The historical background of American English

The historical background of American English

According to Richard Hogg, “American English and British English are the two major national varieties of English and it goes without saying that they take the leading positions today among other varieties of English Language.”[1]. In order to understand better the origin of the American language we must have some notion of the historical development of the nation and its speech. First of all, we should take into consideration political, economic, geographical and possibly the religious life of Americans. The English used in America and the English used in Britain began consequently to drift apart. Day by day through different periods in the history of American Language, the spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar have changed. Before English speakers began to spread around the world, there was no British English. There was only English. Karol Janicki in his book “Elements of British and American English” wrote about one of the most important dates in the beginning of AE: “One of the most significant dates in the history of America is the arrival of the first group of colonists and the immediately ensuing events that contribute to a large extent to and affect in many respects the nature of both American society and the language as spoken by most of the members of the society. After the first settlers had reached America and gradually had adjusted themselves to the new environment, it turned out that the New Land could give food and refuge to millions of people who were brave enough to take the risk of going to the unknown.”[2].

The beginnings of Americans began with Captain John Smith who led the first group of brave English- speakers to the America continent in 1607. The first group of colonists wasn’t so successful that is expected to be. Only a small number of people among 120 colonists succeeded the shores of America. The first point of destination was the “Promised land” that is located in Virginia. The majority of people were from Europe who desired to find a better life in America. People left Europe to come to South Carolina because it provided them with new financial and job opportunities. In physical size, the United States is nearly as large as the entire European continent, with even greater variability in climate and topography. That’s the perfect place for moving populations. There were a great number of factors for settlement America such as discontinuity with the European past, decentralization, democracy, a large land area and a large and ethnically diverse population. The good mobility required a good level of adaptability. Change of location required change of style. The first European settlers had to adapt the new life in America. Later immigrants could adjust to the new conditions in social structures, technology and attitudes. The European Laws were not so conservative as Americans, but federal structure in the USA has more advantages. People went to America seeking and hoping to find there the freedom which they did not have in their mother country. But in searching a better life they had to face many problems. The first one was economic dependence on Britain which considered America to be just a supplying colony of raw materials. But the Britain was aimed to do everything for preventing the further settlements of Europeans. On September 5, 1774, as a definite manifestation of settlers, the colonists gathered at the first Continental Congress in Philadelphia. A few months later, the first groups of American soldiers were ready to face the British army in a military battle. From this point we can say that the history of Americans and American English can be divided into periods of wars and declarations. Though English speakers had established contacts with a new world in the USA, directly or not, the Jamestown colony began the creation of a new variety of the language.

John Algeo in “The English language in North America, volume 6” singled out three main periods in the history of American English:

“The Colonial period (1607-1776), initiated by the establishment of the first permanent English- speaking colony at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. The National period (1776-1898), beginning with the American Declaration of Independence from England in 1776. The International period (1898 onward), beginning with the Spanish-American War.”[3].

During the first period three factors brought this new variety into existence: the exposure of English speakers to the new experiences on the American continent that required new ways of talking about them, the begetting of a native population to whom those experiences and new ways of talking were normal, and the obstacle that distance made for communication with their fellow English speakers in the motherland. The result is what might metaphorically be called the gestation period of American English. At the second stage, political independence brought with it inevitability- a quest for cultural independence that included linguistic self- awareness. During this period, English-speaking Americans spread over the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in the process of absorbing and being influenced by the cultures of other settlers. During the last stage, America had begun as a frontier land and by the end of 19^thcentury, the continent had been spanned and expanding population looked for frontier to absorb its surplus restlessness. Throughout the international period Americans became increasingly involved with the world overseas, and American English gradually became a variety of the language used around the world.

A. H. Marckwardt points out in his book American English: “Considered from the point of view of vocabulary, there are few 'pure' languages. English has been notorious as a word borrower, but it is safe to say that every one of the Western European tongues has supplemented its word stock by adoptions from other languages. Later he says: One great impetus toward word borrowing arises from the necessity of talking about new things, qualities, operations, concepts and ideas. Inevitably the movement of a people 'to a markedly different environment not only creates a problem of communication but makes it urgent.”[6].

