1.

ENGLISH AROUND THE WORLD

Thanks to the British Empire, English speakers are to be found in every continent
and in every corner of the world. The British Isles, Australia, Canada, USA, New Zealand
or South Africa consider English as their first or official language. Besides, there are
countries like India or Sudan where English is taught for practical purposes or even as a
‘first educated language’.
Colonialism, though, is not the only cause of the spread of English throughout the
world. We must not forget that Britain and America are two of the three countries that
came out victorious of WWII and therefore their influence has been present in
international associations such as the UN, EC or NATO. At international meetings,
English is always one of the languages into which speeches are translated. Therefore,
many politicians of whatever nationality find it useful to have English as a means of
communication.
English is currently acknowledged as the universal language of diplomacy and
science. Advances in technology and telecommunications have also helped establish
English as a global language. Many inventions were invented and developed in Britain
and the USA (electricity, radio…). Nowadays, major computer systems and software
developers are sited on the USA and English is the common language of Internet.
English is also the language in which much of the multinational companies are
conducted, as most of them are American (IBM, McDonald’s, General Motors, Ford…).
Finally, we shouldn’t forget the influence of English in the world of culture.
English and above all and American series, music, films … have gained ground and their
popular culture is spread by the media. Even when a TV programme or series or a film
are dubbed for foreign screening, there remains a good deal of passive English to be
absorbed: road signs, credits, advertisements…
Three of the largest broadcasting companies in the world (British BBC and
American CNN or ABC) transmit in English to audiences that usually exceed 100 million.
American and English newspapers and magazines can be found at many
newsagents’ throughout the world, not to mention the Internet, probably the strongest tool
for the spread of English nowadays.

2. BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH

The English language was taken to America by English colonists in the 17th
century. At the end of the 18th, 2/3 of the population in the USA were of English
descendants, and although more immigrants from other European countries began to
move to the new country, the largest group continued to be Anglophone (especially Irish).
America was a ‘melting pot’ of cultures, languages and traditions and these help mould
the shape of the current American English. Nevertheless, American has become a quite
uniform language; in fact, British speakers have much more difficulties in understanding
some British dialects than in understanding American English.
Another quality often attributed to American English is its archaism, as it still
makes use of some words and pronunciations typical of the 17th century which have
become obsolete in British (i.e. gotten as a participle of get)
Despite all this, American and British English are very similar. There are a few
differences of grammar and spelling, and rather more differences in vocabulary. Modern
British English is heavily influenced by American English, so some of the contrasts are
disappearing. Pronunciation is sometimes very different, but most American and British
speakers can understand each other without great difficulty.
The differences that are going to be stated in the following sections are based on
both standards, British RP and Educated White Middle Class General American English.
There are, of course, many different regional accents in countries but we are to put them
aside.

2.1. Differences in Spelling

Linguist Noah Webster wanted to promote an American sense of identity. He believed
that America should have its own standards of spelling, vocabulary and grammar and not
be so closely tied to English. With spelling in particular, he claimed for a simplification
of words (removal of silent letters, shortening of words…) He published the first
American English Dictionary, which spellings soon became universally accepted across
the United States. Let’s see some of them:
. –our in BE > –or in AE: colour ® color; labour ® labor; behaviour ® behavior;
humour ® humor; favourite ® favorite…
($ The word glamour is an exception and it is written the same way in both varieties)
. –er in BE > –re in AM: centre ® center; metre ® meter; theatre ® theater (but
waiter)
. AE tends to simplify double consonants: traveler, program, targeting, paneling…
. AE –ue is dropped from words ending in –gue: dialog, analog, catalog (omelet)
 . superfluous -gh- tends to disappear in AE: nite, thru, lite… (informal)
. forms ‘want to’, ‘got to’ and ‘going to’ become wanna, gotta and gonna (informal)
Apart from those, there are many words that are just spelled differently for no
discernable reason: British ® pyjamas, tyre, judgement, doughnut, sceptic, jewellery,
draught, encyclopaedia Þ American ® pajamas, tire, judgment, donut, skeptic, jewlry,
draft, encyclopedia…
However, Webster’s attempts to get the American people use tung instead of tongue
and wimmin instead of women, were not so successful.

2.2. Differences in Grammar

The main differences are:
. American past participle of ‘get’ is gotten: I’ve never really gotten to know her
. AE uses an auxiliary with verb ‘have’: Do you have a brother? Yes, I do (AE)
Have you got a brother? Yes, I have (BE)
. American uses the adverb forms without –ly (informal): It is real strange
. AE tends to make irregular verbs regular: dream – dreamed

2.3. Differences in Vocabulary

Strong differences between both varieties concentrate on vocabulary:
. There are words in AE that are different because they represent institutions that
present variations in both cultures: British Parliament is American Congress and
British Member of Parliament is American Congressman.
. Pairs of words to designate the same thing coexist in both varieties (BE has incorporated
many of these American words to its common usage as a result of the influence of American media in
Britain): American British
Apartment Flat
Can Tin
Candy Sweets
Cookie Biscuit
Elevator Lift
Fall Autumn
French fries Chips
Chips Crisps
 Trash Rubbish
Gas(oline) Petrol
Mail Post
Movie Film
Pants Trousers
Cab Taxi
Railroad Railway
Sidewalk Pavement
Subway Underground (Tube)
Truck Lorry
Line Queue

