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The American Language The American Language Version 5.3 Prof. Dr. Russell Block University of Applied Sciences - München Fakultät 13 - Allgemeinwissenschaften ©2013 Um eine gute Note in der Klausur zu erzielen, genügt es nicht, dieses Skript zu lesen. Sie müssen auch die “Show” sehen! Contents Unit 1: The Origins of the American Language ............................... 8 1 Origins of the English language . ...................... 8 1.1 The Celts...................................... .............8 1.2 The Roman colonization ......................... ..............8 1.3 The Germanic invasion ......................... ...............8 1.4 Anglo-Saxon England ............................ .............9 1.5 The first literary language .................... ..................9 1.6 The submergence of English ..................... .............. 10 1.7 The re-emergence of English .................... ............... 10 1.8 The London standard ........................... ............. 11 1.9 The Renaissance ................................ ............ 11 1.10 Codification of the Received Pronunciation . .................... 12 2 American English ................................. ................ 13 2.1 Major dialect groups ........................... .............. 13 2.2 Black English .................................. ............ 14 2.3 The American standard ......................... .............. 14 2.4 Network English ................................ ............ 15 Unit 2: The American Koiné .............................................. 16 1 The early period.................................. ................. 16 2 A few words that British travelers found odd in American speech.............. 16 3 What is a koiné ................................... ................ 17 4 Sources of information on early American English . ....................... 17 4.1 Rhymes and misspellings . .............. 17 4.2 Technical descriptions .......................... .............. 17 4.3 Literary sources ................................ ............. 18 4.4 Travelers’ reports .............................. .............. 18 5 Where does a standard come from? .................. .................. 20 6 British Travelers Objections to American English . ........................ 21 7 Frontier English .................................. ................. 24 7.1 Pidgins and Creoles ............................. ............. 25 7.2 Black English and Frontier English . ................. 25 7.3 Pidgin and Frontier English..................... ................ 25 -iii- Unit 3: British and American Pronunciation ................................ 27 1 Introduction ..................................... ................ 27 2 Standard Dialects ................................ ................. 27 3 The major differences between German and English . ...................... 27 3.1 The Consonants................................. ............ 28 3.2 Overview of the English consonants . ................ 28 3.3 Tense vs. Lax .................................. ............ 28 3.4 The Final Devoicing Rule ....................... .............. 29 3.5 The “th”-sounds ................................ ............ 29 3.6 The “sh”-sound ................................. ............ 29 3.7 The voiced sounds / / and / ¡ / ................................. 29 3.8 The liquid /l/ ................................. .............. 29 3.9 The Liquid /r/ ................................. ............. 30 3.10 The Glide /w/ ................................. ............. 30 3.11 The Glottal Stop / ¢ /.......................................... 30 4 The vowels ....................................... ............... 30 5 The English vowels ............................... ................. 32 5.1 Diphthongization of Tense Vowels . ............... 33 5.2 Vowel Length ................................... ........... 33 5.3 The Schwas..................................... ........... 33 5.4 The vowel / £ / .............................................. 33 ¥ ¤ ¦ 5.5 The diphthongs / ¤ / and / / ................................... 34 ¥ 5.6 The diphthong / § /........................................... 34 6 Major Differences in Pronunciation Between the British and American Standard . 34 6.1 Intonation...................................... ............ 34 6.2 Rhythm .......................................... ......... 34 6.3 Prefixed verbs.................................. ............. 35 6.4 Sometimes accent shift is associated with differences in meaning: . 35 6.5 Individual sounds ............................... ............. 35 6.6 Flapped-t and d in AE......................................... 35 6.7 BE and AE /l/................................... ............ 36 6.8 /r/............................................. ........... 36 6.8.1 Flapped-r in BE ....................................... 37 6.8.2 r-Dissimilation in AE ................................ 37 6.8.3 Provincial-r in AE...................................... 37 © 6.8.4 The New York City Pronunciation of / ¨ / .................... 38 6.9 Short-o in BE and AE...................................... 38 6.10 Differences in the distribution of / £ / and / / between AE and BE . 39 6.11 The systematic difference in the pronunciation of long-o ............... 39 6.12 Difference in the distribution of /u/ and /ju/ . ........................ 39 -iv- 6.13 Final /i/...................................... .............. 40 6.14 The pronunciation of wh- ...................................... 40 6.15 Historical divergence .......................... ............... 40 7 Morphological differences ......................... .................. 41 7.1 {-ed} ........................................... .......... 41 7.2 The pronunciation of ate ....................................... 41 7.3 The suffix -ile ............................................... 41 7.4 Some British and American Words That Are Pronounced Differently . 41 Unit 4: The Written Language - American Spelling and Dictionaries ............. 44 1 The real differences between AE and BE spelling . ....................... 44 2 Why reform English spelling? . ................... 44 3 Attempts at an “American” spelling reform . ...................... 44 3.1 Benjamin Franklin............................... ............. 44 3.2 Noah Webster .................................... .......... 45 3.2.1 Early spelling reform proposals . ............. 45 4 The dictionary .................................... ................ 46 4.1 Samuel Johnson’s dictionary ..................... ............... 46 4.2 Later dictionaries .............................. .............. 46 4.3 Webster’s dictionaries.......................... ............... 46 4.4 Webster’s example ............................... ............ 48 5 Summary of important spelling differences between BE and AE ............... 48 5.1 AE -or for BE -our ........................................... 48 5.2 AE -er for BE -re ............................................ 49 5.3 AE -l- for BE -ll- ............................................ 49 5.4 AE drops silent e after dg ...................................... 50 5.5 AE e instead of the digraphs æ, œ ................................ 50 5.6 AE simplification of Greek words in -gue, -mme entering by way of French 50 ¡ 5.7 AE -ize in words with the Greek suffix - for BE ize/-ise ............. 50 5.8 AE -ense for BE -ence ........................................ 51 5.9 Some individual words that are spelled differently.................... 51 6 Summary ........................................... ............. 51 Unit 5: Differences Between BE and AE Vocabulary .......................... 52 1 Words with different meanings in AE and BE . ..................... 52 2 Important Differences in Vocabulary (from AE point of view) ................ 54 -v- Unit 6: Major Dialect Differences in American English ........................ 56 1 Overview.......................................... .............. 56 2 Canadian .......................................... .............. 56 2.1 Differences between Canadian and Network English .................. 57 2.1.1 Unrounding of back vowels..................... .......... 57 ¥ ¤ ¦ 2.1.2 Raising in / ¤ /, / / ..................................... 57 2.1.3 Resistance to breaking of short vowels . .............. 57 2.1.4 Consonants .................................... 57 2.1.5 Individual words .............................. ......... 57 3 Eastern (New England) ............................. ................ 58 3.1 Differences between Eastern and Network English . .................. 58 3.1.1 R-dropping........................................... 58 £ 3.1.2 The distribution of / / and / /............................. 58 4 New York City ..................................... .............. 59 4.1 Differences between New York City and Network English ............. 59 4.1.1 R-dropping.......................................... 59 4.1.2 Breaking of / £ /.............................................. 59 4.1.3 Breaking of short-o .......................................... 60 © 4.1.4 The realization of/ ¨ /.......................................... 60 4.1.5 Dentals and alveolars ......................... ................ 60 4.1.6 Nasalization .................................. .............. 60 5 Southern .......................................... .............. 61 5.1 Differences between Southern and Network English .................. 61 5.1.1 The Southern drawl ............................ .............. 61
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