LIN2190 Assignment 3Janice Fung 20711603

The Conservatism of American English

Janice Fung

It was on May 14th, 1607, when America was first successfully settled by the

English in the village of Jamestown, Virginia. In that period of time, American

English was non-existent. The British English spoken by the settlers is known as

Early Modern English – also known as Elizabethan English, the language of

Shakespeare, Lyly, Marlowe, and the King James Version of the Bible (Kövecses

2000:26). There was no unified code of communication at the time, as the

“standard” language was not customary until the mid-1700s. Early Modern

English varied greatly. There was an abundance of distinct English dialects

amongst the British Isles due to the prolonged lack of communication between

speakers of different dialects. The different dialect-groups tended to establish

communities in different areas of America (Kortmann & Schneider 2004: 281).

Therefore, the profusion of different Early British English varieties significantly

affected the development of the American English Dialects in different regions of

the United States. Since America was a remote country, American English was

unaffected by the linguistic changes of British English (Wolfram & Schilling-

Estes 1998:93). The American English spoken at present conserves many of the

linguistic characteristics of Early Modern English; thus resembling the speech of

the Jamestown colonists more so than does today’s standard British English.

Many of these preserved characteristics did not survive in British English; hence

they were never continued into Australian English. Thus the traditional dialects of

American English are known to be ‘conservative’ or ‘relic’ in character (Wolfram

& Schilling-Estes 1998:93). This paper will discuss the conservative

characteristics of American English; with linguistic analysis of the phonological,

grammatical, and lexical features.

At the time the first settlers left England, the speech of East Anglia pronounce

words such as new and knew with the phoneme /u/. This pronunciation is still

apparent in some rural parts of eastern England today. Standard British English

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LIN2190 Assignment 3Janice Fung 20711603

now pronounce such words with /ju/. However, the /j/-less pronunciation has been

preserved, and is now a prominent characteristic of American English.

The Early Modern English pronunciation of the ‘short o’ in words such as not,

pot, stop, and hot was flat; similar to the pronunciation of a in father. This

pronunciation of the flat o became extinct in England in the eighteenth century.

However it has been retained in American English; whereas in British English,

such words are now typically pronounced with a rounded vowel.

During the Elizabethan era, in the seventeenth century particularly in the south

of England, words such as whale and wharf were pronounced with /м/. This

original pronunciation is still apparent today in some varieties of American

English; whereas in England, the words are now typically pronounced with the

sound /w/ (Kövecses 2000:26).

The stress patterns of English in Shakespeare’s time were different from those

of today. Typically, stress was placed upon the first or second syllable. For

example, the word sincere would be pronounced as /’sınsir/ or /sın’sir/ (Kövecses

2000:23). This Elizabethan stress pattern has changed in British English, however

it is still in practice in American English today. For example, in American

English, the words secretary and necessary are pronounced with a primary stress

in the first syllable, and a secondary stress on the final syllable /’sεkrε,tεtrı/

and /’nεsε,sεrı/; compared with the British pronunciation with the first syllable is

primarily stressed, /’sεkrεtrı/ and /’nεsεsrı/.

The pronunciation of some words in today’s American English can also be

traced by to the seventeenth century. Such as the words fertile, hostile, and missile

are pronounced with a final short high vowel /ı/ (i.e. /fεrtıl/ and /hastıl/). British

and Australian English at present-day pronounces these words as /fεrtaıəl/ and

/hαstaıəl/ (Kövecses 2000:26). An example of a conservative phonetic feature of

the North of America is the pronunciation of [s] instead of [z] in greasy; and the

pronunciation of root as [rυt] instead of [rut] (Wolfram & Schilling-Estes

1998:109). Another example is the pronunciation of the word often, where

Americans would pronounce the t; whereas the t is omitted in Standard British

English, hence yielding offen (Mencken 1921: 210).

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LIN2190 Assignment 3Janice Fung 20711603

Kövecses explicates that the morphological characteristics of the verb get is

notably differentiates American English from British English. American English

has three forms of the verb: get, got, and gotten. The morphological form gotten

is absent in British English today, as according to Marckwardt (1980, cited in

Kövecses 2000: 27) this form has been out of use in England since the late

seventeenth century. Some relic grammatical features of northern America

include the word dove as the past tense of dive; and the American English phrase

sick at the stomach in comparison with the British expression to be sick in the

stomach (Wolfram & Schilling-Estes 1998:109).

