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American English
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"U.S. English" redirects here. For the political organization, see U.S. English (organization).
Not to be confused with North American English.
For other uses, see American English (disambiguation).
American English
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Region
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United States
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Native speakers
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225 million, all varieties of English in the United States (2010 census)[1]
25.6 million L2 speakers of English in the United States (2003)
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Language family
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Indo-European
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Writing system
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Latin (English alphabet)
Unified English Braille[2]
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Language codes
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ISO 639-3
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–
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Glottolog
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None
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IETF
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en-US
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This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.
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English language prevalence in the United States. Darker shades of blue indicate higher concentrations of native English speakers in the corresponding states
Comparison of
American and
British English
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American English
British English
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Computing
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Orthography
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Speech
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Vocabulary
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Glossary of American terms not widely
used in the United Kingdom
Glossary of British terms not widely
used in the United States
Lists of words having different meanings
in American and British English:
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Works
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Works with different titles
in the UK and US
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American English (variously abbreviated AmE, AE, AmEng, USEng, en-US[3]), also called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States.[4] English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and is the common language used by the federal government, considered the de facto language of the country because of its widespread use. English has been given official status by 32 of the 50 state governments.[5][6] As an example, while both Spanish and English have equivalent status in the local courts of Puerto Rico. Under federal law, English is the official language for any matters being referred to the United States district court for the territory.[7]
The use of English in the United States is a result of British colonization of the Americas. The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North America during the 17th century, followed by further migrations in the 18th and 19th centuries. Since then, American English has been influenced by the languages of West Africa, the Native American population, German, Dutch, Irish, Spanish, and other languages of successive waves of immigrants to the United States.
Any American English accent perceived as free of noticeably local, ethnic, or cultural markers is popularly called "General American", described by sociolinguist William Labov as "a fairly uniform broadcast standard in the mass media", but otherwise there is not a mainstream standard English of the country, according to historical and present linguistic evidence.[8][9] According to Labov, with the major exception of Southern American English, regional accents throughout the country are not yielding to this broadcast standard.[10] On the contrary, the sound of American English continues to evolve, with some local accents disappearing, but several larger regional accents emerging and advancing.[11]
Contents
[hide]
1Varieties
1.1East Coast
1.2Midwest
1.3Midland
1.4West
1.5Other varieties
2Phonology
3Vocabulary
3.1Creation of an American lexicon
3.1.119th century onwards
3.2Morphology
3.3English words that survived in the United States and not in the United Kingdom
3.4Regionally distinct terms within the United States
4Differences between British and American English
5See also
6Notes
7References
8Bibliography
9Further reading
10External links
Varieties[edit]
Main articles: Regional vocabularies of American English and North American English regional phonology
While written American English is (in general) standardized across the country, there are several recognizable variations in the spoken language, both in pronunciation and in vernacular vocabulary. The regional sounds of present-day American English are reportedly engaged in a complex phenomenon of "both convergence and divergence": some accents are homogenizing and levelling, while others are diversifying and deviating further away from one another.[12] In 2010, William Labov summarized the current state of regional American accents as follows:[13]
Some regional American English has undergone "vigorous new sound changes" since the mid-nineteenth century onwards, spawning relatively recent Mid-Atlantic (centered on Philadelphia and Baltimore), Western Pennsylvania (centered on Pittsburgh), Inland Northern (centered on Chicago, Detroit, and the Great Lakes region), Midland (centered on Indianapolis, Columbus, and Kansas City) and Western accents, all of which "are now more different from each other than they were fifty or a hundred years ago." Meanwhile, the unique features of the Eastern New England (centered on Boston) and New York City accents appear to be stable. "On the other hand, dialects of many smaller cities have receded in favor of the new regional patterns";[13] for example, the traditional accents of Charleston and of Cincinnati have given way to the general Midland accent, and of St. Louis now approaches the sounds of the Inland Northern accent. At the same time, the Southern accent, despite its huge geographic coverage,[11] "is on the whole slowly receding: younger speakers everywhere in the South are shifting away from the marked features of Southern speech." Finally, the "Hoi Toider" dialect shows the paradox of receding among younger speakers in North Carolina's Outer Banks islands, yet strengthening in the islands of the Chesapeake Bay.
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