Дві сторони англійської: американський проти британського варіанту мови

Candidate of Historical Sciences, кандидат історичних наук,

lecturer викладач

The article analyzes the differences between American and British varieties of English. The focus is on the lower levels of language hierarchy with the main emphasis on the lexical and semantic levels. The author has given an insight into the history of language and the way it assimilated in America, to study multiple transformations that English underwent in its systems: phonetics, vocabulary, syntax, grammar, and spelling. It is proved that in course of time, American English has become more dominant thanks to the state s influence around the world, especially since the XXcentury with the rapid development of science and technology.

It is emphasized that understanding American English can be a problem for non-natives due to the phenomena of synonymy and homonymy in these varieties. Taking into consideration the lack of attention to teaching any varieties of Standard English, those who study it as a foreign language are not shown the differences and face the problems during the real communicative process. Besides, there is also a slight change in writing and saying numbers, and certain peculiarities in saying the time in the varieties. The difference in spelling doesn't make any obstacle for the overall comprehension. One of the objects of research is the phonological difference as it causes lots of misunderstanding during the interaction. Thus, British and American English are national varieties of English which should be researched and learnt to facilitate communication for non-native English speakers.

Key words: language variety, British English, American English, phonological features, orthographic features, lexical-semantic features.

Relevance of the research topic. Someone may say there is much ado about nothing when it goes about British and American varieties of English. Yet, the reason does exist, as far as the differences between them can become an obstacle on the way of comprehension and communication.

Formulation of the problem. It is a worldwide fact that English is an international and official language and, according to Wikipedia, it is a mother tongue for more than 2 billion people around the world: the USA (at least 231 million), the United Kingdom (in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) (60 million), Canada (at least 20 million), Australia (at least 17 million), Republic of Ireland (4.8 million) and New Zealand (Wikipedia). These Englishspeaking countries are united under the term of the Anglosphere, i.e. "a group of English-speaking nations that share common cultural and historical ties to the United Kingdom, and which today maintain close political, diplomatic and military cooperation" (Wikipedia). Of course, their real number can be even bigger if we take into account other countries where English is also a native language as, for example, ex-colonial countries which have thoroughly integrated English into their chief institutions.

The article aims to analyze the emancipation of English by the American population, the way it assimilated in the country, and the transformations it underwent over time.

Study material and experimental technique. Study material is the difference between American and British varieties of English covering pronunciation, spelling, and lexicon. The use of theoretical and comparative- synchronous analysis of British and American texts allowed for conducting the research.

Analysis of recent research and publications. Taking into consideration a wide, even geographically, range of usage, it is clear that the language has undergone multiple transformations in all its systems: phonetics, vocabulary, syntax, grammar, and spelling (Siemund, 2011), (Scott, 2004), (Hoe, 1992), (Fisher, 2001). Researchers focus on the differences that arose between British and American English because these varieties are the most widely spread and cause some problems for non-natives when immersed into the real Englishspeaking environment and what is rare, but still true, even for native speakers.

Results and discussion. If to research the emancipation of English by the American population it should be noted that in the beginning there were contradictions whether to preserve their mother tongue on arriving in a new country. Actually, some people spoke in favor of eradication of any memories from colonization, but, eventually, as in many British colonies, linguistic emancipation was a result and consequence of politics. The United States has become a country following the concept of development, and what is more important, the concept of immigration. Thanks to these features they created the unique American government that formed their national character and social direction different from England. The above-mentioned facts resulted in their linguistic boldness to create and synthesize new words. In course of time, American English has become even more dominant than its mother because the USA has developed into a large nation (5 times increasing the population of the United Kingdom!) with big publishing and mass media industries thus having influence on more countries around the world. Since the XXth century, with the rapid development of science and technology, the influence of American on traditional British English has become obvious and profound reflecting the new realities of life, e.g. cyber-space, geeks, fuzzy logic, etc. that enrich the vocabulary.

The differences in geographical position including climate, flora and fauna, political and day-to-day life created a demand in new words, as well. Hence, there are lots of terms to describe phenomena that did not exist in the initial version of English, e. g. ranch-house, tri-level-house, lobbyism, electoral college, etc. At the same time, some words and phrases were lost on the way to the American dream, because they did not reflect their realities such as, for example, builder 's tea meaning traditional British strong tea, and GP - general practitioner in the UK, the closest in meaning with a family medicine practitioner, but there is no official recognition of the title GP in the USA at all.

The American variety of English has also preserved multiple loans from other languages. For instance, it is possible to trace Indian words, e.g. geographical names, names of plants, different tools - canoe, wigwam, moccasin; from French: Detroit, Chicago, rapids; German: boss, Santa Claus, etc.

