Inroduction

CONTENTS

INRODUCTION 2
CHAPTER I. AMERICAN ENGLISH AS A VARIANT OF ENGLISH 5

1. 
   History of the development of American English 5
   
2. 
   The formation of American English 9
   
3. 
   Differences between British English and American English 16
   

CHAPTER II. ANALYSIS OF WEBSTER AND MENCKEN`S AMERICAN ENGLISH 18

1. 
   Word formation in American English 18
   
2. 
   H. L. Mencken as a Philologist 19
   
3. 
   Webster as the creator of the American version of the English language 23
   

CONCLUSION 31
BIBLIOGRAPHY 33

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
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
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.