the new colonies. As a result, the children of the first generation in all probability spoke a kind of English that was the merger of accents from of variety of English dialects. The process already started on the ships and continued in the closely-knit colonies of the New World. We can consider this process of accent leveling as a major force in the shaping of American English. In particular, it must have had an impact on the relative uniformity of American English [7, p. 25–26].

As it is easy to see, many of the phonetic differences can be explained historically either by the relative geographical isolation of the newly discovered lands and the loss of connection between American English and British English or by specific characteristics of the process of exploration of these lands.

§2.2. Vocabulary

The vocabulary used by American speakers, has distinctive features of its own. There are whole groups of words which belong to the American vocabulary exclusively and constitute its specific features. These words are calledAmericanisms.

The first group of such words may be described as historical Americanisms. In American usage these words still remain their old meanings whereas in British English their meanings have changed or fell out of use.

Let us take a look at some examples. The word mad is perhaps the most frequently used American word for angry today, as in I am mad at him. This goes back to Elizabethan times, when Shakespeare used it in the sense of angry. In modern British English usage mad simply means insane, although many British people would also recognize the American meaning of the term. Sick originally meant ill in general in the 17th century. It is this meaning that survives in such expressions as sickbed, sick-note, homesick, and lovesick in both British and American English. The meaning of the word was not limited to nausea alone, which is the predominant meaning in Britain today. When used predicatively (i.e., with verbs like to be or to feel), the new British sense of the term is ready to vomit, to feel nauseated. American English still retains the earlier, more general sense of the word, and it is used to speak of illness in general. Guess is another American English word that has captured the attention of those dealing with British-American differences. This is because, many observers find, it is overused as a verb by Americans. The specifically American meaning of the verb is suppose or consider, and it occurs in sentences such as I guess you are feeling tired after your long journey. The important point about it here is that its use goes back to Chaucer in the 14th century, and it was used up to the 17th century, when it died out in standard British English (although it survives in some British dialects). As a final example, we can mention the word bloody. Originally, the word bloody simply meant covered with blood in English. This is the meaning which was carried over to America, where the word is used in this non-taboo sense. In British English, however, it became a taboo word for the expression of anger, or other negative feelings. This is why it could create an uproar in England when it was used in G. B. Shaw’s Pygmalion at the beginning of the century. This use of the word has not carried over to American English.

So, historical Americanisms retain their obsolete meanings, while the meanings of these words in British English have already undergone more or les significant changes.

The second group of Americanisms includes words which are not likely to be discovered in British vocabulary. These words may be calledproper Americanisms. They were coined by the early Americans who had to find names for the new environment (flora and fauna) and new conditions of life, e.g.redbud, bluegrass, etc. It is clear that these lexical units are specifically American ones and were brought to life due to the necessity to adapt to the new environment.

Another group of Americanisms consists of words which may be described as specificallyAmerican borrowings. These borrowings reflect historical contacts of the Americans with other nations on the American continent.

The first languages with which the English-speaking settlers came into contact in the 17th and 18th centuries include various native Indian languages, as well as Spanish, French, etc.

The first and real «owners» of the American continent were the various native American Indian tribes, speaking a large number of different Indian languages. Roughly fifty American Indian words have established themselves in the lexicon of American English. The first English-speaking settlers called these words «wigwam» words, wigwam being one of the earliest borrowings into the English language in North America. Many of the words borrowed came from the domain of trees, plants, fruits, and animals (sequoia, moose, skunk, etc.) In many cases, the Indian words were perceived by the settlers as too long or too difficult to pronounce. As a result, they have simplified the original Indian words, which often meant making them shorter. Thus, today American English has the word raccoon for the animal from aracouns, which ultimately derives from the Indian word raughroughouns.

The French influence came later than the native Indian influence. The settlers met the French as they moved inland. The contact resulted in borrowings such as toboggan, crevasse, depot, etc. As we have already mentioned, in American English such words often retained their original stress position. One of the best-known American English words of French origin is prairie. This word has been «immortalized» by Western movies.

The early Spanish influence on American English is the most extensive of all the colonial languages. To this influence the English language owes such common words as barbecue, chocolate, and tomato, which were, incidentally, all borrowed from various Indian languages by the Spanish themselves. The settlers referred to the Spanish as dagoes, which is derived from the Spanish name Diego. The Spanish influence continues even today.

