Brief Analysis of the differences Between British English and American English 英语专业毕业论文.doc

abstractamerican english and british english are two branches of english language. as the carrier of their own cultures, the distinction of these two languages origin among their different histories, politics, economy, geography, social life and civilisation, and present in the linguistic levels such as pronuciation, vocabulary and grammar. generally speaking, american english is more concise than british english. the simplification in american english from british english is very obvious in the spelling of the words. meanwhile, the expession of american english is more unconstrained than british english, which is more clear in oral speaking. british english also have its own evolution and change, not so distinct but different from american english. two variants of english have a great influence on daily life and society. under the effect of the advance and wildly spread of american politcs, economy and culture, american english also has a great impact on other english branches encluding british english, and the united kingdom have started from a traditional english exporter to an importer. because of the closer relatinship between the two english language, the characteristics of british english and american english are converging. english as one kind of world language, is the tool for information exchange and feedback, and increasingly demonstrated its important position in international exchanges. knowing the difference between american english and british english would help us to deepen our understanding about english language and treat the different english user correctly. key words: british english, american english, differiences 摘 要英式英语和美式英语是英语的两个分支。作为它们各自的文化载体，由于其拥有各自的发展历史，不同的政治、经济和地理环境，以及不同的文化和社会生活，造成这两种语言在一些语言学层面，诸如发音，词汇和语法上存在一定的差异。一般而言，美式英语比英式英语更简洁明了。美式英语对英语的简化在词汇拼写上尤为突出。同时，美式英语在表达上也更加灵活，尤其在口语中更是如此。英式英语本身也经历了进化和演变，不像美式英语那么明显，同时也和美语有所区别。英式英语和美式英语，这两种英语变体都对当今日常生活和社会造成影响。由于现在美国在政治、经济、文化等诸多方面的优势和对世界的广泛影响，美式英语对包括英式英语在内的其他英语分支都所影响，而英国则开始从原来传统意义上的语言文化输出国逐渐变成输入国。随着这两种英语的关系越来越密切，它们之间的界限也越来越模糊。英语作为一种世界语言，已经成为了信息交换的和反馈的重要工具，在国际交流中的地位逐渐凸显。了解英式英语和美式英语的差异可以帮助我们加深对英语的认识，也可以使我们更恰当的同不同英语使用者进行交流。关键字：英式英语、美式英语、差异contentsabstract. 1摘 要.2i.introduction.4ii.histories of british english and american english.52.1 history of british english.52.2 history of american english.6iii. difference between british english and american english.63.1 the source and characteristic of the difference between british english and american english.63.2 aspect of grammar.83.3 aspect of vocabulary.93.3.1 the meaning of words.93.3.2 the spelling.103.4 aspect of pronunciation.11iv. the trend of the development of british english and american english.12v. conclusion.13acknowlegements.14bibliography.15brief analysis of the differences between british english and american englishi.introductionfor most of the college students just like us who began to accept english language education from last century, english is just one single language, just as our own mandarin chinese. even now, as we have already known that what we learned from our middle school is actually british english, and in modern times, english language has became the most papular language. it has been used in 172 countries and areas. it is used in some countries, such as great britan, united states, canada, and australia, as their mother language. for many other counties and areas,just like india, hongkang, the pilippines, south africa, etc. english is considered to be the offical language. like chinese, english language also varies from area to area and has many defferent dialects and branches. each branch of english has some specific features and is different from others. only few of us can tell the differences between them. at present, united states has became the most effective country in economic, politic, and technological area, and has spread its culture among every corner of the globe; and american english has also played a very important role in the international communication at the same time. so, knowledges about the differences between american english and british english, which we built our english language system on, and the source of this differences, the distinct culture of this two countries, is very requisite for us who takes english as our major. american english and british english, as two branches on one tree, have develop themselves with different geographical environment and diverse culture. although on the basis of the same language, they have got some unique features in each language system. those words below will frist introduce the history of this two languages simply, then analyze the difference between them in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, and at last it will discuss the trends of their developments and in modern times.ii.histories of british english and american english2.1 history of british englishthe first beginning of english language is in the years during 5th century ad, when three germanic tribes, the angles, the saxons and the jutes, invaded britain, and their language began to take the place of the inhabitants and became the earliest version of english. after that british english come through three main periods,old english ,middle english and modern english. the old english period is from mid-5th century to mid-12th century. the old english,which is spoken by these germanic tribes, had a grammar similar in many ways to classical latin, and was much closer to modern german than modern english in most respects, including its grammar. the middle english period began in mid-12th century, as william the conqueror, the duke of normandy, invaded and conquered england.the new conquerors who were named normans bring their own language, a kind of french, to england. for a part of time there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke english and the upper spoke french. and when english became dominant again, it got great changes. compare with old english, many words borrowed from french and latin appear and the grammar was very different too.this period middle english is fully developed as a literary language by the second half of the 14th century. late middle english and the transition to early modern english takes place in the early 15th century.the third period, modern english period came in the beginning fo 15th century with a great change which is called great vowel shift happened. the great vowel shift was a major change in the pronunciation of the english language that took place in england between 1350 and 1500, and was think of one of the historical events marking the separation of middle and modern english. meanwhile,in the period, through colonisation by the british empire, many new vocabulary was brought in english and the english language was adopted in regions around the world, such as north america, india, africa, australia and new zealand etc. american english was born at that time.2.2 history of american englishhistory of american english began in the 1607 when the first group of 120 british colonists came to the north american continent cross the atlantic ocean. among the english colonists frist migrating to the new continent there are many graduates from oxford and cambridge who brought the elizabethan english, the early modern english used by shakespeare, milton and banyan. till the end of the colonial period , the population of america numbered about 4 million people, and 90 pecent of it was from britain. however, in the beginning of 19th century, a lot of american people still considered the british english as the most authentic and elegant language. this condition changed behind they won the war of independence, some american wise men argued that the american should be proud of their own culture and language, and began to