ENGLISH IN THE UNITED STATES

1
ENGLISH IN THE UNITED STATES
2

• American English also known as United States
  English, or U.S. English is a set of dialects of
  the English language used mostly in the United
  States. Approximately two-thirds of native
  speakers of English live in the United States.

3
English language prevalence in the United States.
Darker shades of blue indicate higher
concentrations of native English speakers
4

• The use of English in the United States was
  inherited from British colonization.
• The first wave of English-speaking settlers
  arrived in North America in the 17th century.
• During that time, there were also speakers of
  other languages such as Spanish, French, Dutch,
  German, Norwegian, Swedish, Scots, Welsh, Irish,
  Scottish Gaelic, Finnish, Russian (in Alaska),
  and numerous Native American languages.

5

• There were already other indigenous group that
  speak Native American languages ex. Eskima
  Aleut, Uto-Aztecan, Yunan and Navajo.
• The language the immigrant brought to Jamestown,
  Virginia was early modern English and the
  South-East England.

6

• Linguistic map of the United States

7
Development of English in America

• Influenced by
• 1. Source of the original British dialect
• 2. Maintenance of contact with the
  homecountry
• 3. Pattern of settlement
• 4. Influence of other languages spoken by
  other immigrants
• 5. Social and geographical mobility

8
Settlement in America

• Took place in three stages
• Stage 1
• The first thirteen colonies in the mountainous
  region of Appalachian
• Stage 2
• Settlers moved into the South and Midwest
• Stage 3
• Settlers moved into Southwest and West

9
Settlement of America
10

• English is the most common language in the United
  States
• English is considered the de facto language of
  the United States because of its widespread use.

11

• Immigrants from Southeastern England began
  arriving on the North American continent in the
  early 1600's.
• The American English language is characterized by
  archaisms (words that changed meaning in Britain,
  but remained in the colonies) and innovations in
  vocabulary (borrowing from the French and Spanish
  who were also settling in North America).

12

• Noah Webster was the most vocal about the need
  for an American national identity with regards to
  the American English language. He wrote an
  American spelling book, The Blueback Speller, in
  1788 and changed several spellings from British
  English
• Ex colour became color, theatre became theater,
  etc.

13
NOAH WEBSTER

• An American scholar responsible for divorcing AE
  from BrE.
• He wrote three elementary books
• 1. Grammatical Institute of the English Language
• 2. The American Spelling Book
• 3. Dissertation of the English Language

14

• His influence is most significant in spelling

British American
honour, neighbour honor, neighbor
traveller, waggon traveler, wagon
fibre, theatre fiber, theater
defence, offence defense, offense
axe, plough ax, plow
tyre tire
storey story
gaol jail
judgement judgment
mediaeval, oestrogen medieval, estrogen
masque, cheque mask, check
15
Development of American English

• How, Why and When American English began to
  Diverge from British English

16

• The divergence took place due to
• 1. Physical separation of Britain from America
• 2. Different physical condition encountered by
  the settleers.
• 3. Contact with non-native speakers of English
• 4. Growing American sense of national identity

17

• Although the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada,
  Australia and New Zealand have English as an
  official language, the United States does not
  have an official language.
• Canada also has French as an official language,
  though it is mostly spoken in the province of
  Quebec. Because many of the English speakers who
  originally inhabited Canada came from the US,
  there is little difference in the American and
  Canadian dialects of English.

18
American English and its dialects

• Besides British English, American English is now
  regarded as an equivalent standard variety of
  English. Sociolinguistically, it must be regarded
  as even more influential than modern British
  English.
• It has diverse dialects just as BrE

19

• LANGUAGE VARIATION IN THE UNITED STATES

20

• Variation from BrE occurs in
• Phonology - consonant and vowel pronounced
  differently in different regions of US
• Spelling some words vary from Br E ex. center
  / centre
• Lexicon meaning change from Br E ex. boot of a
  car / trunk of a car.

