词汇学课件.ppt

Chapter 11
American English
I. The Growth of American English
II. Characteristics of American English
III. Differences between British English and
American English
CONTENTS
independence
The establishment in 1607 of the settlement which the explorers called Jamestown marked the beginning of British colonization in America, essive waves of immigrants arrived from Britain and settled in areas along the Atlantic coast. By 1733 the original thirteen English colonies had been set up.
In the last quarter of the 16th century ,the language the early immigrants brought with them was Elizabethan English, which belonged to the early stage of Modern English. It was in the main similar to present day english but have some differences in spelling,pronunciation,giammar and vocabulary.
1. The Growth of American English
1) spelling
Seventeenth-century English differed from present-day English in spelling.
cleare ---clear
dutie---duty
goodnes---goodness
Ane(An) evil servant will never be a gude(good) maister(master).
2) pronunciation
eg:Here thou, great Anna ! when three realms obey,
Dost sometimes consel take-----and sometimes tea.
The pronunciation of tea at that time was evidently
/te:/, not /ti:/.
3) grammar
singest like a bird called a swine,the second person pronoun thou (also thee,they,thine)and the panying verb ending-(e)st still remained in use.
that time the negation form was different from today.
eg. Speak not of my debts unless you mean to pay it.
plural form of the abstract nouns were used ,which would not be acceptable today.
eg."in these hard and difficult beginning they found some discontents and murmurings arise amongst some,and mutious carriages in others..."
4).Vocabulary
When the early settlers landed in American, they found the natural environment,the native people ,plants and animals different from anything they had seen at home.
eg:bullfrog,copperhead,eggplant,peanut were created;persimmon,racoon,hickory,opposum