AMERICAN ENGLISH

AMERICAN ENGLISH

• The first time English left Britain – to stay (unlike the French,
Dutch, Spanish…)
• The beginnings of global English
• History
• 1492 – discovery of America
• 1607 – Jamestown
• 1620 – Plymouth
• 1776 – Declaration of Independence
• 1782 – Americans
• 1802 – the phrase „American language” used by the US Congress for the
1st time
• 1861-1865 – the Civil War
 ROANOKE COLONY

• AKA the Lost Colony

• the first attempt at founding a permanent English settlement in
North America
• established in 1585
• lack of supplies and conflicts with the local Native Americans
made many of its members return to England with Sir Francis
Drake a year later (a small group stayed).
• The whole group disappeared by the time a second expedition
arrived in July 1587.
• The word "CROATOAN" carved into a tree.
 JAMESTOWN

• the first permanent English settlement in the Americas

• Named after king James I
• established by the Virginia Company of London as "James
Fort" on May 4, 1607
• served as the capital of the colony of Virginia (named do
honor Elizabeth I) for 83 years, from 1616 until 1699
VIRGINIA
 PILGRIM FATHERS

• The Pilgrims or Pilgrim Fathers were the first English settlers

of the Plymouth Colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
• They first fled England due to political circumstances for the
tolerance of 17th-century Holland in the Netherlands.
• For fear of losing their cultural identity (if they had remained
in the Netherlands), they arranged with investors to establish a
new colony in America. 
PLYMOUTH
 PLYMOUTH

• William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation

• „And for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of that
country know them to be sharp and violent, and subject to cruel and
fierce storms.”
• Squanto
• „And whilst we were busied hereabout, we were interrupted again; for
there presented himself a savage, which caused an alarm. He very
boldly came all alone, and along the houses, straight to the rendezvous;
where we intercepted him, not suffering him to go in, as undoubtedly he
would out of his boldness. He saluted us in English, and bade us
“Welcome!” for he had learned some broken English among the
Englishmen that came to fish at Monhiggon, and knew by name the
most of the captains, commanders and masters, that usually come.”
SQUANTO
 PURITANS

• English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought

to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices
(+ virtually of all the fun)
• Strict moral and religious rules
• …including language use
• Blasphemy
• Cursing
• Swearing
• Improper language
• Lying
• Perjury
BORROWING FROM NATIVE AMERICAN

• Relatively - very few borrowings

• Skunk
• Squash
• Squaw
• Wigwam
• Very English place names
• Cambridge
• Boston
• Bedford
• NEW ENGLAND
PURITANS AND EDUCATION –
NEW ENGLAND PRIMER
 AMERICAN ENGLISH

• American nationalism
• „English is destined to be in the next and succeeding
centuries […] the language of the world more than Latin
was in the past or French is in the present age. […] because
the increasing population in America, and their universal
conncetion and correspondence with all nations will, aided
by the influence of England in the world, whether great or
small, force their language into general use…
• Language shift: Hebrew, French, Greek
 NOAH WEBSTER

• Noah Webster
• A Grammatical Institute of the English Language, 1783-
1785
• A speller, a grammar, a reader
• American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828
• Color [colour], wagon [waggon], fiber [fibre], defense
[defence], tire [tyre]
• Secretary, waistcoat
 AMERICAN VS. BRITISH ENGLISH

American English British English

Very little regional difference
Older pronunciation retained
Semantic shift, for example store…
Some conservative lexicon, for instance:
fall, sick
„full” pronunciation: secretary, laboratory Clipped pronunciation
Spelling innovations:
-double letters: traveller
-ou > o: color
-c> s: defense
A lot of regional difference
Different phonological developments
…for shop
More modern lexicon
More conservative, counter-intuitive
spelling
WESTERN EXPANSION
 NEOLOGISMS, BORROWINGS

• Neologisms out of necessity - Americanism

• Lengthy, calculate, seaboard [the long, thin area of a
country that is next to the sea], bookstore, presidential,
colonize, unshakable, placate [to stop someone from feeling
angry], antagonize
• Wigwam, pretzel, spook, depot [a building where supplies or
vehicles, especially buses, are kept], canyon
 THE FRONTIER EXPERIENCE

• The river
• Mississippi – Chipewa Indian mici sibi [big river]
• Steamboat, paddlesteamer
• Go west
• To die
• To disappear into the unknown
• Reference to frontiersmen who went into Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois
and never returned
• Cowboy- men who abandoned their family
• Infantrymen –soldiers who went AWOL
• Hollywood
 WILD WEST

