In a arousal address to the loyal Royal Society of St. George in April 1988, Enoch Powell affirmed the lasting claim of the English to English: “Others may talk and read English more or less but it is our linguistic communication non theirs. It was made in England by the English and it remains our typical belongings, nevertheless widely it is learnt or used.” The American answer at that clip was: “It is our position in America that this is our linguistic communication every bit much as anybody else ‘s. Chaucer and Shakespeare belong to me every bit much as they do to anyone in Britain” ( qtd. in Ricks 15 ) .
The two statements are one manner or another undue. The former is excessively sole ( Powell ‘s promising calling was really destroyed by his fierce look of positions that were regarded as violently racialist ) and really racist from the point of position of the ‘our-theirs ‘ differentiation. He is true about one thing, though, viz. that English was so born in England along with the English civilization and civilisation and cipher can of all time contend this historical truth. That is why the 2nd statement appears undue when asseverating that Chaucer and Shakespeare besides belong to America. However, these sentiments about the ‘copyright ‘ to English, if applied to the recent context of the English linguistic communication ‘s astonishing worldwide spread, are non politically right any longer.
At the present minute English is the most geographically widespread linguistic communication in the universe. More than 300 million people speak it as a first linguistic communication and a about equal figure usage it in add-on to their ain linguistic communication. The geographical airing of the English linguistic communication is a alone instance of linguistic communication spread and linguistic communication infliction, no other linguistic communication holding undergone a similar enlargement since Greek and Roman times.
Nowadays the English linguistic communication has assumed a new function: that of universe ‘s heritage. It has become portion of the international vocabulary of athletics, advertisement, manner, news media, popular music, scientific discipline, engineering, jurisprudence and diplomatic negotiations, the agencies by which states best communicate with each other. To set it in a nutshell, it has become the universe ‘s lingua franca, that is the reciprocally agreed on linguistic communication to ease trade, diplomatic negotiations and other societal maps. Unwarily, English is on the brink of exceling linguistic communication barriers and of going the extremely aspired ‘one linguistic communication for the universe ‘ .
1.1. The Importance of the English Language
“English Worldwide” was written as a response to the long-standing truism that English is the universe ‘s most of import linguistic communication, a statement which made worth-wile a brief glimpse at the footing of the statement. The chief focal point of the present research paper is, therefore, on the function of English as a agency of international communicating.
At this minute there are 100s, if non 1000s, of different linguistic communications in the universe, each one holding a alone importance for those who speak it as a native language-that is, their first lingua. But this seems to be a instead subjective criterion of categorization. Other factors, more nonsubjective, necessitate to be taken into consideration.
The first standard would be the figure of native talkers that a linguistic communication happens to hold, which puts English after Chinese which has two times as many talkers. A 2nd standard would be the extent to which a linguistic communication is geographically dispersed, that is in how many states it is used and the cognition of it is necessary, which clearly makes English a front smuggler. A 3rd standard refers to what Leech and Swartvik call the ‘vehicular burden ‘ , that is to what extent it is a medium for scientific discipline or literature or other extremely regarded cultural manifestation – including ‘way of life ‘ . If we take into consideration this standard we will foremost believe about the great literatures of the Orient, about the linguistic communications of Tolstoi, Goethe, Cervantes and Racine ; but in add-on to being the linguistic communication of Shakespeare, English tonss by being the primary medium for 20th century scientific discipline and engineering. A 4th, and last, standard is the economic and political influence of those who speak it as ‘their own ‘ linguistic communication. This standard invokes of class Nipponese, Russian and German as linguistic communications of powerful, productive and influential communities, “but English is the linguistic communication of the United States which – to take one petroleum but nonsubjective step – has a larger ‘Gross National Product ‘ than any other state in the world.” ( Quirk, 2 )
The British linguist David Crystal explains the unprecedented rise of English to its present twenty-four hours position by taking into consideration besides its lingual qualities, asseverating that it is unstable, elastic, unfastened and absorptive, greedy for new words, even ready to make over and repossess them as its ain. The linguist goes every bit far as to asseverate that it is this thirst for new words from other linguistic communications that has given English such a huge and eclectic vocabulary. Indeed, the Oxford English Dictionary lists about half a million words, far more than any other linguistic communication and about 1.500 new 1s are added every twelvemonth.
