Основні відмінності між британським та американським варіантами англійської мови

Abstract

The research investigates historical
stages of the origin of American
variant of English and deals with the
principal differences between two
variants of the English language,
particularly British and American. The
article presents a detailed description
of the distinctive features of
pronunciation, vocabulary,
orthography, and grammar of the two
most widely used variants of English
with examples on each peculiarity.
The authors analyze the reasons of
the differences appearance
considering historical aspects of the
USA development. A particular
attention is paid to vocabulary, as it is
the most demonstrative aspect of
differences in the American and British
variants of English. In the research,
the authors mention the reasons,
causing those differences, particularly
change of the word meaning in the
language of the USA, introduction of
the words in the USA defining some
phenomena, concepts, items, etc.,
which differ from the corresponding
words in the English language in
England, penetration of borrowings,
words of no-English origin, etc. The
article substantiates that both
American and British English are just
two variants of one language though
with significant specificities. The
research also presents examples of
misunderstanding, caused by
peculiarities of vocabulary use in the
studied varieties of English. Anyway, it
is stressed that both variants belong to
the integral language body and their
differences are actually neutralized by
the majority of similarities, which
significantly dominate. Nevertheless,
someone persists on the principality of
the American variant, arguing that it is
simple, widely used, and modern. On
the contrary, the followers of the
British variant of English accuse it as
an inaccurate superficiality in the
language use. Both ideas deserve to
exist and are partially correct.
However, the works supply arguments
for primary studying the British variant
of English as it is rich, elegant and
authentic. Having mastered it,
afterwards it is possible to learn the
bright, changeable, simple, and full of
slang variant, i.e. American English, or
another exotic variant.