Differences_between_British_and_American_versions_of_English_2 (2)

Goals and objectives of the study
Purpose of the study:
Identifying the differences between British and American versions of English
Objectives of the study:
• collect material for the addressed problem; identify areas of language difference: in spelling, phonetics, vocabulary, grammar;
• to compile a dictionary of spelling, phonetic, lexical and grammatical differences between the two variants of the English language; draw conclusions; develop the ability to communicate with the audience, speaking at conferences.

Division of English into British English and American English. Formation history
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, colonists from England began to bring their language to America. The first settlement of the English in North America was founded in 1607 – it was the city of Jamestown in what is now the state of Virginia.
In the XVII – XVIII centuries, the flow of emigrants is constantly growing, bringing with it a variety of languages and dialects. Mass emigration to the new state – the United States of America – continued in the XIX-XX centuries. At the same time, despite the abundance of languages and cultures of the new settlers, English remained the dominant language.

The current State of English as a Multi-national Language
The modern British version of English, firstly, is heterogeneous, and secondly, it is far from the classical English that existed 3 centuries ago. Within the British version, there are three language types: conservative English, accepted standard, RP-media language, and Advanced English

The influence of languages on the vocabulary of the English language
The diagram shows that Latin, French, and German had the greatest influence on the development and formation of the English language. This was due to the invasion of tribes and peoples on the territory of England, bringing with them not only power, but also culture and language.
Latin language
German language
other languages
French language
Greek language
derived from proper names

The main differences between British and American versions of English
Phonetic differences
Lexical differences
Differences in grammar

Phonetic differences
Between American and British English, there are differences in the pronunciation of some words and whole sentences.
Stress in words
Sounds in words
Intonation in sentences
Example: in America, «dance» is pronounced as [da:ns] in England and as [dəns] in the USA

Lexical differences
The same words in British and American English sometimes have different meanings. The most noticeable lexical differences between the two variants are in the terminology related to cars, as both Americans and Englishmen are obsessed with them.

Differences in grammar
Native speakers of British and American English often use completely different words that have the same meaning. This is due to the peculiarities of the development of the history and culture of the countries, the variety of local dialects and expressions. It is often said that Americans like to shorten words, to make them much shorter than in the classic British language. This is partly true, but there are quite a few words that are longer in American English than in British.

Conclusion
People's opinion about the significant differences between the American and British versions of English is just a myth. There aren't really that many of them. It is sometimes quite difficult to understand whether a particular book was written by an American or British author. However, the differences between these two versions of the language are increasing every year.
They can be divided into 6 groups:
Phonetic differences
Lexical differences
Spelling differences
Grammatical differences
Punctuation differences
The appearance of a new meaning in a word, the use of a synonymous word