Another quality of English is, paradoxically, its dross. It began life as a bastard linguistic communication when Danes mingled with Anglo-Saxons in Britain in the 6th and 7th centuries AD, and it has ne’er lost that characteristic. Three hundred old ages subsequently, the Norman invasion added 1000s of new Gallic words and helped to simplify grammar. British colonial enlargement from the early seventeenth century further exposed the linguistic communication to taint from abroad.
But turning dross merely increased the bastard ‘s energy. An interesting facet in this regard, is that its two most of import centres, Britain and the United States, did non make academies to continue lingual pureness. As David Crystal puts it, “you ca n’t hold it both ways. If you wish to continue the individuality of your ain linguistic communication, it is to some extent at the disbursal of doing it more hard for people from outside to larn it” ( qtd. in Ricks167 ) .
However, this could be the chief danger as, while the linguistic communication becomes used in all corners of the universe by people from all walks of life, it begins to develop new spoken assortments which, in clip, might go reciprocally unintelligible. This could likely be the chief ground for the English to hold a criterion or mention point, peculiarly of import for talkers of English as a 2nd linguistic communication. There are pidgin signifiers ensuing from a few English words mixed with the several female parent linguas and no grammar regulations, and there are the many local assortments clearly recognizable as English but non ever easy to understand if you do non belong to that peculiar group. Hence, the demand for international standard English as a widely used tool of communicating across cultural boundaries all around the universe.
The following sub-subchapters have been chosen to stand for societies in which English is the dominant linguistic communication ( as it is in Britain, Ireland and the United States ) , in which it coexists with other linguistic communications ( as in Canada ) , in which it is the linguistic communication of significant minority ( as in South Africa ) , and in which it plays a important function in national personal businesss ( as in India and the states of East and West Africa ) . In some countries which will be discussed subsequently, English coexists with an English-based pidgin or Creole, as it does in Jamaica and Nigeria. In others, English has a distinguishable local spirit that may be regarded as grounds of an emerging national criterion within the universe community of English users.
1.2. The Function of the English Language
The function of main linguistic communication of the universe has been doubtless assumed by English. The function of the English linguistic communication is derived from its complex usage, and its polifunctionality as a native, 2nd, foreign, official linguistic communication, and late as a tongue franca.
1.2.1. English as a Native Language
English is spoken as a native linguistic communication by about three hundred million people: in Australia, Ireland, the United States, South Africa, New Zealand, Britain, the Caribbean and Canada, and a figure of smaller states or smaller ‘pockets ‘ of native English talkers ( for illustration in Kenya ) .
1.2.1.1. Short Insight on English in the United States
The English spoken in contemporary England is used at the footing for learning English as a foreign linguistic communication, besides considered to be the standard English. However, there are sentiments harmonizing to which Americans speak the linguistic communication better than the English do ; they pronounce it ‘more right ‘ . Timothy Dwight, president of Yale College from 1795 to 1817, shared such an sentiment, and he even asserted that some facets of British English ( the provincial 1 ) were about unintelligible. He stated that throughout the settled portion of the United States “every American, descended from English ascendants understands every other, every bit readily as if he had been bred in the same neighborhood.” Several grounds account for this, said Dwight: because there are no distinguishable orders in the society, because the educated mingle freely with the uneducated, so are taken as theoretical accounts by those less polished. However, the regional differences in American pronunciation are a existent fact, but Dwight ‘s statement is another support of the thought that British English is non needfully a ‘trend ‘ to closely lodge to, but merely a point of going for the talkers who learn it as a foreign linguistic communication.
