American English and the World’s Pop Culture

Globally, popular culture which is the lifestyle and tastes of the majority of mostly younger people is simply American culture. This boosts the relevance and popularity of an American accent.

Author: Ela Britchkow, Speech-Language Pathologist
Accent Reduction and American English Pronunciation Specialist

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​Most foreigners pick up an American English pronunciation because the world’s pop culture is simply American culture, at least most of it. Our Clear English Speech program allows you to speak clearly and intelligibly with an American English pronunciation. More specifically, we teach you how to speak Standard American English. 

​That is American English spoken without any clear regional dialect markers. It is free from recognizably local, ethnic, or cultural characteristics. It is the English used by most television and radio broadcasters in the United States – people who don’t speak with an identifiable regional accent. This allows the speaker to be easily understood in every region of the United States without any identifiable regional accent. There are many other English speaking countries in the world, e.g., England, Australia, South Africa etc., each having its own unique English accent. One English accent should not be regarded as being better than another. However, many believe that an American English pronunciation is better understood among different English accent speakers in different countries. That opinion is undoubtable influenced by the popularity of American movies, songs and culture. Since each region of the United States has its own colloquial expressions, we believe it is also important to also make you familiar with the colloquial expressions commonly spoken where you are working and living in.
The historical development of American English is interesting:
The use of English in the United States is a result of British colonization. The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North America during the 17th century.
There are many words that sound the same in both American English and British English, but are spelled differently. For example: Words originally from French that end in "our" in British English are spelled: behaviour, colour, honour, neighbour, In American English they end in "-or" (behavior, color, honor, neighbor). Words of that come from French that end in “re”, are spelled in British English like this: metre, centre. In American English they end in “er” (meter, center). Canadians use the British (and French) spelling.
Verbs that end in -ise in British English (criticise, realise) end in -ize in American English (criticize, organize, realize). However, the -ize ending is optional in British English, and is shown as an option in British dictionaries.
One of the changes introduced by Noah Webster, who made the American dictionary following the American War of Independence is the change of the double "l" from words like "travelled" to "traveled".
 Some more differences in American English are:

• aluminium is spelled "aluminum"
• doughnut is spelled "donut"
• draught is spelled "draft"

There are also some words in American English that are a bit different in meaning from British English, e.g.:

• aeroplane is called "airplane"
• ladybird is called "ladybug"
• lift is called "elevator"
• toilet is called "bathroom", "restroom" or "comfort station"
• lorry is called "truck"
• nappies are called "diapers"
• petrol is called "gas" (or "gasoline")
• the boot of a car is called a "trunk"
• a dummy is called a "pacifier"
• trousers are called "pants"
• underground is called "subway"
• football is called "soccer"

 
After the Civil War, the rapid and extensive move west of settlers from all dialect areas of the eastern US led to a leveling of eastern dialectal features and the creation of a more General American, or Middle American dialect. People who are said to speak "without an accent" are actually speaking with this leveled-out form of speech that developed from the mid-Atlantic stretching westward through the Ohio valley. 
The main dialect areas of the US can be traced to the four main migrations of English speaking people to America from the British Isles during the colonial period (1607-1775).
The New England dialect, eventually influenced speech in many areas of the Northeast, from Main to Wisconsin, especially in the Chicago area. Some pronunciation differences include: how we say the [O] in caught, bought; nasalizing the /a/ in words as father; sat (the so-called nasal twang); Deletion of the final [r], as in far (pronounced "fah"); farther (pronounced as fahtah); Addition of /r/ after a final schwa, as in dater (instead of data). 
From 1642-1675 the Royalists, also called Cavaliers, fled from the south and southwest England with their indentured servants and settled in Virginia when the English Civil War against Charles I began. They brought with them their south England drawl (a drawing out of the vowels); they also brought such phrases as aksed (instead of asked), and ain't (instead of isn't).  Royalists later settled the Carolinas as well. Southern English speech laid the foundation for the development of American Tidewater speech, or Coastal Southern English. The upper class southern dialects and the dialects of the coastal southern areas (where few native Americans remained) were influenced by the English spoken by West Africans. Black English developed in the Southern states when speakers of dozens of West African languages were abruptly forced to abandon their native tongues and learn English.  Slaves from different tribes couldn't communicate with one another. Actually, masters deliberately tried to separate slaves who could speak the same language.  Since the Africans had to communicate with one another, as well as with the whites, a kind of compromise language evolved on the basis of English and a mixture of the original West African languages.  Such a makeshift, compromise language, used as a second language by adults, is known as a pidgin.  When a pidgin becomes the native language of the next generation, it becomes a creole, a full-fledged language.  The African-English creole in the American colonies evolved into today's Black English. Black English was most influenced by the speech of the southern whites. They tended to use double negative; deleted final consonants “mo” for “more” and “sto” for “store”; they said “ain’t” as in early English; deleted the final “ng” as in “nothin” for “nothing”
         Black English, in turn, gradually influenced the speech of southern whites--especially the children of the aristocratic slave owners.  Given the social prejudices of the Old South, this seems paradoxical.  However, remember that throughout all the slave owning areas, black nannies helped raise white children, and the children of blacks and whites played freely together before the Civil War.  Since language features acquired in early childhood tend to be kept throughout life, Southern English naturally became mixed with Black English. 
New York English, as a special variety of general New England speech, developed after the British took possession of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam in 1664, leading to the rapid conversion of Dutch speakers to English. There are some features of Dutch and New England speech which turned into Brooklyn speech: final /r/ is dropped: beer is pronounced as bee-ah; caught, bought are pronounced with/o/ rather than/a/. The voiced “th” sound as in them, these, that becomes a /d/ sound dem, dese, dat since Dutch doesn’t have the “th” sound.
        Most immigrant groups who came into the US after the colonial period in the 19th and 20th centuries, did not establish permanent ethnic dialects of their own.  Instead, they conformed to whatever the local dialect was. But one group contributed heavily to New York English.  Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, most of whom spoke Yiddish, added their own additional flavor to New York phonology and vocabulary. The Sephardic Jews of Spain spoke Ladino, a medieval dialect of Spanish.  Yiddish especially has influenced New York speech and vocabulary.
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​By Ela Britchkow, Speech and Language Pathologist
©2017 Ela Britchkow