American English

Encyclopedia : A : AM : AME : American English

American English (AmE) is the dialect of the English language used mostly in the United States of America. It is estimated that approximately two thirds of native speakers of English live in the United States. American English is also sometimes called United States English or U.S. English.

The use of English in the United States has been inherited from British colonization. The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North America in the 17th century. In that century, there were also speakers in North America of Dutch, French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Scots, Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Finnish, and myriad Native American languages.

Contents

1 Phonology
2 Differences between British English and American English
3 Vocabulary

3.1 Creation of an American lexicon
3.2 English words that survived in the U.S.

4 Regional differences
5 See also
6 Further reading
7 References
8 Sources
9 External links

Phonology

Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for a pronunciation key.

In many ways, compared to British English, American English is conservative in its phonology. Dialect in North America is most distinctive on the East Coast of the continent; 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. As such, the inland speech is much more homogeneous than the East Coast speech and did not imitate the changes in speech from England.

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Most North American speech is rhotic, as English was in most places in the 17th century. Rhoticity was further supported by Hiberno-English, Scottish English, and West Country English. In most varieties of North American English, the sound corresponding to the letter "R" is a retroflex or alveolar approximant rather than a trill or a 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. Dropping of syllable-final r sometimes happens in natively rhotic dialects if r is located in unaccented syllables or words and the next syllable or word begins in a consonant. In England, lost 'r' was often changed into [ə] (schwa), giving rise to a new class of falling diphthongs. Furthermore, the 'er' sound of (stressed) fur or (unstressed) butter, which is represented in IPA as stressed [ɝ] or unstressed [ɚ] is realized in American English as a monophthongal r-colored vowel. This does not happen in the non-rhotic varieties of North American speech.

Some other British English changes in which most North American dialects do not participate:

The shift of [æ] to [ɑ] (the so-called "broad A") before [f], [s], [θ], [ð], [z], [v] alone or preceded by [n]. This is the difference between the British Received Pronunciation and American pronunciation of bath and dance. In the United States, only linguistically conservative eastern New England speakers took up this innovation, which is becoming increasingly rare even there.
The shift of intervocalic [t] to glottal stop [ʔ], as in /bɒʔəl/ for bottle. This change is not universal for British English (and in fact is not considered to be part of Received Pronunciation), but it does not occur in most North American dialects. Newfoundland English and the dialect of New Britain, Connecticut are notable exceptions.

On the other hand, North American English has undergone some sound changes not found in Britain, at least not in standard varieties. Many of these are instances of phonemic differentiation and include

The merger of ]

English dialects

British Isles	British English \| East Anglian English \| English English \| Estuary English \| Hiberno-English (Ireland) \| Highland English \| Manx English \| Mid Ulster English \| Midlands English \| Northern English \| Received Pronunciation \| Scottish English \| Welsh English \| West Country dialects
United States	American English \| African American Vernacular English \| Appalachian English \| Baltimorese \| Boston English \| California English \| Chicano English \| General American \| Hawaiian English \| Maine-New Hampshire English \| Mid-Atlantic English \| New York-New Jersey English \| North Central American English \| Pacific Northwest English \| Pittsburgh English \| Southern American English \| Utah English \| Yooper
Canada	Canadian English \| West/Central Canadian English \| Maritimer English \| Newfoundland English \| Quebec English
Oceania	Australian English \| New Zealand English
Asia	Hong Kong English \| Indian English \| Malaysian English \| Burmese English \| Philippine English \| Singaporean English \| Sri Lankan English
Other countries	Bermudian English \| Caribbean English \| Jamaican English \| Liberian English \| Malawian English \| South African English
Miscellaneous	Basic English \| Commonwealth English \| Euro-English \| Globish \| International English \| Llanito (Gibraltar) \| North American English \| Plain English \| Simplified English \| Special English \| Standard English

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