1.2.1.2 English as a Native Language in Ireland
By 1861, merely two per centum of kids under 11 were monoglot Irish talkers. A assortment of factors lead to a rapid spread of the English linguistic communication, a state of affairs similar to the existent development of English on an international graduated table. These factors were: the growing of the railroad station radiating from Dublin and Belfast and associating the major English-speaking towns with all parts of the state, the constitution of hedge and national schools in which the usage of Irish was actively discouraged, and the out-migration as a effect to the doing decease dearths.
During the 2nd half of the 19th century, it became a great desire of the Irish people to cognize English, since it was helpful to emigres who left in hunt of employment. Therefore, larning English became a agency of avoiding dearth. It seemed that the Irish people saw English as an easy route to come on and Irish as the chief obstruction. From that clip the usage of Irish has been seen as portion of the hunt for national individuality from the Republicans ‘ portion.
Such facets refering the spread of the English linguistic communication are presented to reenforce the thought that English does non belong to the British people any longer, except for their history, civilization and civilisation. The English linguistic communication appears to hold been in a uninterrupted worldwide spread since more than two centuries ago, and the procedure could, under no fortunes, be controlled, nowadays making a point where it has become universe ‘s most of import linguistic communication.
1.2.1.3. The English Language in Canada
The English linguistic communication in Canada has a particular position as it is spoken both as a native linguistic communication and as a 2nd linguistic communication. An interesting facet here is the fact that despite the chief inclinations of enforcing a certain English pronunciation on the English assimilating states, the English linguistic communication in Canada has taken a distinctively Canadian signifier, different both from the English of Great Britain and that of North America. However, sentiments exist harmonizing to which the Canadians are neither British nor American, but anyhow “they are more American than they believe themselves to be, or would wish to be considered.” ( Bailey 151 )
Actually, Canadians have frequently found satisfaction in the typical characteristics of their linguistic communication. Merely in Canada is the combination tyre Centre usually encountered an averment of independency from the British Sur and the American centre. In pronunciation, Canadians participate in certain inclinations that, though sometimes current in Britain and the United States, are otherwise distributed in Canada, either socially or in footings of their lingual environments.
The societal history of distinctively Canadian English is comparatively complex. Such 19th century perceivers, as the Reverend A. Constable Geike, radius of the English of Upper Canada as “a corrupt idiom turning up amongst our population” and attributed all its goings from British English – “our baronial female parent tongue” to American influence even though some of the characteristics he mentioned were about of strictly Canadian beginning.
Stephen Leacock, Canada ‘s internationally acclaimed humourist, suggested something of the ambivalency of Canadian lingual attitudes in an essay published in 1936, “I ‘ll Stay in Canada” :
We used to be ashamed of our Canadian linguistic communication, before the war, and seek to rectify it and take on English phrases and state, “What a ripping twenty-four hours, ” alternatively of “What a Prunus persica of a forenoon, ” [ … ] and “Oh, instead! ” alternatively of “O-Hell-Yes.” But now [ … ] we merely accept our ain linguistic communication and are non ashamed of it. We say “yep! ” when we mean “yep! ” and do n’t make bold seek to do out it ‘s “yes, ” which is a word we do n’t utilize ( qtd. in Bailey 210 ) .
Richard W. Bailey is even positive that with each consecutive moving ridge of in-migration, Canadian society is changed but Canadian English is likely to be reinforced and made more, instead than less, coherent as a national linguistic communication. As a general position on this affair, Canadians are less ‘British ‘ in their address than they imagine and rather immune to developments in the American English of the United States, and their common boundary line serves to split both political establishments and lingual wonts. Extended to the chief involvement of the present research paper this statement should pull the full attending upon the fact that scholars of English should non be imposed one ‘type ‘ of English or another, as it is practically impossible to ‘correctly ‘ get a linguistic communication as a foreign scholar, chiefly due to the single address manner – known as idiolect – societal category, regional scene and reactivity to foreign influence.
