Finding the “proper”
English accent
The differences between British and American English began as the U.S.
asserted newfound independence, Dave Gerow writes.
T
here was an British
university
student
studying in USA. During
an exam, he found that he had
made a mistake, but had no
eraser. He leaned over to his
neighbour, an American woman,
and whispered, “Do you have
a rubber?” The girl burst into
laughter, breaking the silence
of the examination hall. “I’m
sorry,” the girl explained to the
teacher, “but this Brit just asked
me for a condom.”
The list of differences between
American and British English
could fill a book. The words
“mad” and “pissed” both mean
“angry” in America, but are
quite different in Britain; “mad”
means “crazy”, and “pissed”
means “drunk”. Americans wear
“boots” in the snow, while the
British put their groceries in
the “boots” of their cars. The
British live in “flats” (from the
Old English flet, meaning “a
dwelling”); Americans live in
“apartments” (from the Italian
appartamento, which literally
means “a separated place”).
The differences between
American and British English
are a very real sore spot for
many people on either side of
the Atlantic. There’s an old
joke about an American tourist
in London who asks where
the elevator is. The uppity Brit
replies, “We don’t have elevators.
We have lifts.” Outraged, the
American responds, “I think I
know what to call it. Remember,
we Americans invented the
elevator!” “That’s true,” the Brit
replies, “but we invented the
language.”
The old debate about
whose English is more “correct”
has been raging for centuries.
It’s true, of course, that the
English language originated
in Britain, but it’s always been
an evolving mix of various
European languages, so it’s
difficult to pinpoint exactly
what pure English might be. The
most correct answer is that there
simply isn’t one correct version of
English. Australia, New Zealand,
South Africa and Canada
(particularly
Newfoundland)
all have idiomatic dialects of
their own that have developed
over time. But the U.S. is
unique, because Americans
undertook a conscious overhaul
of the language. The quest to
reinvent English, and many of
the differences that still survive
today, can be traced back to one
massively influential American
linguist: Noah Webster.
Webster
has
been
immortalized as the namesake of
the Merriam-Webster Dictionary,
which is to American speakers
what the Oxford English
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Dictionary is to the British:
the definitive authority on all
matters English. Webster was a
young man when he published
his first dictionary, and 70 by the
time he had finally expanded it
into something resembling the
authoritative tome it now is. But
it was an earlier work by Webster
that really defined American
English: The Blue Back Speller.
Published in 1783, when
Webster was just 25, the speller
was an assertion of America’s
newly won independence. It was
an attempt by Webster to unite
the mishmash of immigrants
who formed America under one
standard language: “A national
language is a national tie,” he
said. It was a rejection of old
British ways which, in the eyes
of Webster, just didn’t make
sense. Why should “colour” be
spelt with an unvoiced “u”? Why
shouldn’t “connexion” be spelt
“connection”? (That was one of
Webster’s innovations to have
actually caught on in the U.K.,
where “connexion” is used less
and less nowadays.) Why should
“catalogue” be spelt with two
extra vowels at the end? And for
that matter, why should it be the
irregular “spelt” instead of the
far simpler “spelled”, which is
preferred in America? After all,
doesn’t every American with an
interest in agriculture know that
“spelt” is a type of wheat?
It was The Blue Back
Speller that created these lasting
discrepancies between British
and American spelling. However
much the more traditional
members of British society may
grumble, some of Webster’s
changes were undeniably logical.
It’s thanks to his reforms that
Americans spell “organisation”
with a “z”, and “theatre” with an
“er”. Webster worked to distance
English from its Old World
origins and make it a language
where the simplest spelling is the
right one.
But despite his tremendous
enduring influence, not all
of Webster’s reforms stuck.
There aren’t many literate
Americans who write “headake”
for “headache” or “tung” for
“tongue”, and the Americanism
“tonite” is increasingly rare. It
would, however, have helped
foreign students of English
with certain problems of
pronunciation; for example,
Webster wanted “women” to
be spelt “wimmen”, which
is certainly a more sensible
phonetic spelling.
As English continues spreading
around our world, it’s going
to run into a whole slew of
new influences. Spanglish and
Chinglish may be treated as
jokes at the moment, but they
may someday be considered
legitimate English dialects, and
why shouldn’t they be? It’s just
as wrong for an American to
say, “American English is the
only correct version, period,”
as it would be for a Brit to say,
“British English is the final
word, full stop.”
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