Teach English in Kazi Zhen - Ankang Shi

Languages are not rigid templates that don't change, for they grow and evolve constantly, and those which do not do so will die out sooner or later. English, like all living languages, left a wide spectrum of differences which resulted in the emergence of various types of languages, such as American English, which became different from British English in the activities of vocabulary, grammar, spelling and pronunciation. In today's world, the two are widely used in the media, Internet, textbooks, educational institutions, organizations, and international conferences. Besides, they are spoken by the citizens of UK and USA, the learners of English as a Second Language (ESL), and English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The English language entered America when some of the English settled in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia. Gradually, many changes in English took place because of the urgent need of the new settlers to communicate with the local citizens, and also to fulfill their basic living needs. They borrowed words from the region's indigenous people, and from the new settlers participating in their campaign, whose roots belonged to countries other than England, such as France, the Netherlands, and Germany. The English settlers also carved new words with new meanings from ancient English words. Over the past four centuries, English deviated in both countries: the United States and England. Many of its linguistic traditions were abandoned, and this led to the emergence of two Englishes, American English and British English, in addition to new Englishes that were not considered such as the Englishes present nowadays in Nigeria, Singapore, India, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Australia and New Zealand. These Englishes are now known as the Non-Anglo Englishes. The expansion of American English increased due to the hard efforts of the lexicographer Noah Webster, who wrote the first American dictionary in 1828. His intention in compiling it was to clarify to the people of the United States that they spoke a dialect that was completely different from the dialect existing in Britain. These differences between the two, which still exist, raised debates among those concerned with language. It also angered some English writers who made sarcastic comments such as the Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, who mentioned that England and America were two countries separated by the same language. Talking about the differences between American English and British English might lead to writing a book, and the vocabulary forms the largest area of these differences. However, researchers and scholars greatly exaggerate the number to the degree that some of them regard American English as a new independent language, forgetting that it rarely causes serious confusion. Today, in British English, there are about 4,000 fairly common words, which do not entirely exist in American English, or may be used in a sense or in another. This number alone is not important or dangerous when we compare it with the number of vocabularies, included in the Oxford English Dictionary, which is more than six hundred thousand. In other words, the number is not less than 1% of the total vocabularies. I will mention some examples. In British English biscuit, driving licence, dumb, flat , full stop, and holiday are respectively said cookie or cracker, driver’s license, mute, apartment, period, and vacation in American English. One of the visual contradictions between American English and British English is the writing of the word, or what is called spelling. Webster suggested in his diligent work many spelling changes, which were soon to be worked out, but to varying degrees in the United States. One of these changes, for example, was to delete the letter (u) in words composed of more than one syllable and ending with the British (-our), as in colour which became color in the US. (-re) at the end of the British English words, as in centre turned into (-er) in the US as in center. Pronunciation also differs between them. For example, in British English-speaking countries, except in Scotland and Ireland, (r) is not pronounced if it comes before a constant as in: birth, hurt, quarter, born, or if it comes at the end of the word as in: water, door, later, where, were. But in American English-speaking regions of the United States, except in New York and Boston regions, it is pronounced wherever it is located in the word. The differences in grammar are less than in vocabulary. One example that shows the difference is the accordance of the noun with the verb, especially if it is a collective noun. In Britain, collective nouns, which refer to groups of people or things, take either singular or plural, depending on whether the group is seen as one idea or as many individuals as in committee, government, staff, class, fleet, army, and public. But in American English, all the collective nouns actually take the singular form. I think these differences are not serious obstacles in communication, for the two are mutually understood. The American citizen may find it difficult to speak with the English person, or he is confronted with a complete lack of understanding at first, or the two may feel with some embarrassment and discomfort. Ultimately, they will understood each other. I also see that both of them are correct. American English and British English are not two independent languages in their grammatical structures, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling, as some claim. First and foremost, the two belong to their mother, English, which is the uterus they come from.