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If you want to continue your journey by railroad (not railway- B.E.), you won’t buyyour ticket at the booking-office but at the ticket-window, and the man who sells it to you isnot the booking-clerk, but the ticket-agent. The train is already waiting and you get into a caror a sleeper (B.E.- a sleeping carriage).
After your journey you get out on the track (platform)and take a 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 the friend, it willbe best to call him up (not to ring up). If you don’t have enough change you may use a collectcall ( B.E.- charge transferred).IF your friend has an apartment ( a flat) on the second floor (B.E.-first floor) or over,you take an elevator (lift) to come to him. If he lives in a house, he may have a yard (agarden).
In the house there is a living room with a dining area, a bedroom and a bathroom.There is a closet (B.E. “wardrobe”) in the bedroom, there are draperies (curtains) on thewindows, rugs (carpets) in all rooms. In the bathroom there is a tub (a bath) and a faucet(taps).When an American goes out he may walk along a sidewalk, (pavement) to the downtown(to the center). He uses the crosswalk ( pedestrian crossing) to cross the street. He puts gas(petrol) at a kitty-corner (diagonally opposite) gas filling station into his automobile, thendrivers along a freeway (motorway), takes left ( turns left) and after about three miles hecomes to the Interstate (the main motorway in the US connecting different states).
The storycan be continued on and on.The origin of many common American words and phrases is very interesting andpeculiar. Here are some of them:Uncle Sam. That name used to belong to an Americanman Samuel Wilson who marched in a parade in the style of dress that had been copied forthe picture innewspaper drawings. Later this name became national personificationof the USA, and sometimes more specifically of the AmericanGovernment.Yankee This term was at first applied to the inhabitants of the Dutchcolonies in North America, especially to those who lived in NewAmsterdam, i.e.
New York. Dutch name Jan corresponds to English John and Kee may be thepet form of another typical Dutch name. Yankee became the designation of any inhabitant ofNew England, and sometimes of the whole United States.OK. The origin of the American word “okay” generally abbreviated to two letters OK,is quite obscure. One of the versions is that O.K. represents the initial letters of “all correct”.The establishment of the new word was reinforced by the use of the letters “O.K.” for signingofficial documents during the Presidential term of general Andrew Jackson (1829-1837), whocould not be called a well-educated person.Dollar.
The word “dollar” comes from the name of coin used 400 years ago .In 1516silver coins began to be minted in a mine near a small village, called Joachimstal, in Bohemia.The coin was called a “joahimstaler”, after the village name, or “taler” for short. When thetalers were brought to the Netherlands they were used as “daler”. The English borrowed theDutch form “daler” and began to spell it “dollar”. The dollar had been the currency ofGermany and Spain for over two centuries before it became American.
Thomas Jeffersonproposed that the Spanish dollar would be the unit of currency, thus helping America tobecome independent of the British pound sterling after the war for independence.The California Gold Rush in the late 19 th century gave rise to many new words, transformingPthe meanings of the original ones.PBonanza The modern usage of the word “bonanza” is a figurative extension of itsoriginal one as “a very productive mine”, which is itself a direct borrowing from Spanish(meaning “prosperity” or “success”). Nowadays, it denotes something that is prosperingquickly, bringing good luck and wealth.
One of the long-running American TV seriesBonanza portrayed a family of men working on their enormous Nevada ranch. The filmreminded the viewers of the farms and ranches in the late 19 th century,, testifying to thePPfigurative usage of the original word.To Pan out. This expression meant a method for obtaining the gold by filling a panwith the ore and gently washing away the soil and gravel, leaving the heavier gold at thebottom of the pan. The expression was figuratively broadened to the meaning “ to getsuccess”.The new ways of life and characters of 20-21 centuries brought a lot of new words andcoinages“Disk jockey”, “natural” (something very suitable), “show business”, “star”(popular performer), baby-sitter, basketball, chewing gum, credit card, home-made, knowhow and so on are all originally from the American usage of the world ofbusiness,entertainment and technology.Many of the new American wordsare based on old grammar processes ofcompounding existing words, as in “boyfriend, bookstore, brainstorm ballfrog, supermarket,heliport (helicopter + airport), motel(motor+ hotel), docusoap (documentary + soap opera),breathalyzer (breath + analyze), fly-drive holiday (to travel by plan and a car”).