The biggest challenge for non-native speakers is the lexical difference between British and American varieties of English. The majority of the native English speakers can understand or can guess the meaning of the word from the other variety, although sometimes they sound like foreign words to them such as American words mate, chap or British English fortnight, constable. One can come across videos on YouTube where British people try to speak with an American accent or Americans try to comprehend British English speech. They support the idea that sometimes it is really difficult for opposites to understand each other, especially when it comes to collocations and idioms and, what is more, slang and dialects (just think how good you are at understanding West Ukrainian dialects!).

Material and research methods. Differentiating between the words of British and American English can be problematic also because of the phenomena of synonymy and homonymy in these varieties. In most Ukrainian general education schools, as well as higher educational institutions, students are taught British English although its area of usage is not that big. Thus, while encountering an American or European person speaking American English, they may feel like a round peg in a square hole because of misunderstanding. For instance, according to Macmillan Dictionary, in the UK, a flat crispy sweet baked cake is called a biscuit but Americans denote this sweet with the word cracker, while in British English a cracker is used for a "decorated paper tube that makes a noise when you pull it apart. It usually has a small toy, joke, and paper hat inside and is traditionally used at Christmas". In some cases, such homonyms may even put a speaker in an awkward position as with wash up. In British English, it means to wash crockery and cutlery, while in American English it is to wash one s body. So, a British phrase "Can I help you to wash up?" sounds quite ambiguous for Americans. Some words are totally different in meaning. Another pair of words to exemplify the phenomenon is pavement and sidewalk: Americans call the road where vehicles drive a pavement and pedestrian paths are called sidewalks while in British English it has the opposite meaning. The same story is with American shorts that are British underpants and American pants that are British trousers. Here are some examples of words having different meanings in British and American English:

ace - good, excellent / to perform outstandingly to appropriate - to take money to oneself / to dispense money, to budget a banger - a sausage / a gang member (gang-banger), a youth party graft - hard work / a form of political corruption an outside - a shed, a barn / an outside toilet

However, the bulk of the vocabularies of these varieties do not cause any misunderstanding and their lexical-semantic differences take their roots in the history of the country. Among the most famous British-American couples are: a biscuit - a cookie clever - smart crazy - mad from...to - through a shop - a store

Moreover, there is also a slight change in writing and saying numbers. While in British English and is obligatory before the tens and the units, this conjunction is omitted in American English, e.g. one hundred and forty-five /one hundred forty-five. When pronouncing phone numbers Americans are likely to say each repeated number individually, when British people use double or triple. That is why a famous movie character, British agent James Bond 007 is pronounced like double oh seven. As for the dates, the British order them like day/month/year and Americans use a month/day/year system separating years by period (or a full stop as Americans call it): March 13, 2020 /13 March 2020. When saying dates, British people add the before the date and join the day and the month by of, whereas American dates don't have any extra words, e.g.: the thirteenth of March, two thousand twenty / March thirteenth, two thousand twenty.

Besides, there are also certain peculiarities in saying the time in American English. Although official past and to are comprehensible, Americans prefer using after and till, for instance, 6:25 - 25 after 6, 6:40 - 40 till 7. As for the exact time, Americans may use on the dot instead of British sharp.

The difference in spelling can be easily seen even when typing a text in English on your laptop or PC. The spelling of some words is changed automatically, although you are sure there is no mistake, as in the words practice, defence changed to practice, defense and organisation, organize changed into organization, organize. The fact is that Word spelling system is based on American English which differs a bit from British English.

In general, the most frequent cases where there is a change in the spelling are with British English words containing the suffixes -our, -ogue, -re where there is a change to -or, -log, -er in American English, as in colour / color, dialogue / dialog, theater / theater.

Phonological differences between these varieties of English are recognized and well-studied (Mirzaie, 7), moreover pronunciation is also a constant object of funny videos on YouTube. The most relevant changes in pronunciation of the vowels are the change of / o: /, / ж /, and / ju: /. There are numerous shifts in the pronunciation of diphthongs, too. One more thing characteristic of American vowels is their nasalization as in dance. If to define main phonological shifts in the vowels, they can be presented as follows:

Concerning British and American consonants, there are some differences between them. The most noticeable is American rhotic / r / versus British nonrhotic / r / as in army. One more distinctive feature of American English accent is the realization of / t / as / r / between vowels when the first of the two vowels is stressed, as in writer or when the stressed vowel is followed by / r / or by / n /, e.g. party (Nasonova, Smirnov, 2016: 653).

The other basic changes in the pronunciation of consonants are:

Thus, with the bulk of words from British English, multiple loans from Indian and different languages of nations who arrived at the dawn of the development of America and new words that appeared in the process of scientific and technological progress, American English developed into a unique linguistic system with its specific features. As the USA strengthened its positions in world politics, economy and culture, American English has spread all over the world. Besides, with the globalization processes, the shift is getting more eastward with lots of once exclusively American words and phrases entering British English.

Thus, British and American English are very close and, at the same time, different in their syntax, pronunciation, spelling, and vocabulary. Nevertheless, they are national varieties of one language and should be researched and leamt to facilitate communication for non-native English speakers.

References