Contents inroduction chapter I. American english as a variant of english

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CONTENTS 
INRODUCTION……………………………………………………………….2 
CHAPTER I. AMERICAN ENGLISH AS A VARIANT OF ENGLISH..5 
1.1. History of the development of American English……...………….………5 
1.2. The formation of American English………..………………………….…...9 
1.3. Differences between British English and American English…….....…….16 
CHAPTER II. ANALYSIS OF WEBSTER AND MENCKEN`S 
AMERICAN ENGLISH............................................................................18 
2.1 Word formation in American English…………………………...............18 
2.2 H. L. Mencken as a Philologist ……………….………..………………...19 
2.3 Webster as the creator of the American version of the English 
language……………………………………………………………………....23 
CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………….31 
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………….33 
 
 

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INTRODUCTION 
The American variant of English is the most widespread version of the 
English language adopted as the national standard in the United States. It was 
introduced to North America by British colonists in XVII-XVIII centuries, after 
which under the influence of various external and internal factors it has 
developed a variety of features on all linguistic levels. 
In the United States itself, American English is native to 80% of the 
population of the country and has a standard, fixed in the educational system 
and the media a number of features in the field of spelling, grammar, and 
vocabulary. 
The historical aspect explains why the American language is flexible and 
evolving, while English is characterized by some conservatism and 
complication, according to Americans, hypocrisy. For example, at an American 
gas station you will hear, "Fill her up will you?", whereas in English you will 
hear the exquisite, "Would you mind filling up my car? The American language 
continues to evolve to this day. By absorbing other people's words and 
expressions, the American language promotes simplicity. British English is not 
known for simplicity. Its orthography is neither logical, as in German, nor 
standardized, as in French. In general, the pronunciation and spelling of many 
words in English differ like heaven and earth, the language has very few general 
laws and rules, of which there are also many exceptions. 
English is unconditionally recognized as an international language. 
British English and American English share the same spheres of usage. British 
English is the language of science, international politics, high culture, 
administrative work, education, mass media, interethnic communication and the 
language of the ruling elite. 
American English is the language of economics, business, mass art. Most 
Business English textbooks are written and published in the USA. It is true that 

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modern business language is a kind of international English, a hybrid of 
American terminology and English language constructions. 
For all the enormous popularity of British English, the dominant 
influence on the "world English" is currently exerted by the American branch. 
There is an increased penetration of Americanisms in the speech of English-
speaking peoples, and not only in Great Britain. There are several reasons for 
this: 
- The number of speakers of American English is 70% and of British English 
17% of the total number of native speakers, i.e. the American version of English 
is the most common in the world; 
- the US economy is the world's dominant economy; 
- the number of educational institutions in the U.S. is much higher than in 
Britain; 
- the incomparable scale of the U.S. and U.K. book industries; 
- the influence of American media and information technology on a global 
scale; 
- the appeal of American popular culture and its influence on the language and 
lifestyles of people around the world. 
However, the American language has not obtained an independent status 
in the world language family, being simply a branch of the English language 
tree. 
There are and cannot be any fundamental differences between the branch and 
the tree, because American is essentially 17th century colloquial English. At the 
same time, differences in British and American English exist and are evident in 
vocabulary, spelling, syntax, phonetics, and grammar. 
In vocabulary. There are many words that are widely used in the United 
States that you don't hear in the United Kingdom and vice versa. The American 
language has created many new words that are in common use (for example, 
okay). One and the same word can have different meanings: corn in American is 

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corn, while in Europe it means wheat, oats, barley. Familiar words in American 
English have a new meaning: fall. The two languages use different words for 
the same term: dessert (American)=sweet (English). 
In spelling. Following the general tendency to simplify, American 
practice is to spell the ending -er instead of -re (center - center) and -or instead 
of -our (honor - honour). 
In phonetics there are different variants of word pronunciation with the 
same spelling, the variants of stress in words and intonation in sentences differ: 
in British English there are many intonation patterns, in American English there 
is a flat scale of intonation and a descending tone. 
In grammar. Again, as part of the trend toward simplification, American 
English most often uses the Indefinite tenses; it never uses the “shall” form, but 
only the will or going to. In American English, verbal nouns are used more 
often: research, to investigate. Many American irregular verbs have become 
regular verbs.