British and American English
Students of English all over the world are aware that
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are differences
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British and American English. But how great are the differences really?
The varieties
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English have historical roots.
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pilgrims left England in the seventeenth century,
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language has evolved, giving rise to changes
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vocabulary, grammar and spelling. Many of the
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obvious differences are in the vocabulary used in the two countries
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many of the words in common use in the twentieth century
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not exist in the seventeenth
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. "Pavements" in Britain, and "sidewalks" in the USA, only became common later,
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example.
The two countries
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also borrowed words from different sources: courgettes
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imported to Britain from France
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zucchini were brought to America
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Italian immigrants.
Printing was a relatively new invention in the
seventeenth century and the spelling of
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words had not yet been formalised, which accounts for many of the differences in spelling.
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