7.1. The American Indian Languages

    The American Indian languages were spoken by the original inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere and are spoken by their modern descendants. In America north of Mexico, where the Indian population was thinly spread, there were a number of language groups – e.g. the Eskimo-Aleut, Algonquian, Athabaskan, and Siouan – each of which covered large territories and included some 20 idioms (dialects). In California, for example, more than 20 distinct language groups were represented. America north of Mexico had about 300 distinct languages.

   The American Indian languages do not form a single historically interrelated stock (as do the Indo-European languages), nor are there any structural features (in phonetics, grammar, or vocabulary) whereby American Indian languages can be distinguished as a whole from languages spoken elsewhere.

Answer the questions:

1. What Indian language groups do you know

2. In what places of America were they represented?

3. What distinguishes the American Indian languages?

    7.2. American English

   The variety of English spoken in the USA has received the name of American English. AE is not a dialect because it has a literary normalized form called Standard American (a dialect has no literary form); it is used in the whole territory and in all spheres of society life. AE is not a separate language because it has no its own grammar and vocabulary. From the lexical point of view we have to deal with a set of Americanisms.

The term “Americanism” was first used by John Witherspoon, president of Princeton University, in 1781. It designates:

1) any word or combination of words taken into the English language in the USA, but not in England;

2) any word or combination of words becoming archaic in England but containing in good usage in the USA.

    The English language in America has been influenced by American Indian languages and by all the ethnic groups that have emigrated to the United States over the years. The American variant of the English language differs from British English in pronunciation, some minor features of grammar, but chiefly in vocabulary.

    The causes of differences in BE and AE vocabularies are the following:

1) the social causes (new reality, struggle for independence);

2) newcomers adapted the words;

3) they began to create new words from the old ones;

4) they used the words named by the native people (e.g. moccasin, raccoon).

    All the vocabulary of AE is made up of two groups: the general English words (they are used in AE and BE) and Americanisms (they are used only in AE). Here there is an incomplete equivalents lists of AE and BE literary words:

    There are some norms of letter pronunciation in AE:

a  1) [æ] instead of [a:] – last, ask, aunt, half ;

   2) [e] instead of [ei] – late, mate; 

   3) before lm [a] instead of [a:] – calm, palm;

e  [ع] instead of [a:] – clerk, derby;

o  [٨] instead of [ﺪ] – lot, pot, not, body;

u 1) [ﺪ] instead of [٨] – cut, bus;

   2) [u] instead of [ju:] – duty, suit, student.  

    Here there are some examples in graphic differences of AE and BE words:

 AE – honor, labor, harbor, vapor, color;

 BE – honour, labour, harbour, vapour, colour;

AE – center, theater, fiber, meter, luster;

BE – centre, theatre, fibre, metre, lustre;

AE – impanel, incase, incrust, infold, insure;

BE – empanel, encase, encrust, enfold, ensure;

AE – prolog, monolog, dialog, cafe, elite;

BE – prologue, monologue, dialogue, café, élite;

AE – level – leveled – leveling, travel – traveled – traveling;

BE – level – levelled – levelling, travel – travelled – travelling;

AE – defense, offense, license, practise, pretense;

BE – defence, offence, licence, practice, pretence;

AE – draft, bark, check, gage, tire (шина);

BE – draught, barque, cheque, gauge, tyre.

There are three basic types of pronunciation: Common American, Eastern American and Southern American. The speech of the eastern part of the USA resembles the speech of the people living in the south of England. The speech of the northern and western parts of the USA is similar to the speech of people living in the north of England. The speech of the people in the south of the USA is the most difficult for understanding because of mixing of different languages and dialects.

Answer the questions:

     1. Why cannot we say that American English is a dialect or a separate   language?

     2. What does the term “Americanism” mean?

     3. What does the American variant of the English language differ from British English?

     4. What norms of letter pronunciation in AE do you know?

    5. Why is the speech of the eastern part of the USA similar to the speech of the people living in the south of England?

     6. Which speech is the most difficult for understanding: Eastern American or Southern American?

Task 1. Give the examples of differences in BE and AE vocabularies.

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