In other words, the divergence of different linguistic forms in Britain and American was a natural result of the language that was spoken by two distant groups of people, because one language was operated in different social conditions.

Among the languages which played a very important role in the forming of AE were the Indian languages, French, Spanish, Dutch and German. Since some of the small "branches" of these tongues seemed to have merged with the huge "tree" of English to yield one language, Professor Marckwardt refers to this phenomenon metaphorically and at the same time very appropriately as "the melting pot". In the list of vocabulary items which have been selected to illustrate borrowings, only those words are included which seem to be current in general American speech, but it is inevitable that words will be listed which may be known or more often heard only in some parts of the US.

When English speakers came to America, they encountered a new context with a mixture of borrowings, but in a way, where English still influenced. For instance, in according to the Oxford dictionary of English Etimology, some words were taken from the Caribbean: cocos(latercoconut),flamingo, and furacane(laterhurricane) in the 1550s and 1560s. When English speakers arrived, they found themselves in conversations involving many languages, and from these talk-words of American origin entered English with or without the trade communication of the earlier arriving Spanish and Portuguese. Seaports and shipboard where these conversations took place, and the ports of call were in Europe, were in the Caribbean, and in West Africa from Sierra Leone to Benin. According to J.Algeo: “the long coast of Africa was called guinea, and the things associated with it, whether in Africa or America, sometimes had names involving that word – for instance guinea pea andguinea pepper (=cayenne), both in use before permanent settlements of English people had been established on the North American continent.”. But it was not just Amerindians and Africans who contributed to American English. Mariners and settlers began to speak with the Dutch in ways they never had before when they were separated from them by only a few miles of saltwater (thus giving the “Americanism” cookie) or with the Spanish (giving the “Americanism” cockroach) or with the Germans (giving the “Americanism” cole slaw). According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary of English language, individual words distinctive of American English in the eighteenth century are not difficult to identify: “banjoandbogus(from African sources), bayouandportage(from French), cookieandcruller(from Dutch), caucusandbarbecue (from Amerindian languages).”[3].

Probably most of borrowing words brought to America on the tongues of English colonists that carried the same or closely related meanings on both sides of the Atlantic. But other words have arisen, and some older words have shifted meaning, not always in the same way on both sides of the Atlantic. A conversation between American and British friends today would highlight the effects of a centuries-long separation, as we can illustrate in a domain undeveloped when English settlers first arrived on American shores. Americans use the terms highwayandfreeway(notmotorway),traffic circle (notroundabout), and we usually pass(rather than overtake) other motorists. We prefer to traffic jams, not jams, to detoursinstead of diversions, and to constructionormaintenanceinstead of roadworks. British English terms like contraflow(traffic moving in the “wrong” direction), tailback (backup), and verge(grass strip, boulevard) are unfamiliar in the USA, and hearing about a new dual carriageway or Edinburgh’s infamous Barnton roundabouttailbackwould puzzle most Americans. Americans who have passed a driver’stestand received a driver’s license canrent a car, check the tiresof the rental car, make sure the interior has been vacuumedand the windshieldcleaned, and then, assuming the lineisn’t overly long, drive out of the parking lot orparking structure to start a vacation. Britons, after passing a driving test and getting a drivinglicence, would hire a car, check the tyresof the hire car, ensure the windscreen was clean and the interior hoovered, and then, assuming a short queue, drive out of the car park to go on holiday.

Names for dishes in cuisines which are popular in the USA but not in Britain

contribute to American English distinctiveness.

British visitors to a Mexican restaurant in El Paso, Los Angeles, or Chicago might need to inquire about such menu items as:

albondigas -a Mexican soup with meatballs;

burrito /bəˈritoʊ/ -a wheat flour tortilla with refried beans;

ceviche/seˈβitʃe/-fresh raw fish with citrus juice, lemon and chilly pepper;

chili relleno - a stuffed chilly pepper with cheese and meat;

chorizo- a Mexican pork sausage spiced with paprika;

empanada- stuffed bread or pastry; baked or fried;

frijoles- black beans with garlic, tomato and salt;

guacamole[ɡwakaˈmole]-mashed avocadoes with lime and garlic.