2.4. Differences in Pronunciation

Leaving dialectal accents aside, the way words are pronounced in Britain and America
differs quite substantially. Some states in the US have more of a British pronunciation
(New England), and others are barely understandable (the Southern regions). However,
there are some traits that definitely distinguish American and British accents:
. /a:/ does not exist in AE; /æ/ is used instead: fast, path, example, after, half…
. British /o/ > American /a/: not, lot, hot, stop…
. British /o:/ > American /o/: caught, bought…
. BE / u/ > AE /ou/: go, home…
. th, d, t, n + u/ew: BE /ju:/ ; AE /u:/: duty, tune, new, stupid…
. /r/ is always pronounced in AM whereas in BE it is only in between vowels: car,
turn, offer, world…
. AE ‘t’ between vowels is pronounced /r/: water, later, city… It disappears after ‘n’
or ‘r’: twenty, plenty, forty.
. no intrusive nor linking ‘r’ in American: father and mother; America and Europe
. there are a number of words which are pronounced differently for nor discernable
reason: BE a'ddress, ciga’rette are AE ‘address, ‘cigarette. Word ‘either’ is pronounced
/ai/ in BE and /i:/ in AE.
. words ending –ing are pronounced just /in/ in AE: /runnin, walkin/. Whey they are
written, a stroke is put at the end of the word: runnin’.
. nasalization in American is a prominent feature that makes a clear distinction
between AE and BE. It is perhaps strait that stands out the most.
3. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN SPAIN
In the last decades, English has invaded our society in a number of ways. Maybe
the tourist industry is the filed in which we perceive more English usage as English is the
international language and it is the key to speak with foreigners. We say this because
Spain, as a tourist country, is packed with visitors in summer and English is the key
language to communicate with them. If you go, for example, to Ibiza in summer, you will
hardly find a waiter that speaks to you in Spanish!
Even the film industry is becoming more and more lazy, may I say it, when it
comes to translating titles of films. We have Mystic River, Monster’s Ball, Big Fish, Lost
in Translation and not ‘El río Mystic, El baile del mostruo, Pez Grande or Perdido en la
traducción’, for example. Sometimes, though, when a title is translated it bears so little
relation to the original one that you rather prefer having them in English! (Ella siempre
dice sí for Too Hot To Handle, or Algo para recorder for Sleepless in Seattle).
Moving on to the daily use of language in itself, it is interesting to see that, though
having words of our own, we prefer to keep on using foreign ones (zapping, instead of
‘cambiar de canal’, corner for saque the esquina…). Both words exist and coexist in the
language for speakers to use them. These words coming from English are called
Anglicisms and we are to study them in the following section.

4. ANGLICISMS
From the 20th century onwards, Anglicisms have invaded every language due to
the strong American influence. They have been absorbed through different channels:
radio, TV, journalism, technology, fashion, science… Thus we can say that an Anglicism
is a word or group of words taken from English and used in another language.
We can distinguish some types of Anglicisms according to their spelling or
pronunciation:
\Some can be recognised as clear English words as they bear no change either in
spelling or in pronunciation: ranking, manager, ticket, hobby, joystick, jeep, web cam,
playboy, mobbing, bullying…
\Some have been partially or totally adapted to the Spanish spelling: boicot
(boycott), fútbol (football), líder (leader), champú (shampoo), mitin (meeting), beisbol
(baseball), estress (stress), yogur (yogurt), voleibol (volleyball), boxear (to box)…
 \Some words are pronounced as the English although the spelling is different: bacon
– /beicon/, scout – (escaut), hippy – (jipi), junior (yunior), mountain bike (mountan
baik)…
\Some are pronounced according to Spanish grammar: snob, slogan, spray, punk,
iceberg, rock and roll… (those beginning with s- are added an ‘e’: /eslogan, espray/)
\Non-obvious Anglicisms are those terms which seem to be real Spanish, such as
nostalgia (pesar), detective (investigador), decada (from decade for decenio), evento
(from event for acontecimiento), expectacion (from expectation for expectativa),
sofisticado (from sophisticated for complejo/refinado), film (for película), planta (from
plant for fábrica), hall (for vestíbulo)… Both words coexist in the language being synonyms.
However, we should be aware of false Anglicisms, that is, when an apparent
English word has become common in Spanish without that word even existing in
English: footing, recordman, body (for a piece of garment)… These words do not exist
in English.

Let’s see now some examples of Anglicisms in different fields of everyday life:
- Computer field: Hardware, software, formatear, disquet, e-mail, Internet…
- House appliances: the operating instructions on the front panels of TVs, videos,
DVDs… are in English, and we usually refer to them using English terms:
compact disc, video, discman, on, off, play, rec(ord), stop, forward, rebobinar…
(It is not odd to hear sentences in Spanish like: Dale al on; Pon play; Haz un forward)
- Sports: together with the names of modern sports, English has provided terms
concerning the rules of those sports: step, hard trick, penalty, gol, kickboxing,
footing, jogging, corner, set*.

We should also mention the so-called sociological loans. Under this category we
could point out the use of Christmas Card, the celebration of some festivities as
Valentine’s Day or Halloween, the act of whistling on seeing a beautiful woman (from
American films), the sit-coms on TV…

*
Footing, jogging, corner and set has been accepted by the RAE.