The Linguistic Culture-11 (The American English Language) (1157937), страница 2
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Thus Americans say: “the worst accident in (not for) years”,“five minutes after (not past) three”, a quarter of three, the man on (not in) thestreet, on the train, (not in it). He is the best player on the team (not in the team);to write someone (without to).American English also tends to coin and use more freely nouns compounded froma verb and a preposition, such as blowout, checkup, fallout, feedback, etc. Newwords are frequently created by shifting the function of an existing word. Nounsare used as verbs: to park, to package, to program, to vacation, adjectives canbecome nouns: briefs, comics, reds, musts .Punctuation-Use of commas and periods inside quotation marks;-Word order in date writing;-Business letter salutations, colons vs.
commasThough British and American spelling is the same in most cases, it differs in a fewdetails owing to N. Webster’s reforms. The British word reflection is written inAmerica as reflexion,Centreascenter,Catalogueascatalog,Programmeasprogram,Organisation, analyseasorganization, analyze,Defence, licenceasdefense, license,Travelling, cancellingastraveling, canceling,Practiseaspractice.There are differences in the intonation and pronunciation in two languages.
aswell.American English intonation does not rise or fall as much as that of BritishEnglish, it sounds more monotonous. American voices usually have a higher pitch.That is why American English often seems too emphatic and American voicesseem louder than those of British speakers.American pronunciation is more nasalized than English. There are certaindifferences in the pronunciation of both consonants and vowels: AE [ae] – BE [a:]in class, last, bath; [ju:] is pronounced like [u:] in such words as «tube», «duty»,«new» that are after the initial t, d, n, s, and z. ^ instead of [ O ] e.g.
“hot” [h^t],“body’ [b^di], “college” [k^lidз]. American [r] unlike the British [r] is pronouncedwith no friction and the tip of the tongue is curled backward.- American [L] is always dark (твердое)- [t] is often omitted after [n]: “twenty” [‘tweni]-Voiceless consonants become voiced in the intervocalic position, e.g. “better”[‘bedэ]Here are some other examples of these differences:Pronunciation in B.E.Pronunciation in A.E.Chance, last, past [‘tIa:ns, ‘la:st, ‘pa:st][ ‘chains, ‘laest, ‘paest]Duke, suit[ ‘du:k, ‘su:t ][‘dju:k, ‘sju:t }Doctor, stop, pot [‘dоkta, ][‘d^kt ,’st^p , ‘p^t]Butter, atom[‘b^tэ, ‘aetэm][‘ b^ dэ , ‘aedэ m]Plenty, twenti[‘plenti, ‘twenti][‘pleni, ‘tweni]Clerk[‘ klэ: k][k’la:k]Either, neither ( A.E.- [i:], B.E.- [ai]), advertisement (A.E.-[ai], B.E.-[э:]tomatoB.E.{a:},A.E.{ei}; process-B.E.{эu}, A.E.{a}; candidate(, A.E.[ei] B.E.[I]).It is necessary to keep in mind, that pronunciation and intonation may bedifferent in different American dialects.
The major dialect areas, recognized inAmerican English are Eastern New England, Western or Middle American, andSouthern Americans can easily identify a man as a New Englander or a Southernerafter hearing him say a few words. There are people who believe that the NewEngland variety is a truly cultural form of speech, and there are many Southernerswho are sure that their way of speaking is the American best.The speech of New England (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont) ischaracterized by the retention of rounded vowel in words like ”hot” and “path”and flat a.
The Connecticut River is an important regional dialect boundary,separating the r-less dialect of Boston from the other regions. Southern dialect ischaracterized by the loss of r finally before the consonants and by the unroundedvowel (as in father, grass, dance, path). Instead of diphthong [aw] southernerspronounce sound [a] house, South, out. Many speakers insert glide in Tuesday[tyua-] and make no distinction between vowels in pin/pen.
