Peculiarities of British and American variants in the English Language
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English and contemporary usage. See also sociolinguistics.of words in Englishthe General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary state:Vocabulary of a widely diffused and highly cultivated living language is not a fixed quantity circumscribed by definite limits.... there is absolutely no defining line in any direction: the circle of the English language has a well-defined centre but no discernible circumference.vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages, there is no Academy to define officially accepted words. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology-some enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might be considered as "English" or not.Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition) includes over 500,000 headwords, following a rather inclusive policy:embraces not only the standard language of literature and conversation, whether current at the moment, or obsolete, or archaic, but also the main technical vocabulary, and a large measure of dialectal usage and slang (Supplement to the OED, 1933).difficulty of defining the number of words is compounded by the emergence of new versions of English, such as Asian English. Word originsin Englishof English words of international originof the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words which are Germanic (mostly Old English) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, either directly or from Norman French or other Romance languages).computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) which estimated the origin of English words as follows:
French, including Old French and early Anglo-French: 28.3%
Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24%
Old and Middle English, Old Norse, and Dutch: 25%
Greek: 5.32%
No etymology given: 4.03%
Derived from proper names: 3.28%
All other languages contributed less than 1%D. Nicoll made the oft-quoted observation: "The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary."
.4 Writing System
alphabetis written using the Latin alphabet. The spelling system or orthography of English is historical, not phonological. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken, and English spelling is often considered to be one of the most difficult to learn of any language that uses an alphabet. See English orthography.sound-letter correspondencesAlphabetic representation Dialect-specificp b t, th (rarely) thyme, Thames th thing (African-American, New York)d th that (African-American, New York)c (+ a, o, u, consonants), k, ck, ch, qu (rarely) conquer, kh (in foreign words) g, gh, gu (+ a, e, i), gue (final position) m n
? n (before g or k), ng f, ph, gh (final, infrequent) laugh, rough th thing (many forms of English used in England)v th with (Cockney, Estuary English)
? th : there is no obvious way to identify which is which from the spelling.
s, c (+ e, i, y), sc (+ e, i, y) z, s (finally or occasionally medially), ss (rarely) possess, dessert, word-initial x xylophone
? sh, sch, ti portion, ci suspicion; si/ssi tension, mission; ch (esp. in words of French origin); rarely s sugar
? si division, zh (in foreign words), z azure, su pleasure, g (in words of French origin)(+e, i, y) genre kh, ch, h (in foreign words) occasionally ch loch (Scottish English, Welsh English)h (initially, otherwise silent) ? ch, tch occasionally tu future, culture; t (+ u, ue, eu) tune, Tuesday, Teutonic (Australian English)? j, g (+ e, i, y), dg (+ e, i, consonant) badge, judg(e)ment d (+ u, ue, ew) dune, due, dew (Australian English)
? r, wr (initial) wrangle y (initially or surrounded by vowels) l w, wh
? - wh (Scottish English)and British English spelling differencesthe early 18th century, English spelling was not standardized. Different standards became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries. Current BrE spellings follow, for the most part, those of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755). Many of the now characteristic AmE spellings were introduced, although often not created, by Noah Webster in his An American Dictionary of the English Language of 1828.was a strong proponent of spelling reform for reasons both philological and nationalistic. Many other spelling changes proposed in the US by Webster himself, and, in the early 20th century, by the Simplified Spelling Board never caught on. Among the advocates of spelling reform in England, the influences of those who preferred the Norman (or Anglo-French) spellings of certain words proved decisive. Subsequent spelling adjustments in the UK had little effect on present-day US spelling, and vice versa. While, in many cases, AmE deviated in the 19th century from mainstream British spelling; on the other hand, it has also often retained older forms.
Full stops/Periods in abbreviations: Americans tend to write Mr., Mrs., St., Dr., while British will most often write Mr, Mrs, St, Dr, following the rule that a full stop is used only when the last letter of the abbreviation is not the last letter of the complete word. This kind of abbreviation is known as a contraction in the UK. Still, many British writers would also tend to write other abbreviations without a full stop, such as Prof, etc, eg, and so forth (as recommended by OED). The use of periods after most abbreviations can also be found in the UK, although publications generally tend to eschew the use of American punctuation. Unit symbols such as kg and Hz are never punctuated.
Both styles hyphenate multiple-word adjectives (e.g. "a first-class ticket"), but some British writers omit the hyphen when no ambiguity would arise.
Quoting: Americans begin their quotations with double quotation marks (") and use single quotation marks (') for quotations within quotations. BrE usage varies, with some authoritative sources such as The Economist and The Times recommending the same usage as in the U.S., whereas other authoritative sources, such as The King's English, recommend single quotation marks. In journals and newspapers, quotation mark double/single use depends on the individual publication's house style
Quotation marks with periods and commas: Americans always place commas and periods inside quotation marks. Exceptions are made only for parenthetical citation and cases in which the addition of a period or comma could create confusion, such as the quotation of web addresses or certain types of data strings. In both styles, question marks and exclamation points are placed inside the quotation marks if they belong to the quotation and outside otherwise. With narration of direct words, both styles retain punctuation inside the quotation marks, with a full stop changing into a comma if followed by explanatory text, also known as a dialogue tag.Carefree means "free from care or anxiety." (American style)Carefree means "free from care or anxiety". (British style)"Hello, John," I said. (Both styles)Did you say, "I'm shot"? No, I said, "Why not?" (Both styles)To insert a long dash, type "—". (Both styles)American style was established for typographical reasons, a historical legacy from the use of the handset printing press. It is used by most American newspapers, publishing houses, and style guides in the United States and Canada (including the Modern Language Association's MLA Style Manual, the American Psychological Association's APA Publication Manual, the University of Chicago's Chicago Manual of Style, the American Institute of Physics's AIP Style Manual, the American Medical Association's AMA Manual of Style, the American Political Science Association's APSA Style Manual, the Associated Press' The AP Guide to Punctuation, and the Canadian Public Works' The Canadian Style). It also makes the process of copy editing easier, eliminating the need to decide whether a period or comma belongs to the quotation.'s Rules and the Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors call the British style "new" quoting. It is also similar to the use of quotation marks in many other languages (including Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Catalan, Dutch, and German). A few U.S. professional societies whose professions frequently employ various non-word characters, such as chemistry and computer programming, use the British form in their style guides (see ACS Style Guide). According to the Jargon File, American hackers switched to what they later discovered to be the British quotation system because placing a period inside a quotation mark can change the meaning of data strings that are meant to be typed character-for-character. (It may be noted that the current American system places periods and commas outside the quotes in these cases anyway.)
Parentheses/brackets:in American English, brackets in British English.both countries, standard usage is to place punctuation inside or outside parentheses/brackets according to the stop:
"I am going to the store. (I hope it is still open.)"
"I am going to the shop (if it is still open)."accentsincludes some words whi