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<title> American versus British English vocabulary </title>
1. Aim and scope
When comparing British and American English you soon realise that there are several differences between the two languages. What generally appears as the most striking divergence is the vocabulary and this part of the language is also very interesting because it reflects culture, traditions, habits of living and so on to a large extent.
	In this essay I have taken the opportunity to investigate the differences in vocabulary a bit further and what I will look closer at are above all the following features: historical reasons for the differences, how new words have been created in American English and how the two varieties of English influence each other. I want to show how the American English vocabulary has become what it is today and I will then exemplify to what extent it differs from British English by carrying through a mini-investigation. 

2. Previous research, method and material
Before I started writing I read parts of Barber (1993), Egersten (1960 and 1974), Jones (1972), and Trudgill and Hannah (1982). These sources helped to increase my knowledge about the historical background, wordformation and influences of British and American English on each other.	
	I have used Longman (1995) to carry out the investigation which compares British and American English vocabulary. I wanted to find out the frequency of words which are used exclusively in one variety and in order to do so I looked up 1000 words. I did come to a conclusion on this matter, but there are a number of factors which have to be kept in mind when studying the results. First of all, the dictionary I have used was printed in 1995. British and American English constantly influence each other and a word which was considered typically American five years ago may today be well accepted in British English as well or the other way around. Secondly, I only looked up the 1000 first words in the dictionary, which means that the outcome of the research might have been different if more words had been examined. Thirdly, I did not pay attention to phrases, but only to individual words. The definitions of the words which I included have been taken from Longman (1995). However, because of the limited space, I have sometimes chosen to include only the most vital information from the dictionary. In this investigation I intended to also compare words which exist in both varieties but which have different meanings and words which have an additional meaning in either British or American English. I used Longman (1995) for this purpose as well, but I did not find enough words in any of these categories to include them in this paper. A further description of the actual investigation will be given later in this essay.

3.Historical background 
The first permanent British colony in North America was settled in 1607 and the English that these first settlers spoke was of the same kind as was spoken in Great Britain. In the beginning, the Americans were very anxious to preserve the English language and put great efforts into protecting it from too many changes. As long as they were under British rule, the standards and fashions which were popular in London had great influence over several aspects of life in America. Language was one of them and educated London speech therefore became the standard of many Americans (Jones 1972:10).
	However, not all linguistic needs could be met by the language of the mother country. The settlers in America encountered animals, plants, and different natural features which no other English speaking person had ever seen before. They also built up "...a new society with its own political institutions, its own social customs, its own recreations, its various ways of earning a living...." (Barber 1993:252). Words for all these new and unfamiliar creatures, objects, and features were needed, and the Americans made considerable additions to their vocabulary. Examples of this can be seen in the investigation later in this essay, where there are words which are used exclusively in American English.
	The differences between British and American English increased after 1783, when the American Revolution was over and the American colonies had broken away from British rule and come together under a confederation (Barber 1993:255). The Americans wanted to show their independence and London lost much of its prestige and influence, which affected the language among other things (Jones 1972:10). Today, American English follows its own rules and is regarded as a version of English which is separate from British English and of equal merit (Egersten 1960:1). 

4. Wordformation in American English
When the first settlers arrived in North America, the continent was already inhabited by Native Indians and a few words were borrowed from them in order to name some of the animals and objects that were encountered for the first time. The settlers also borrowed words from other peoples. America attracted colonists from several European countries and a considerable amount of loan-words were collected above all from Spanish and French (Barber 1993:252-253). 	
	When they did not borrow words from other languages, they sometimes used British English words and gave them a new meaning. Such an example is the word corn, which was specialised in America in order to define what in Great Britain is known as maize (Barber 1993:255). Other examples of how new words have been created are through blending, back formation, abbreviated forms, juxtaposition, derivated endings and conversion. All these methods certainly occur in both British and American English, but tend to be more common in the latter variety (Egersten 1974:28-31). The examples on the following page have been collected from Egersten (1974:28-32)	and show words of American origin which have been created through the methods mentioned above.
 
Word				Made from 				Method		
 medicare 			medical + care				blending 
 to babysit			babysitter				back formation 
 gas				gasoline				abbreviation	
 ice water			ice + water				juxtaposition 
 addressee			address + -ee				derivation
 a pickup			(to) pick up				conversion

5. Influence from one variety to another
According to Barber (1993:262), the divergent trend of British and American English, which is described in the paragraphs above, has now slowed down and this is "...due to the great development of communications...and the rise of mass media...." People today are much more mobile than in the past and American and British people often become familiar with each other's versions of English through television, newspapers, the internet, etcetera (Barber 1993:262). As a result, it can today be hard to tell whether a word is typically American or British, because it is well established in both varieties. An example of this is the word barbecue, which is of American origin, but which is now used by British people as well (Egersten 1974:35). The borrowing of words today is mutual, but according to Barber (1993:262), the influence is stronger from American to British English than vice versa. The effects of this will be demonstrated in the investigation in the next paragraph. Concerning words which still exist exclusively in American or British English, they are usually understood by speakers of the other variety. However, there are also cases when a particular word or idiom might cause confusion (Trudgill & Hannah 1982:76-77).

6. Investigation
This investigation examines the frequency of words in the following four categories: 1. British English only (such as abbattoir), 2. American English only (AB, for example), 3. British English especially (such as academic year) and 4. American English especially (for example advice column). The following abbreviations are used: BrE (British English), AmE (American English) and esp (especially). Out of the 1000 words that I have looked up, I have found a total number of 70 words that are used exclusively or especially in either British or American English. The diagram on the following page shows how each category is represented.
Table 1. Distribution of words used only or especially in American and British English 	respectively

Number if words

The results show that the total number of words that differ between the two varieties is fairly large. Furthermore, we can see that the number of words used only in British English (33 words) is much larger than the number used only in American English (12 words). It seems very likely that this is due to a fact which is mentioned in paragraph 4, namely that the influence from American to British English is much larger than the other way around. This explanation also supports the fact that words used especially in British English (17 words) are much more common than vocabulary used especially in the American variety (8 words). The words that I examined and a definition of each term are enclosed as an appendix in the end of this essay. 

Conclusion
It is clear that the vocabulary in American and British English has always been in close relation with each other and that they have influenced each other to a large extent. The differences are not so large as to cause any major problems in communication, but nevertheless, misunderstandings or some uncertainty is still likely to occur. Both the historical background and the results of the investigation indicate that it might be slightly more difficult for a person from Great Britain to make him- or herself understood in the USA, than the other way around. This conclusion is based on the number of words which differ between the two varieties and on the fact that American vocabulary influences British English more than the other way around. However, it is possible that the result would have had another outcome if more than 1000 words had been investigated. Furthermore, the results do not show to what extent American and British people understand words which are used exclusively or especially in the other country. A deeper study could include an investigation of word-comprehension among American and British English speaking people to find out how much they understand of the other variety. Perhaps this is something that I can carry out at the C or D level.

References
Barber, Charles. 1993. The English language: a historical introduction. Cambridge: The 	University of Cambridge. 
Egersten, Erik. 1960. Amerikansk Engelska. Stockholm: Svenska bokfrlaget Bonniers.
- 	1974. Understanding American English. Stuttgart: Ernst Klett.
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. 1995. London: Longman Group Ltd.
Jones, David. 1972. Speaking of America: M te med amerikanerna. Stockhom: Sveriges 	Radios frlag.
Trudgill, Peter & Jean Hannah. 1982. International English. London: Edward Arnold 		(Publishers) Ltd.
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