21

• Phonology Consonants

Feature Example Pronounced Region
intervocalic /s/ vs. /z/ greasy grisi grizi Northern Midland, Southern

/ð/ vs. /?/ with, wihtout wið wi? Northern Midland

/hw/ gt /w/ whether, weather New York City, North Midland
22
Feature Example Pronounced Region
/h/ deleted before /iu/ human, Hugh Eastern United States, especially New York City

/i/ deleted before /p/, /b/, /f/ help, bulb, wolf, gilf Southern

/r/ deleted after vowels park, car, sister pak ka Eastern New England, New York City, plantation-influenced South
23

• Phonology Vowels
• In American Vowel System, there are two
  categories
• 1. Northern Cities Vowel Rotation
• 2. Southern Vowel Shift

24
Northern Cities Vowel Rotation
25
Southern Vowel Shift
26
Social and Ethnic Dialects

• Characteristic that affect the way people speak
  are
• 1. Social status not obvious like RP in
  Britain.
• 2. Ethnicity most prominent is the
  Black AE
• 3. Gender biasness towards
  masculinity

27
Linguistic Atlas
28

• The linguistic landscape of the US still
  reflects the settlement history of this country
  and the corresponding origins of old world
  dialects. Generally speaking, the US can be
  divided into three dialect areas the northern,
  the midland, and the southern zone.

29
(No Transcript)
30

• The northern dialects spreading from New
  England to the North West of America (Washington)
  were influenced by the dialect of the Puritans.
  These people mainly came from counties in the
  east of England.
• These eastern dialects were non-rhotic (as is
  RP), i.e. the / r/ was not pronounced after
  vowels. The tendency not to pronounce /r/ is
  still a feature of New England dialects.

31

• In contrast, the southern dialects originating
  in the earliest settlements in Virginia are
  rhotic. This is due to the fact that many of
  these settlers came from Englands West
  Country.
• It is argued that these Tidewater accents are
  the closest one will ever get to the sound of
  Shakespeares English.

32
(No Transcript)
33

• The Midland dialects reflect the cosmopolitan
  immigration patchwork of the middle Atlantic
  areas. The settlers brought a variety of
  different linguistic backgrounds with them this
  caused regional dialect divisions to be blurred.
  However, in this region which now extends into
  California due to the pioneering into the west
  the accent of the so-called Sunbelt emerged.

34

• This accent is most commonly associated with
  present-day American speech and forms the basis
  of the standard General American.
• General American has retained a great number of
  features of 17th century English. Thus, for
  instance, words such as bath, path, grass are
  pronounced with an æ sound, while present-day
  RP has an a.

35
SOCIAL CLASS AND LANGUAGE CHANGE

• social strata does influence language usage
  similarly, it happens in the US
• social class distinctions ultimately based on
  status and power.
• status amount of respect and deference accorded
  to a person
• power social and material resources a person can
  command to make decisions and influence events

36
Contd

• In every society, there are majority and minority
  / ethnic groups
• In the US, there are many immigrants varieties of
  English such as the Chicanos, Asian, Red Indians
  and Black American

37
Ethnicity

• from a sociolinguistic point of view ethnicity
  is difficult to separate from other social
  factors like region and class
• e.g. the notion of Jewish English is
  strongly associated with New York
• African American English often linked to
  social status and has Southern roots

38

• parameters for the definition of an ethnic group
  (National Councilof Social Studies)
• origins that precede or are external to the
  state
• group membership is involuntary
• ancestral tradition rooted in a shared sense of
  peoplehood

39

• distinctive value orientations and behavioral
  patterns
• influence of the group on the lives of its
  members
• group membership influenced by how members
  define themselves and how they are defined by
  others

40
African American Vernacular English

• When listening to Jazz, Blues, or Hip-Hop a
  distinct form of American English can be
  recognised African American Vernacular English
  (AAVE), formerly described as Black English. Of
  course, the development of this variety is
  closely connected to the dismal history of black
  slaves.