One more group of Americanisms is represented by American shortenings. These are shortenings which were produced on American soil, but may be used in other variants of English as well, e.g.dorm(dormitory),mo(moment),cert(certainty) [7, p. 27–32; 14, p. 148–149].

This shortening tendency is extremely important for understanding the new settlers’ psychology, the psychology of their descendants — today’s Americans, and the development of American English in general. As Z. Kovecses points out, the personal qualities of the colonists, their inner spirit found their reflection in the characteristics of the language that they actively used while exploring the new territories. The most important of these features are as follows: economical, regular, direct, informal, inventive. It means that the observed historical changes of American English and its mainstream tendencies are the result of manifestation of these personal qualities [7, p. 13].

One more distinctive feature of American English, directly connected with the psychological disposition of the settlers described above, is its orthography. The spelling reform in America began in the latter part of the 18th century and was promoted by Noah Webster, in particular. The purpose of this reform was 1) to create additional distinctive features of American English so that it looks like a really independent language; 2) to decrease the number of discrepancies between spelling and pronunciation — i.e. to make the language system more normalized, regular and convenient to use.

The list of the introduced changes is well-known: o instead of ou; -er instead of -re; -yze instead of -ise; -ction instead of -xion, etc. [12, p. 353–356].

§2.3. Grammar

Here we are likely to find fewer divergences than in the vocabulary system, but many of these divergences are very interesting, because they are bright manifestations of the Americans’ psychology, their historically formed world view as the settlers who in the 17th century came to a new land and had to overcome a lot of difficulties to stay alive and prosper.

For example, the historically determined need for economy, regularity and convenience explains the Americans’ unwillingness to use some irregular verbs in the way the British do and their attempts to simplify paradigms of such verbs. For example, these forms, irregular in British English, are regular in American English: kneel — kneeled — kneeled; saw — sawed — sawed; lean — leaned — leaned.

Simplification and informality of American English also manifest themselves in the usage of adjective instead of adverbs after verbs: She did it good; He walked quick. The same refers to the tendency to substitute the Past Indefinite Tense for the Present Perfect Tense, especially in oral communication. An American is likely to sayI saw this moviewhere an Englishman will probably sayI’ve seen this film. There is also a point of view that this feature was brought to American English by immigrants who had no complex perfect tenses in their native languages.

Just as American usage has retained the old meanings of some English words(fall, guess, sick),it has also retained the old form of the Past Participle of the verbto get: to get — got — gotten(cf. the Britishgot). In the 19th century, prestigious speakers in England began to drop the -en ending, while most Americans continued to use the old form.

One more noticeable distinctive feature of American English grammar is the usage of collective nouns with a singular verb (The government is saying …) The use of the singular verb with these nouns is older, and American English maintained this usage, whereas British English departed from it in the first half of the 19th century [7, p. 27].

That is practically the whole story as far as divergences in grammar of American English and British English are concerned. As G. B. Antrushina puts it, the grammatical system of both varieties is actually the same, with very few exceptions [2, p. 265–266].

§3. Status of American English and its future

American English is relatively young. But this did not prevent it from developing very quickly and successfully. Nowadays it is unanimously recognized that the American variant of the English language is the dominant one in the whole world.

The roots of this situation are to be found in the extralinguistic history of the USA. For instance, 1) the first radio program was broadcast in English from America; 2) the world movie industry based on English originated in the USA; 3) today’s popular music is mainly produced in the USA; 4) the world’s leading advertising agencies are the property of the USA; 5) English is the main language of the Internet that was invented in the USA [5, p. 41]. It is enough to use any word processor to realize how powerful American English is nowadays — the matter is that almost all computer programs mark British spelling variants as incorrect ones.

So, today the American English variant is the dominating variant. But is it just a variant or maybe really a separate independent language as Noah Webster thought it to be? It is not an easy problem to solve. The matter is that in modern linguistics there are many criteria of differentiating between languages and variants (mutual understanding of speakers, common origin, presence of a codified norm, etc.), but all of them are more or less inconsistent and cannot make us feel absolutely sure if we deal with a separate language or just a variant. It seems that one of the approaches that can be successfully applied here is a subjective linguopsychological or linguopolitical one, including a complex of factors [4, p. 20].

