Regional variants of the English National language.

There are two types of language territorial varieties:

• variants and dialects.

Regional variants of standard language are used in large areas as means of orral and written communication:

• British, American, Australian and Canadian English.

Dialects are varieties of non-standard language used in small localities for oral communication. The main variants of the English language are British and American. British, American, Australian and Canadian English cannot be regarded as different languages as they have essentially the same vocabulary, phonetic and grammar systems. They also cannot be referred to local dialects:

• they serve all spheres of verbal communicationand have dialectal differences of their own.

Each regional variant has its phonetic, grammatical and lexical peculiarities.

Phonetic differencies include articulatory-acoustic characteristics and use of some phonemes, peculiar rhythm and intonation. Grammatical differences consist in the preference of this or that grammatical category or form:

• the preference of past indefinite to present perfect in American English, the formation of the future simple with the auxiliary «will» for all persons in American English, lexical peculiarities are not very numerous.

These are mainly divergencies in the semantic structure of words and their usage.

Origin of the regional variants.

American English begins its history at the beginning of the 17 th century when first English-speaking settlers began to settle on the Atlantic coast of the American continent. The language which they brought from England was the language spoken in England during the reign of Elizabeth I.

The first settlers took some of the names for local places, animals, plants, customs from languages spoken by the local population - Indians:

• chipmuck (an American sqiurrel), squaw (an Indian woman).

Besides Englishmen, settlers from France, Spain and other countries came to America. Therefore, some words were borrowed from their languages:

• bureau, depot, pumpkin (French), bonanza, cockroach, lasso (Spanish).

Such words as boss, dope, sleigh were borrowed from Dutch.

The second period of American English history begins in the 19 th century.

Immigrants continued to come from Europe to America. Italians brought with them a style of cooking which brought with them a style of cooking which became widely spread and such words as pizza, spaghetti came into English. There were words borrowed from German:

• hamburger, noodle, schnitzel.

During the second period of American English history there appeared quite a number of words and word-groups which were formed in the language due to the new political system, liberation of America from the British colonialism, its independence. the following lexical units appeared due to these events:

• The United States of America, assembly, Senate, senator, President, Vice-President.

Differences between British and American English.

There are some differences between British and American English in their usage.

Differences in the usage of prepositions:

• such as prepositions with dates, days of the week. British English (BE) requires on (I start my holiday on friday);
• In American English (AE) there is no preposition (I start my vacation friday);
• Compare also a quarter to five (BE) and a quarter of five b (AE), in the street (BE) and on the street (AE).

There are also differences in vocabulary:

• there are units of vocabulary which are different while denoting the same notions:
• BE trousers - AE pants;
• in BE pants are (трусы) which in AE is shorts;
• While in BE shorts are outwear.
• there are some differences in names of places:
• passage (BE) - hall (AE), pillar box (BE) - mail-box (AE), zebra crossing (BE) - pxing (AE).
• some names of useful objects are also different:
• rubber (BE) - eraser (AE), parcel (BE) - package (AE), tap (BE) - faucet (AE).
• some words connected with food are different:
• tin (BE) - can (AE), sweet (BE) - dessert (AE), chips (BE) - french fries (AE).
• some words denoting personal items have different names:
• tights (BE) - pantyhose (AE), turn-ups (BE) - cuffs (AE), waistcoat (BE) - vest (AE).
• some words denoting people are also different:
• barrister (BE) - lawyer (AE), shop assistant (BE) - shopperson (AE), staff (university), (BE) - faculty (AE).
• if we speak about cars there are also some differences:
• boot (BE) - trunk (AE), a car (BE) - an auto (AE), to hire a car (BE) - to rent a car (AE).
• differences in the organization of education lead to different terms:
• BE public school - a private school, AE public school - a free local authority school;
• BE secondary school is AE high school.

Differences in spelling. There are some peculiarities typical of American English:

• the deletion of the letter u in words ending in our:
• honor, favor.
• the deletion of the second consonant in words with double consonants:
• traveler, wagon.
• the replacement of re by er in words of French origin:
• theater, center.
• the deletion of unpronounced endings in words of romanic origin:
• catalog, program.
• the replacement of ce by se in words of romanic origin:
• defense, offense.
• the deletion of unpronounced endings in native words:
• tho, thro.

Differences in pronunciation. In AE we have r-coloured fully articulated vowels in the combinations:

• ar, er, ir, or, ur, our etc.

In BE the sound (o) corresponds to the AE (Λ), e.g. not. In BE before fricatives and combinations of consonants with fricatives a is pronounced as (a) in AE, it is pronounced (ǽ) class (kl ǽs), fast (fǽst). There are some differences in the position of the stress:

• BE ad́dress - AE áddress, BE rećess - AE ŕecess.

Local dialects on the British Isles.

There are six groups of English local dialects:

• lowland (Scottish), Northern, Western;
• Midland, Eastern, Southern.

They are used in oral speech by local population. Only the Scottish dialect has its own literature (R. Burns).

One of the best known dialects of British English is the dialect of London - Cockney. There are some peculiarities of it:

• interchange of [v] and [w] - wery vell;
• interchange of [h] and ['] - eart for heart.

As compared with the national literary vocabulary dialectal vocabularies include a limited number of words. They are mainly names for local customs, social life, natural conditions and farming:

• laird «landed proprietor», kirk «church».

Many dialectisms are emotionally coloured:

• Scot. Bonny, Daffy.

National words may have a different meaning in dialects:

• Scot. call (to drive), short (rude).

Some affixes are dialectal. The Irish diminutive suffix-een can be added even to English stems:

• girleen, squireen.

Besides, dialectal vocabularies do not include scientific or technical terms.

Local dialects in the USA.

There exist a number of local dialects which are divided into three major groups:

• Northern, Southern and Midland (North Midland and South Midland).

It should be mentioned that the American English is practically uniform all over the country, because of the conctant transfer of people from one part of the country to the other. However, some peculiarities in New York dialect can be pointed out, e.g. there is no distinction between (ǽ) and (a:) in such words as ask, dance, sand, bad, both phonemes are possible. The combinations ir and ear in the words bird, girl, learn is pronounced as (oi). In the words duty, tune (j) is not pronounced (du:ti), (tu:n).