41

• In the US, the West Indian slave pidgins
  developed into a distinct plantation creole that
  also contained a great number of features from
  non-standard dialects of English.

42

• These plantation creoles form the basis of
  African American Vernacular English, whose actual
  development is very complex and controversial.
  With the strong influence of black music, AAVE
  became known throughout the United States. It
  also found a very eloquent rhetoric in the
  speeches of Martin Luther King, the famous
  proponent of the civil rights movement in the
  1960ies.

43
The difference between British English and
American English

• American English and British English (BrE) differ
  at the levels of
• Phonology
• Phonetics
• vocabulary
• grammar
• orthography.

44
PHONOLOGY

• Compared to BrE, AE is more homogeneous. Some
  distinctive features in 
• East Coast ( New England New York City) because
  they are in contact with England. They tend to
  imitate the prestigious BrE.
• East Coast pronunciation is rhotic. (A rhotic
  speaker pronounces the letter R in hard a
  non-rhotic speaker does not pronounce the R in
  hard)

45

• /r/ is not a trill sound but rather a retroflex
  sound ?
• Loss of final syllabler r especially in east
  New England ex r is not pronounced in words
  like bird, hard, first, work
• The loss of r often changed to schwa ? ex.
  fur, butter
• Further examples, refer to text, pg 226 227

46
PHONETICS
WORD BrE AmE
aluminium aluminium aluminium
privacy priv-acy pry-vacy
route root rout
schedule shedule skedule
tomato tom-ah-to tom-ay-do
vitamin vit-amin vie-tamin
47
VOCABULARY
BRITISH ENGLISH AMERICAN ENGLISH
flat apartment
lift elevator
first floor second floor
ground floor first floor
biscuits cookies
chips French fries
rubbish garbage
sweets candies
rubber eraser
48
GRAMMAR
BRITISH ENGLISH AMERICAN ENGLISH
I have lost my pen. I lost my pen.
He has gone home. He went home.
I have already seen this movie. I already saw this movie.
Have you got a car? Do you have a car?
Shall I help you with the homework? Should I help you with the homework?
She suggested that I should see a doctor. She suggested that I see a doctor.
49
ORTHOGRAPHY.

• Orthography is the languages writing system.
• because English spelling is changing gradually
  American and British standards often disagree.
• Here are some rules for choosing between
  competing spellings in Modern English.

50

• The combinations "ae" and "oe", generally
  occurring in words of Greek origin, are seldom
  present in American English. Also, a few words,
  such as "algae" and "cristae", would be rendered
  a bit confusing. Therefore, "ae" and "oe" must be
  preserved in words like "aeon" and "amoeba".

51

• In British English, variation between words
  ending in "ce" and "se" is supposed to indicate
  related noun-verb pairs such as "practice" and
  "practise".
• Many verbs end in "ce" and many nouns end in
  "se", this rule is not a reliable indication of
  word class.

52

• Where variation exists between "or" and "our",
  British English often, but not always, prefers
  the latter (ex. labor / labour) In many words
  such as "laboratory", both varieties of English
  prefer the Latin "or" to the Old French "our".
  Therefore, "or" is preferred over "our" for
  consistency.

53

• Words ending in "re" in British English are
  generally (except for a few exceptions such as
  "acre" and "ogre") modified to end in "er" for
  American English example, centre vs center

54

• Differences in lexicon / vocabulary is
  noticeable in idioms too

55
Equivalent Idioms
A number of English idioms that have essentially
the same meaning show lexical differences between
the British and the American version.
BRITISH ENGLISH AMERICAN ENGLISH
not touch something with a bargepole not touch something with a ten-foot pole
sweep under the carpet sweep under the rug
touch wood knock on wood
see the wood for the trees see the forest for the trees
56
CONCLUSION

• AE is not a monolithic language
• AE is a salad bowl of many ethnic dialects
• Due to United States position as the superpower
  of this era, it is likely that it will be the
  dominant lingua franca in the future

57
THANK YOU