Nevertheless, taking into consideration the following facts:

1)        American English is a relatively new offshoot of British English;

2)        the phonetic, lexical and grammatical base of American English and British English is the same;

3)        there exist some slight differences between American English and British English at the phonetic, lexical and grammatical levels;

4)        American English and British English serve as a means of communication for two different nations;

5)        American English has a literary norm [13],

we can conclude that American English is a variant of the English language.

But scientists are interested not only in characteristics and status of today’s American English — they are also eager to know what it will be like in the future. There are a lot of theories on this point. E. A. Anchimbe writes that in the future different variants of the English language will lose their peculiar features and blend into one language [1, p. 8]. D. Crystal is sure that there will appear a new universal form of the English language that will make it possible to overcome all the difficulties connected with different variants of English. The scientist thinks that this new form will be created on the basis of American English [8, p. 227–230]. At the same time

D. Graddol says that we should not forget the British English variant, because it is still very popular, widely spoken and has a huge potential [6, p. 57].

Conclusion

So, within the frames of this paper we analyzed the history of American English, pointed out and explained its modern peculiarities, had a look at its position in the today’s world and also got acquainted with some general theories concerning the future perspectives of American English.

American English came into existence due to England’s colonial expansion. Europeans moved to the New World, settled there, and step by step the language they spoke got quite different from the language they had spoken, thus forming a new variant of English — American English. This process of gradual divergence took place due to the following reasons: relative isolation from England and, consequently, from British English (fixation of older and obsolete norms in American English), contacts with other languages (borrowings), special spirit of the brave and rational first settlers (language economy, regularity, informality, etc.) All these facts and processes left their marks in phonetics, vocabulary and grammar of American English, making them peculiar and different from those of British English.

Nowadays American English is the dominating variant of English, contributing very much to the international communication. The future of American English is an object of discussion, different linguists propound their theories, but none of them gives us an exhaustive and well-based picture of its perspectives. So, it just remains to be seen, if American English will gain in importance, lose its power or blend with some other variant of English. But there is no doubt that it depends on how powerful the American nation will be.

References:

1.      Anchimbe E. A. World Englishes and the American tongue // English Today. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. — Vol. 22, No. 4. — P. 3–9.
2.      Antrushina G. B. Leksikologiya anglijskogo yazyka: uchebn. posob. dlya studentov ped. vuzov / G. B. Antrushina, O. V. Afanas’eva, N. N. Morozova. — 6-e izd., stereotip. — M.: Drofa, 2006. — 287 p.
3.      Arnol’d I. V. Leksikologiya sovremennogo anglijskogo yazyka: ucheb. posobie / I. V. Arnol’d. — 2-e izd., pererab. — M.: FLINTA: Nauka, 2012. — 376 p.
4.      Belyaeva E. F., Hutuni G. T. O ponyatii «otdel’nyj/samostoyatel’nyj» yazyk // Vestnik MGOU. Seriya «Lingvistika». № 4. 2014. — P. 16–22.
5.      Crystal D. American lessons // Business Traveller. — March, 1997. — P. 40–41.
6.      Graddol D. The Future of English? — London: British Council, 1997. — 66 p.
7.      Kövecses Z. American English: An Introduction. 2000. — 348 p.
8.      Kristal D. Anglijskij yazyk kak global’nyj / Per. s angl. — M.: Ves’ Mir, 2001. — 240 p.
9.      Oscar Wilde. The Canterville Ghost.
10. Rastorgueva T. A. Istoriya anglijskogo yazyka: uchebnik / T. A. Rastorgueva. — 2-e izd., ster. — M.: Astrel’: AST, 2007. — 248, [4] s.: il. — Na angl. yaz.
11. Reznik R. V., Sorokina T. A., Reznik I. V. A History of the English Language. Istoriya anglijskogo yazyka: Uchebnoe posobie. — M.: Flinta: Nauka, 2001. — 496 p.
12. The Cambridge History of the English Language. Volume VI. English in North America. 2001. — 567 p.
13. The Free Dictionary. Linguistic norm [Electronic resource]. — Mode of access: http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Linguistic+Norm (accessed December 15, 2015).
14. Zykova I. V. Prakticheskij kurs anglijskoj leksikologii = A Practical Course in English Lexicology: ucheb. posobie dlya stud. lingv. vuzov i fak. in. Yazykov / I. V. Zykova. — 3-e izd., ster. — M.: Izdatel’skij centr «Akademiya», 2008. — 288 p.

