American English

At the beginning of this century the American linguists worked out the idea that there is a separate American language. It is hardly so. It has neither its own grammar, nor vocabulary. Both British and American variants of English have chosen the same way of develop­ment. There are some differences in vocabulary, in pronunciation, in grammar which when summed up cannot serve a borderline between two languages. That's why there are two varieties of the same lang­uage.

The peculiarities of American pronunciation.

1. the polysyllabic words have 2 stresses: 'nece'ssary, 'dictio'nary, 'cere'mony, 'interesting, 'commen'tary, etc.

2. The same words may have different pronunciation: advertisment ['advi'taizment], semalteneous ['saimel'tenies], etc.

3. The vowal peculiarities - a) the British [a:] before 's, , f, ns' is changed for [ ]: path [ ], after [ ], can't [ ], etc. b) British [ ] is replaced by [ ]: hot [ ], dog [ ], problem [ ], etc. c) British [ju:] corresponds to the American [u:] : student, stupid, accuse [u:], duty, d)the second element of the diphthongs [ei.ou] has a tendency to fade out: name [nem], boat [bot], home [hom], date [Jet].

4. The consonants peculiarities - a) the [r] is articulated in American English, b) [p,t,k] are very weak between the vowels in Br.E, but strong in American English: [p,t,k] > Am. E. [b,d,g], c) the process of dropping [t] in the words: I want to go [ai gou] twenty [tweni]. d) what, where, when - retain [h],

5) intonation of American English is steady, more monotonous;

Did it all happen yesterday? Am.E. [...__._.'] Br.E. [-_._.']

6) spelling .

Br.E. suffix "- our" > Am.E. "- or": labour > labor, humour > humor,

Br.E. suffix "- re " > "-er". Am.E.: theatre > theater, centre >center,

Br.E. prefix "en-" > Am.E "In-": enclose > inclose

In Am.E. dumb vowels often drop out:

Br.E. prologue > Am.E. prolog; Br.E. plough > Am.E. plow, neighbour > neighbor, harbour > harbor

Consonants drop out programme > program

In Br.E. suf. "-s" changes into "-z"; letter "c" changes into "s",

letter "d" changes into "t". Br.E. defence > Am.E. defense Br.E. washed > Am.E. washt offence > offence stopped > stopt retain "-d" : livd, dreamd

Grammar and syntax

1) "Will" is used for all persons, "Shall" is used to express obligation (have to)

2) Verbs of the type "dream", "burn", "learn", etc. keep to the regular type of past forms "dreamed", "burned", "learned", etc.

3) In colloquial American adverbs are losing their "-ly" suffix:

He went out slow. I felt awful sleepy.

4) Subjunctive Mood sticks to the synthetic forms in the Subordinate clauses:

He insisted that they be there in time. (He insisted that they should be there in time).

5) In colloquial American perfect forms are short of the verb "have": "I seen him. I done it". Sometimes "do" is used for "have" in colloquial American:"I done told him". "I got a book". The. Past Indefinite .Tense is often used instead of the Present Perfect Tense, especially in oral communication. An American is likely to say I saw this movie, where an Englishman will probably say I've seen this film .

6) "Help" is followed by "bare infinitive" (This tendency is marked in Br.E. as well) Let's go see him. She usually helps us work.

7) The choice of prepositions: "I live on the street" -... in the street".

8) The adj. "good" is used for "very": a good long time. They worked good and hard. I am good and tired