The Comparison of American and British English

1
The Comparison of American and British English

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Historical background

• British colonization
• The form of the language have diverged in many
  ways
• Misunderstandings still exist even through the
  increased world-wide communication

3
Phonology

• The pronunciation of British English differs in
  systematic ways from pronunciation in many
  dialects of American.
• The most consistent difference occurred in the
  placement of primary stress, with the most
  Americans putting stress on the first syllable
  and most British on the second or third in
  multisyllabic words like cigarette,
  applicable, formidable, kilometer, and
  laboratory.

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• In the prestigious British dialect, /h/ is
  pronounced ate the beginning of both head and
  herb, whereas in American English dialects it
  is not pronounced in the second word.
• In brief, generally, the beginning /h/ of a word
  is voiced in the British English on the
  contrary, voiceless in the American English, such
  as house, and hero.

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Phonology

• East Coast is more distinctive than the interior
  country.
• this is largely because these areas were in
  contact with England, and imitated prestigious
  varieties of British English at a time when those
  varieties were undergoing changes. The interior
  of the country was settled by people who were no
  longer closely connected to England, as they had
  no access to the ocean during a time when
  journeys to Britain were always by sea.

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• Sounds corresponding to North American English is
  retroflex, alveolar approximan,not a thrill r tap
• The loss of syllable-final r in North America is
  confined mostly to the accents of eastern New
  England, New York City and surrounding areas,
  South Philadelphia, and the coastal portions of
  the South

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Idioms

• Arseholed /Drunk!
• Pass /I don't know
• Chessed off/ Pissed off 
• All right? /"Hello, how are you?"
• Brill/ Cool
• Waz /Wee or pee.

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Vocabulary

• Bathroom Loo
• Trash/Garbage Rubbish
• Crazy/Very Bloody

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Spelling
-or vs. -our
American British
color colour
favorite favourite
honor honour
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-ze vs. -se
American British
analyze analyse
criticize criticise
memorize memorise
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-ll vs. -l
American British
enrollment enrolment
fulfill fulfil
skillful skilful
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-er vs. -re
American British
center centre
meter metre
theater theatre
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-og vs. -ogue
American British
analog analogue
catalog catalogue
dialog dialogue
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-e vs. -oe or -ae
American British
encylopedia encylycopaedia
maneuver manoeuvre
medieval mediaeval
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-ck or -k vs. -que
American British
bank banque
check cheque
checker chequer
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-dg vs. -dge (or -g vs. -gu)
American British
aging ageing
argument arguement
judgment judgement
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-ense vs. -enze
American British
defense defence
license licence
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Other
American British
jewelry jewellery
draft draught
pajamas pyjamas 
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Differences between British English and American
English

• Lexical differences burglarize VS burgle,
  transportation VS transport
• Speech dialects, accents and vocabulary
• Commonwealth English