If we apply these factors in the instance of the Rumanian talkers of English, studied here, we can see that merely two of them are valid in this context, viz. the first and the last 1s. We can non take into consideration neither the societal category of the Rumanian talkers of English, possibly merely their educational position, nor their regional scene which is non a decisive factor for the English linguistic communication ‘s development on the Rumanian district. Yet, the affairs of idiolect and reactivity to foreign linguistic communication should be granted the necessary importance for an improving of the English linguistic communication ‘s instruction and for a stretch of a reciprocally agreed on system of English linguistic communication assignment.
1.2.1.4. English Spoken in Australia and New Zealand
Despite the fact that normally an English talker can non distinguish between Australian and New Zealand English, Australians and New Zealanders can acknowledge each other by their speech patterns. However the chief feature of the two linguistic communications paradoxically remains their uniformity, peculiarly on a regional footing, which may partially be explained by the heavy concentration of the population in a few centres.
Australia and New Zealand were established as British settlements and throughout the history they have remained British in all their purposes and intents. At the present minute 20 per centum of Australians – that is about 2.5 million people – were non born in an English-speaking state or have at least one parent of non-English-speaking beginning. Furthermore there has been force per unit area on the recent immigrants, both egos imposed and from society at big to larn to utilize English.
What is interesting in the context of the present research paper is the ‘conflict ‘ which has arisen between British and American footings in Australian English, which proves one time once more the English talkers ‘ penchant for ‘easier ‘ signifiers of the linguistic communication and their inclinations of ‘estrangement ‘ from the British English. Thus, lorry has been replaced by truck, lift is giving manner to elevator, modern main roads are called freewaies and sometimes expresswaies, but ne’er expresswaies, the British term etc.
However, the Australian and New Zealand English remains unvarying with the British English, an facet which can be clearly seen in the grammatical construction. Furthermore, civilization, businesss, and life manners are basically British and European, as for decennaries text editions used in schools were chiefly produced in Great Britain and perpetuated the British tradition. Yet, no affair how similar the two mentioned linguistic communications are with the English from other major English speech production states, they are non the same with it.
1.2.2. English as a Foreign Language
‘Foreign ‘ denotes a linguistic communication that is used by person for communicating across frontiers or with people who are non countrymen: hearing to broadcasts, reading books or newspapers, commercialism or travel, for illustration. No linguistic communication is more widely studied or used as a foreign linguistic communication than English. The people ‘s desire to larn it is huge and seemingly unrealized.
Taking the instruction systems of the universe as a whole, one may state confidently that more timetable hours are devoted to English than any other topic. To set it bluffly, English is a top demand of those seeking good occupations – and is frequently the linguistic communication in which much of the concern of ‘good occupations ‘ is conducted. One needs it for entree to at least one half of the universe ‘s scientific literature. ( Quirk 4 )
English is non merely the cosmopolitan linguistic communication of international air power, transportation and athletics, it is, up to a considerable grade, the cosmopolitan linguistic communication of literacy and public communicating, and besides the linguistic communication of mechanization and computing machine engineering. Siegfried Muller ( former Director of the Languages-of-the-World Archives in the US Department of Education ) has estimated that approximately 60 % of the universe ‘s wireless broadcasts and 70 % of the universe ‘s mail are in English. The great fabrication states Germany and Japan use English as their chief advertisement and gross revenues medium. The function of main foreign linguistic communication that Gallic occupied for two centuries since 1700 has been doubtless assumed by English – except of class in the English speech production states themselves, where Gallic is challenged merely by Spanish as the foreign linguistic communication most widely studied.
1.2.4. English as an Official Language
Motto: “A common linguistic communication makes common sense”
Declaring English the official linguistic communication means that official authorities concern at all degrees must be conducted entirely in English. This includes all public paperss, records, statute laws and ordinances, every bit good as hearings, official ceremonials and public meetings.
Official English statute law contains common-sense exclusions allowing the usage of linguistic communications other than English for such things as public wellness and safety services, judicial proceedings ( although existent tests would be conducted in English ) , foreign linguistic communication direction and the publicity of touristry. Official English does non curtail the rights of private citizens in any manner. Alternatively, it reins in authorities bureaucratisms that are seeking to spread out their plans.