regard amercan english as their own languge. the important symbole that american english became a independent language branch against the british english is the publishing of the “american dictionary of english language” in 1828iii. differences between british english and american english3.1 the source and characteristic of the difference between british english and american englishbefore the colonists came, the north america continent had been inhabited by the american indian with their own language and culture, and 100 year behand that, there came the colonists and immgrants from france, spain, german, and the black slaves from the distant africa, and in the years following, the immigration from every corner of the world to the united states was never interrupted. in a brand new continent, combing with the language and culture of the red indians , the colonists from the european countries thus as france, spain, german etc. and the slaves coming from africa,american english found its own way changing and developing against british english, which also changed in another side of the atlantic. this two main variants of english language both have their own natural environments. america is large, topography-varied, continental, and britain, smaller, islands-characteristic. besides, united states and great britian both have their own cultural features. american culture is young, active, combinative and creative, and britain, in another way, elegant, conservative, gentle and traditional. on their disparate ways of evolution, the difference between this two language became larger and larger. although developed from the same source and be regarded as one single language by who learn it as second language, british english and american english have got series of difference in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. generally speaking, british english is much older, and every rule of the language has a historic source and has formed a traditional and solid system from the way it evoluted in. also having the history of outword colonization and contact with the exotic culture, united kindom has the correspondingly steady polity environment and stable international relationship, the enfluence from other culture of the world is less effective too. in american, in another way, the bind from the tranditon is weak; and the influence from other place and culture taken by the immigrant is futher more powerful. the changes of american english from british english are great and active. the differences between american english and british english can be concluded in two aspects. the first is that american english is more simplified than british english, or we can say that both american english and british english both have the trend of simplification, but american english goes much futher. the second is the the separability. when united states became independent, in a long period these two language branches develop themselves in separated and different environment. sometimes the same word means totally different things, and in another times they just use various expression when mean the same ideal. in paragraphs below are same details of the differences between american english and british english. 3.2 aspect of grammar generally, the difference between british english and american english is not distinct and systematic but scattered in some details.in some cases, british english usually use present perfect tense while american english use past tense. this phenomenon usually appears when people want to offer some information. for example:ae(american english) be(british english) he just went home. he has just went home.i just havd lunch. i have just had lunch.some utility of preposition is defferent, too. such as:ae beon the weekend at the weekenddifferent than different from or different tohome (no preposition) at home then, in british english, the word have is usually used to indicate prefect tence when people talk about ownership,such as: i have got a cat, my grand father has got there sisters,the flat is nice but hasnt got a bathroom . while american english uses this word as a transitive verb which means own. like: i have a problem, do you have a problem. this words,need, dare, used to, are used as mobal verb in british english, and in american english are full verb. for example: she dare not stay in the dark.(be)she didnt dare to stay in the dark.（ae)tom neednt go with them.（be）tom doesnt need to go with them.(ae) american english usually use he and his to replace the indefinite pronoun one and ones, and british english dont do this in written. for example: one should do his best for his motherland.（ae） one should do ones best for ones motherland. (be)3.3 aspect of vocabulary3.3.1 the meaning of wordsthe meaning the words in british english and american english also change while develop in disparate way in their own continent. some times the meaning of one word changes in american english and remains the same in british english; some times the opposite things happen. meanwhile both of the two language form their new words from time to time. thanks to that the difference in vocabulary became complicated.some times, one word means different thing in two languages for example ,the word vest means garment worn under a shirt, etc next to the skin (undershirt in ae ) in british english. but the same word means a garment worn usually over a shirt as part of a suit (waist coat in be ); the word pants means mens underpants; womens or childrens knickers in british english while in american just means trousers. another times, different words mean the same thing. this kind of phenomenon is very common in almostly every area which could be imaged, following are just some usual instances:be aering call flat apartmentnote billtin canring allflat partment 3.3.2 the spellingfrom the defference between british english and american english in spelling could find out two distinct phenomenons：the first one is that the american english simplify the spelling of the words from the english; and the second one is: the spelling of american are more reflective to the pronunciation of the words. both of it call tell that american english are more simplified from british english. following are some example of spelling defference.first, some word end of -tre in british english and pronounce t spell ter in american english,such as:theater, center, meter (ae)theatre, centre, metre (be)second, some word end of -our in british english just omit the u spell -or in american english, such as:labor, honor, color (ae)labour, honour, colour (be)third, some word end of -ogue in british english just omit the ue spell -og in american english, such as:catalog, dialog, analog (ae)catalogue, dialogue, analogue (be)then, there are some other words which have different spelling but same meaning and reflect the two phenomenons above:(ae) (be)analyze analysecheck chequedefense defenceinstal installprogram programmetire tyrejail goal(jail)3.4 aspect of pronunciationcompared to the scattered point of different in the aspect of the grammar, things go ordinarily when they come to the aspect of the pronunciation.the first one, when a word begins with “wh-” ,british english pronounces the voice w and american english pronounces hw.just like this words:words: (be) (ae)while wail hwailwhite wait hwaitwhere w hw secondly, in british english, the consonant r pronounces a sound only when it is in front of a vowel. however, in american english, it always makes a voice. when behind a vowel,it pronounce transitional retroflex from the voice ahead. for example:words: (be) (ae)more m: m:(r)letter let let(r)flower flau flaurthird, british english pronounce the long vowel of “-u” and “-ue” the voice ju: while the american english pronounce u:. for example:words: (be) (ae)reduce ridju:s ridu:sdue dju: