It is common knowledge that the American variety of English is very conservative in comparison to the British one. The first English settlers that survived in America (Crystal, 1988: 223) came in 1607 to what is now Virginia. They...
See more »
It is common knowledge that the American variety of English is very conservative in comparison to the British one. The first English settlers that survived in America (Crystal, 1988: 223) came in 1607 to what is now Virginia. They were followed by the famous Pilgrim Fathers, who founded New England in 1620. In the beginning, English people provided the overwhelming majority in the colonies. They coined the language of the East Coast, where the immigrants lived in the first centuries. Up to 1790 two thirds of the population in the United States of that time were of English descendance. In the following years, two important changes took place. The treck to the West began, and there grew to come more immigrants from other European countries. The larger group remained to be anglophone, the Irish being the majority of newcomers now (it was in that time that Irish was replaced by English in Ireland as well, caused among other things by the great famine). Besides, the number of people coming from non-anglophone countries like Germany, Italy, and Russian (in this order), grew, too; they left only few traces in American English, though. That is why I spoke about the kindredness of Irish English and American in the Irish chapter. The Irish and, to a lesser extent, the Scottish influenced the speech of the largest part of present-day North America, viz. the whole U.S.A. except New England and the South and the anglophone Canada.
See less »
Kaboodle will send you a newsletter and updates from your friends. You can unsubscribe at any time. Kaboodle does not sell or share your email address or personal information with anyone.
Kaboodle requires all users to provide their real date of birth as both a safety precaution and as a means
of preserving the integrity of the site. You will be able to hide this information from your profile if you wish.
Added by 2 people