This list can be followed with such words as salsa, pescado, taco, tostada, tortilla, verde and others. Comparable lists could be made for Brazilian, Cuban, Japanese, Korean, and Thai cuisines.

Not only in culinary terms have neighboring and faraway cultures exercised a distinctive imprint on American vocabulary. Of these borrowings from Spanish, some are old, others recent: arroyo,barrio,bronco,corral,canyon,hacienda,hombre,hoosegow,jalapeno,jerky,lariat,mesa,mesquite,pancho,peyote,presidio,pronto,pueblo,rodeo,salsa,serape,tequila,tomatillo, and siesta.”

In Arizona, California, Colorado (‘red, reddish’), Nevada (‘snow, snow covered’), and other southwestern states, and even in Alaska, Florida, Maine, Montana (‘mountain’), and elsewhere, thousands of place names bear witness to the influence of earlier Spanish and Mexican culture: Amarillo(‘yellow’),CapeCanaveral(‘place of canes’), El Monte,El Paso (‘the passage’), Fresno(‘ash ree’), Las Cruces (‘the crosses’), Las Vegas (‘the meadows’), Los Angeles (‘the angels’), Los Gatos (‘the cats’), Los Osos (‘the bears’), Marina del Rey (‘marina of the king’), Palo(‘tree’)Alto(‘high’),Rancho Mirage,Sacramento,Santa Fe (‘holy faith’), San Luis Obispo (‘Saint Luis Bishop’). In many cities, Spanish names grace streets, neighborhoods, rivers, canyons, and mountains, including Rio(‘river’)Grande, Merced (‘mercy’)River,Sierra Nevada, as well as social institutions, such as Alcatraz(‘pelican’)Island,El Toro (‘bull’)Marine Base, and El Conquistador (‘conqueror’)Resort. From San Diego to San Francisco along Route 101, travelers see reminders of California’s Hispanic past in the roadside signs shaped like mission bells and proclaiming El Camino Real ‘the royal road.’

H. Mencken in his book pointed out main geographical borrowings in English: “Borrowings from Native Americans are particularly distinctive of American English, and many cities, states, and rivers bear Indian names: Arkansas,Kansas,Malibu,Milwaukee,Minnesota,Mississippi,Oklahoma,Penobscot,Texas,Waukesha,Winnipesaukee,Wiscasset,Wisconsin, and thousands of others. Other identify animals or plants unfamiliar to the arriving colonists, who borrowed the names from Native Americans but adapted their pronunciations to English patterns:chipmunk,raccoon,skunk,woodchuck,opossum,persimmon,sequoia, and squash.”[5].

A list of French borrowings will include examples like: pumpkin, prairie (ˈprɛri), chute (ʃut), bureau (ˈbjʊroʊ), chowder (ˈtʃaʊdər), cent, dime, and others. Some of the French words that made their way into the English language were coined by French inventors, discoverers or pioneers, or scientists: cinema, television, helicopter, bathyscaphe, lactose, bacteriophage, chlorophyll, mastodon, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, photography, stethoscope, thermometer, troposphere. The political/economic lexicon include many words of French origin like money (from the French 'monnaie'), liberalism, capitalism, materialism, nationalism, plebiscite, coup d'état, regime, sovereignty.The judicial lexicon has also been heavily influenced by French (justice, judge, jury, attorney, court, case). Here we have some peculiarities with pronunciation of these words, because they are not agreed with the general rules of English pronunciation. Some of these words have both American and British pronunciation. E. g., praline (AEˈpreɪˌlin, BE ˈprɑˌlin), depot (AEˈdipoʊ, BEˈdɛpoʊ). The existence of French elements in English is due, among other reasons, to the contact with the French when the westward expansion was taking place. The colonists' coming into such contact was linguistically relevant to the same extent that the impact of New Orleans was the center of French influence in the United States. Spanish influence in AE can be perceived particularly in the South, since when moving southward toward the Gulf of Mexico the English colonists were exposed to Spanish, which had been spread over the South.”Some of the previously adopted Spanish words are now extinct in English; however, the body of terms in current use is still vast: marijuana, cockroach, coyote, mustang, sombrero, lasso, hacienda, wrangler, cafeteria, pueblo, bonanza, canyon, sierra, filibuster, rumba, tornado, etc. Although the Dutch influence in America was not long-lasting (New Amsterdam was captured by the English in 1664), certain Dutch expressions made their way through the linguistic "crowd" and gained for them-selves a fixed place in the English vocabulary.” The following serve as examples: spook, Santa Claus, dope, yankee, boodle, coleslaw. The list of German loanwords in AE is also quite extensive. Since the German immigration groups began coming to America as late as the end of the seventeenth century (the first flocks) and then in the thirties and forties of the nineteenth century, most of the words listed below were adopted into English long after the first Indian, Dutch and French items had been adopted. The list includes words like: delicatessen, frankfurter, hamburger, noodle, pretzel, pumpernickel, kraut, wiener, seminar, etc. Each of the lists of English words of foreign origin could be easily expanded, but the difficulty to be wrestled with is the problem of which items to include and which to omit.

