he other hand, most Americans sound the short [o] in such words as box, hot, lot, not, pot, and top almost as the broad [a:] in father, while the English (and some New Englanders) give it a more open sound, with the lips rounded.some are just unique pronunciations of individual words. Such miscellaneous differences in pronunciations include :, Americans say eight - et is an accepted English pronunciation., Americans say bin -the English say bean. dark. raquo ;, neither, most Americans say, e-ther, ne-ther - I-ther, ni- is the English pronunciation. , Americans say ish-you -the English say is-sue. Raquo ;, most Americans say le-sure -the English say laysure. Raquo; , Americans say lew-tenant -the English say lef-tenant. Raquo; , Americans say nef-hew -the English say nev-hew. Raquo ;, Americans say sked-ule -the English say shed-ule. Raquo; [16, p.211].
. 12 Differences in American and English Spelling
the colonists came to America, spelling was not a problem-if a man could write at all he was lucky. English spelling was not yet rule-ridden: i and y, as well as u and v, were often used interchangeably. Not until 135 years after the Pilgrims landed did English spelling have a guide in Dr. Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language. This monumental work froze much of English spelling and, among other things, decreed that such words as critick, loglck, musick, andpublick end in a final k and such words as colour, honour, etc., end in -our [16, p.212 ].
England, including its colonies, began to follow Johnson s spelling; but, in 1 758, three years after Johnson s dictionary was published, Noah Webster was born, in Hartford, Connecticut, and 21 years after Johnson s dictionary the American Revolution began-two events that were to help separate English English and American English. After graduating in law from Yale, Webster couldn t make a living doing legal work, so he became a teacher. He then found English schoolbooks hard to obtain, and unsatisfactory, so he compiled his own three-part Grammatical Institute of the English Language, including an elementary spelling book (in 1783), a grammar (in +1784) and a reader (in 1785). Part I became the fantastically successful The American Spelling Book, which went through edition after edition and sold 80 million copies in its first hundred years, 1783-1883. It was one of the most influential books ever published in America: from the time America became a nation, past the Civil War, and almost into the Gay 90s, generations of Americans learned to spell and pronounce from it, spelling and pronouncing each syllable in every word over and over again under stern teachers. It was known to millions as Webster s Speller, the Blue-Backed Spelling Book (1853) and the Blue-Backed Speller [16, p.213]. are more scrupulous about clearly articulating certain unaccented syllables, especially -ary, -ery, and -ory, and certain ds, gs, hs, Ps, rs (following vowels) and t s than the English. Thus the English say melanchy, monastery, necessary, preparatory, secretary, etc, when Americans fully articulate the final syllables. Also, except in parts of New England and the South, Americans articulate the first l in fulfill, the h in forehead, the r in lord and there, and the final t in trait, rather than pronounce them as the English do: fu fill, for rid, laud, theh, and train [16, p.214] .English are also more conservative in using fewer abbreviations and more capital letters and commas than Americans do. They capitalize such words as the Bar, the Church, the Government, the Press, and Society. By doing away with such capital letters, Americans are closer to the fashion of the 18th century, when the months, the days of the week, and the names of religions were often not capitalized [16, p.215] .forms of American English are fairly well standardized across the United States. An unofficial standard for spoken American English has developed because of mass media and of geographic and social mobility. This standard is generally called a General American or Standard Midwestern accent and dialect, and it can typically be heard from network newscasters, although local newscasters tend toward more provincial forms of speech. Despite this unofficial standard, regional variations of American English have not only persisted, but have actually intensified, according to William Labov [22] .dialects in the United States typically reflect the elements of the language of the main immigrant groups in any particular region of the country, especially in terms of pronunciation and vernacular vocabulary [23] .and American English are the reference norms for English as spoken, written, and taught in the rest of the world. For instance, the English-speaking members of the Commonwealth often closely follow British English forms while m...
