English Vocabulary In English

In this essay, I will talk about the different vocabulary in American, British, Australian, Scottish and Irish English. I will use colonization and globalization as a unifying thread to explain how both meant changes in the language.

We can find a number of varieties of English all over the world such as American, British, Indian, Singaporean, Australian, Philippine English and so forth. Nevertheless, only two of these varieties of English are the ones most generally and dominantly taught, learned, and used around the world: British English and American English, and, just like Oscar Wilde said in his book The Canterville Ghost, “We (Britons) have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language”, thus, we will focus

As Murphy claims again, “The complaint that American should not be used to refer exclusively to people from the United States is especially heard from people in countries where geography lessons have one continent in the western hemisphere called America.” (Murphy 2)

During the past decades, American English has had an increasingly powerful influence on British English. The fact that US films and television could have been more popular has played a significant role in giving British people a passive knowledge of the American lexicon, a passive knowledge which has become into active use. (Daniel Richards, English Around the World 45)

Despite countless smaller variations in pronunciation and vocabulary, these varieties can be hard to distinguish. It was not until the 19th century when British and American English grew more apart. (Potter 168) One of the causes for this split was a man called Noah Webster, an American lexicographer who thought Americans should be independent not only politically but also lexically. (Daniel Richards, English Around the World

They almost always pronounce the letter “r” in a word, while British people usually pronounce it when it happens at the beginning of a word. In earthy, for example, we realise the pronunciation of the consonant “r” in the American English but not at all in the British one.

Concerning spelling, Webster claimed that, in American English, the letter “u” should be removed from words ending in –our. These words usually are abstract nouns which have their origin in Latin. (Daniel Richards, English Around the World 48)

Table 1: Extra “u” in British English

American English British English

Armor Armour

Behavior Behaviour

Flavor Flavour

Glamor Glamour

Humor Humour

Savior Saviour

(Daniel Richards, English Around the World 48)

Another feature which distinguishes both kinds of English is the –er ending of some words; while in American English some words tend to end with –er in British English this –er ending is reversed (rule only applied when the letter before the –re is a consonant) (Daniel Richards, English Around the World 48):

Table 2: Words with -er endings reversed

American English British English

Center Centre

Fiber Fibre

Liter Litre

Meter Metre

Specter Spectre

Theater Theatre

We also can find that words ended in –ce are replaced by