Беликова Е.К., Саратовская Л.Б. - The United Kingdom and United States of America in Past and Present (1268141), страница 32
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After the Revolution the problem of having a125national language acquired great political significance .The extent towhich the English language became a political problem is illustrated bythe curious procession, in New York on July 23, 1788, which coincidedwith the ratification of the new American Constitution. An association ofyoung men, called the Philological Society, carried the coat of arms and abook inscribed “Federal Language”, emphasizing the strong desire ofmany Americans to break with the classical British English.John Adams and Thomas Jefferson made the first attempts to renovatethe English language. Jefferson was fascinated by words and liked toinvent the new ones.
“Belittle” was one of his most famous, muchlaughed at in London at his time. Benjamin Franklin, who founded thefirst free public library in the USA, was also interested in the reform ofthe English language. In 1768, he published apaper entitled “A Scheme for a New Alphabetand a Reformed Mode of Spelling”. His ideaswere not adopted, but made a profoundinfluence on further US linguists.
One of thefirst to publish the Grammar book in NewYork was Lindley Murray (1745-1826), theauthor of “English Grammar, Adapted to theDifferent Classes of Learners” (1795). Allrevolutionary ideas of Jefferson, Adams,Franklin and Murray were implemented in theworks of the greatest America’s lexicographer Noah Webster (17581843).The most famous of all American dictionary-makers; NoahWebster was as influential in the history of American English as GeorgeWashington in the American Revolution.
From his Dissertations on theEnglish Language in 1789 to his great monument of 1828, an AmericanDictionary of the English Language (referred to simply as» Webster’s”),his work was the real landmark in American language history. Websterwas born in Hartford, Connecticut, and, like many other Americanrevolutionaries, started teaching as a means of living.
During the war forindependence, schoolbooks, traditionally imported from London, were inshort supply. Besides, in Webster’s view, they were unsatisfactory forAmerican children. He complained that the English language used in suchbooks had been corrupted by the British aristocracy, who set its ownstandards for proper spelling and pronunciation.
He claimed to “save ournative tongue from the clamor of pedantry” surrounding the English126language and provide a specific American approach to training children.So, still in his twenties, Webster set about filling the gap and publishedthree-volume compendium “A Grammatical Institute of the EnglishLanguage”, consisting of a Speller(1783), a Grammar (1784) andReader(1785).The "Speller" had the greatest success and sold more than 80million copies, turning out to be a runaway bestseller. It was written sothat it could be easily taught to elementary pupils, and it progressed byage.
Most people called it the "Blue-Backed Speller" because of its bluecover, and for many years it was the main textbook in Americanelementary school.The royalties gave Webster the money to continue working on hispolitical activity and linguistic reforms. Webster toured the United States,convincing that "America must be as independent in literature as she is inpolitics, as famous for arts as for arms”, and to accomplish this she mustprotect the literary products of her countrymen by copyright.
Websteralso wrote his vigorous Federalist work Sketches of American Policy(1785). In Philadelphia, where he paused briefly he published hispolitically effective An Examination into the Leading Principles of theFederal Constitution (1787).In 1806, Webster published his first Dictionary, the next step inhis program to standardize the American language The following year, atthe age of 43, Webster began writing an expanded and comprehensivedictionary, "An American Dictionary of the English Language", whichtook him twenty-seven years to complete.
To supplement the etymologyof the words, Webster learned twenty-six languages, including old AngloSaxon and Sanskrit.He completed his two-volume Dictionary after returning fromEuropean tour and published it in 1828, when he was already 70. Hisbook contained seventy thousand words and became the culmination ofWebster’s efforts on Americanization of the English language.The dictionary was not sold well at Webster’s lifetime and to bringout his second edition Webster had to mortgage his house. On May 28,1843, a few days after he had completed revising an appendix to thesecond edition, Noah Webster died.in debt and poverty.Though not all Webster’s ventures were recognized at his time, hiscontribution in the creation of American language is hard to overestimate.His name became synonymous with the word “dictionary”, and.
his127works on linguistics had an enormous influence on American standardsof spelling and writing. By including thousands of technical and scientificterms, Webster laid the groundwork for modern lexicography and verymany dictionaries published in the USA still bear his name.Two Nations separated by the same languageOnce a famous Irish playwright Bernard Show said that America andEngland were two nations separated by the language. What are the maindifferences between British and American English now?There are a few grammatical differences. To begin with, some Britishirregular verbs (e.g. burn, learn, etc.) turned into regular ones in America.Past participle of get became gotten.Americans say “Do you have a car?” where British people would preferto say: “Have you got a car? The auxiliary word shall is used moreseldom, and model verb may in the meaning “permission” has beenchanged for can.So-called “bare infinitive” (without to) is used after help, insist, suggest,etc.: The doctor insisted / suggested that the injured man be taken tohospital.Past Simple (not Present Perfect) is often used with modifiers just,already, yet:” I’m not hungry.
I just had lunch”. “Don’t forget to mail theletter. I already mailed it”.One may say that Americans tend to use articles more loosely thanEnglishmen. The definite article is often omitted in America after “all” incases where it would be considered necessary in English. So Americanssay “all day”, “all night”, “all morning”, “all week,” “all summer”. Adifference in the order of words may be noted in the use of the indefinitearticle. An American might say “a half dozen» or “a half hour”, whereasan Englishman would say “half a dozen”, “a half of an hour”.On the matter of prepositions there is some difference between Englishand American usage, too.
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) the street, on the train, (not in it). He is the bestplayer on the team (not in the team); to write someone (without to).American English also tends to coin and use more freely nounscompounded from a verb and a preposition, such as blowout, checkup,fallout, feedback, etc. New words are frequently created by shifting thefunction of an existing word.
Nouns are used as verbs: to park, to128package, to program, to vacation, adjectives can become 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, itdiffers in a few details owing to N. Webster’s reforms.
The British wordreflection is written in America as reflexion,CentreCatalogueProgrammeOrganisation, analyseDefence, licenceTravelling, cancellingPractiseasasasasasasascenter,catalog,program,organization, analyze,defense, license,traveling, canceling,practice.There are differences in the intonation and pronunciation in twolanguages. as well.American English intonation does not rise or fall as much as that ofBritish English, it sounds more monotonous.
American voices usuallyhave a higher pitch. That is why American English often seems tooemphatic and American voices seem louder than those of Britishspeakers.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.
^ insteadof [ O ] e.g. “hot” [h^t], “body’ [b^di], “college” [k^lidз]. American [r]unlike the British [r] is pronounced with no friction and the tip of thetongue 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]Duke, suit[‘dju:k, ‘sju:t }Doctor, stop, pot [‘dоkta, ][ ‘chains, ‘laest, ‘paest][ ‘du:k, ‘su:t ][‘d^kt ,’st^p , ‘p^t]129Butter, atomPlenty, twentiClerk[‘b^tэ, ‘aetэm][‘plenti, ‘twenti][‘ klэ: k][‘ b^ dэ , ‘aedэ m][‘pleni, ‘tweni][k’la:k]Either, neither ( A.E.- [i:], B.E.- [ai]), advertisement (A.E.-[ai], B.E.[э:]tomato- B.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 maybe different in different American dialects.
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