Origin of American English

THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN ENGLISH Standard AMERICAN

American English variety of the English language spoken in the UnitedStates. Although all Americans do not speak the same way, their speech hasenough in common that American English can be recognized as a variety ofEnglish distinct from British English, Australian English and othernational varieties. American English has grown up with the country. Itbegan to diverge from British English during its colonial beginnings andacquired regional differences and ethnic flavor during the settlement ofthe continent .Today it influences other languages and other varieties ofEnglish because it is the medium by which the attractions of Americanculture – its literature, motion pictures and television programs – aretransmitted to the world.

THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN ENGLISH

HISTORY OF AMERICAN ENGLISH

American English shows many influences from the different cultures andlanguages of the people who settled in North America. The nature of theinfluence depends on the time and the circumstances of contact betweencultures.

A. COLONIAL PERIOD

The first settlements on the East Coast of North America in the 17thcentury were composed mostly of British subjects. Accounting for about 90percent of the people, the British vastly outnumbered French and Germansettlers. English was therefore the only real candidate for a commonAmerican language. The settlers spoke varieties of English from variousparts of England, but in the creation of American English, there varietieswere leveled –that is their differences largely disappeared. MichaelGuillaume Jean de Crevecoeur, a French born writer who published under thename J. Hector st. John de Crevecoeur and became famous for his bookLetters from an American farmer (1782), describes the desire of settlers to“become an American”, their common ideal to own and work their own farms,without prejudice toward neighbors whatever their neighbor’s religion or

national origin. This shared goal encouraged development of a sharedvariety of the languages, which came to be enriched by contributions frommany cultures. As the European settlers came into contact with Native Americans,American English collected a large stock of Native American place names(Allegheny, Chicago, Mississippi, Potomac) and Native American names forthings not founds in Europe or Asia (moose, opossum, squash, moccasin,tomahawk, totem). Sometimes, Native American words were spelled by settlersso that they looked more like English words; woodchuck, for example,probably comes from the Cree word wuchak. Cultural exchange with NativeAmericans was more limited than might be expected, because diseases broughtby Spanish explorers and European settlers greatly reduced the NativeAmerican population in eastern North America during early settlement. In the 18th century people from Ireland and Northern Europe joined theBritish settlers. By the time of the American Revolution (1775-1783), therewere comparable numbers of British settlers from other European countries.Some Europeans formed separate communities, such as the PennsylvaniaGermans, but most mixed with British settlers and contributed to AmericanEnglish words from their own languages. Examples include pumpkin, bayou,and bureau from French; cookie, waffle and boss from Dutch; and pretzel,pinochle, and phooey from German. Scottish and Irish settlers were alreadyEnglish speakers but they influenced American English with features fromtheir own varieties for example, pronunciation of r after vowels (whilemany British English speakers were losing the r after vowels) and doubleverb forms like might could. Africans were imported as slaves throughout the early settlement ofNorth America. By the American Revolution one- quarter of the Americanpopulation consisted of African Americans, and as much as 95 percent of thepopulation living in plantation areas was African American. Slaves were notallowed to share in Crevecoeur’s American ideal, but they learned American
English from their owners, overseers, and other slaves. Some slaves mayhave developed Creole languages on plantations. A Creole is made of wordsfrom different languages- in this case, English and the African languagesspoken by the slaves. It also has its own grammar. Over time, especiallyafter slavery was abolished, the language of African Americans came to havefewer Creole characteristics. One authentic American plantation Creoleremains: Gullah, spoken by African Americans in communities on the SeaIslands off South Carolina and Georgia. African words in American Englishinclude gumbo, okra, and voodoo.

B. TERRITORIAL EXPANSION AND URBANIZATION

During the 19th and 20th centuries settlers pushed westward as theUnited States acquired control of land from the French, the Spanish, andthe Native Americans. Crevecoeur’s American ideal of separate farms lastedwell into the 20th century, and a shared sense of purpose maintained socialpressure for immigrants to participate in American language and culture.This period also saw the rise of great cities, first in the East and laterin other regions. Development of industries brought opportunities forimmigrants to work in cities instead of on farms, and the resultingconcentration of people in urban areas allowed for maintenance of immigrantlanguages in some quarters while most people still found it best to learnand use American English for everyday discourse. At the same time that settlers from other countries were adapting toEnglish, they were influencing it as well. Settlement of the West andSouthwest by Northern Europeans meant contact with the Spanish- speakingsettlers who were already there. As a result, American English adopted manywords commonly associated with Spanish, such as enchilada, pueblo,sombrero, tortilla, and also many words not usually thought of as Spanish,such as alfalfa, cockroach, marina, plaza, and ranch. Scandinaviansestablished homesteads in the upper Midwest and gave American English the

words smorgasbord and sauna. Other European immigrants are particularlyassociated with New York City, for example, and provided such words askosher, and kibbitz. Polish immigrants, strongly associated with Chicago,provided kielbasa and pierogi; Chinese immigrants, associated with SanFrancisco or Los Angeles, chow mein and mahjong; Italian immigrants,associated with many cities, contributed the words spaghetti, pizza. Manyother cultural groups have also had an impact on American English, oftenmore local than national, as, for example, Cubans in Miami, Florida.