Lecture №7. Varieties of English Language. Modern American English

LOCAL VARIETIES OF ENGLISH ON THE BRITISH ISLES

On the British Isles there are some local varieties of English which developed from Old English local dialects. There are six groups of them: Lowland /Scottish/, Northern, Western, Midland, Eastern, Southern. These varieties are used in oral speech by the local population. Only the Scottish dialect has its own literature /R. Berns/. One of the best known dialects of British English is the dialect of London – Cockney. Some peculiarities of this dialect can be seen in the first act of «Pigmalion» by B. Shaw, such as: interchange of /v/ and /w/ e.g. wery vell; interchange of /f/ and /0/, /v/ and / /, e. g/ fing /thing/ and fa:ve / father/; interchange of /h/ and / /, e.g. «’eart» for «heart» and «hart» for «art»; substituting the diphthong /ai/ by /ei/ e.g. «day» is pronounced /dai/; substituting /au/ by /a:/, e.g. «house» is pronounced /ha:s/, «now» /na:/; substituting /ou/ by /o:/ e.g. «don’t» is pronounced /do:nt/ or substituting it by / / in unstressed positions, e.g. «window» is pronounced /wind /. Another feature of Cockney is rhyming slang: «hat» is «tit for tat», «wife» is «trouble and strife», «head» is «loaf of bread» etc. There are also such words as «tanner» /sixpence/, «peckish»/hungry/.

Peter Wain in the «Education Guardian» writes about accents spoken by University teachers: «It is a variety of Southern English RP which is different from Daniel Jones’s description. The English, public school leavers speak, is called «marked RP», it has some characteristic features: the vowels are more central than in English studying abroad, e.g. «bleck het»/ for «black hat»/, some diphthongs are also different, e.g. «house» is pronounced /hais/. There is less aspiration in /p/, /b/, /t/ /d/.

The American English is practically uniform all over the country, because of the constant transfer of people from one part of the country to the other. However, some peculiarities in New York dialect can be pointed out, such as: there is no distinction between /əe/ and /a:/ in words: «ask», «dance» «sand» «bad», both phonemes are possible. The combination «ir» in the words: «bird», «girl» «ear» in the word «learn» is pronounced as /oi/ e.g. /boid/, /goil/, /loin/. In the words «duty», «tune» /j/ is not pronounced /du:ti/, /tu:n/.

AMERICAN ENGLISH

Three things are needed for a new dialect to develop: a group of people living in close proximity to each other; this group living in isolation (either geographically or socially) from other groups; and the passage of time. Given enough time, a dialect may evolve to the point that it becomes a different language from the one it started as. English began existence as a Germanic dialect called Anglo Saxon that was brought to England by invaders from Germany. The Anglo Saxon peoples in England were now geographically isolated from their cousins in Germany which allowed the dialects to evolve in different directions. Other invaders would also influence the de­velopment of English with their languages until the modern English we speak today has become so different from the modern German spoken in Germany that a speaker of one cannot understand a speaker of the other. Thus English and German are considered to be two different, though related, languages. The other modern languages in this family are Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic.

The government of a country might declare that all the languages spoken in that country are actually dialects of one language in order to create the illusion of political unity, while the government of another country might declare that the dialect spoken by its people is actually a unique language from other countries that speak dialects of the same language in order to create a sense of national pride. History is full of governments that have tried to impose a single language on all of its people with varying results: sometimes the minority languages go entirely extinct, sometimes they are reduced to surviving only as dialects of the majority language, and sometimes new languages are unintentionally created by a blending of the two languages. This, brings us to three other language terms that are worth mentioning here. When two or more groups of people who speak different languages need to communicate with each other on a regular basis and do not want to actually learn each others’ language (such as when the European merchants started trading with other peoples around the world), they may develop what is called a pidgin language. This is a simplified language that usually has as few words as possible in its vocabulary (taking some from both languages) and has been stripped of any fancier grammatical rules like the use of multiple verb conjugations and tenses – a kind of Me Tarzan, you Jane way of talking. A pidgin is nobody’s native language and is used only in business interests. In fact, the word pidgin may be derived from the way Chinese merchants mispronounced the English word business. However, in some cases, the children in one of these areas might grow up learning the pidgin as their first language. When this happens, the pidgin can grow in complexity into a Creole language with a larger set of grammatical rules and a much larger vocabulary that share elements of all the languages that went into creating it.

