THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN ENGLISH
Standard AMERICAN
American English variety of the English language spoken in the United
States. Although all Americans do not speak the same way, their speech has
enough in common that American English can be recognized as a variety of
English distinct from British English, Australian English and other
national varieties. American English has grown up with the country. It
began to diverge from British English during its colonial beginnings and
acquired regional differences and ethnic flavor during the settlement of
the continent .Today it influences other languages and other varieties of
English because it is the medium by which the attractions of American
culture – its literature, motion pictures and television programs – are
transmitted to the world.
THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN ENGLISH
HISTORY OF AMERICAN ENGLISH
American English shows many influences from the different cultures and
languages of the people who settled in North America. The nature of the
influence depends on the time and the circumstances of contact between
cultures.
A. COLONIAL PERIOD
The first settlements on the East Coast of North America in the 17th
century were composed mostly of British subjects. Accounting for about 90
percent of the people, the British vastly outnumbered French and German
settlers. English was therefore the only real candidate for a common
American language. The settlers spoke varieties of English from various
parts of England, but in the creation of American English, there varieties
were leveled –that is their differences largely disappeared. Michael
Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur, a French born writer who published under the
name J. Hector st. John de Crevecoeur and became famous for his book
Letters from an American farmer (1782), describes the desire of settlers to
“become an American”, their common ideal to own and work their own farms,
without prejudice toward neighbors whatever their neighbor’s religion or
national origin. This shared goal encouraged development of a shared
variety of the languages, which came to be enriched by contributions from
many cultures.
As the European settlers came into contact with Native Americans,
American English collected a large stock of Native American place names
(Allegheny, Chicago, Mississippi, Potomac) and Native American names for
things not founds in Europe or Asia (moose, opossum, squash, moccasin,
tomahawk, totem). Sometimes, Native American words were spelled by settlers
so that they looked more like English words; woodchuck, for example,
probably comes from the Cree word wuchak. Cultural exchange with Native
Americans was more limited than might be expected, because diseases brought
by Spanish explorers and European settlers greatly reduced the Native
American population in eastern North America during early settlement.
In the 18th century people from Ireland and Northern Europe joined the
British settlers. By the time of the American Revolution (1775-1783), there
were comparable numbers of British settlers from other European countries.
Some Europeans formed separate communities, such as the Pennsylvania
Germans, but most mixed with British settlers and contributed to American
English words from their own languages. Examples include pumpkin, bayou,
and bureau from French; cookie, waffle and boss from Dutch; and pretzel,
pinochle, and phooey from German. Scottish and Irish settlers were already
English speakers but they influenced American English with features from
their own varieties for example, pronunciation of r after vowels (while
many British English speakers were losing the r after vowels) and double
verb forms like might could.
Africans were imported as slaves throughout the early settlement of
North America. By the American Revolution one- quarter of the American
population consisted of African Americans, and as much as 95 percent of the
population living in plantation areas was African American. Slaves were not
allowed to share in Crevecoeur’s American ideal, but they learned American