language distorted

[mouse53]

I know that the US was originally colonized by The English ( or British ). I also know that the original English language is supposed to be like you speak in the UK. How ever did the Americans butcher it into what they speak in the South now?

[Quizmonster]

The world is full of 'Englishes' now! British English itself has so many dialect variants that some groups of people are mutually incomprehensible when speaking in them...although, they can make themselves understood if they speak in 'standard' English, even with an accent. There also exist Indian English, Singaporean English, Caribbean English and others.
Thus, the language of the Southern states of the USA is just another version of the same process...ie over time, regions 'create' their very own example of the language. This is not 'butchery', as you suggest, but merely a totally natural process.

[mouse53]

Thank you Quizmonster, I may have been a bit harsh. My apologies.. I was always curious where that southern drawl came from, I guess it must be evolution .

[jake-the-peg]

I'm pretty sure I've read that American usage is often much closer to the English that was spoken 300 years or so ago.

A good example is the use of the word gotten
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?da te=19990611

However did you get the idea that it was the Americans and not the British who had done the Butchering? :c)

Also it's worth bearing in mind that only parts of America were colonised by the British. Much of the South was colonised by the French and was purchased by the Americans after independance and California was colonized by the Spanish/Mexicans.

But for an accident of history America might very well speak French in which case we would have gotten a very different world

[mouse53]

I got the idea from school. We were taught that Amertica was colonized by people from England tired of unfair taxes and religous persecution. Of course we were also taught that the French were pretty ruthless. They were mostly trappers and taught the Indians to scalp people.

[jake-the-peg]

That's the trouble with school history they tend to have a certain view which is often rather nationalistic.

For example they like going on about the Armada but they never mention how about 100 years later the Dutch sailed up the Medway set fire to Chatham docks and the fleet and ran off with the Royal Barge.

[Tanglefert]

I had read somewhere that the american accent as it is now is closer to the accent of england when america was first colonised. Also, i found it interesting that the english settlers were able to communicate with the native americans that they first encountered because the native americans knew english.

[jake-the-peg]

Well if you're refering to the Pilgrim fathers that was in 1620 over 100 years after the first discovery of America, the first English colony had been in 1607 so that's not all that surprising.

The really interesting evidence for previous contacts in in potential pre columbian syphilis skeletons exhumed in one or two places

[vehelpfulguy]

I am currently reading Made In America by Bill Bryson.

A very readable book about the history of the "English" language in the USA (and also an interesting history of the USA as well)

He covers where all sorts of words come from, right back to the first arrivals in the USA, and new words introduced by technologies like flight, cinema, shopping, TV, computers and so on.

For example, do you know where the phrase slapstick came from ?

Here it is on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Made-in-America-Bill-B ryson/dp/0552998052/sr=8-10/qid=1157022558/ref =pd_ka_10/026-2910568-6262047?ie=UTF8&s=gatewa y

[vehelpfulguy]

I agree with jake-the-peg.

Bill Bryson makes it clear that the Pilgrim Fathers were nowhere near the first people from England (or Europe) to go the the USA.

English fisherman had been fishing off the coast of the USA for years.

In fact some of the first indians they met could speak English, because some of them had been taken over to England by previous visitors.

Many of the first words were a combination of English and / or Indian words.

Most of the first arrivals on the Mayflower knew nothing of farming or nature and mis-named many birds and trees which are still mis-named in the USA today.

For example, the US Robin (it has a red breast) is in fact a thrush.

All from the Bill Bryson book so blame him if I am wrong.

[Tanglefert]

VAhelpfulguy...that was the same book i was referring to...and it was LONG before the pilgrim fathers and before any english people had arrived at its shores...apparently they had learnt to speak english from the spanish.

[vehelpfulguy]

In fact here is a picture of the American Robin

http://www.santafebotanicalgarden.org/NAmerica n%20Robin%20copy.jpg

[Clanad]

Actually, the predominat pre-19th century immigration population in the southern U.S. states was Scots/Irish. The southern drawl is different from state to state, but is noticeably similar to Scot and Irish inflections in many locations. This special, archaic variety of English is known as Appalachian English. It preserves many archaic features that date back to earlier stages in the development of English in Britain. Additionally, th influence of the black, mainly slave population of southern dialects is significant. 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--in fact, 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, compromize 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 and had a heavy influence, paradoxically, on today's southern inflections... (Thanks to Linguistics 201, The Dialects of American English)

[mouse53]

Wow I feel like a neanderthal ( or insert own description here ). I can see indeed that each language can be affected by geographic location. and period of time. Thanks to you all for the very nice history and language knowledge. My first post just goes to show how ignorance can influence thinking. I shall try to be more careful about judging without facts.

[nemesis07]

You may like to know that the one of the only words the americans can get right is ALUMINUM. We only say aluminium because at the time that it was discovered most of the other elements ended in 'ium' so we changed it to aluminium to 'fit the bill' when infact it had been named Aluminum by someone who I can't remember the name of.

[disraeli]

actually the dialect spoken in the appalacian mountains is closer to 'skakespeare speak' than british english. also the americans use the participle gotten(we use got) which is more regular and indeed correct. its also interesting (although off the point) thatthe english of 2-300 years ago is closer to the northern dialects of england (pronunciation wise) rather than that of the south. what is considered rp (correct english) in terms of pronunciation and grammar rules today is thanks to 18th and 19th century scholars who decided to shake things up a bit.

[Mark_Wekveld]

I just think you can find out that the colonist when separating form mother England constructed our own American Dictionary. So that all in the old world would see our American nation as a world power equal to or greater than other literate peoples of this world. Thus the BBC works with a different dictionary that is in usage with ABC.

Just after the World War 11 our U S national broadcasting system went looking for a dialect for common speck in news casting. The company settled on some thing they branded as midwestern speck. I think they picked up on men like Walter Cronkite. This Midwestern speck could be found easily in the streets of Chicago, Illinois. This information on midwestern speck came from my father a man of these times.

[Narolines]

Not sure what "slapstick" has to do with American English - it comes from the Commedia dell'Arte via Punch and Judy and the British music hall...............