AmericanEnglish also tends to coin and use more freely nouns compounded from a verb and apreposition, such as “blowout, checkup, fallout, etc. Nouns are used as verbs: to park, topackage, to program, to vacation. Adjectives can become nouns: briefs, comics, reds.Globalization of American EnglishThe American vocabulary during the 19 th and especially 20 th and 21 centuries beganPPPPto be exported abroad due to its economic, political and technological prominence in theworld. American movies, radio, television, pop culture have certainly hastened the process.In recent years Americanisms have been introduced into international usage.
Theubiquitous OK seems to occur more frequently nowadays in England than in the land of itsorigin and may be found in quite formal situations, such as on legal documents and computersto indicate the correctness of details. Americanisms have slipped into British English andfather in the most unobtrusive way, so that their American origin is hardly regarded at all.Know-how, a cafeteria ,a supermarket, a filmstar, coca/pepsi-cola,a skyscraper, chewinggum ,a credit card, a skyscraper, a baby sitter, electrocute, etc. firmly established not only inStandard British English.
but in many other countries as well.. Most words and usages arefrequently borrowed from American English quite unconsciously. Even when they areconsciously borrowed, the fact that they are of the transatlantic origin is soon forgotten..American dictionaries give a fascinating glimpse of the vast changes in American and,inevitably, global English by the electronic age. Some fifty years ago no one walked on theMoon, bought a sun blocker or running shoes. VCRs were unknown. Heavy metal, punk rockmusic, post-modernism, yuppies and soft contact lenses didn’t exist. Hundreds of newbusiness buzz-words are used, reflecting the birth of global markets and the take-over boom.Americans invented a lot of new words connected with new technology, computers andinternet: state-of-the-art (very latest technology), artificial intelligence, a notebook, a laptopcomputer, download, upload, online, offline, website, to hack, software,know-how, the dotcomeconomy, screensaver, trackpad, thumbnail, footprint, gridlocked, cyberpet, a techno-wizard,a cybercafe and many others of computer-related terms are increasingly invading the dailylife.A lot of politically correct terminology also appeared: people of color, coloreds, organizedcrime (mafia), Hispanic culture, stay-at-home mom (housewife).
Among such words there areeuphemistic references: senior citizens or older adults (pensioners), the loved one ( deathand funeral references), to dehire employees ( to fire them), powder room (ladies’toilet),etc.Vocabulary of equality: Fireman-firefighter; policeman-police (security) officer; mailmanmailcarrier;salesman-salesperson;manmade-artificial;synthetic-manufactured;stewardess-flight attendant, chairman-chairperson; chair-presiding officer.A lot of abbreviations and acronyms appeared, especially often used in media andads ( advertisements): NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) , UNESCO (UnitedNations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), IIMF (International MonetaryFund), CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), Call (Computer Assisted Language Learning), ZIPcode (for Zone Improvement Plan), SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty),INF(Intermediate Range Nuclear Force), AAAAA (American Association for the Abolition ofAbbreviations and Acronyms),all mod cons (all modern conveniences), ch.(central heating),d/g (double garage), etc.The spreading of American English is also supported by the international examinationTOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) which all foreign students and immigrantsare obliged to pass to study or live in the USA.1.
Answer the questions:1. How can the Indian contribution to American English be traced?2. What kind of words did the English settlers borrow from other languages?3. When was the phrase “the American language” used for the first time?4. What importance did the founders of American nation attach to the power of thelanguage?5. Who was the first to think of reforming the chaotic English spelling?6. What measures were suggested to promote American English?7. What was the aim of this political action?8.
Why is Webster called the champion of American English?9. What did Webster do to develop American English?II.. Here are some words and phrases which can cause confusion when used by Brits andAmerican talking together because they mean something different in each “language”.Can you explain what American and British people mean when they say : a bill, a purse,subway, pants, vest, wash up?2. Can you give the British equivalents to the American words: gasoline, truck, sidewalk,line, vacation, trunk (of a car), hood (of a car), a cab, freeway, round trip,a railway car,an engineer(on train),an eraser, a closet, drapers, faucet, a yard, cookie, candy, garbage,intersection, a living room, a long-distance bus, blue-chip investments, call loan, stocks,an express man, to fix a meeting, government bonds?3.Discussion problems:1.
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