English[5] [6] is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and is the de facto common language used by the federal and state governments, to the extent that all laws and compulsory education presume English as the primary language. English is explicitly given official status by 32 of the 50 state governments.
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American English varieties include many patterns of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and particularly spelling that are unified nationwide but distinct from other English dialects around the world. However, historical and present linguistic evidence does not support the notion of there being one single "mainstream" American accent.
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. During the 17th click here, dialects from many different regions of England existed in every American colony, allowing a process of extensive dialect mixture and leveling in which English varieties across the colonies became more homogeneous compared with varieties in England.
Compared with English as spoken in the United KingdomNorth American English [26] is more homogeneous and any phonologically unremarkable North American accent is known as " General American ". This section mostly refers to such General American features. Studies on historical usage of English in both the United States and the United Kingdom suggest that spoken American English did not simply deviate away from period British Englishbut is conservative in some ways, preserving certain features contemporary British English has since lost. Rhoticity is common in most American accents yet nowadays rare in England A Comparison Of England And The United, because, during the 17th-century British colonization, nearly all dialects of English were rhotic, and most North American English simply remained that way. Scotch-Irish settlers spread from Delaware and Pennsylvania throughout the larger Mid-Atlantic region, the inland regions of both the South and North and throughout the West, all American dialect areas that consistently resisted upper-class non-rhotic influences and that consequently remain rhotic today.
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Moreover, American dialects do not participate in H-droppingan innovative feature that now characterizes perhaps a majority of the regional dialects of England. On the other hand, General American is more innovative than the dialects of England, or English elsewhere in the Comparieon, in a number of its own ways:.
The process of coining new lexical items started as soon as English-speaking British-American colonists began borrowing names for unfamiliar flora, fauna, and topography from the Native American languages. The languages of the other colonizing nations also added to the American vocabulary; for instance, cookiefrom Dutch ; kindergarten from German[79] levee from French Unitec and rodeo from Spanish.
Most Mexican Spanish contributions came after the War ofwith the opening of the West, like ranch now a common house style. Due to the Mexican culinary influence, many Spanish words are incorporated in general A Comparison Of England And The United when talking about certain popular dishes: cilantro instead Englanr corianderqueso, tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, tostadas, fajitas, burritos, and guacamole. These words don't really have an English equivalent and are found in popular restaurants. New forms of dwelling created new terms lotwaterfront and types of homes like log cabinadobe in the 18th century; apartmentshanty in the 19th century; project, condominiumtownhousemobile home in the 20th century; and parts thereof drivewaybreezeway, backyard. Science, urbanization, and democracy have been important factors in bringing about changes in the written and spoken language of the United States.
The names of some American inventions remained largely confined to North America elevatorgasoline as did certain automotive terms trucktrunk.
New foreign loanwords came with 19th and early 20th century European immigration to the U. Some English words now in general use, such as hijacking, disc jockeyboost, bulldoze Englan jazzoriginated as American slang. American English has always shown a marked tendency to use words in different parts of speech and nouns are often used as verbs. Compounds coined in the U. Other compound words have been founded based on industrialization and the wave of the automobile: five-passenger car, four-door sedan, two-door sedan, and station-wagon called an estate car in England.
Many compound nouns have the verb-and-preposition combination: stopover, lineup, tryout, spin-off, shootoutholdup, hideout, comeback, makeoverand many more. Noun endings such as -ee retiree-ery bakery-ster gangster and -cian beautician are also particularly productive in the U. Among syntactical constructions that arose are outside of, headed for, meet up with, back of, etc. Americanisms formed by alteration of some existing words include notably pesky, phony, rambunctious, buddy, sundaeskeeter, sashay and kitty-corner.
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Adjectives that arose in the U. A number of words and meanings that originated in Middle English or Early Modern English and that have been in everyday use in the United States have since disappeared in most varieties of British English; some of these have cognates in Lowland Scots. Terms such as fall "autumn"faucet "tap"diaper "nappy"; itself unused in the U.
Fall for example came to Englnd the season in 16th century England, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year. Fowlerbaggagehit a placeand the adverbs overly and presently "currently". Some of these, for example, monkey wrench and wastebasketoriginated in 19th century Britain. The adjectives mad meaning "angry," smart meaning "intelligent," and sick meaning "ill" are also more frequent in American and Irish English than British English.]
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