Finally, jargon is a specialized vocabulary used by people within a particular discipline such as medical jargon for doctors, legal jargon for lawyers, or academic jargon for college professors. While jargon words occasionally filter up into a mainstream dialect, they are usually used only by experts and only when they are discussing their particular field. Critics argue, with some justification, that jargon needlessly complicates a statement that could be expressed in a more clear manner. Users of it argue, also with justification, that it is a more precise manner of speaking, although many examples can be found (especially in politics and business) where it has been used intentionally to obscure the fact that the speaker is trying to avoid being precise. The modem development of communications technology may possibly slow down the evolution of dialects and languages. For the first time in history, a single dialect (sometimes called Network Standard) can be broadcast over an entire country, so very few people actually living in geographic isolation anymore. However, the existence of racism, poverty, and class distinctions cause some groups to remain socially isolated from the mainstream of a culture, giving rise to social dialects like Black English (Ebonics) spoken by some African Americans in urban areas. There was recently a great deal of political controversy (ignoring the linguistic facts) over whether Ebonics should be considered a unique language, a “legitimate” dialect of English, or “illegitimate” gutterspeak. Also, teenagers enjoy creating their own dialects that they can use to quickly determine who is or is not part of the “in crowd” and as a “secret language” in front of their parents. These dialects tend to go in and out of fashion very quickly; by the time an expression has filtered up to the main stream dialect adults understand, the teenagers have moved on to something else. Even the Internet has given birth to what might be called a new social dialect (derived from hacker jargon) containing words like IMHO, IIRC. There is no such thing as “correct English”. Any manner of speaking that is following the rules of a dialect is equally “correct”. Words like ain’t are “real” words in some dialects and perfectly acceptable to use. However, people are judged by the way they speak, and dialects carry different levels of social prestige with them based on the prejudices within society. Generally, the southern dialects of American English carry a lower prestige, at least among northerners who will assume that a person speaking a southern dialect is less intelligent and less educated than they are. Some educated southerners even feel this way and will “correct” their speech to meet northern standards. The New York City dialect carries the lowest prestige of all (Received Standard, a dialect of British English used by the BBC and the royal family, carries the highest prestige – even among Americans). For this reason, schools try to rid children of the local dialects they learned from their family and friends in favor of a more prestigious one. (Of course, some sentences like, Me are a educated person, would be incorrect in every dialect.) The variety of English spoken in the USA has received the name of American English. The term variant or variety appears most appropriate for several reasons. American English cannot be called a dialect although it is a regional variety, because it has a literary normalised form called Standard American (or American National Standard), whereas a dialect has no literary form. Neither is it a separate language because it has neither grammar nor vocabulary of its own. From the lexical point of view we shall have to deal only with a heterogeneous set of Americanisms. An Americanism may be defined as a word or a set expression peculiar to the English language as spoken in the USA, e.g.: cookie — a biscuit; guess — think; mail — post; store -shop. It is quite true that the vocabulary used by American speakers, has distinctive features of us own. More than that: there are whole groups of words which belong to American vocabulary exclusively and constitute its specific feature. These words are called Americanisms. The first group of such words may be described as historical Americanisms.

At the beginning of the 17th c. the first English migrants began arriving in America in search of new and better living conditions. It was then that English was first spoken on American soil, and it is but natural that it was spoken in its 17th c. form. For instance, the noun fall was used by the first migrants in its old meaning “autumn”, the verb to guess in the old meaning “to think”, the adjective sick in the meaning “ill, unwell”. In American usage these words still keep their old meanings whereas in British English their meanings have changed. These and similar words, though the Americans and the English use them in different meanings, are nevertheless found both in American and in British vocabularies.

