The Origin and Characteristics of American English

It has formed some unique forms and meanings in the special cultural, historical and social environment of North America. From the perspective of modern linguistics, American English is a variety of English, which has been used in the special geographical environment of North America for nearly 400 years, influenced by the multicultural American society and constantly innovated (Cai Changzhuo, 2002). American English originated from Elizabethan English, and its history is closely related to the history of American immigration, dating back more than 300 years. 1607, the first colonists, including John Smith, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in three big ships and established Jamestown at the mouth of James River in Virginia. Soon after, 1620, Puritans from Norfolk and Suffolk in the east of England arrived in Plymouth in the southeast of Massachusetts on the ship "Mayflower" and established a colony. At that time, Britain was in the period of Elizabeth I, and it was in the early stage of modern English from the perspective of English development history. Among the first pilgrims who moved to New England, 100 was a graduate of Oxford University and Cambridge University. They brought Elizabethan English to the New World of North America and became the starting point of American English. Since then, both countries have spoken Elizabethan English. Therefore, there is no significant difference between American English and British English for a long time.

As early as the British colonial period, British immigrants in the United States kept close contact with their hometown at first, and their language changed with the change of their mother tongue English, but with the passage of time, an English different from their mother tongue English was also produced in the British colonies in the United States.

From the beginning of17th century when English Puritans set foot on American soil to a long time later, there was no obvious difference between American English and British English. The victory of the American War of Independence was a historic turning point, which marked the emergence of a brand-new American English? Revolutionaries tried to get rid of British rule in every field of life. Among them, Benjamin Franklin published an article entitled "America's plan to adopt a new alphabet and reform spelling patterns". Although this plan was not adopted, it had a great influence on lexicographer and lexicographer noah webster. His theory has given some words new spelling methods, such as Honor instead of honor and Theater instead of theater. It can be said that Franklin was a pioneer in the history of English development.

Noah webster is the most famous lexicographer in America. His American English Dictionary was published in 1828, which marked the peak of his contribution to American English. He systematically and comprehensively fixed the composition, meaning and usage of American words, and finally formed a standardized national language in the United States. This laid a solid foundation for the future development of American English and its influence on the world, and Americans have a dictionary of their own pronunciation since then. American language embodies American social characteristics, diversity embodies multi-cultural characteristics, and slang is a vivid embodiment of American English.

As an immigrant country, the United States has always been called "nation country", but its mainstream culture is still Anglo-Saxon culture. Any new immigrant must accept or adapt to this mainstream culture in order to live in the new world. At the same time, the American people's struggle for the independence and formation of their own literature and language is actually the continuation and development of the political struggle. The formation of American English is a long and tortuous process. Around the First World War, the relationship between American English and British English was a turning point. American English deviated from British English before, and then British English moved closer to American English.

English today is divided into American English and British English. British English is used in Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, Ireland and South Africa, and American English is used in the United States and Canada.

American English is a regional language variety of British English, which originated from17 ~18th century British English. From 1607, when Britain established Jamestown, the first colony in America, to 1775, when the American War of Independence broke out, Britain successively established 13 colonies in North America. At the same time, English colonists also brought the English of Shakespeare and Milton to America. At this time, people usually call it "North American English" or "Colonial English". In the new environment, this ancient language absorbed the native languages of Indians and the languages of other European immigrants, and continued to develop in the New World, eventually forming a mature language mixture-American English. Of course, different historical environments give it different names. After the war of independence, nationalism rose, and Americans named their language "American English" or "Americanism". 1806, noah webster initiated American English and became a fixed expression of American English. 1828, Webster spent the rest of his life compiling the American English Dictionary, which opened the way for the compilation of American English and has been regarded as an important symbol of the formation of American English by later generations. With the rapid development of American economy, politics, military and other aspects, the United States has become a leading world power, and the outbreak of two world wars has laid a decisive position for the United States on the world stage. American English, as a cultural export model in the United States, has its influence. However, American English will be influenced by foreign languages when communicating with other languages.

Generally speaking, the development of language occurs in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. Phonetic and grammatical changes are small and slow, while vocabulary changes quickly. From the perspective of linguistics and lexicology, American English has the following characteristics. American English was developed on the basis of the language used in Britain in the17th century, that is, the language used by Shakespeare, Milton and Bunyan. Compared with the current standard London English, American English is very old. Its ancient style is mainly manifested in the use of words. It has preserved and revived many words that have been "out of date" in British English. Typical examples are: I guess, used as I think, I guess, I believe, if I guess you are wrong. (I think you are wrong), this usage was widely popular in Britain in the17th century, but it is no longer used in American English. Mad is used as an expression of anger, such as: he was angry at losing the opportunity, which was often used in Shakespeare's time; Railways are used as railways. In Britain in the18th century, only wooden rails were used for railway transportation. It was replaced by railways in the19th century, but American English has remained to this day. In addition, sick (sick), poor (thin), dry (third), allowed (sure). American English still retains many vivid features. Old image terms, such as fall, which means "autumn", come from the falling leaves, while standard English uses the word "autumn" (from old French) from Chaucer (about 1346~ 1400). But now in British English, it means "bug". This word used to have a universal meaning in British English, but later its meaning narrowed. American English retains the original meaning of the word, and uses bedbug to refer to bedbugs? When the word Loan is used as a transitive verb, many English dictionaries deliberately label it Americanism. In fact, its verb usage also originated in England around 1200, when it was used as "borrowing"; Borrow ". In addition, some words are no longer used in standard British English, but are only used in British dialects, but they are still commonly used in the United States, such as deck (a deck of cards), drool (a joke), shoat (a pig, a piglet), and polliwog (a tadpole).

In addition, compared with the standard cockney accent, the pronunciation of American English is a bit old-fashioned, with the characteristics of 17 and18th century British English. For example, there is an r /r/ rolling tongue sound in American Putonghua, which is also the result of English phonetic features inherited from Shakespeare's time. Another example is that Americans put the flat sound of the letter A in bath, fast, path/? /reserved, but Britain abolished this pronunciation in southern England as early as the end of 18 (now England has pronounced the word "a" as an open vowel/? /。 2. 1 Create some new words that don't exist originally.

For example, an exciting and attractive person began to be called pizzazz (fashionable person), and many words were created by early colonists, such as bellhop (club waiter), decouple (revealing the truth), blurb (explanation), costolots(* * * plot) and skyscrapers (skyscrapers). Due to the development of science and technology, a series of sciences. Such as black holes, movies, copying, spacewalking. The recent appearance of Chinese astronauts has also given American English a new word, taikonaut, to distinguish it from astronauts.

2.2 On the basis of old words, use affixes freely, or create new words by using affixes and anti-word formation.

For example, debug (find and delete the cause of the error), defog (defog), defroster (defrost), racist (racist) and smog (fog) all come from smoke and fog, medicare (medical care) is a mixture of medical treatment and nursing, and brunch (brunch) is a mixture of breakfast and Lund.

American English frequently uses transformations, especially the transformation from nouns to verbs, such as to engineer (design), to style (naming), to revive (vacation), to model (modeling) and so on. Adjectives often appear when they are converted into nouns, such as depressed people and gentle people.