Final consonantcluster reduction occurs in words like last and kept (these are pronouncedsomething like lass and kep). People in the southern states speak with a drawl they tend to speak slowly and lengthen the last sound of each word. They usecontracted Y’all for You all, expressions like “Howdy, y’all” for “Hello,everybody”. President Clinton, from Arkansas, had a southern accent.In New York City, especially in the boroughs outside Manhattan, many peoplespeak so- called New Yorkese.
Speakers of New Yerkes often speak very fast andtend not to pronounce “r” in words that end in “er”. A word like “water’ soundslike “wata”. The presence or absence of “r” has become class marker. Thepronunciation of curl as coil and bird as boid is characteristic of working-classspeech.The language which teenagers often like to use is strongly influenced by popularmusic and fashion.
The immediate examples: Yinz, yunz, you’uns (plural you):Hey yoy, gues; My peoples = my parents; I were = I was; I didn’ have no money;there ain’t no sense= there is no sense; got’em=got them; gimme=give me; I ain’tgot= I haven’t got; oughtta=ought to; nigger gal= black girl; Whaddaya think she’stalkin’ about? (What do you think she’s talking about?), wysi-wyg (what you see iswhat you get)Black American or Afro-American Speech has also some peculiarities.One theory holds that this variety of American English developed from so-calledPidgin English – the language first used by black slaves of different Africanlanguages forced to communicate with each other and their owners.
Another viewholds that Black English results from the retention of British English features thathave not been retained in other varieties of American English.American Vocabulary. One of the peculiarities of American English is theusage of a number of medieval English words, which are no longer used in Britaintoday. When the earliest English colonists came to America they were speakingEnglish of the 17-th century. The words fall (autumn), used by Shakespeare, andcorn (which means in England any grain, e.g.
wheat) are immediate examples.Some old English words have developed new meanings. The very popular wordsheriff, which meant in England or Wales a person appointed by the King to carryout ceremonial duties, and in Scotland the senior judge, in America is applied tothe person who observes the law in the state. The word guy (a boy, or a man inA.E. in informal use) came from the name of one of the most popular villains inEngland Guy Fawkes who organized Gunpowder Plot against King James 1 in1605.Here are a few examples of British and American words, meaning the samephenomena or people:B.E.A.E.B.E.A.
E.GovernmentAdministrationGoods trainfreight trainSecuritiesbondslabeltagBanknotebank billsome time agoa way backChairmanpresidentchildrenkidsManagerexecutivepostMinistersecretaryform (at school) gradeMilliardbilliontramstreet carLeadereditoriala tina canOffertendera billa checkGuaranteewarrantya carpeta rugTo run a businessto operate businessa cara automobileGoods trainfreight traina lorrya truckmailLabeltagtimetablescheduleBiscuitscookiesintervalintermissionSecondary schoolhigh schooltapfaucetBarrister/solicitorattorneysweetscandyWhen your flight deplanes (B.E.-disembarks) in America, you take carry-on (handbaggage), get a cart (trolley), stand in a line (queue) to receive your baggage(luggage) in the airport. If you want to continue your journey by railroad (notrailway- B.E.), you won’t buy your ticket at the booking-office but at the ticketwindow, and the man who sells it to you is not the booking-clerk, but the ticketagent.
The train is already waiting and you get into a car or a sleeper (B.E. - asleeping carriage). After your journey you get out on the track (platform) and takea cab (a taxi) or go by subway (tube, underground) to the hotel or Americanfriend’s of yours. If you want to fix a meeting (to arrange a meeting) with thefriend, it will be best to call him up (not to ring up).
If you don’t have enoughchange you may use a collect call (B.E. - charge transferred).If your friend has an apartment (a flat) on the second floor (B.E.-first floor) orover, you take an elevator (lift) to come to him. If he lives in a house, he may havea yard (a garden). In the house there is a living room with a dining area, abedroom and a bathroom. There is a closet (B.E. “wardrobe”) in the bedroom;there are draperies (curtains) on the windows, rugs (carpets) in all rooms. In thebathroom there is a tub (a bath) and a faucet (taps).When an American goes out he may walk along a sidewalk, (pavement) to thedowntown (to the center).
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