МІНІСТЕРСТВО ОСВІТИ ТА НАУКИУКРАЇНИ
ЧЕРНІВЕЦЬКИЙ НАЦІОНАЛЬНИЙУНІВЕРСИТЕТ
ім. ЮРІЯ ФЕДЬКОВИЧА
ФАКУЛЬТЕТІ іноземних мов
The main variants of the English language
Чернівці2011
Plan
GeneralCharacteristics of the English Language in Different Parts of theEnglish-Speaking World
Lexical Differencesof Territorial Variants
Some Points ofHistory of the Territorial Variants and Lexical interchange between them
Local Variantsin the British Isles and in the USA
TheRelationship between the English National language and British Local Dialects
Local Dialectsin the USA
Conclusions
References
Dictionary
General Characteristics of the English Language in DifferentParts of the English-Speaking World
It is natural that the English language is not used with uniformity inthe British Isles and in Australia, in the USA and-in New Zealand, in Canadaand in India, etc. The English language also has some peculiarities in Wales,Scotland, in other parts of the British Isles and America. Is the nature ofthese varieties the same?
Modern linguistics distinguishes territorial variants of a nationallanguage and local dialects. Variants of a language are regional varieties of astandard literary language characterized by some minor peculiarities in thesound system, vocabulary and by their own literary norms. Dialects arevarieties of a language used as a means of oral communication in smalllocalities, they are set off (more or less sharply) from other varieties bysome distinctive features of pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.
Close inspection of the varieties mentioned above reveals that they areessentially different in character. It is not difficult to establish that thevarieties spoken in small areas are local dialects. The status of the othervarieties is more difficult to establish.
It is over half a century already that the nature of the two mainvariants of the English language, British and American (Br and AE) has beendiscussed. Some American linguists, H. L. Mencken for one, spoke of twoseparate languages ​​with a steady flood of linguistic influence first (up toabout 1914) from Britain to America, and since then from America to the BritishIsles. They even proclaim that the American influence on British English is sopowerful that there will come a time when the American standard will beestablished in Britain. Other linguists regard the language of the USA as adialect of English.
Still more questionable is the position of Australian English (AuE) andCanadian English (CnE).
The differences between the English language as spoken in Britain, theUSA, Australia and Canada are immediately noticeable in the field of phonetics.However these distinctions are confined to the articulatory-acousticscharacteristics of some phonemes, to some differences in the use of others andto the differences in the rhythm and intonation of speech. The few phonemescharacteristic of American pronunciation and alien to British literary normscan as a rule be observed in British dialects.
The variations in vocabulary, to be considered below, are not verynumerous. Most of them are divergences in the semantic structure of words andin their usage.
The dissimilarities in grammar like AE gotten, proven for BE got, provedare scarce. For the most part these dissimilarities consist in the preferenceof this or that grammatical category or form to some others. For example, thepreference of Past Indefinite to Present Perfect, the formation of the FutureTense with will as the only auxiliary verb for all persons, and some others.Recent investigations have also shown that the Present Continuous form in themeaning of Future is used twice as frequently in BE as in the American,Canadian and Australian variants; infinitive constructions are used more rarelyin AE than in BE and AuE and passive constructions are, on the contrary, morefrequent in America than in Britain and in Australia.
Since BE, AE and AuE have essentially the same grammar system, phoneticsystem and vocabulary, they cannot be regarded as different languages. Nor canthey be referred to local dialects; because they serve all spheres of verbalcommunication in society, within their territorial area they have dialectaldifferences of their own; besides they differ far less than local dialects(Eg far less than the dialects of Dewsbury and Howden, two English "towns in Yorkshire some forty miles apart). Another consideration is that AEhas its own literary norm and AuE is developing one. Thus we must speak ofthree variants of the English national language having different acceptedliterary standards, one spoken in the British Isles, another spoken in the USA,the third in Australia. As to CnE, its peculiarities began to attractlinguistic attention only some 20 years ago. The fragmentary nature of theobservation available makes it impossible to determine its status.
LexicalDifferences of Territorial Variants
Speaking about the lexical distinctions between the territorial variants,of the English language it is necessary to point out that from the point ofview of their modern currency in different parts of the English-speaking worldall lexical units may be divided into general English, those common to all thevariants and 1ocally-marked, those specific to present-day usage in one of thevariants and not found in the others (ie Briticisms, Americanisms,Australianisms, Canadianisms,-etc.).
When speaking about the territorial differences of the English languagephilologists and lexicographers usually note the fact that different variantsof English use different words for the same objects. Thus in describing thelexical differences between the British and American variants they provide longlists of word pairs like
BE
flat
underground
lorry
pavement
post
tin-opener
government
leader
AE
apartment
subway
truck
sidewalk
mail
can-opener
administration
editorial
faculty
teaching staff
From such lists one may infer that the words in the left column are theequivalents of those given in the right column and used on the other side of theAtlantic. But the matter is not as simple as that.
These pairs present quite different cases.
It is only in some rare cases like tin-opener-can-opener orfishmonger-fish-dealer that the members of such pairs are semanticallyequivalent.
In pairs like government-administration, leader-editorial only onelexical semantic variant of one of the members is locally-marked. Thus in thefirst pair the lexical semantic variant of administration-'the executiveofficials of a government 'is an Americanism, in the second pair the wordleader in the meaning of 'leading article in a newspaper' is a Briticism.
In some cases a notion may have two synonymous designations used on bothsides of the Atlantic ocean, but one of them is more frequent in Britain, theother-in the USA. Thus in the pairs post-mail, timetable-schedule,notice-bulletin the first word is more frequent in Britain, the second-inAmerica. So the difference here lies only in word-frequency.
Most locally-marked lexical units belong to partial Briticisms, Americanisms,etc., that is they are typical of this or that variant only in one or some oftheir meanings. Within the semantic structure of such words one may often findmeanings belonging to general English, Americanisms and Briticisms, eg, inthe word pavement, the meaning 'street or road covered with stone, asphalt,concrete, etc is an Americanism, the meaning 'paved path for pedestrians at theside of the road 'is a Briticism (the corresponding American expression issi...
