It is not a matter of surprise that the poem of Robert Frost , an American poet, is fairly intelligible to the persons whose mother tongue is British English . On the other hand, Virginia Woolf finds easy access to the reading public of America . Basically American English does not differ from British English ,Both are , in ultimate analysis , English . One thing, English , American or British , is quite a current coin on either part of the Atlantic .American English has a number of peculiarities which virtually lead to what is called Americanism . The peculiarities may be discussed under four heads : pronunciation , spelling , vocabulary and idiom and usage.
Pronunciation : To some cases the Americans pronounce some
letters and words in different ways from the Britishers do . In American
English / t / is pronounced like / d / . Hence the words like ‘got’ , ‘get’ , ‘hat’
, ‘matter’ , etc. are so pronounced in America that they sound like ‘god’, ‘
ged’ , ‘had’, and ‘madder’ respectively . The words like ‘not’ , ‘hot’ , ‘lot’
etc. are so uttered in America that they sound like ‘nawt’ , ‘hawt’ and ‘lawt’ respectively . In British English / r /
remains silent when followed by a consonant sound . But an American
always articulates / r / whether it is
followed by consonant or vowel sound .
Spelling : American English tries to bring about the
simplification in spelling . American English seems to be more liberal and
logical with regard to the simplification of spelling . So , the words like 'honour' , 'labour' and
'colour' become 'honor' , 'labor' and 'color' respectively in
American English . Besides , the words
like ‘theatre’ , ‘centre’, ‘fibre’, are spelt as ‘theater’ , ‘center’ and ‘fiber’ respectively in American English .
Next , the words ending with '-ce' in British English becomes the words ending
with '-se' in American English .
Naturally the words like ‘defence’ and ‘offence’
become ‘defense’ and ‘offense’ in American English . It is seen that some
redundant letters are dropped in American English and for this the British
words 'waggon' , 'programme' etc. become 'wagon' and 'program' in American
English.
Vocabulary : The vocabulary in American English makes a good
deal of peculiarity . It contains a number of words which exclusively confined
in America and those words are seldom used in British English . As example we
may refer to the words ‘moose’ , ‘opossum’
, ‘hickory’ etc. We find the difference of sense in some words
used in America . ‘Bug’ in America means
‘any kind of insect’ . ‘Clerk’ , ‘solicitor’
and ‘lumber’ in America denote ‘shopman’ , ‘salesman’ and ‘timber’
respectively . It is seen that the American people prefer ‘apartment’ to ‘flat’
, ‘baby-carriage’ to ‘perambulator’
, ‘can’ to ‘tin’ , ‘movie’ to ‘cinema’ , ‘trunk’ to ‘lorry’ , ‘baggage’
to ‘luggage’ and so on .
Idiom and Usage : We find some difference in the field of idiom and usage in American English and British English . The group verbs like ‘catch on’ , ‘fall for’ , ‘go in for’ , ‘go back upon’ , ‘put across’ etc. smack of Americanism . The idiomatic phrases like ‘delivers the goods’ , ‘bury the hatchet’ , ‘go the whole hog’ etc. owe their origin to America . In America a simple past is often used in place of present perfect tense . So , ‘I have finished the work’ is usually replaced by ‘I finished the work’ . Moreover , ‘have’ is often used as a principal verb in America . Last but not least , the way of using ‘just’ as a substitute for ‘only’ or ‘simply’ is also an instance of Americanism .
Ref: University Study Guide
