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American English ('''AmE''') is the Dialect of the English Language used mostly in the United States Of America . It is estimated that approximately two thirds of Native Speakers of English live in the United States .1 American English is also sometimes called '''United States English''' or '''U.S. English'''. HISTORY English was inherited from British Colonization . The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North America in the 17th century. In that century, there were also speakers in North America of the Dutch , French , German , myriad Native American , Spanish , Swedish , Scots , Welsh , Irish , Scottish Gaelic and Finnish languages. PHONOLOGY In many ways, compared to British English , American English is conservative in its Phonology . The conservatism of American English is largely the result of the fact that it represents a mixture of various dialects from the British Isles. Dialect in North America is most distinctive on the East Coast of the continent; this is largely because these areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious varieties of British English at a time when those varieties were undergoing changes. The interior of the country was settled by people who were no longer closely connected to England, as they had no access to the ocean during a time when journeys to Britain were always by sea. As such, the inland speech is much more homogeneous than the East Coast speech and did not imitate the changes in speech from England. . AAVE -influenced non-rhotic pronunciations may be found among Blacks throughout the country.2]] Most North American speech is Rhotic , as English was in most places in the 17th century. Rhoticity was further supported by Hiberno-English , Scottish English , and West Country English. In most varieties of North American English , the sound corresponding to the letter "R" is a Retroflex or Alveolar Approximant rather than a trill or a tap. The loss of syllable-final ''r'' in North America is confined mostly to the accents of Eastern New England , New York City and surrounding areas, South Philadelphia , and the coastal portions of the South . Dropping of syllable-final ''r'' sometimes happens in natively rhotic dialects if ''r'' is located in unaccented syllables or words and the next syllable or word begins in a consonant. In England, lost 'r' was often changed into ( Schwa ), giving rise to a new class of falling Diphthong s. Furthermore, the 'er' sound of (stressed) ''fur'' or (unstressed) ''butter'', which is represented in IPA as stressed or unstressed is realized in American English as a Monophthong al R-colored Vowel . This does not happen in the non-rhotic varieties of North American speech. Some other British English changes in which most North American dialects do not participate:
On the other hand, North American English has undergone some sound changes not found in Britain, at least not in standard varieties. Many of these are instances of Phonemic Differentiation and include
Some mergers found in most varieties of both American and British English include:
DIFFERENCES IN BRITISH ENGLISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH ''Main article'': American And British English Differences American English has both spelling and grammatical differences from English as used elsewhere (especially British English ), some of which were made as part of an attempt to rationalize the spelling used in Britain at the time. Unlike many 20th century Language Reform s (for example, Turkey 's alphabet shift, Norway 's spelling reform) the American Spelling changes were not driven by government, but by textbook writers and dictionary makers. On the other hand, subsequent spelling changes in Britain (such as ''-ise'' in lieu of ''-ize'', ''sceptical'' instead of ''skeptical'', ''jewellery'' in place of ''jewelry'', etc.) did not affect American English. The first American dictionary was written by Noah Webster in 1828 . At the time the United States was a relatively new country and Webster's particular contribution was to show that the region spoke a different dialect from Britain, and so he wrote a dictionary with many spellings differing from the standard. Many of these changes were initiated unilaterally by Webster. Webster also argued for many "simplifications" to the idiomatic spelling of the period. Somewhat ironically, many, although not all, of his simplifications fell into common usage alongside the original versions with simple spelling modifications. Many words are shortened and differ from other versions of English. Spellings such as ''center'' are used instead of ''centre'' in other versions of English. Conversely, American English (AmE) sometimes favors words that are Morphologically more complex, whereas British English uses clipped forms, such as AmE ''transportation'' and BrE ''transport'' or where the British form is a Back-formation , such as AmE ''burglarize'' and BrE ''burgle'' (from ''burglar''). ENGLISH WORDS THAT AROSE IN THE U.S. A number of words that arose in the United States have become common, to varying degrees, in English as it is spoken internationally. Although its origin is disputed, most etymologies of " OK " place its widespread usage in America of the early 19th century. Other American introductions include "belittle," " Gerrymander " (from Elbridge Gerry ), " Blizzard ", " Teenager ", and many more. ENGLISH WORDS OBSOLETE OUTSIDE THE U.S. A number of words that originated in the English of the British Isles are still in everyday use in North America, but are no longer used in most varieties of British English. The most conspicuous of these words are '' Fall '', the season, and ''gotten'' as a Past Participle of ''get''. Americans are more likely than Britons to name a flowing body of water a ''creek'' if its breadth or volume is judged insufficient for it to be a '' River ''. The word '' Diaper '' goes back at least to Shakespeare , and usage was maintained in the U.S. and Canada, but was replaced in the British Isles with ''nappy''. Some of these words are still used in various dialects of the British Isles, but not in formal standard British English. Many of these older words have cognates in Lowland Scots . The Subjunctive Mood ("America, America, God ''shed'' His grace on thee, and ''crown'' thy good..."; "the City Attorney suggested that the matter ''not be tabled''") is livelier in North American English than it is in British English; it appears in some areas as a spoken usage, and is considered obligatory in more formal contexts in American English. British English has a strong tendency to replace subjunctives with Auxiliary Verb constructions. REGIONAL DIFFERENCES ''Main article: American English Regional Differences '' Spoken American English is not homogeneous throughout the country, and various regional and ethnic variants exist. These differences affect both pronunciation and the lexicon, and can make one accent a little difficult for speakers of another accent to understand. General American is the name given to any American accent that is relatively free of noticeable regional influences. It enjoys high prestige among Americans, but is not a Standard Accent in the way that Received Pronunciation is in England . SEE ALSO
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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