In 1981 Senator S.I. Hayakawa, Republican of California, introduces a constitutional English Language Amendment, the first proposal to declare English the state ‘s official linguistic communication. Same twelvemonth, the Virginia legislative assembly declares English the province ‘s official linguistic communication and makes English the linguistic communication of public direction. In 1984 New York State base on ballss brushing educational reforms, including foreign linguistic communication demands for all pupils ; Indiana and Kentucky adopt English as their official province linguistic communication ; Tennessee declares English the ‘official and legal ‘ linguistic communication of the province ( the legislative act farther requires all official and legal paperss, including ballots, communications and public direction to be in English ) . In the undermentioned old ages other provinces adopted English as an official medium of communicating: Arkansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Alabama etc.
At present, 27 provinces have some signifier of official English jurisprudence. Most late, Iowa passed official English statute law in 2002. U. S. English is presently working in several extra provinces to go through official English measures.
1.2.5. English as a Lingua Franca
Lingua Franca ( Italian, “Frankish language” ) , is a linguistic communication used over a broad geographic country as a agency of communication—generally to ease commercialism and trading—by people who have no other linguistic communication in common. The term is derived from Lingua Franca, a pidgin, or simplified via media linguistic communication, based on Italian, with alloies of Spanish, Gallic, Greek, and Arabic, used in the Mediterranean country by bargainers in the Middle Ages. As geographic expedition opened up new countries of trade, lingua francas developed, particularly in the New World and the Far East. A lingua franca may be a pidgin. Examples are Chinook Jargon, based on Chinook augmented by other Native American linguistic communications, English, and Gallic, once used in the Pacific Northwest ; and Bazaar Malay, a simplified assortment of Malay spoken in the former Netherlands Indies and British Malaya. A preexisting, unsimplified linguistic communication may besides be used as a tongue franca, for illustration, French, the linguistic communication of 18th-century diplomatic negotiations ; Swahili, spoken today throughout East Africa ; or English, used in modern India.
When two or more people who do non usually talk the same language follow a normally agreed on linguistic communication for communicating, this linguistic communication is called a tongue franca. The term is borrowed from the name given to a linguistic communication used along the Mediterranean seashore in medieval times for the intent of trade. That linguistic communication combined elements of Greek, Arabic, and the Romance linguistic communications. Because the tongue franca was normally understood by many people talking different linguistic communications, it facilitated trade among those cultural groups. Today, the term tongue francahas been extended to mention to any linguistic communication that is reciprocally agreed on to ease trade, diplomatic negotiations, or other societal functions.
A lingua franca may be a to the full developed linguistic communication that is commonly used by many talkers. For illustration, English has become the lingua franca of trade around the universe. Latin has been the tongue franca for the Roman Catholic Church. For a long clip, Yiddish has served as a tongue franca for Judaic people throughout the universe.
A lingua franca can besides be a fundamental linguistic communication. Sometimes, when talkers of two linguistic communications need to pass on, they resort to a hybridized or watered-down linguistic communication that has a little vocabulary and a simple grammar. This type of linguistic communication is called a pidgin. Pidgin, is a linguistic communication based on another linguistic communication, but with a aggressively curtailed vocabulary ( frequently 700 to 2000 words ) and grammar ; native to none of its talkers ; and used as a tongue franca, or a linguistic communication used as a agency of communicating between peoples with different native linguistic communications. Pidgins develop when people who speak different linguistic communications are brought together and forced to develop a agency of communicating without holding sufficient clip to larn each other ‘s native linguistic communications. A pidgin normally derives its vocabulary from one chief linguistic communication, but its grammar will either reflect the constructions of each talker ‘s native lingua, or it will germinate a distinguishable grammar. Among linguistic communications that have given rise to pidgins are English, Gallic, Spanish, Italian, Zulu, and Chinook.