STANDART AMERICAN

All speakers of English share a common linguistic system and a basicset of words. But American English differs from British English, AustralianEnglish, and other national varieties in many of its pronunciations, wordsspellings, and grammatical constructions. Words or phrases of Americanorigin, and those used in America but not so much elsewhere, are calledAmericanisms.

A. PRONUNCIATION

In broad terms Canadian and American speakers tend to sound like oneanother. They also tend to sound different from a large group of Englishspeakers who sound more British, such as those in Australia, New Zealand,and South Africa. For example, most Canadians and Americans pronounce an rsound after the vowel in words like barn, car, and father, while speakersfrom the British English group do not. Also, some British English speakersdrop h sound at the beginning of words, so that he and his are pronouncedas if they were spelled ee and is. The English spoken in Australia, NewZealand, and South Africa sounds more like British English than AmericanEnglish does because these varieties have had less time to diverge fromBritish English. The process of separate development began later in thesecountries than in North America. Although Canadians and Americans share many speech habits, Canadianspeakers of English sometimes tend more toward British English because of

the closer historical association of Britain with Canada. One prominentdifference between American English and Canadian English is the vowel soundin words like out and house. Americans often say that the Canadianpronunciation sounds as if the words were spelled oot and hoose. In some cases there are differences between American English andBritish English in the rhythm of words. British speakers seem to leave outa syllable in words like secretary, while Americans keep all the syllables.The opposite is true of other words, such as specialty, which Americanspronounce with three syllables (spe- cial-ty) while British speakerspronounce it with five syllables (spe- cial- i- ty). Vowels andconsonants may also have different pronunciations. British speakerspronounce zebra to rhyme with Debra, while American speakers make zebrarhyme with Libra. Canadian and British speakers pronounce the word scheduleas if it began with a sh sound, while Americans pronounce it as if it beganwith an sk sound.

B. WORDS

The most frequently used words are shared by speakers of differentvarieties of English. These words include the most common nouns, the mostcommon verbs, and most function words (such as pronouns, articles, andprepositions). The different varieties of English do however use differentwords for many words that are slightly less common- for example Britishcrisps for American potato chips, Australian billabong for American pond,and Canadian chesterfield for American sofa. It is ever more common for thesame word to exist with different meanings in different varieties ofEnglish. Corn is a general term in Britain, for which Americans use grain,while corn in American, English usually refers to an artificial body ofwater, whereas ponds also occur naturally in North America. British Englishchemist is the same as American English drugstore, and in Canada people go

to the druggist. Many of the words most easily recognized as American inorigin are associated with aspects of American popular culture, such asgangster or cowboy.

C. SPELLING

American English spelling differs from British English spellinglargely because of one man, American lexicographer Noah Webster. Inaddition to his well-known An American Dictionary of the English Language(1828), Webster published The American spelling Book (1783, with manysubsequent editions), which became one of the most widely used schoolbooksin American history. Webster’s books sought to standardize spelling in theU.S. by promoting the use of an American language that intentionallydiffered from British English. The development of a specifically Americanvariety of English mirrored the new country’s separate politicaldevelopment. Webster’s most successful changes were spellings with orinstead of our (honor, labor for the British honour, labour); with erinstead of re (center, theater for the British center, theatre); with an sinstead of a final ck instead of que (check, mask for the British cheque,masque); and without a final k (traffic, public, now also used in BritishEnglish, for the older traffick, publick). Later spelling reform created afew other differences, such as program for British programme. Canadianspelling varies between the British and American forms, more British inEastern Canada and more American in Western.

D. GRAMMAR

The grammar of educated speakers of English differs little amongnational varieties. In the speech of people with less access to education,grammatical variations in regional and social varieties of American Englishare very common as normal, systematic occurrences (not as errors). Onemajor difference between British and American English is that the twoattach different verb forms to nouns that are grammatically singular butplural in sense. In American English, the team is… or the government

is…(because they are viewed as single entities), but in British English theteam are… or the government are…(because teams and government areunderstood to consist of more than one person). Sometimes function wordsare used differently: The British stay in hospital but Americans stay inthe hospital.

THE OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE

The outlook for the future of the indigenous American languages is notgood; most will probably die out. At present, the aboriginal languages ofthe Western Hemisphere are gradually being replaced by the Indo- Europeantongues of the European conquerors and settlers of the New World- English,Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch. The investigation of Native Americanlanguages contributes much to a scientific knowledge of language ingeneral, since these tongues possess a number of linguistic features nototherwise, known. Some Native American groups in the United States areworking to revitalize the languages of their peoples as a result ofincreased ethnic consciousness and feelings of cultural identify. By theend of the 20th century there was an increasing number of such language-learning facilities as tribal classes, language camps, and local collegecourses in indigenous languages.