SOCIOKINGUISTIC PROJECTS Student Name: Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Student code: 7052900519 Class: Nghe An Topic: Examine the differences between the English spoken in Boston and the English spoken in the southern area of the United States Why you think there are such dialectal evidence? ****************************************** I Introduction The British actually introduced the language to the Americas when they reached these lands by sea between the 16th and 17th centuries At that time, spelling had not yet been standardised It took the writing of the first dictionaries to set in stone how these words appeared In the UK, the dictionary was compiled by Londonbased scholars Meanwhile, in the United States, the lexicographer was a man named Noah Webster Allegedly, he changed how the words were spelled to make the American version different from the British as a way of showing cultural independence from its mother country II Differences The English spoken in Boston and the southern area of the United States differ in several ways, including pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar 1 American vs British accent Prior to the Revolutionary War and American independence from the British in 1776, American and British accents were similar Both were rhotic i.e speakers pronounced the letter R in hard Since 1776, the accents diverged but English accent in America has changed less drastically than accents in Britain Towards the end of the 18th century, non-rhotic speech took off in southern England, especially among the upper class; this "prestige" non-rhotic speech was standardized, and has been spreading in Britain ever since Most American accents, however, remained rhotic There are a few fascinating exceptions: New York and New England accents became non-rhotic, perhaps because of the region's British connections Irish and Scottish accents, however, remained rhotic To be fair, both American and British English have several types of accents and there is no one true American or British accent Spoken English Differences Full rhoticity is one instance of this, simply the pronunciation of the "R" in a word by American English speakers as opposed to British ones This is best shown by the term "Fire," for instance American English speakers would say it with a "fi-er" sound, whereas British English speakers would say it with a "fi-yah" sound Many current British English dialects don't use full rhoticity because of a late-18thcentury trend in the south of UK Being of a higher social level, the aristocracy started removing their R's, which the ordinary British people then adopted The usage of rhoticity is still prevalent in certain areas, although non-rhoticity has started to have an impact Written English Differences However, the most noticeable distinction between American and British English is their written forms This is because writers created the earliest dictionaries in each nation with different linguistic viewpoints Scholars in London assembled the British dictionary with the simple goal of collecting all recognized English terms Noah Webster, a lexicographer who aimed to simplify spelling, established the American dictionary Various terms, such as "colour" and "honour," which were altered to "color" and "honor," and "judgement," which is written "judgment" in American English, are instances of words with different spellings In terms like "colourise" and "hypnotise," which are written "colorize" and "hypnotize" in the Americanized versions of the languages, the British "s" is often replaced with the letter "z." In American English, words that finish in the letters "re" in British English, such as "centre" and "theatre," are often spelled with a "er." Vocabulary differences The vocabulary is the most obvious difference between American English and British English Numerous standard terms have diverse meanings For instance, Americans refer to a car's front end as the hood, whereas the British refer to it as the bonnet While Britons have holidays or hols, Americans go on vacation Londoners live in flats, whereas New Yorkers reside in apartments There are a lot more instances than we can list here The majority of Americans and Britons, fortunately, can typically infer the meaning from the context of a statement Grammar differences Aside from spelling and vocabulary, there are certain grammar differences between British and American English For instance, in American English, collective nouns are considered singular (e.g The band is playing) In contrast, collective nouns can be either singular or plural in British English, although the plural form is most often used (e.g The band are playing) The British are also more likely to use formal speech, such as ‘shall’, whereas Americans favour the more informal ‘will’ or ‘should’ Americans, however, continue to use ‘gotten’ as the past participle of ‘get’, which the British have long since dropped in favour of ‘got’ ‘Needn’t’, which is commonly used in British English, is rarely, if at all used in American English In its place is ‘don’t need to’ In British English, ‘at’ is the preposition in relation to time and place However, in American English, ‘on’ is used instead of the former and ‘in’ for the latter Differences in use of tenses In British English the present perfect is used to express an action that has occurred in the recent past that has an effect on the present moment For example: I've misplaced my pen Can you help me find it? In American English, the use of the past tense is also permissible: I misplaced my pen Can you help me find it? In British English, however, using the past tense in this example would be considered incorrect Other differences involving the use of the present perfect in British English and simple past in American English include the words already, just and yet British English: I've just had food Have you finished your homework yet? American English: I just had food OR I've just had food I've already seen that film OR I already saw that film Differences in the use of Prepositions There are also a few differences between British and American English in the use of prepositions For example: While the British would play in a team, Americans would play on a team Another example: While the British would go out at the weekend, Americans would go out on the weekend Differences in Verb usage American and British English may also use a base verb in different manners For example: For the verb " to dream", Americans would use the past tense dreamed while the British would use dreamt in past tense The same applies to "learned" and "learnt" Another example of differing past tense spellings for verbs in American and British English is "forecast" Americans use forecast while the British would say forecasted in simple past tense III Conclusion These dialectal differences likely arose due to various factors, including historical settlement patterns, immigration, and cultural influences For example, Boston English has been influenced by the city's early Puritan settlers from England, while southern English has been influenced by the region's history of slavery and African American Vernacular English Overall, dialectal differences in English across different regions of the United States reflect the diversity of the country's population and its complex history References https://www.diffen.com/difference/American_English_vs_British_English https://speechling.com/blog/8-differences-between-british-english-andamerican-english/ https://www.britishcouncilfoundation.id/en/english/articles/british-andamerican-english https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/eb/qa/what-are-the-differences-betweenBritish-and-American-English