Many vocabulary points and grammatical constructions that have been borrowed from a dominant or beginning linguistic communication arecombined with some grammatical elements and vocabulary points borrowed from an country or local linguistic communication tomake a pidgin. The pidgin is a lingua franca for the two groups, neither of which speaks the pidgin as a indigen or first linguistic communication. A pidgin is considered a minimum linguistic communication because of its limited lingual capacity.
Many people ascribe a negative intension to pidgin linguistic communications because they frequently developed as a consequence of colonisation. For instance, when the early colonists arrived on the shores of North America and found themselves necessitating to pass on with Native Americans, the two groups developed a pidgin linguistic communication based on the colonisers ‘ European linguistic communications. Some of the European linguistic communications used as the footing of these pidgins were English, Dutch, French, Spanish, and Swedish. Because the colonists were convinced that Native Americans were simple and childlike, they simplified their European linguistic communications for the Native Americans. The Native Americans, non realizing that the European linguistic communication they heard had been simplified, merely imitated what they heard every bit good as they could. They besides added elements of their ain linguistic communication to make full in the spreads of vocabulary and grammatical construction. Therefore, the European colonisers provided the beginning linguistic communication for these pidgins and the Native Americans vided elements of the local linguistic communications. The attendant pidgin linguistic communications were non native to either group and were used merely when these groups contacted each other for trade or diplomatic negotiations.
Pidgins develop to function a peculiar intent, and the talkers continue utilizing their native linguistic communications in their ain address communities. Pidgin remains a 2nd linguistic communication and continues to be merely every bit long as the demand that originally brought it about continues to be. Some pidgin linguistic communications are still spoken today, some by a big figure of persons.
Occasionally, a pidgin becomes the indigen or first linguistic communication of a coevals of talkers. At that point, the linguistic communication is termed a Creole. Creole languages develop most easy when parents communicate with each other merely through a pidgin linguistic communication, and the pidgin becomes the first linguistic communication of the kid. Reinforcement for a Creole linguistic communication occurs when all the households in an country are forced to talk pidgin. For illustration, when Africans from many folks that spoke different idioms were brought together on one plantation in the New World, they learned a pidgin dominated by the linguistic communication of the plantation ‘s proprietor. Thus, in Haiti and southern Louisiana, French, the linguistic communication of the old plantation proprietors, is the dominant linguistic communication of modern Creoles. As a pidgin develops into a Creole, it is expanded with more lexical points and greater grammatical complexness. Often, a Creole becomes a to the full developed linguistic communication. This has happened to the Gullah idioms spoken by island-dwellers off the seashore of Georgia and South Carolina and to the English-based Creole spoken in Jamaica, every bit good as the Creole of southern Louisiana and Haiti.
Linguists have noted similarities in grammatical construction among all Creole linguistic communications. Common characteristics include the usage of repeated adjectives and adverbs to bespeak strength and the usage of atoms to alter verb tense. Scholars suggest differing hypotheses to account for this uniformity across diverse Creole linguistic communications. One theory provinces that all Creole linguistic communications descend from the same 15th-century Portuguese pidgin, used by Lusitanian adventurers throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. When this pidgin came in contact with the linguistic communications of ulterior colonisers, the basic grammar remained while the vocabulary integrated new words from such linguistic communications as Gallic and English. However, this hypothesis does non explicate why some pidgins and Creoles that developed with small or no contact with European linguistic communications still portion grammatical characteristics. Other bookmans suggest that the shared grammatical characteristics come from basic lingual penchants for certain word order and for simplified, uninflected signifiers of verbs and other parts of address.
A Creole linguistic communication frequently changes as its talkers become linguistically assimilated into the dominant society. This transmutation is known as decreolization. In the instance of Gullah, a Creole linguistic communication spoken along the southeasterly seashore of the United States, decreolization involves a gradual lessening of African lingual constituents and an addition in English constituents.
