Silent Differences in English that Divide American and British Spelling (Rough Draft)
Guiding Question: What is the origin of and reasoning for different word endings that have no effect on pronunciation between American and British English?
Does one go to the theater or does one go to the theatre? Are one’s eyes the color blue or the colour blue? The answer to both of these questions will differ depending on where they are asked. In England, the answers will most likely appear as theatre and colour respectively. However, in America, the opposite answers would be given, but only if the questions were in written format. If these questions were posed verbally, the answers would appear the same and no difference would be discerned. Therefore, why is one considered correct and one considered incorrect if they are phonetically equivalent and why do such differences exist? The answer to these questions is rooted in the history of the language itself. Whether it is the French influence or the American Revolution, British and American English are products of their history and culture. The evolution of phonetically equivalent word endings in British and American English reflect political situations, language shifts, and foreign influences while evoking historical pride on both sides that carry the differences into present day. The move towards standardization of spelling for word endings can be seen in the seventeenth century. The fluidity of spelling was still prevalent as shown
What Does It Mean To Be An American? So I think that to be an american is that you have the rights to say I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and so on. Also to be an american you can pick the job you really want, what shift to work, and the most important thing of all you can get an education. To be an american there is a lot of duties to do.
“Authority and American Usage” written by David Foster Wallace, poses an argument about the English language, and the different beliefs of its usage. This essay was written in defense of Bryan A. Garner’s, A Dictionary of Modern American Usage. His argument in “Authority and American Usage” is the difference the between prescriptivism perception and the descriptivism perception (Linguistic terms that could easily be made into smaller, more understandable words for people like me). Since the beginning of time, language has evolved. From biblical times, to Shakespearean times, to present day; the English language has been continuously changing since it’s birth and has no intentions on stopping.
The soil of the middle-east stained with the blood of our American soldiers just so we can not take advantage of our right to vote. Though sometimes questionable, America's overall image portrayed to other countries is an honorable one. America is known for its democracy and as well as being a land of opportunities and many freedoms. America's assortment of ethnicities and cultures is proof that our country is a desirable one. Wars are being fought at this very moment to defend these freedoms.
The English language is particularly complex in almost all aspects. Many of the words in the English language have different meanings for the same word. This is not unlike the definition of the different levels of usage. McCrimmon defines the three levels, formal, moderate, and colloquial, by their sentence structure, diction, and tone (McCrimmon 193). ¹ Using McCrimmon’s definitions, authors can determine what type of writing is applicable to each of the three levels. For the formal writings, an adequate example of where readers can find it is in a professional journal, and an appropriate place to find an example of the moderate level is in a weekly news magazine. Also, the best place to look for an example of the colloquial level is in certain sections of the newspaper. All of the levels of usage apply to these different types of writings and assist in defining what each level involves.
What means to be an American? About everywhere in the societies and the people in it have diverse opinions to be an American especially when they are from different country. Being an American means to have a willing to accept others from different culture, freedom to do anything, and to have opportunities in terms of relaxed atmosphere.
Do you consider yourself to be an American? Being an American is not just having a citizenship or living in America it is much more. America doesn’t just allow the people inside the country to stay, but America gives everyone a second chance at life and give them more opportunities. America has had a long strive for freedom and independence, making the opportunity of living here that much more special. In this essay I will be reading to you my thoughts of what it means to be an American. Bravery, honor, hope, and the freedom and equality of all Americans are the topics that I feel are most important.
Defining what really is to be an American does not sound as easy as it seem. It will always be complex process. As immigration continues to fuel the growth of the population of our nation, racial and ethnic gap increase and evolve along with it. Racial and ethnic identities become more and more convoluted and difficult to understand. Race and ethnicity continue to intermingle and push a cultural shift in the US– a shift that plays a significant role in redefining America in a day-to-day basis.
46) British spelling- American and British English spelling differences are one aspect of American and British English differences.
Throughout the life span of the United States, from its infancy after the Revolution to the present, people have asked, “What is an American?” This question goes far beyond asking who is a citizen or who resides in this land. No, it asks what the identity of an American is? Through popular, art, film, and literature, the American image is defined as being based on embracing our individual identities.
United States of America, small in history but large in diversity continues to face new challenges with language as time continues to turn. In the documentary “Do You Speak American?” Robert MacNeil analyzes the English language and reveals many dialects that culturally defines us. Regional dialect is one of the many strongholds of all cultures and now it has reached its’ zenith and today it is slowly declining because it does not possess the human nature of advancement. Optimistically, it allows people to learn how to cooperate with each other. In order to advance and adopt a person has to change; I believe that the acceptance of cultural adaptations, diversity, and industrialization can prove that the decline of speech does not cause a
Connor Carrier Mr. Keck English 11, Period 6 30 September 2016 What it means to be American What does it exactly mean to be an American? It’s hard to pinpoint what precisely is an American. Is it the soldier fighting for our freedom? Or is it the CEO sitting behind his desk making more money than any other average American?
School has always been a place of business, in my opinion. A place where we are educated and prepared for life, essentially. And the proper way of doing so, as I believe most people have been taught, is to enhance all skills such as vocabulary, grammar, mathematics, etc... This is why we are taught so many subjects, being tested and guided to follow whichever path we feel most comfortable or skilled at doing. During the process, is where skills are established and developed. The product that is intended after having gone through school is to shape a well skilled, educated, and productive person that can benefit society as a whole. In limiting the teaching of Standard American English, we would be limiting the amount of people that can fulfill their potential, raise the difficulty for teachers, and accept mediocrity. In keeping this dialect, students will gain new skills and learn the language of business to prepare them for any encounters along the way. There is no need, in my eyes, to minimize or put an extent to teaching the English dialect and that is what I will personally support in this essay.
Since there do exist different English varieties it is clear that the most important are the American English and the British English, which are quietly different yet so connected with each other. Generally, it is agreed that no one version is "correct" however, there are certainly preferences in use. However, there are a lot of grammatical differences between these two, which sometimes cannot be identified by English speaking peoples unless they are very meticulous or linguistics to understand them, but also the native speaker of both these varieties can easily detect these grammar differences. They are present in pronunciation differences in both consonants and vowels, in intonation and word stressing; also differences are in vocabulary, in verbs, nouns, phrasal verbs and also using names of items or tools. The main difference can be seen in spelling where a general difference is in the usage of prefix and suffix. Also differences are seen in the use of auxiliary verbs, past tense verbs, tag questions etc… So the British and American English have more similarities than
There are many people in society, especially those with a prescriptivist attitude, who strongly believe that the Standard is ‘intrinsically superior to other varieties’, as stated by K Burridge. It is clear however that this is not true, when one considers the ability of ethnolects and Aboriginal English to express identity and finer nuance. Ethnolects occur when features of someone’s first language or ‘mother tongue’ are adopted into their second language, in this case English. Features can include the phonological addition of vowel sounds to the ends of nouns e.g. bread /_/ (common to Greek and Italian); the
Anglo-Saxon period, from 5th century to 1066, became the “ancestor” of our modern literature. There is a big difference from then and now including our language and culture.