BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH

British an American English are the main variants of the English language. Besides them there are Canadian, Australian, Indian, New Zealand and other variants. They have some peculiarities in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, but they are easily used for communication between people living in these countries. As far as American English is concerned, some scientists (H.N.Menken, for example) tried to prove that there was a separate American language. In 1919 H.N.Menken published a book called The American Language. But most scientists, American ones including, criticized his point of view because the differences between the two variants are not systematic.

American English begins its history at the beginning of the 17^th century when first English-speaking settlers began to settle on the Atlantic coast of the American continent. The language which they brought from England was the language spoken in England during the reign of Elizabeth I.

The first settlers faced the problem of finding names for places, animals, plants, customs which they came across on the American continent. They took some of the names from languages spoken by the local population Indians, such as: chipmuck (an American squirrel), squaw (an Indian woman), wigwam (an American Indian tent made of skins and bark) etc.

Besides Englishmen, settlers from other countries came to America and English-speaking settlers mixed with them and borrowed words from languages, e.g. from French.

The second period of American English history begins in the 19^th century. Immigrants continued to come from Europe to. When large groups of immigrants from the same country came to America some of their words were borrowed into English. Italians brought with them a style of cooking which became widely spread and such words as pizza, spaghetti came into English. From the great number of German-speaking settlers the following words were borrowed into English: delicatessen, lager, hamburger, noodle, schnitzel and many others.

During the second period of American English history there appeared quite a number of words and word-groups which were formed in the language due to the new political system, liberation of America from the British colonialism, its independence. The following lexical units appealed due to these events: the United States of America, assembly, congress, Senate, congressman, President, senator, Vice-president and many others.

There are some differences between British and American English in the usage of prepositions, such as prepositions with dates, days of the week. BE requires “on” (I start my holiday on Friday.),. in American English there is no preposition (I start my vacation Friday.). In BE we use by day, by night/at night, in AE the corresponding are days and nights. In BE we say at home, in AE home is used. In BE we say a quarter to five, in AE – a quarter of five. In BE we say in the street, in AE on the street. In BE we say to chat to somebody, in AE – to chat with somebody. In BE we say different from something, in AE different than something.

There are also units of vocabulary which are different while denoting the same notions, e.g. BE trousers – AE pants: in BE pants are трусы which in AE is shorts. While in BE shorts are outwear. This can lead to misunderstanding.

There are some differences in names of places:

Some words connected with food are different:

Some words denoting people are also different:

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