The influence of American English is exerted through films, television, popular music, the Internet and the World Wide Web, air travel and control, commerce, scientific publications, economic and military assistance, and activities of the United States in world affairs, even when those activities are unpopular. The coverage of the world by English was begun by colonization culminating in the British Empire, which colored the globe pink, as a popular saying had it, alluding to the use of that color on maps to identify British territories. Although no one had planned this development, English has become (somewhat improbably, considering its modest beginnings on the North Sea coast of Europe) the world language of our time. Since language undergoes no sea change as a result of crossing an ocean, the first English-speaking colonists in America continued to speak as they had in England. But the language gradually changed on both sides of the Atlantic, in England as well as in America. The new conditions facing the colonists in America naturally caused changes in their language. However, the English now spoken in America has retained a good many characteristics of earlier English that have not survived in contemporary British English. Thus to regard American English as inferior to British English is to impugn earlier standard English as well, for there was doubtless little difference at the time of the Revolution.

John Algeo pointed two main aspects in American English:

“1. Some of the terms quoted as borrowings are wholly or partly loan translations rather than direct original form adoptions, e. g., saw buck may have been derived, from either Dutch zaagbock or German Sage-bock. Very likely, both of the languages had a hand in establishing this form.

2. Most of the borrowings were adopted into English after their phonetic form had been assimilated to the sound patterns of English. For e. g.,German hamburger [hamburge], American [ˈhæmˌbɜrgər]. Later, hamburger had been adopted, by BE from AE, (not directly from German). The investigation presented above of some of the basic facts of early American history and the various factors that influenced the form of the English language spoken in America throws some light upon the sources of the presently existing differences between the two varieties of English.”[3].

Another example could be explanation of the etymology of the word Yankee, as suggested by Marckwardt: “At least twenty different etymologies have been proposed for that most typically American of all words, 'Yankee', but among these the most credible seems to be Dutch Jan Kees 'John Cheese', a term applied to the New Englanders somewhat contemptuously, or at least patronizingly. This was mistaken for a plural by the English-speaking colonists and a new singular 'Yankee' was derived through the process of back-formation.”[6].

Now, we can say that, mainly the vocabulary of AE which was influenced by foreign tongues. The languages which have been mentioned hardly affected the phonological and the syntactic components of the language. Differences in grammar between BE and AE at the present moment are not due to foreign influence. Yet despite the historical prestige of British, today American English has become the most important and influential dialect of the language.

Richard M. Hogg. Cambridge history of the English Language in North America. – UK.: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Karol Janicki. Elements of British and American English. – Pol.: Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naykowe, 1988.

John Algeo. The English language in North America. –UK.: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Donka Minkova; Robert P Stockwell. Studies in the history of the English language : a millennial perspective. – Berlin: New York Mouton de Gruyter, 2003.

H. Mencken. American English. New edition. - The USA.: Michigan University Press, 2000.

Albert H Marckwardt. American English. - New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.

Wickham, Parnel. Separating the Pilgrims From the Puritans.- The New York Times. 24 October 1999.

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