• poker
• you bet, I’ll call your bluff, passing the buck [buck= buckhorn-handled knife
placed in front of the dealer and passed by a player who did not care to deal
the next hand], deal [square deal, new deal, fair deal, raw deal - an instance
of unfair treatment], big deal, poker face, bluff, the cards weren’t stacked
against you, an ace up one’s sleeve, up the ante [to raise the cost or price],
hit the jackpot, load the dice [to unfairly make one possible result more
likely than another], throw in one’s hand [give up, abandon], play both hands
against the middle [To manipulate two opposing sides of an argument,
conflict, competition, etc., against one another for one's own benefit or
advantage], follow suit [conform to another's actions], play a wild card, the
chips are down [when you are in a very difficult or dangerous situation,
especially one that makes you understand the true value of people or things]
 WILD WEST

• drinking
• joywater, firewater, corn juice [made from maize/corn or
rye], bartender, cocktail, bootlegging, bootleg
• saloon
• bar-room, groggery, bender [bending the elbow – a wild
drinking spree], take it straight
• skin trade
• stake a claim, beaver, buck [buck skins – a kind of deer],
eager beaver, work like a beaver
 GOLD RUSH

• Bonanza
• [Spanish, good weather]
• a situation which creates a sudden increase in wealth, good fortune, or profits. "a
natural gas bonanza for Britain"
• el dorado
• pan out – panning out gold in a river > to produce, to be successful
• prospector – derived from prospect, a promising place to search for gold
• stake a claim – process of establishing exclusive rights to mining land
• strike – strike it rich, big strike, lucky strike
• California – an earthly paradise [Spanish]
 COWBOYS

• Cattle trade
• Cowboy, cow camp [a seasonal camp apart from the main buildings of a
ranch, used during a cattle round-up], cowhand [a person employed to tend
cattle or to run a ranch], cowpuncher, cowpoke [a cowboy], bronco-buster –
bronco is a wild or half-tamed horse of the western US], wrangler- a person
in charge of horses or other livestock on a ranch, range rider], maverick - an
unorthodox or independent-minded person, rustler [now: hustler – a thief
who stole cattle], hot under the collar, bite the dust
• Pidgin – long time no see, long time no speak, long time no hear, no can do,
no can see
• Contact with Spanish: rodeo, stampede, bronco [rough, unruly], chaps, lasso,
mustang, lariat [lasso], pinto [a kind of horse], poncho, ranch, desperado
 THE RAIL

• Nautical Jargon: berth [koja], steward, fare, cabin, freight

• To railroad – originally to accuse sb falsely
• Sidetracked
• Streamline
• Get on the gravy train
• Whistle stop tour
• To be in the clear, to make the grade- succeed, reach the desired
standard, to backtrack, to reach the end of the line, to go off the rails
 IMMIGRATION

• Germans
• Bummer [loafer, an idle person], check [bill for
drinks], cookbook, delicatessen, ecology, fresh,
hoodlun [rowdy, noisy], kindergarten, phooey
[nonsense], rifle, scram [leave or go away from a
place quickly], spiel, yesman, and how!, no way,
can be, will do, let it be
• Knowebels > Noble, Shoens > Shane, Stein > Stone
• Sauerkraut > liberty cabbage, frankfurters > hot
dogs
 IMMIGRATION

• Italians
• Pizza, spaghetti, lasagne, espresso, minestrone, parmesan, pasta,
vermicelli, tortellini, macaroni, broccoli, zucchini
• Mafia, godfather, the family, capo, hoodlum [a person who
engages in crime and violence; a hooligan or gangster], racketeer
[same], roughhouse [a violent disturbance], hatchet man, doing
the dirty work, hot seat [electric chair], protection racket [a
scheme whereby a group provides protection to businesses or
other groups through violence outside the sanction of the law],
loan shark
 IMMIGRATION

• Jews
• Chutzpah, kibitzer [a spectator, usually one who offers [often
unwanted] advice or commentary], gonef [thief], shtik [business],
kosher [authentic], mench [someone of consequence], momzer [a
bastard, mischievious], nebbish [a nonentity, a nobody], shlemiel
[a simpleton], schmooz [chat], schmuck [a fool], shnorrer
[chiseler], shamus [a detective], meshuggener [a crazy man],
schlock [a shoddy, cheap article], yenta [a gossipy woman]
• Get lost, give a look, I’m telling you, I need it like a hole in the
head, Enjoy!, I should worry
 WORD WAR I

• Bombproof, barrage [a concentrated artillery

bombardment over a wide area], camouflage, civvy
[civilian clothes, as opposed to the uniform], convoy,
sabotage, shell shock, tank, no-man’s-land, going over
the top
• Differences between BrE and AmE: checker –
draughts, elevator – lift, garbage – rubbish, lumber –
timber, mail – post, pants – trousers…