The second group of Americanisms includes words which are not likely to be found in British vocabulary. They are specifically American, and we shall therefore call them proper Americanisms. The oldest of these were formed by the first migrants to the American continent and reflected, to a great extent, their attempts to cope with their new environment. It should be remembered that America was called “The New World” not only because the migrants severed all connections with their old life. America was for them a truly new world in which everything was strikingly different from what it had been in the Old Country (as they called England): the landscape, climate, trees and plants, birds and animals. Therefore, from the very first, they were faced with a serious lack of words in their vocabulary with which to describe all these new and strange things. Gradually such words were formed. Here are some of them: Backwoods — wooded, uninhabited districts; cold snap — a sudden frost; blue-grass — a sort of grass peculiar to North America; blue-jack — a small American oak; egg-plant — a plant with edible fruit; sweet potato — a plant with sweet edible roots; redbud — an American tree having small budlike pink flowers, the state tree of Oklahoma; red cedar — an American coniferous tree with reddish fragrant wood; cat-bird — a small North-American bird whose call resembles the mewing of a cat; cat-fish — called so because of spines likened to a cat’s claws; bull-frog — a huge frog producing sounds not unlike a bull’s roar; sun-fish — a fish with a round flat golden body. Later proper Americanisms are represented by names of objects which are called differently in the United States and in England. E. g. the British chemist’s is called drugstore or druggist’s in the United States, the American word for sweets (Br.) is candy, luggage (Br.) is called baggage (Amer.), underground (Br.) is called subway (Amer.), lift (Br.) is called elevator (Amer.), railway (Br.) is called railroad (Amer.), carriage (Br.) is called car (Amer.), car (Br.) is called automobile (Amer.).

If historical Americanisms have retained their 17th century meanings (e. g. fall, n., mad, adj., sick, adj.), there are also words which, though they can be found both in English and in American vocabulary, have developed meanings characteristic of American usage. The noun date is used both in British and American English in the meanings “the time of some event”; “the day of the week or month”; “the year”. On the basis of these meanings, in American English only, another meaning developed: an appointment for a particular time (transference based on contiguity: the day and time of an appointment — appointment itself).

American vocabulary is rich in borrowings. The principal groups of borrowed words are the same as were pointed out for English vocabulary. Yet, there are groups of specifically American borrowings which reflect the historical contacts of the Americans with other nations on the American continent. These are, for instance, Spanish borrowings (e. g. ranch, sombrero, canyon), Ne­gro borrowings (e.g. banjo) and, especially, Indian borrowings. The latter are rather numerous and have a peculiar flavour of their own: wigwam, squaw, canoe, moccasin, toboggan, caribou, tomahawk. There are also some translation-loans of Indian origin: pale-face (all white people), war path, pipe of peace, fire-water. These words are used metaphorically in both American and British modern communica­tion. A woman who is too heavily made up may be said to wear war paint, and a person may be warned against an enemy by: Take care: he is on the war path (i.e. he has hostile intentions). Many of the names of places, rivers, lakes, even of states, are of Indian origin, and hold, in their very sound, faint echoes of the distant past of the continent. Such names as, for instance, Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky sound exotic and romantic. One more group of Americanisms is represented by American shortenings. It should be immediately pointed out that there is nothing specifically American about shortening as a way of word-building. It is a productive way of word-building typical of both British and American English. Yet, this type of word structure seems to be especially characteristic for American word-building. The following shortenings were produced on American soil, yet most of them are used both in American English and British English: movies, talkies, auto, gym (for gymnasium), dorm (for dormitory), mo (for moment, e.g. Just a mo), circs (for circumstances, e.g. under the circs), cert (for certainty, e.g. That’s a cert), b.f. (for boyfriend), g. m. (for grandmother).

More examples could be given in support of the statement that the vocabulary of American English includes certain groups of words that are specifically American and possesses certain distinctive characteristics. Yet, in all its essential features, it is the same vocabulary as that of British English. Actually, they are not two vocabularies but one. To begin with, the basic vocabulary, whose role in communication is of utmost importance, is the same in American and British English, with very few exceptions. On the other hand, many Americanisms belong to colloquialisms and slang, that is to those shifting, changeable strata of the vocabulary which do not represent its stable or permanent bulk, the latter being the same in American and British speech. Against the general extensive background of English vocabulary, all the groups of Americanisms look, in comparison, insignificant enough, and are not sufficiently weighty to support the hypothesis that there is an “American language”. Many Americanisms easily penetrate into British speech, and, as a result, some of the distinctive characteristics of American English become erased, so that the differentiations seem to have a tendency of getting levelled rather than otherwise. As to the grammar here we are likely to find even fewer divergencies than in the vocabulary system.

The first distinctive feature is the use of the auxiliary verb will in the first person singular and plural of the Future Indefinite Tense, in contrast to the British normative shall. The American I will go there does not imply modality, as in the similar British utterance (where it will mean “I am willing to go there”), but pure futurity. The British-English Future Indefinite shows the same tendency of substituting will for shall in the first person singular and plural.