1.3. The English Language in Britain and America
In his Later American Speech. Coinages and Adaptations, Professor Thomas Pyles provides a fantastic description about the coming into being of the American English. He asserts that when the English linguistic communication traveled to America, it had to accommodate itself to a new universe which appeared as an Eden to many colonists. These colonists discovered new, unknown things which had to be named so that they could depict the Terra Americana. The coming of the 20th century, harmonizing to Pyles, marked the beginning of an autochthonal mind Americana which is strikingly reflected in the inundation of Americanisms. In an essay entitled “ What is American about America? ” John A. Konvenhoven lists the followers among a twelve points that define the character of the American civilization: the skyscraper, the theoretical account T-Ford, wind, amusing strips, soap operas, assembly line, production, masticating gum. These are American creative activities expressive of the American civilisation, and Americans invented words to call them.
For 150 old ages before 1776 America was a British settlement a clip when British and American English were about the same. The first English-speaking colonists in America came from southeasterly England in the 17th century. As a consequence to its lasting contact with England, the address of the new settlements reflected the phonemics from London. Eventually, after the War of Independence of 1776, Americans developed their ain address forms that were independent of 19th and 20th century regional and societal developments in the British Isles.
Presents, differences between British and American English are really obvious elements of contrast and put the visitants in England and America in the place of traveling back and Forth between word brace as the 1s which will be presented in the undermentioned lines. However, the differences between British and American English are fewer than people normally think. They belong to five groups, viz. pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary, grammar and civilization.
1. Pronunciation. There is one of import difference in the pronunciation of verb signifiers. The Departure TO hereafter is pronounced [ g uih tu ] in British English, but [ gon ] in American English.
2. Spelling. There are a few missive groups that are spelled otherwise in the two discrepancies of the English linguistic communication:
BRITISH ENGLISH |
AMERICAN ENGLISH |
-our coloring material, energy, favor ( ite ) |
-or colour, energy, favour ( ite ) |
-re Centre, theater, ( kg ) meter |
-er centre, theatre, ( kg ) metre |
-ll- jewelry, travelled, patterning |
-l- jewellery, traveled, patterning |
-l- fulfil, fulfillment, episode |
-ll- fulfill, fulfilment, installment |
-se to gain, to analyze |
-ze to recognize, to analyse |
-s- to rehearse |
-c- to pattern |
-y- Sur, pajama |
tyre, pyjama |
programme, conveyance, draft, |
plan, transit, bill of exchange, |
mustache, Grey, look into |
moustache, grey, check |
3. Vocabulary. Differences in standard vocabulary are likely the most obvious elements of contrast:
BRITISH ENGLISH |
AMERICAN ENGLISH |
Romanian |
at present |
soon |
in prezent, acum |
fall |
autumn |
toamna |
block of flats |
flat edifice |
axis de locuinte |
auto park |
parking batch |
parcare |
film |
film theatre |
cinematograf |
cooking book |
cookery book |
menu de bucate |
signifier |
class |
clasa |
movie |
film |
movie |
level |
flat |
apartament |
football |
association football |
fotbal |
instructors, professors |
module |
cell didactice |
4. Grammar.
BRITISH ENGLISH |
AMERICAN ENGLISH |
honkytonk, dived. dived |
honkytonk, plunge, plunge |
tantrum, fitted, fitted |
tantrum, tantrum, tantrum |
get, got, got |
get, got, acquire |
kneel, knelt, knelt |
kneel, kneeled, kneeled |
quit, quit/quitted, quit/quitted |
quit, quit, quit |
enchantment, spelt, spelt |
enchantment, spelled, spelled |
spill, spilt, spilt |
spill, spilled, spilled |
5. Culture. There are some words that are characteristically American. Therefore, a cafeteria is a eating house ( in a mill, college, shop etc. ) where people pick up their ain nutrient and drink and transport it to the tabular arraies. A docent is a individual, frequently unpaid, who guides visitants through museums. Football is an American game, similar to rugby, in which an ellipse ball can be handled or kicked. A promenade is a big shopping centre, normally enclosed and air-conditioned, which consists of little dress shops and stores, section shops, a supermarket, a film theatre, eating houses and coffeehouse, and a big parking batch. A paramedic is person, such as an ambulance driver, who is trained to assist in the attention of ill people but is non a physician or nurse.
