British and American English: The differences

[Rev.Cambeul]

Although there are those of us that prefer to maintain a British standard of English and consider American English (and in some cases Australian English and modern multicultural British English) to be an oversimplification or dumbing down of the English language, Creator Youth and Creators in general should ideally keep to their own dialect unless they have a total understanding of the concepts of language derivation, regional grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, et al. As long as you are grammatically correct for your own region and your text remains comprehensible for those of other regions and dialects, there really is no need for you to make any changes your writing style. And above all, whatever writing style you choose, be sure that you remain consistent!

One word of warning: While British, Australian and Canadian children are made aware at a young age of the differences between their regional dialect and American English, few Americans are aware of the British and other differences in English. Americans will, more likely than not, become irate at persistent usage of what they consider to be incorrect spelling and grammar. By all means inform them of the differences, but do try to make an effort not to goad them into a negative response. We are all White people and the language is there to facilitate cooperation, not dissuade it.

@Cailen.




Over the past 400 years, the form of the language used in the Americas—especially in the United States—and that used in the British Isles have diverged in a few minor ways, leading to the dialects now occasionally referred to as American English and British English. Differences between the two include pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary (lexis), spelling, punctuation, idioms, formatting of dates and numbers, and so on, although the differences in written and most spoken grammar structure tend to be much more minor than those of other aspects of the language in terms of mutual intelligibility. A small number of words have completely different meanings between the two dialects or are even unknown or not used in one of the dialects. One particular contribution towards formalizing these differences came from Noah Webster, who wrote the first American dictionary (published 1828) with the intention of showing that people in the United States spoke a different dialect from Britain, much like a regional accent.

This divergence between American English and British English once caused George Bernard Shaw to say that the United States and United Kingdom are "two countries divided by a common language"; a similar comment is ascribed to Winston Churchill. Likewise, Oscar Wilde wrote, "We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, the language" (The Canterville Ghost, 1888). Henry Sweet falsely predicted in 1877, that within a century, American English, Australian English and British English would be mutually unintelligible. It may be the case that increased worldwide communication through radio, television, the Internet, and globalization has reduced the tendency to regional variation. This can result either in some variations becoming extinct (for instance, the wireless, superseded by the radio) or in the acceptance of wide variations as "perfectly good English" everywhere. Often at the core of the dialect though, the idiosyncrasies remain.

Nevertheless, it remains the case that although spoken American and British English are generally mutually intelligible, there are enough differences to cause occasional misunderstandings or at times embarrassment – for example, some words that are quite innocent in one dialect may be considered vulgar in the other.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences

More Information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/americanbritish.html
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/jones/differences.htm
http://www.michigan-proficiency-exams.com/american-and-british-english-difference.html
http://www.michigan-proficiency-exams.com/difference-between-british-english-and-american-english.html
http://www.studyenglishtoday.net/british-american-spelling.html
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Barton-UK-USwords.html Potentially Confusing And Embarrassing Differences between ...
http://www.bg-map.com/us-uk.html
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/british-american-english-differences.aspx
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=differences+british+american+english

http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=differences+australian+american+english
http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=differences+canadian+american+english

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_English
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_English
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_English

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_English
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_English
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno-English (Irish)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_the_English_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_short_A
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_vowels
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_consonants