Another characteristic of American English is the way in which collective

nouns are dealt. In American English, collective nouns are treated as united or

individual modules; as opposed to British English that deals with collective nouns

as plural nouns. For example, it is correct in American English to say The

Corporation is working…; whereas in British English, it is typically correct to say,

The Corporation are working… Marckwardts (1980) suggests that the use of

singular verbs with collective nouns in today’s American English is a conservative

characteristic that has been out of use in British English since the early nineteenth

century (cited in Kövecses 2000:27).

An example of a British syntactic innovation that occurred in the early

twentieth century is the addition of the word done in certain contexts where it

would have been previously omitted according earlier grammatical rules. For

example, in answer to a question Did you forget your keys? A British English

speaker would say I may have done; whereas Americans would say I may have or

I may have done so, in compliance to the grammar of their colonial ancestors

(Algeo 2001: 327).

Some direct descendants of the American colonists from the seventeenth century,

who spoke English of the Elizabethan era, can be found in some remote areas of

the United States. It was observed in the early 1920s that these descendents had

preserved and used more words from the Shakespearean vocabulary than

anywhere else in the world (Mencken 1921: 69). At present day, many words and

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LIN2190 Assignment 3Janice Fung 20711603

phrases that have long been obsolete or are only provincial in British English,

have survived from the seventeenth century and are still exclusively used in

American English. These include the nouns foxfire, molasses, homespun,

cordwood, chinch, clodhopper, cross-purposes, julep, andiron, loophole, bay-

window, cesspool, greenhorn, ragamuffin, offal, din, underpinning, and trash.

Other words include stock (referring to cattle), fall (for autumn), platter (for

plate), Bub (an Old English term used to address a boy), and the word flapjack has

been obsolete in British English for two centuries (Mencken 1921: 67; Kövecses

2000:28). Wolfram and Schilling-Estes (1998) and Mencken (1921) cite some

conservative lexical features of typical Northern American speech, including the

usage of the word pail (for bucket) and eaves or trough (for gutter). The word bug

in British English exclusively refers to an insect that infests houses; whereas the

older definition of the word has been retained in American English, as bug refers

to any small insect. The noun druggist (pharmacist) in today’s American English

was in created in the early seventeenth century, however did not survive in British

English (Kövecses 2000:28).

The American verb to guess, meaning ‘to suppose’, can be traced back to

Chaucer’s time in the fourteenth century, and was actively in use in British

English until the seventeenth century (Kövecses 2000:28) . Mencken (1921) cites

other conservative verbs in American English including to whittle, to wilt, to

reckon, to approbate. to fellowship, and to hustle. The verb to loan (meaning to

lend) has been out of use in British English since the eighteenth century, however

it is still in use in American English at present day.

There are also many adjectives in American English that are relic. Mencken

(1921) cites some survived adjectives, including homely (meaning ‘homelike’ in

British English), that has been featured in Shakespeare’s works; and burly, likely,

catty-cornered, clever, deft, copious, ornate, slick, and scant. The adjective clever

in American English retains the earlier meaning of ‘pleasant or amiable, as

opposed to the reference with ‘talent’ in British English. Therefore, it may be

found in American English, phrases such as ‘a clever house’ or ‘a clever sum of

money’.

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LIN2190 Assignment 3Janice Fung 20711603

Today, the North of America is comprised of many subregions that are very much

unified as a dialect area. The Inland North is the largest region, and is considered

to be the most linguistically conservative compared to the other Northern speech

regions. (Wolfram & Schilling-Estes 1998:108). American English had begun to

recognisably distinguish itself from British English in the early nineteenth

century. This was due to the lack of national literature expansion; and also the

disharmony in internal politics that affected the nation to be linguistically

conscious, as the Americans deliberately distinguished themselves linguistically

from England (Mencken 1921: 74), hence the many linguistic remnants in

American English. It is not American English that has evolved from British

English; it is British English that has been innovative. Marckwardt (1980)

explicates that American English has preserved many linguistic characteristics of

the fourteenth to sixteenth century, along with much linguistic innovation. The

retention of relic forms is evident in the vocabulary, pronunciation, inflectional

forms, and in the syntax of the language (cited in Dillard & Blanton 1985: 77).

Bibliography

Algeo, J. et. al. (2001) The Cambridge History of the English Language volume 6,

New York: Cambridge University Press.

Dillard, J. L. & Blanton, L. L. (1985) Toward a social history of American

English. New York: Walter de Gruyter.

Kortmann, B. and Schneider, E. W. (2004) A Handbook of Varieties of English,

New York: Walter de Gruyter.

Kövecses, Z. (2000) American English: An Introduction. NY: Broadview Press

Mencken, H. L. (1921) The American Language: An Inquiry into the

Development of English in the United States, New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Wolfram, W., Schilling-Estes, N. (1998) Dialects in the United States- Past,

Present, and Future: American English, Malden: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.

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