The second distinctive feature consists in a tendency to substitute the Past Indefinite Tense for the Present Perfect Tense, especially in oral communication. An American is likely to say I saw this movie where an Englishman will probably say I’ve seen this film, though, with the mutual penetration of both varieties, it is sometimes difficult to predict what Americanisms one is likely to hear on the British Isles. Even more so with the substitution of the Past Indefinite for the Present Perfect which is also rather typical of some English dialects. Just as American usage has retained the old meanings of some English words (fall, guess, sick), it has also retained the old form of the Past Participle of the verb to get: to get — got — gotten (cf. the British got). That is practically the whole story as far as divergences in grammar of American English and British English are concerned. The grammatical system of both varieties is actually the same, with very few exceptions.

American English is marked by certain phonetic peculiarities. Yet, these consist in the way some words are pronounced and in the intonation patterns. The system of phonemes is the same as in British English, with the exception of the American retroflexive [r]-sound, the labialized [h] in such words as what, why, white, wheel, [əe] for [a:] in ask dance, path, etc., or [e] for [ei] in made, day, etc. The American spelling is in sonic aspects simpler than its British counterpart, in other respects just different. The suffix -out is spelled -or, so that armor and humor are the American variants of armour and human. Altho stands for although and thru for through.

All this brings us to the inevitable conclusion that the language spoken in the Uninted States of America is, in all essential features, identical with that spoken in Great Britain. The grammar systems are fully identical. The American vocabulary is marked by certain peculiarities which are not sufficiently numerous or pronounced to justify the claims that there exists an independent American language. The language spoken in the United States can be regarded as a regional variety of English, Canadian, Australian and Indian (that is, the English spoken in India) can also be considered regional varieties of English with their own peculiarities.

BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH

British and American English are two main variants of English. Besides them there are: Canadian, Australian, Indian, New Zealand and other variants. They have some peculiarities in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, but they are easily used for communication between people living in these countries. As far as the American English is concerned, some scientists /H.N. Menken, for example/ tried to prove that there is a separate American language. In 1919 H.N. Menken published a book called «The American Language». But most scientists, American ones including, criticized his point of view because differences between the two variants are not systematic. American English begins its history at the beginning of the 17-th century when first English-speaking settlers began to settle on the Atlantic coast of the American continent. The language which they brought from England was the language spoken in England during the reign of Elizabeth the First. In the earliest period the task of Englishmen was to find names for places, animals, plants, customs which they came across on the American continent. They took some of names from languages spoken by the local population – Indians, such as: “chipmuck” /an American squirrel/, «igloo» /Escimo dome-shaped hut/, «skunk» / a black and white striped animal with a bushy tail/, «squaw» / an Indian woman/, «wigwam» /an American Indian tent made of skins and bark/ etc. Besides Englishmen, settlers from other countries came to America, and English-speaking settlers mixed with them and borrowed some words from their languages, e.g. from French the words «bureau»/a writing desk/, «cache» /a hiding place for treasure, provision/, «depot» / a store-house/, «pumpkin»/a plant bearing large edible fruit/. From Spanish such words as: «adobe» / unburnt sun-dried brick/, «bonanza» /prosperity/, «cockroach» /a beetle-like insect/, «lasso» / a noosed rope for catching cattle/ were borrowed. Present-day New York stems from the Dutch colony New Amsterdam, and Dutch also influenced English. Such words as: «boss», «dope», «sleigh» were borrowed .

The second period of American English history begins in the 19-th century. Immigrants continued to come from Europe to America. When large groups of immigrants from the same country came to America some of their words were borrowed into English. Italians brought with them a style of cooking which became widely spread and such words as: «pizza», «spaghetti» came into English. From the great number of German-speaking settlers the following words were borrowed into English: «delicatessen», «lager», «hamburger», «noodle», «schnitzel» and many others. During the second period of American English history there appeared quite a number of words and word-groups which were formed in the language due to the new political system, liberation of America from the British colonialism, its independence. The following lexical units appeared due to these events: the United States of America, assembly, congress, Senate, congressman, President, senator, Vice-President and many others. Besides these political terms many other words were coined in American English in the 19-th century: to antagonize, to demoralize, influential, department store, telegram, telephone and many others. There are some differences between British and American English in the usage of prepositions, such as prepositions with dates, days of the week BE requires «on» / I start my holiday on Friday/, in American English there is no preposition / I start my vacation Friday/. In BE we use «by day», «by night»/«at night», in AE the corresponding forms are «days» and «nights». In BE we say «at home», in AE – home» is used. In BE we say «a quarter to five», in AE «a quarter of five». In BE we say «in the street», in AE – «on the street». In BE we say «to chat to somebody», in AE «to chat with somebody». In BE we say «different to something», in AE – «different from someting». There are also units of vocabulary which are different while denoting the same notions, e.g. BE – «trousers», AE – «pants»; in BE «pants» are «трусы» which in AE is «shorts». While in BE «shorts» are outwear. This can lead to misunderstanding. There are some differences in names of places:

BE AE BE AE

passage hall cross-roads intersection

pillar box mail-box the cinema the movies

studio bed-sitter one-room apartment

flyover overpass tube, underground subway

pavement sidewalk flat subway

tram streetcar lift elevator

surgery doctor’s office

Some names of useful objects:

BE AE BE AE

biro ballpoint rubber eraser

tap faucet torch flashlight

parcel package elastic rubber band

carrier bag shopping bag reel of cotton spool of thread

Some words connected with food:

BE AE BE AE

tin can sweets candy

sweet biscuit cookie dry biscuit crackers

sweet dessert chips french fries

minced ground beef

Some words denoting personal items:

BE AE BE AE

fringe bangs/of hair/ turn-ups cuffs

tights pantyhose mackintosh raincoat

ladder run/in a stocking/ braces suspenders

poloneck turtleneck waistcoat vest

Some words denoting people:

BE AE BE AE

barrister lawyer staff /university/ faculty

post-graduate graduate chap, fellow guy

caretaker janitor constable patrolman

shopassistant shopperson bobby cop

If we speak about cars there are also some differences:

BE AE BE AE

boot trunk wing fenders

a car an auto to hire a car to rent a car

Differences in the organization of education lead to different terms. BE «public school» is in fact a private school. It is a fee-paying school not controlled by the local education authorities. AE «public school» is a free local authority school. BE «elementary school» is AE «grade school» BE «secondary school» is AE «high school». In BE «a pupil leaves a secondary school», in AE «a student graduates from a high school». In BE you can graduate from a university or college of education, graduating entails getting a degree. A British university student takes three years known as the first, the second and the third years. An American student takes four years, known as freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years. While studying a British student takes a main and subsidiary subjects. An American student majors in a subject and also takes electives. A British student specializes in one main subject, with one subsidiary to get his honours degree. An American student earns credits for successfully completing a number of courses in studies, and has to reach the total of 36 credits to receive a degree.

Differences of spelling

The reform in the English spelling for American English was introduced by the famous American lexicographer Noah Webster who published his first dictionary in 1806. Those of his proposals which were adopted in the English spelling are as follows:

a) the deletion of the letter «u» in words ending in «our», e.g. honor, favor;

b) the deletion of the second consonant in words with double consonants, e.g. traveler; c) the replacement of «re» by «er» in words of French origin, e.g. theater, center;

d) the deletion of unpronounced endings in words of Romanic origin, e.g. catalog, program;

e) the replacement of «ce» by «se» in words of Romanic origin, e.g. defense, offense;

d) deletion of unpronounced endings in native words, e.g. tho, thro.

Differences in pronunciation

In American English we have r-coloured fully articulated vowels, in the combinations: ar, er, ir, or, ur, our etc. In BE before fricatives and combinations with fricatives «a» is pronounced as /a:/, in AE it is pronounced /əe/ e.g. class, dance, answer, fast etc.

There are some differences in the position of the stress:

BE AE BE AE

add`ress adress la`boratory `laboratory

re`cess `recess re`search `research

in`quiry `inquiry ex`cess `excess

Some words in BE and AE have different pronunciation, e.g.

BE AE

/`fju:tail/ /`fju:t l/

/lef`ten nt/ /lu:tenant/

/shedju:l/ /skedyu:l/

But all differences in pronunciation do not prevent Englishmen and American from communicating with each other easily and cannot serve as a proof that British and American are different languages. Words can be classified according to the period of their life in the language. The number of new words in a language is always larger than the number of words which come out of active usage. Accordingly we can have archaisms, that is words which have come out of active usage, and neologisms, that is words which have recently appeared in the language.

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