British and American English
Our VOA listener question this week comes from three listeners in China, Vietnam and India. They all want to know about differences between American and British English.
Language experts say that spoken English was almost the same in the American colonies and Britain two-hundred years ago. Americans began to change the sound of their speech after the Revolutionary War in seventeen-seventy-six. They wanted to make it different to separate themselves from the British in language, in the same way they separated themselves from the British government.
Some American leaders proposed major changes in the language. Benjamin Franklin wanted a whole new system of spelling. His reforms were not accepted. But his ideas did influence others. One was Noah Webster.
Webster wrote language books for schools. He believed the United States should have a system of its own language as well as government. Webster published a dictionary of the A
merican language in eighteen-twenty-eight. It established rules for speaking and spelling the words used in American English.
Webster wrote that all words should be said in the order of the letters that spell them. This is why Americans use the letters “e-r” to end many words instead of the British “r-e.” He spelled the word “center,” for example, “c-e-n-t-e-r,” instead of the British “c-e-n-t-r-e.”
Noah Webster said every part of a word should be spoken. That is why Americans say “sec-re-ta-ry” instead of “sec-re’try,” as the British do. Webster’s rule for saying every part of a word made American English easier for foreign settlers to learn. They learned to say "waist-coat," for example, the way it is spelled instead of the British “wes-kit."jumper2
The different languages of many people who came to the United States also helped make American and British English different. Many of their foreign words and expressions became part of English as Americans speak it.
Sometimes Americans and British people do not understand each other because of diffe
rent word meanings. For example, the word “jumper” in Britain means a sweater. In the United States, it is a dress. The British word “brolly” is an “umbrella” in America. And the British call potato chips “crisps.” All of these differences led British writer George Bernard Shaw to joke that Britain and America are two countries separated by the same language
Many students want to know about the differences between American English and British English. How did these differences come about? There is no quick answer to this question. At first the language in Britain and America was the same. In 1776 America became an independent country. After that, the language slowly began to change. For a long time the language in America stayed the same, while the language in England changed. For example,300 years ago the English talked about"fall".today, most British people talk about"autumn",but Americans still talk about"fall".In the same way Americans still use the expression “I guess"(meaning"I think"),just as the british did 300 years ago.
At the same time,British English and American English started borrowing words from oth
er languages, ending up with different words. For example, the British took"typhoon"from Chinese,while the Americans took"tornado"from Spanish.
In 1828 Noah Webster published the first American dictionary.He wanted to make American English different from British English,so he changed the speling ofmany words.That's why the words colour,centre and traveller are spelt color,center and traveler in American English.Except for these differences in spelling,written English is more or less the same in both British and American English.
The differences are greater in the spoken language.However,most of the time people from the two countries do not have any difficulty in understanding each other.
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