 Early 1600’s:

The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrive in North America as

part of the British colonization movement. They bring English, now
an “emigrant language,” to native North Americans; in addition, the
settlers and their families continue to speak their own native tongue.
 The process of an emigrant language’s evolution:
1) The language evolves from a specific homeland language.
2) The emigrant language begins to change course because of
lack of direct contact with the homeland.
3) The emigrant language continues to evolve away from
the homeland, gradually creating a new dialect.
4) The homeland dialect continues to evolve as well, diverging
further away from the emigrant dialect of the language.
 Between the end of the 17th century and the 21st century, many
gradual changes to the form of the English language have
taken place under this process.
 The process caused the Americans and the British to diverge so
drastically in terms of the forms of their languages that they are
now considered two separate English language dialects.

 1806 – Noah Webster publishes his first dictionary, A

Compendious Dictionary of the English Language.

Up until this time, English dictionaries included strictly British

vocabulary, spellings, and pronunciations.

Webster was convinced that an outline of a common,

American, national language would unify his country.
 1828 –publishes American Dictionary of the English Language
 1890 – Merriam brothers {who received the rights to Webster’s
dictionaries after his death} publish Webster’s First International
Dictionary, an all-encompassing look at the English language
 Noah Webster’s intentions?
To prove that Americans spoke a different
dialect than the British {but a dialect that was in no
way inferior – he believed it deserved a unique
documentation of its own trends}
 Merriam’s intentions?
"The purpose of the dictionary is to provide a record of
the language as it is used by educated people who
have been speaking and writing it all their lives.“
-- H. Bosley Woolf {Merriam's editorial director}
 West-Germanic
 A “borrowing language” – enriched by
Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, and
Norman influences
 Evolved over many centuries;
experienced many shifts/changes
 Spread of British English is attributed to
trade and commerce throughout the
established British Empire
 There are quite a few noticeable differences between the British
English dialect and the evolved dialect of American English.

These are the ones we will cover:

Spelling
Pronunciation {accent}
Pronunciation {affixes}
Pronunciation {stress}
Grammar
Vocabulary
AMERICAN – “-or” BRITISH – “-our”
Color Colour
Honor Honour
Favorite favourite

AMERICAN – “-ze” BRITISH – “-se”

Analyze Analyse
Criticize Criticise
Memorize Memorise

AMERICAN – “-ll” BRITISH – “-l”

Enrollment Enrolment
Fulfill Fulfil
Skillful skilful
 AMERICAN – “-er” BRITISH – “-re”
Center Centre
Meter Metre
Theater theatre

AMERICAN – “-og” BRITISH – “-ogue”

Analog Analogue
Catalog Catalogue
Dialog Dialogue

AMERICAN – “-ck” or “-k” BRITISH – “-que”

Bank Banque
Check Cheque
 AMERICAN – “-e” BRITISH – “-ae” or “-oe”
Encyclopedia Encyclopaedia
Maneuver Manoeuvre
Medieval Mediaeval

AMERICAN – “-dg” “-g” “-gu” BRITISH – “-dge” “-ge” “-gue”

Aging Ageing
Argument Arguement
Judgment Judgement

AMERICAN – “-ense” BRITISH – “-ence”

License Licence
Defense Defence
 Other word-specific differences --

AMERICAN BRITISH
Jewelry Jewellry
Draft Draught
Pajamas Pyjamas
Plow Plough
Program Programme
Tire Tyre
Base words that end in L normally double the L in
British English when a suffix is added.
BASE WORD AMERICAN BRITISH
Counsel Counseling Counselling
Equal Equaled Equalled
The letter can
Model Modeling Modelling double in American
Quarrel Quarreling Quarrelling as well – but ONLY IF
the stress is on the
Signal Signaled Signalled
second syllable
Travel Traveling Travelling of the base word.

BASE AMERICAN BRITISH

WORD
Excel Excelling Excelling
Propel Propelling Propelling
From the beginning, Americans borrowed words from Native American
languages for unfamiliar objects {i.e. opossum, squash, moccasin}
They took many “loanwords” from other colonizing nations {i.e. cookie,
kill, and stoop from Dutch; levee , prairie, and gopher from French;
barbecue, canyon, and rodeo from Spanish
British words were obviously borrowed, but often evolved to mean new
things in an American landscape {i.e. creek, barrens, trail, bluff, etc.}
With the development of the new continent, new words were
necessarily brought in to describe new things: split-level {in real
estate}, carpetbagger {in politics}, commuter {in transportation},
and a variety of vocabulary to distinguish among professions.
Many words originated as American slang: hijacking, boost, jazz, etc.
 AMERICAN BRITISH
American Apartment Flat
& British Argument Row
English Carriage/coach Pram
Bathroom Loo
sometimes Can Tin
have Cookie Biscuit

different Diaper Nappy

Elevator Lift
words for Eraser Rubber
the same Flashlight Torch
Fries Chips
things -- Gas Petrol
Guy Bloke/chap
AMERICAN BRITISH AMERICAN BRITISH
Highway Motorway Truck Lorry
Hood {of a car} Bonnet Trunk Boot
Jelly Jam Vacation Holiday
Kerosene Paraffin Windshield Windscreen
Lawyer Solicitor License Plate Number Plate
Line Queue Pacifier Dummy
Mail Post Parking lot Car park
Napkin Serviette Pharmacist Chemist
Nothing Nought Sidewalk Pavement
Period Full stop Soccer Football
Potato chips crisps Trash can Bin
 American and British English speakers
often use the same words but intend
very different meaning with them:
WORD AMERICAN BRITISH
Biscuit Dinner roll Cookie
Brew Beer Tea
Bureau Chest of drawers Writing table/desk
Casket Coffin Jewelry Box
First Floor Ground Floor “Second” Floor
To hire To employ To rent

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_words_having_different_meani
ngs_in_British_and_American_English {for more examples!}
 British and American spelling
 There are several areas in which British
and American spelling are different.
These are the main ones to be aware of.

 Words ending in –re

 British English words that end in -re often end in -
er in American English:
 Words ending in -our

 British English words ending in -our usually

end in -or in American English:
 Words ending in -ize or -ise

 Verbs in British English that can be spelled

with either -ize or -ise at the end are always
spelled with -ize at the end in American
English:
 Words ending in -yse

 Verbs in British English that end in -yse are

always spelled -yze in American English:
 Words ending in a vowel plus l

 In British spelling, verbs ending in a vowel

plus l double the l when adding endings
that begin with a vowel. In American
English, the l is not doubled:
 Words spelled with double vowels

 British English words that are spelled with

the double vowels ae or oe are just
spelled with an e in American English:
Note that in American English, certain
terms, such as archaeology, keep
the ae spelling as standard, although the
spelling with just the e (i.e. archeology) is
usually acceptable as well.

Nouns ending with –ence

Some nouns that end with -ence in British

English are spelled -ense in American
English:
 Nouns ending with –ogue

 Some nouns that end with -ogue in British

English end with either -og or -ogue in
American English:
 Intemann, Dr. F. “Teaching English Grammar and Lexis.”
http://www-public.tu-bs.de:8080/~intemann/BA/grammar-lexis/bara-
ristau-schubert.pdf
 Jones, Susan. “List of American vs. British Spelling.”
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/jones/spelling.htm
 Wallechinsky, David & Irving Wallace. “Trivia on History of Merriam-
Webster’s Dictionary Part 1.”
http://www.trivia-library.com/b/history-of-merriam-webster-dictionary-
part-1.htm
 Wikipedia. “British English.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_English
 Wikipedia. “American and British English Differences.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences