English Language

English Language

chief medium of communication of people in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and numerous other countries. It is the official language of many nations in the Commonwealth of Nations and is widely understood and used in all of them. It is spoken in more parts of the world than any other language and by more people than any other tongue except Chinese. radio

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English belongs to the Anglo-Frisian group within the western branch of the Germanic languages, a subfamily of the Indo-European languages. It is related most closely to the Frisian language, to a lesser extent to Netherlandic (Dutch-Flemish) and the Low German (Plattdeutsch) dialects, and more distantly to Modern High German.

II VOCABULARY

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The English vocabulary has increased greatly in more than 1500 years of development. The most nearly complete dictionary of the language, the Oxford English Dictionary (second edition, 20 volumes, 1989), contains more than 600,000 words, including obsolete forms and variant spellings. It has been estimated, however, that the present English vocabulary consists of more than 1 million words, including slang and dialect expressions and scientific and technical terms, many of which only came into use after the middle of the 20th century. The English vocabulary is more extensive than that of any other language in the world, although some other languages—Chinese, for example—have a word-building capacity equal to that of English.

Extensive, constant borrowing from every major language, especially from Latin, Greek, French, and the Scandinavian languages, and from numerous minor languages, accounts for the great number of words in the English vocabulary. In addition, certain processes have led to the creation of many new words as well as to the establishment of patterns for further expansion. Among these processes are onomatopoeia, or the imitation of natural sounds, which has created such words as burp and clink; affixation, or the addition of prefixes and suffixes, either native, such as mis- and -ness, or borrowed, such as ex- and -ist; the combination of parts of words, such as in brunch, composed of parts of breakfast and lunch; the free formation of compounds, such as bonehead and downpour; back formation, or the formation of words from previously existing words, the forms of which suggest that the later words were derived from the earlier ones—for example, to jell, formed from jelly; and functional change, or the use of one part of speech as if it were another, for example, the noun shower used as a verb, to shower. The processes that have probably added the largest number of words are affixation and especially functional change, which is facilitated by the peculiarities of English syntactical structure.

III SPELLING

-ough Although the -ough sound is spelled the same in each of these words, it is pronounced six different ways. These differences in pronunciation are one reason why English is considered a difficult language for non-native speakers to learn.(p) 1992 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

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English is said to have one of the most difficult spelling systems in the world. The written representation of English is not phonetically exact for two main reasons. First, the spelling of words has changed to a lesser extent than their sounds; for example, the k in knife and the gh in right were formerly pronounced (see Middle English Period below). Second, certain spelling conventions acquired from foreign sources have been perpetuated; for example, during the 16th century the b was inserted in doubt (formerly spelled doute) on the authority of dubitare, the Latin source of the word. Outstanding examples of discrepancies between spelling and pronunciation are the six different pronunciations of ough, as in bough, cough, thorough, thought, through, and rough; the spellings are kept from a time when the gh represented a back fricative consonant that was pronounced in these words. Other obvious discrepancies are the 14 different spellings of the sh sound, for example, as in anxious, fission, fuchsia, and ocean.

IV ROLE OF PHONEMES

Theoretically, the spelling of phonemes, the simplest sound elements used to distinguish one word from another, should indicate precisely the sound characteristics of the language. For example, in English, at contains two phonemes, mat three, and mast four. Very frequently, however, the spelling of English words does not conform to the number of phonemes. Enough, for example, which has four phonemes (enuf), is spelled with six letters, as is breath, which also has four phonemes (breθ) and six letters. See Phonetics.

The main vowel phonemes in English include those represented by the italicized letters in the following words: bit, beat, bet, bate, bat, but, botany, bought, boat, boot, book, and burr. These phonemes are distinguished from one another by the position of articulation in the mouth. Four vowel sounds, or complex nuclei, of English are diphthongs formed by gliding from a low position of articulation to a higher one. These diphthongs are the i of bite (a glide from o of botany to ea of beat), the ou of bout (from o of botany to oo of boot), the oy of boy (from ou of bought to ea of beat), and the u of butte (from ea of beat to oo of boot). The exact starting point and ending point of the glide varies within the English-speaking world.

V STRESS, PITCHES, AND JUNCTURE

Other means to phonemic differentiation in English, apart from the pronunciation of distinct vowels and consonants, are stress, pitch, and juncture. Stress is the sound difference achieved by pronouncing one syllable more forcefully than another, for example, the difference between rec′ ord (noun) and re cord′ (verb). Pitch is, for example, the difference between the pronunciation of John and John? Juncture or disjuncture of words causes such differences in sound as that created by the pronunciation of blackbird (one word) and black bird (two words). English employs four degrees of stress and four kinds of juncture for differentiating words and phrases.

VI INFLECTION

Modern English is a relatively uninflected language. Nouns have separate endings only in the possessive case and the plural number. Verbs have both a strong conjugation—shown in older words—with internal vowel change, for example, sing, sang, sung, and a weak conjugation with dental suffixes indicating past tense, as in play, played. The latter is the predominant type. Only 66 verbs of the strong type are in use; newer verbs invariably follow the weak pattern. The third person singular has an -s ending, as in does. The structure of English verbs is thus fairly simple, compared with that of verbs in similar languages, and includes only a few other endings, such as -ing or -en; but verb structure does involve the use of numerous auxiliaries such as have, can, may, or must. Monosyllabic and some disyllabic adjectives are inflected for degree of comparison, such as larger or happiest; other adjectives express the same distinction by compounding with more and most. Pronouns, the most heavily inflected parts of speech in English, have objective case forms, such as me or her, in addition to the nominative (I, he, we) and possessive forms (my, his, hers, our).

VII PARTS OF SPEECH

Although many grammarians still cling to the Greco-Latin tradition of dividing words into eight parts of speech, efforts have recently been made to reclassify English words on a different basis. The American linguist Charles Carpenter Fries, in his work The Structure of English (1952), divided most English words into four great form classes that generally correspond to the noun, verb, adjective, and adverb in the standard classification. He classified 154 other words as function words, or words that connect the main words of a sentence and show their relations to one another. In the standard classification, many of these function words are considered pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions; others are considered adverbs, adjectives, or verbs.

VIII DEVELOPMENT OF THE LANGUAGE

Three main stages are usually recognized in the history of the development of the English language. Old English, known formerly as Anglo-Saxon, dates from ad449 to 1066 or 1100. Middle English dates from 1066 or 1100 to 1450 or 1500. Modern English dates from about 1450 or 1500 and is subdivided into Early Modern English, from about 1500 to 1660, and Late Modern English, from about 1660 to the present time.

A Old English Period

Old English, a variant of West Germanic, was spoken by certain Germanic peoples (Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) of the regions comprising present-day southern Denmark and northern Germany who invaded Britain in the 5th century ad; the Jutes were the first to arrive, in 449, according to tradition. Settling in Britain, the invaders drove the indigenous Celtic-speaking peoples, notably the Britons, to the north and west. As time went on, Old English evolved further from the original Continental form, and regional dialects developed. The four major dialects recognized in Old English are Kentish, originally the dialect spoken by the Jutes; West Saxon, a branch of the dialect spoken by the Saxons; and Northumbrian and Mercian, subdivisions of the dialects spoken by the Angles. By the 9th century, partly through the influence of Alfred, king of the West Saxons and the first ruler of all England, West Saxon became prevalent in prose literature. A Mercian mixed dialect, however, was primarily used for the greatest poetry, such as the anonymous epic poem Beowulf, written sometime between the 8th century and the late 10th century, and the contemporary elegiac poems.

Old English was an inflected language characterized by strong and weak verbs; a dual number for pronouns (for example, a form for “we two” as well as “we”), two different declensions of adjectives, four declensions of nouns, and grammatical distinctions of gender. Although rich in word-building possibilities, Old English was sparse in vocabulary. It borrowed few proper nouns from the language of the conquered Celts, primarily those such as Aberdeen (“mouth of the Dee”) and Inchcape (“island cape”) that describe geographical features. Scholars believe that ten common nouns in Old English are of Celtic origin; among these are bannock, cart, down, and mattock. Although other Celtic words not preserved in literature may have been in use during the Old English period, most Modern English words of Celtic origin, that is, those derived from Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, or Irish, are comparatively recent borrowings.

The number of Latin words, many of them derived from the Greek, that were introduced during the Old English period has been estimated at 140. Typical of these words are altar, mass, priest, psalm, temple, kitchen, palm, and pear. A few were probably introduced through the Celtic; others were brought to Britain by the Germanic invaders, who previously had come into contact with Roman culture. By far the largest number of Latin words was introduced as a result of the spread of Christianity. Such words included not only ecclesiastical terms but many others of less specialized significance.

About 40 Scandinavian (Old Norse) words were introduced into Old English by the Norsemen, or Vikings, who invaded Britain periodically from the late 8th century on. Introduced first were words pertaining to the sea and battle, but shortly after the initial invasions other words used in the Scandinavian social and administrative system—for example, the word law—entered the language, as well as the verb form are and such widely used words as take, cut, both, ill, and ugly.

B Middle English Period

Tale of the Wife of Bath The Canterbury Tales by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer contains 22 verse tales and 2 prose tales presumably told by pilgrims to pass the time on their way to visit a shrine in Canterbury, England. An excerpt from the tale of the Wife of Bath is heard here. The wife relates that she has been married and widowed five times but the church has recognized only one marriage. You can follow the Middle English text and modern translation as you listen to the audio excerpt.The Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale from The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, performed by Elizabeth Salter, from Geoffrey Chaucer: The Wife of Prologue and Tale (Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521635306) (p) 1976, 1998 Cambridge University Press. All

At the beginning of the Middle English period, which dates from the Norman Conquest of 1066, the language was still inflectional; at the end of the period the relationship between the elements of the sentence depended basically on word order. As early as 1200 the three or four grammatical case forms of nouns in the singular had been reduced to two, and to denote the plural the noun ending -es had been adopted.

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GREAT WORKS OF LITERATURE

From The Canterbury Tales

The writing of 14th-century English poet Geoffrey Chaucer combines influences from many European traditions: secular and religious, comic and philosophical. These elements are brought together in The Canterbury Tales (probably written after 1387) about a group of pilgrims from varied backgrounds who recount often lusty tales on their way to the shrine of Saint Thomas à Becket. In this excerpt from the General Prologue, Chaucer introduces the pilgrims, including the courtly Knight and his party; the lady Prioress; the hunting Monk; and the flattering Friar.

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The declension of the noun was simplified further by dropping the final n from five cases of the fourth, or weak, declension; by neutralizing all vowel endings to e (sounded like the a in Modern English sofa), and by extending the masculine, nominative, and accusative plural ending -as, later neutralized also to -es, to other declensions and other cases. Only one example of a weak plural ending, oxen, survives in Modern English; kine and brethren are later formations. Several representatives of the Old English modification of the root vowel in the plural, such as man, men, and foot, feet, survive also.

With the leveling of inflections, the distinctions of grammatical gender in English were replaced by those of natural gender. During this period the dual number fell into disuse, and the dative and accusative of pronouns were reduced to a common form. Furthermore, the Scandinavian they, them were substituted for the original hie, hem of the third person plural, and who, which, and that acquired their present relative functions. The conjugation of verbs was simplified by the omission of endings and by the use of a common form for the singular and plural of the past tense of strong verbs.

In the early period of Middle English, a number of utilitarian words, such as egg, sky, sister, window, and get, came into the language from Old Norse. The Normans brought other additions to the vocabulary. Before 1250 about 900 new words had appeared in English, mainly words, such as baron, noble, and feast, that the Anglo-Saxon lower classes required in their dealings with the Norman-French nobility. Eventually the Norman nobility and clergy, although they had learned English, introduced from the French words pertaining to the government, the church, the army, and the fashions of the court, in addition to others proper to the arts, scholarship, and medicine.

Midland, the dialect of Middle English derived from the Mercian dialect of Old English, became important during the 14th century, when the counties in which it was spoken developed into centers of university, economic, and courtly life. East Midland, one of the subdivisions of Midland, had by that time become the speech of the entire metropolitan area of the capital, London, and probably had spread south of the Thames River into Kent and Surrey. The influence of East Midland was strengthened by its use in the government offices of London, by its literary dissemination in the works of the 14th-century poets Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, and John Lydgate, and ultimately by its adoption for printed works by William Caxton. These and other circumstances gradually contributed to the direct development of the East Midland dialect into the Modern English language.

During the period of this linguistic transformation the other Middle English dialects continued to exist, and dialects descending from them are still spoken in the 20th century. Lowland Scottish, for example, is a development of the Northern dialect.

C The Great Vowel Shift

The transition from Middle English to Modern English was marked by a major change in the pronunciation of vowels during the 15th and 16th centuries. This change, termed the Great Vowel Shift by the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen, consisted of a shift in the articulation of vowels with respect to the positions assumed by the tongue and the lips. The Great Vowel Shift changed the pronunciation of 18 of the 20 distinctive vowels and diphthongs of Middle English. Spelling, however, remained unchanged and was preserved from then on as a result of the advent of printing in England about 1475, during the shift. (In general, Middle English orthography was much more phonetic than Modern English; all consonants, for example, were pronounced, whereas now letters such as the l preserved in walking are silent).

All long vowels, with the exception of /ī/ (pronounced in Middle English somewhat like ee in need) and /ū/ (pronounced in Middle English like oo in food), came to be pronounced with the jaw position one degree higher. Pronounced previously in the highest possible position, the/ī/ became diphthongized to “ah-ee,” and the/ū/ to “ee-oo.” The Great Vowel Shift, which is still in progress, caused the pronunciation in English of the letters a, e, i, o, and u to differ from that used in most other languages of Western Europe. The approximate date when words were borrowed from other languages can be ascertained by means of these and other sound changes. Thus it is known that the old French word dame was borrowed before the shift, since its vowel shifted with the Middle English /ā/ from a pronunciation like that of the vowel in calm to that of the vowel in name.

D Modern English Period

In the early part of the Modern English period the vocabulary was enlarged by the widespread use of one part of speech for another and by increased borrowings from other languages. The revival of interest in Latin and Greek during the Renaissance brought new words into English from those languages. Other words were introduced by English travelers and merchants after their return from journeys on the Continent. From Italian came cameo, stanza, and violin; from Spanish and Portuguese, alligator, peccadillo, and sombrero. During its development, Modern English borrowed words from more than 50 different languages.

In the late 17th century and during the 18th century, certain important grammatical changes occurred. The formal rules of English grammar were established during that period. The pronoun its came into use, replacing the genitive form his, which was the only form used by the translators of the King James Bible (1611). The progressive tenses developed from the use of the participle as a noun preceded by the preposition on; the preposition gradually weakened to a and finally disappeared. Thereafter only the simple ing form of the verb remained in use. After the 18th century this process of development culminated in the creation of the progressive passive form, for example, “The job is being done.”

The most important development begun during this period and continued without interruption throughout the 19th and 20th centuries concerned vocabulary. As a result of colonial expansion, notably in North America but also in other areas of the world, many new words entered the English language. From the indigenous peoples of North America, the words raccoon and wigwam were borrowed; from Peru, llama and quinine; from the West Indies, barbecue and cannibal; from Africa, chimpanzee and zebra; from India, bandanna, curry, and punch; and from Australia, kangaroo and boomerang. In addition, thousands of scientific terms were developed to denote new concepts, discoveries, and inventions. Many of these terms, such as neutron, penicillin, and supersonic, were formed from Greek and Latin roots; others were borrowed from modern languages, as with blitzkrieg from German and sputnik from Russian.

E 20th-Century English

In Great Britain at present the speech of educated persons is known as Received Standard English. A class dialect rather than a regional dialect, it is based on the type of speech cultivated at such schools as Eton and Harrow and at such of the older universities as Oxford and Cambridge. Many English people who speak regional dialects in their childhood acquire Received Standard English while attending school and university. Its influence has become even stronger in recent years because of its use by such public media as the British Broadcasting Corp.

Widely differing regional and local dialects are still employed in the various counties of Great Britain. Other important regional dialects have developed also; for example, the English language in Ireland has retained certain individual peculiarities of pronunciation, such as the pronunciation of lave for leave and fluther for flutter; certain syntactical peculiarities, such as the use of after following forms of the verb be; and certain differences in vocabulary, including the use of archaic words such as adown (for down) and Celtic borrowings such as banshee. The Lowland Scottish dialect, sometimes called Lallans, first made known throughout the English-speaking world by the songs of the 18th-century Scottish poet Robert Burns, contains differences in pronunciation also, such as neebour (“neighbor”) and guid (“good”), and words of Scandinavian origin peculiar to the dialect, such as braw and bairn. The English spoken in Australia, with its marked diphthongization of vowels, also makes use of special words, retained from English regional dialect usages, or taken over from indigenous Australian terms.

F American English

An important development of English outside Great Britain occurred with the colonization of North America. American English may be considered to include the English spoken in Canada, although the Canadian variety retains some features of British pronunciation, spelling, and vocabulary. The most distinguishing differences between American English and British English are in pronunciation and vocabulary. There are slighter differences in spelling, pitch, and stress as well. Written American English also has a tendency to be more rigid in matters of grammar and syntax, but at the same time appears to be more tolerant of the use of neologisms. Despite these differences, it is often difficult to determine—apart from context—whether serious literary works have been written in Great Britain or the U.S./Canada—or, for that matter, in Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa. See American English.

G Basic English

A simplified form of the English language based on 850 key words was developed in the late 1920s by the English psychologist Charles Kay Ogden and publicized by the English educator I. A. Richards. Known as Basic English, it was used mainly to teach English to non-English-speaking persons and promoted as an international language. The complexities of English spelling and grammar, however, were major hindrances to the adoption of Basic English as a second language.

The fundamental principle of Basic English was that any idea, however complex, may be reduced to simple units of thought and expressed clearly by a limited number of everyday words. The 850-word primary vocabulary was composed of 600 nouns (representing things or events), 150 adjectives (for qualities and properties), and 100 general “operational” words, mainly verbs and prepositions. Almost all the words were in common use in English-speaking countries; more than 60 percent were one-syllable words. The abbreviated vocabulary was created in part by eliminating numerous synonyms and by extending the use of 18 “basic” verbs, such as make, get, do, have, and be. These verbs were generally combined with prepositions, such as up, among, under, in, and forward. For example, a Basic English student would use the expression “go up” instead of “ascend.”

H Pidgin English

English also enters into a number of simplified languages that arose among non-English-speaking peoples. Pidgin English (see Pidgin), spoken in the Melanesian islands, New Guinea, Australia, the Philippines, and Hawaii and on the Asian shores of the Pacific Ocean, developed as a means of communication between Chinese and English traders. The Chinese adopted many English words and a few indispensable non-English words and created a means of discourse, using a simple grammatical apparatus. Bêche-de-Mer, a pidgin spoken in the southern and western Pacific islands, is predominantly English in structure, although it includes many Polynesian words. Chinook Jargon, used as a lingua franca by the Native Americans, French, and English on the North American Pacific coast, contains English, French, and Native American words; its grammatical structure is based on that of the Chinook language. The use of pidgin is growing in Africa, notably in Cameroon, Sierra Leone, and East Africa.

IX FUTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

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The influence of the mass media appears likely to result in standardized pronunciation, more uniform spelling, and eventually a spelling closer to actual pronunciation. Despite the likelihood of such standardization, a unique feature of the English language remains its tendency to grow and change. Despite the warnings of linguistic purists, new words are constantly being coined and usages modified to express new concepts. Its vocabulary is constantly enriched by linguistic borrowings, particularly by cross-fertilizations from American English. Because it is capable of infinite possibilities of communication, the English language has become the chief international language.

American English

variety of the English language spoken in the United States. Although all Americans do not speak the same way, their speech has enough in common that American English can be recognized as a variety of English distinct from British English, Australian English, and other national varieties. American English has grown up with the country. It began to diverge from British English during its colonial beginnings and acquired regional differences and ethnic flavor during the settlement of the continent. Today it influences other languages and other varieties of English because it is the medium by which the attractions of American culture—its literature, motion pictures, and television programs—are transmitted to the world.

II CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH

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All speakers of English share a common linguistic system and a basic set of words. But American English differs from British English, Australian English, and other national varieties in many of its pronunciations, words, spellings, and grammatical constructions. Words or phrases of American origin, and those used in America but not so much elsewhere, are called Americanisms.

A Pronunciation

In broad terms, Canadian and American speakers tend to sound like one another. They also tend to sound different from a large group of English speakers who sound more British, such as those in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. For example, most Canadians and Americans pronounce an r sound after the vowel in words like barn, car, and farther, while speakers from the British English group do not. Also, some British English speakers drop h sounds at the beginning of words, so that he and his are pronounced as if they were spelled ee and is. The English spoken in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa sounds more like British English than American English does because these varieties have had less time to diverge from British English. The process of separate development began later in these countries than in North America.

Although Canadians and Americans share many speech habits, Canadian speakers of English sometimes tend more toward British English because of the closer historical association of Britain with Canada. One prominent difference between American English and Canadian English is the vowel sound in words like out and house. Americans often say that the Canadian pronunciation sounds as if the words were spelled oot and hoose.

In some cases there are differences between American English and British English in the rhythm of words. British speakers seem to leave out a syllable in words like secretary, as if it were spelled secretry, while Americans keep all the syllables. The opposite is true of other words, such as specialty, which Americans pronounce with three syllables (spe-cial-ty) while British speakers pronounce it with five syllables (spe-ci-al-i-ty). Vowels and consonants may also have different pronunciations. British speakers pronounce zebra to rhyme with Debra, while American speakers make zebra rhyme with Libra. Canadian and British speakers pronounce the word schedule as if it began with an sh sound, while Americans pronounce it as if it began with an sk sound.

B Words

The most frequently used words are shared by speakers of different varieties of English. These words include the most common nouns, the most common verbs, and most function words (such as pronouns, articles, and prepositions). The different varieties of English do, however, use different words for many words that are slightly less common—for example, British crisps for American potato chips, Australian billabong for American pond, and Canadian chesterfield for American sofa. It is even more common for the same word to exist with different meanings in different varieties of English. Corn is a general term in Britain, for which Americans use grain, while corn in American English is a specific kind of grain. The word pond in British English usually refers to an artificial body of water, whereas ponds also occur naturally in North America. British English chemist is the same as American English drugstore, and in Canada people go to the druggist. Many of the words most easily recognized as American in origin are associated with aspects of American popular culture, such as gangster or cowboy.

C Spelling

American English spelling differs from British English spelling largely because of one man, American lexicographer Noah Webster. In addition to his well-known An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), Webster published The American Spelling Book (1783, with many subsequent editions), which became one of the most widely used schoolbooks in American history. Webster’s books sought to standardize spelling in the United States by promoting the use of an American language that intentionally differed from British English. The development of a specifically American variety of English mirrored the new country’s separate political development. Webster’s most successful changes were spellings with or instead of our (honor, labor for the British honour, labour); with er instead of re (center, theater for the British centre, theatre); with an s instead of a c (defense, license for the British defence, licence); with a final ck instead of que (check, mask for the British cheque, masque); and without a final k (traffic, public, now also used in British English, for the older traffick, publick). Later spelling reform created a few other differences, such as program for British programme. Canadian spelling varies between the British and American forms, more British in eastern Canada and more American in western Canada.

D Grammar

The grammar of educated speakers of English differs little among national varieties. In the speech of people with less access to education, grammatical variations in regional and social varieties of American English are very common as normal, systematic occurrences (not as errors). One major difference between British and American English is that the two attach different verb forms to nouns that are grammatically singular but plural in sense. In American English, the team is…, or the government is… (because they are viewed as single entities), but in British English, the team are…, or the government are… (because teams and government are understood to consist of more than one person). Sometimes function words are used differently: The British stay in hospital but Americans stay in the hospital.

III HISTORY OF AMERICAN ENGLISH

American English shows many influences from the different cultures and languages of the people who settled in North America. The nature of the influence depends on the time and the circumstances of contact between cultures.

A Colonial Period

The first settlements on the East Coast of North America in the 17th century were composed mostly of British subjects. Accounting for about 90 percent of the people, the British vastly outnumbered French and German settlers. English was therefore the only real candidate for a common American language. The settlers spoke varieties of English from various parts of England, but in the creation of American English, these varieties were leveled—that is, their differences largely disappeared. Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur, a French-born writer who published under the name J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur and became famous for his book Letters from an American Farmer (1782), describes the desire of settlers to “become an American,” their common ideal to own and work their own farms, without prejudice toward neighbors whatever their neighbors’ religion or national origin. This shared goal encouraged development of a shared variety of the language, which came to be enriched by contributions from many cultures.

As the European settlers came into contact with Native Americans, American English collected a large stock of Native American place names (Allegheny, Chicago, Mississippi, Potomac) and Native American names for things not found in Europe or Asia (moose, opossum, squash, moccasin, tomahawk, totem). Sometimes Native American words were spelled by settlers so that they looked more like English words; woodchuck, for example, probably comes from the Cree word wuchak. Cultural exchange with Native Americans was more limited than might be expected, because diseases brought by Spanish explorers and European settlers greatly reduced the Native American population in eastern North America during early settlement.

In the 18th century people from Ireland and Northern Europe joined the British settlers. By the time of the American Revolution (1775-1783), there were comparable numbers of British settlers and settlers from other European countries. Some Europeans formed separate communities, such as the Pennsylvania Germans, but most mixed with British settlers and contributed to American English words from their own languages. Examples include pumpkin, bayou, and bureau from French; cookie, waffle, and boss from Dutch; and pretzel, pinochle, and phooey from German. Scottish and Irish settlers were already English speakers, but they influenced American English with features from their own varieties—for example, pronunciation of r after vowels (while many British English speakers were losing the r after vowels) and double verb forms like might could.

Africans were imported as slaves throughout the early settlement of North America. By the American Revolution one-quarter of the American population consisted of African Americans, and as much as 95 percent of the population living in plantation areas was African American. Slaves were not allowed to share in Crèvecoeur’s American ideal, but they learned American English from their owners, overseers, and other slaves. Some slaves may have developed creole languages on plantations. A creole is made of words from different languages—in this case, English and the African languages spoken by the slaves. It also has its own grammar. Over time, especially after slavery was abolished, the language of African Americans came to have fewer creole characteristics. One authentic American plantation creole remains: Gullah, spoken by African Americans in communities on the Sea Islands off South Carolina and Georgia. African words in American English include gumbo, okra, and voodoo.

B Territorial Expansion and Urbanization

During the 19th and 20th centuries settlers pushed westward as the United States acquired control of land from the French, the Spanish, and the Native Americans. Crèvecoeur’s American ideal of separate farms lasted well into the 20th century, and a shared sense of purpose maintained social pressure for immigrants to participate in American language and culture. This period also saw the rise of great cities, first in the East and later in other regions. Development of industries brought opportunities for immigrants to work in cities instead of on farms, and the resulting concentration of people in urban areas allowed for maintenance of immigrant languages in some quarters, while most people still found it best to learn and use American English for everyday discourse.

At the same time that settlers from other countries were adapting to English, they were influencing it as well. Settlement of the West and Southwest by northern Europeans meant contact with the Spanish-speaking settlers who were already there. As a result, American English adopted many words commonly associated with Spanish, such as enchilada, pueblo, sombrero, and tortilla, and also many words not usually thought of as Spanish, such as alfalfa, cockroach, marina, plaza, and ranch. Scandinavians established homesteads in the upper Midwest and gave American English the words smorgasbord and sauna. Other European immigrants were drawn primarily to urban areas. Jewish immigrants are particularly associated with New York City, for example, and provided such words as kosher and kibbitz. Polish immigrants, strongly associated with Chicago, provided kielbasa and pierogi; Chinese immigrants, associated with San Francisco or Los Angeles, chow mein and mahjong; Italian immigrants, associated with many cities, contributed the words spaghetti and pizza. Many other cultural groups have also had an impact on American English, often more local than national, as, for example, Cubans in Miami, Florida.

IV DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONAL SPEECH PATTERNS

Even settlers who shared Crèvecouer’s goal of “becoming an American” did not always share American English in exactly the same form. People tend to talk like the people they talk to, and so American English developed regional varieties. These varieties match the main ports of entry and follow the typical paths of settlement that started in each port. According to American linguist Hans Kurath, three broad east-west bands—North, Midland, and South—show a link between settlement and speech patterns. These bands reach as far as the Mississippi River but do not cross it, because settlement of the West was more mixed.

The Northern speech band includes New England and the northernmost tier of states. Boston served as the focus of the New England settlement area, from Rhode Island north to Maine, but mountains hindered direct overland settlement to the west. New England speech came to leave out the r sound after vowels, as also occurred in British English, and to pronounce the vowels of aunt, half, and law much like the vowel in calm.

New York City, also in the Northern speech band, developed speech habits different from those of many other northern regions, in ways made famous by the city’s prominence in the media. These differences include the lack of the r sound after vowels, occasional substitution of a t sound for a th sound, and pronunciation of words with an oi sound that others pronounce with an er sound. All of these combine in the pronunciation toity-toid for thirty-third.

The first English-speaking settlers in the Inland Northern region traveled through Connecticut to get to upstate New York. Later, the Hudson River and the Erie Canal opened up settlement for the entire Inland Northern region via the Great Lakes. Inland Northern speakers do pronounce r after vowels.

The Midland region has one city as its focus, Philadelphia, but two different settlement pathways. Settlers could move west from Philadelphia through southern Pennsylvania to Ohio and Indiana; this path created the North Midland area, whose inhabitants share linguistic features with the Northern region. Settlers could also proceed southwest through the Shenandoah Valley, creating the South Midland region, where people share linguistic features with the Southern region. Midland speakers from both pathways pronounce r after vowels.

The Southern region has two focal areas—the Virginia plantation area around Richmond and the Charleston plantation area in South Carolina and Georgia—but only one main path of settlement. This main thrust of Southern settlement went into areas suitable for plantations, extending as far as eastern Texas. Southern speakers do not pronounce r after vowels. African Americans worked on plantations and learned Southern American English, acquiring many other Southern linguistic features.

Settlement west of the Mississippi River was more mixed than settlement through the regular pathways in the East, and eastern regional features were leveled in the West just as the speech of people from different parts of England had been leveled in the colonies. Western American English is not all the same, however, because of varying amounts of influence from Spanish residents and because the plains and Western states were settled by different proportions of Northerners, Midlanders, and Southerners. The Pacific Northwest and northern California gained more Northerners and North Midlanders, while the Southwest and the southern plains received more settlement from the South and South Midland.

V MODERN VARIATION IN AMERICAN ENGLISH

The regional speech patterns that developed during the settlement of the United States are still present and are still important aspects of American English. However, social circumstances have changed in the 20th century. Large-scale immigration and initial settlement have given way to movements between established regions of the country, and people who stay in one area develop local speech patterns. These social conditions lead, paradoxically, both to wider use of a spoken standard American English and to greater variety in local speech types. Some scholars believe that local accents in American cities differ more now than ever before.

This paradox occurs because people talk differently depending on whom they are talking to and on the circumstances of the conversation. For instance, people who work together in different kinds of jobs have special words for their jobs: lawyers know legal language, doctors know medical terms, and factory workers know the right terms to describe the products they make and the processes used to make them. Such job-related language not only has special purposes, it also identifies the user as somebody who knows the job. For example, someone who cannot use legal language convincingly is probably not a lawyer. Language for particular needs and for identification occurs in connection not only with jobs but also with social groups—groups formed by region, gender, ethnic affiliation, age, or other criteria.

A The Spoken Standard

American English has never had a strict spoken standard that is considered “correct,” as most European languages have. Today the spoken standard in American English is best defined as the relative absence of characteristics—such as word choice or pronunciation—that might identify the speaker as coming from a particular region or social group. National newscasters and other broadcast personalities often adopt this speech type in public, as do many Americans in formal settings such as schools, courts, and boardrooms.