American English besides takes some freedom with grammatical classs which are avoided or infrequently used in British English. Nouns appear as verbs in looks like: to chair a meeting ( to move as a president ) , to author a book ( to compose it ) , to holiday ( spend one ‘s vacations ) , to radio a message, to captain a squad etc. There is besides the reversed procedure in which verbs appear as nouns: a large push, a good bargain, an aid, an athletic meet etc.
Journalism in America, out of a demand of economic system of infinite, favoured the development of slang ( or slanguage ) :
American slang is of class really dramatic in regard to the figure and scope of its creative activities. Because of the broad prevalence today of American movies and light fiction, this esoteric vocabulary has become familiar far beyond the boundary lines of the United States. It is perplexing to foreigners, non merely because of the particular fortunes of its beginning, but besides because of its rapid alterations ( qtd. in Kerr 69 ) .
Among current slang words are those replacing a concrete image for the more abstract or colourless looks of ordinary address:
Term |
Meaning |
Term |
Meaning |
Bone grove |
Cemetery |
Raise the cubitus |
Take a drink |
Brass tacks |
Necessities |
Pound the pavement |
Walk |
Coffin-nail |
Cigarette |
Put the finger on |
Betray |
Cut a melon |
Divide net incomes |
Scare the bloomerss off |
Terrify |
Flatfoot |
Policeman |
Squeal on person |
Inform to the constabulary |
Flat tyre |
Boring individual |
Plodder |
A conservativ |
Gum shoe |
Detective |
Wooden greatcoat |
A casket |
American Linguistic Traits, Margaret Schlauch, 69, qtd. in Kerr.
Many such footings combine graphic imagination with sound effects such as initial rhyme, vowel rhyme and frost: face lacing for beards, hot knee bend for electric chair, rock’n ‘ axial rotation, slush fund ( money used for corrupt political patterns ) . Humorous circumlocution gives rise to metaphors like: ball and concatenation for married woman, chiropterans in the campanile for insane. Among the footings for a miss or adult female are: babe, doll, doll, femme, fluff, mouse, skirt, tomato.
American English is, therefore, favored by the foreign English-speakers largely for its neglect for grammatical, syntactical and phonological regulations, and for its big capacity for taking in new words and phrases from outside beginnings. Besides, there is besides its uniformity throughout the state: alternatively of different local idioms, as in England, there is a general lingual ‘solidarity ‘ of the whole state, conditioned merely by minor differences in pronunciation and vocabulary chiefly caused by the lingual battles of assorted groups of immigrants:
American English may be derided by conservative critics for the preparedness with which neologisms become recognized and brassy overnight to all parts of our land, but the fact itself is a mark of wellness. The intent of a linguistic communication is to pass on ; if a new word or a new phrase carries with it a freshness of significance, a short cut to communicating, it is a desirable add-on to our lingua, no affair how low its beginning, or how questionable its etymology. We need non fear word creative activity as harmful ; what we must fear is crystallisation, the saving of a conventional vocabulary by a limited minority who resent the normal steady alterations which necessarily must take topographic point within a language…We demand non fear exuberance. What we must fear and guard against is dotage, the complacence of old age, which is content with things as they are and jeeringly gibelike of alteration ( qtd. in Kerr 76 ) .
This sentiment which really reflects the existent province of the English linguistic communication in America, is opposed to that of ‘correct English ‘ whose rules are considered to hold been laid down by English purists who made serious efforts of coercing the linguistic communication into a consecutive jacket.
Despite its color, nevertheless, the nomenclature of slang is rarely adopted in serious authorship, in transitions of realistic duologue, and rarely achieves a long life, whether in England or America. Still, it would be risky to do any prognostications sing the hereafter dealingss between British and American English. As a general decision it may be said that despite the continuity of regional idioms in both states, the inclination in both is towards a individual national linguistic communication.