The spoken standard has become associated with education. In general the more someone has gone to school, the better the person’s command of American English without regional and social characteristics. This occurs largely because the written American English taught in schoolbooks does not include many regional or social features. This association does not mean that the spoken standard is more correct than speech with regional or social characteristics. However, standard language is usually more appropriate in formal situations because people have come to expect it on those occasions.

B Regional and Social Variation

Outside of schools and other formal situations, regional and social variations thrive in American English. The majority of Americans now live in urban and suburban communities instead of on isolated farms, and this change in residence patterns encourages development of informal speech types, each one of which is called a vernacular. Vernaculars develop especially in neighborhoods where people have a great deal of daily contact, but they also develop more broadly according to regional and social patterns of contact. Old regional words sometimes fade, but new ones take their place in regional vernaculars.

The pronunciation of American English is also changing, but often in different ways in different vernaculars. American sociolinguist William Labov has suggested three sets of changes in pronunciation, each set appropriate to a different vernacular.

One pattern of change affects Northern cities: the vowel of wrought is often pronounced more like the one in rot; in turn, the vowel in rot is pronounced more like the one in rat; and the vowel in rat is pronounced more like the one in Rhett. Another pattern of change is occurring among South Midland and Southern speakers: the vowel of red is often pronounced more like the one in raid; in turn, the vowel in raid is often pronounced more like the vowel in ride. Each vowel is actually pronounced as a combination of two vowel sounds, called a diphthong, which many people would say was part of a drawl. The third pattern of change affects New England, the North Midland, and most of the western United States and Canada. Many speakers in these areas no longer pronounce different vowels in words like cot and caught, or tot and taught, so that the words now sound alike. When these large patterns of change combine, unevenly, with regional words and other characteristics, the result is that vernacular speech tends to be somewhat different from city to city, or in places some distance apart.

While regional and social background certainly affects people’s speech, background does not prevent anyone from learning either the spoken standard or aspects of other regional and social varieties. When adults move to a new region, they typically do not pick up all the characteristics of speech in the new area. Young children, however, commonly learn to sound more like natives. The result is a mixture of speakers with different regional and social backgrounds in nearly every community. Spoken standard American English is also used in nearly every community. Some commentators predict the loss of regional and social characteristics because everyone hears spoken standard speech on radio and television. However, passive exposure to the media will not outweigh the personal contact that occurs within neighborhoods and social groups and through regional travel. This contact strongly shapes regional and social varieties of speech.

C African American Vernacular English

African American Vernacular English (sometimes called Ebonics, and formerly called Black English) is a major social speech type. It refers to the variety of American English most shaped by African American culture. Historically, African American English has probably drawn some features from plantation creoles, but has drawn many more characteristics from the Southern American English associated with plantation culture.

Speakers of African American Vernacular English generally do not pronounce r after vowels, so that door may sound like doe, or poor like Poe. Words like this and that may be pronounced dis and dat. Groups of consonants at the ends of words are often reduced to a single consonant, as for instance in the pronunciation of sold as sole, or walked as walk. It is common for the linking verb, usually a form of the verb to be, not to appear in such sentences as He happy or She doctor. The use of be in the sentence He be sick, on the other hand, means that he has often been sick, or has been sick over a period of time.

During and after the Great Depression of the 1930s, many African Americans left farms in old plantation areas and moved to cities in search of work and opportunity. They maintained a strong common culture in the cities because of segregated housing, and African American Vernacular English was maintained as well, although some African American communities began to develop more local speech characteristics.

As more and more African Americans moved away from segregated housing, they had less connection to the vernacular and more occasion to use other regional or social speech characteristics or to speak standard American English. Experts disagree about whether African American Vernacular English is becoming more different from regional and social varieties of standard English or more like these varieties. This disagreement stems from differences in which African Americans they count as speakers of African American Vernacular English.

D Spanish and English

Large communities of Hispanic Americans have developed in the Southwest and in many cities throughout the United States. Spanish and English are both commonly used in these communities, but often for different purposes or in different settings. People sometimes also blend Spanish words into English sentences or English words into Spanish sentences, a process called codeswitching. The English of such communities is enriched by many Spanish words, but the practice of codeswitching is not the same thing as a social variety of American English.

VI INFLUENCE OF AMERICAN ENGLISH

further reading

These sources provide additional information on American English.

Most people around the world who learn English as a second language learn either American English or British English. The worldwide use of English began when Britain created a worldwide empire. Today, most people who learn English as a foreign language still learn British English. This happens because Britain has had a longstanding interest in teaching English and has publishers and institutions in place to promote it. American English is taught more and more, however, because of the worldwide success of American business and technology. This success also leads speakers of British English—even in England—to adopt many Americanisms. English has truly become a world language in science and business, and over time it will come to have more of an American English sound.

Contributed By:

Javier Burgos

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