The English Language: A Guided Tour of the Language

by David Crystal

  In contrast, the Puritans came mainly from East Anglia and the surrounding counties, and their accent was quite different – notably lacking an r after vowels (as in present-day standard British English). This tendency not to ‘pronounce the r’ is still a main feature of the speech of people from the New England area today.

  Other features of the dialects of seventeenth-century England can be identified in modern American speech, such as the short, ‘flat’ a vowel, where British Received Pronunciation later developed the ‘long’ a, in such words as dance. British English also later pronounced such words as

  Early English-speaking settlement areas on the East Coast of America

  not with lip-rounding, but in the USA the earlier unrounded vowel remained (‘nat’). American speech kept gotten for got, and ate (pronounced ‘eight’) for ate (pronounced ‘et’). And several older words or meanings were retained, such as mad (angry) and fall (autumn). A phrase such as I guess, which often attracts condemnation as an Americanism by British purists, in fact can be traced back to Middle English (see further pp. 264–9).

  The separateness of the colonies remained for much of the seventeenth century, but during this time increasing contacts and new patterns of settlement caused the sharp divisions between accents to begin to blur. New shiploads of settlers brought people with a variety of linguistic backgrounds, and the ‘middle’ Atlantic areas began to be opened up. The area around New York saw rapid development. From 1681, Pennsylvania came to be settled mainly by Quakers, whose origins were mostly in the Midlands and North of England. By 1700, the immigrant population of the continent had increased to around a quarter of a million.

  In the early eighteenth century, there was a vast wave of immigration from northern Ireland. The Irish had been migrating to America from around 1600, but the main movements took place during the 1720s, when around 50,000 Irish and Scots-Irish immigrants arrived. By the time Independence was declared in 1776, it is thought that no less than one in seven of the American population was Scots-Irish. Many stayed along the coast, especially in the area of Philadelphia, but most moved inland through the mountains in search of land. They were seen as frontier people, with an accent which at the time was described as ‘broad’. The opening up of the South and West was largely due to the pioneering spirit of this group of settlers – a spirit well captured in the tales of the frontiersman Davy Crockett (1786–1836), who was one of many with a Scots-Irish background.

  By the time of the first census, in 1790, the population of the continent was around four million, most of whom lived along the Atlantic coast. A century later, after the opening up of the West, the population numbered over fifty million, spread all over the continent. Much of the movement west had been led by the Scots-Irish. The accent which emerged can now be heard all over the so-called ‘Sunbelt’, and is the accent most commonly associated with present-day American speech.

  The main population movements to some extent preserved the three major dialect areas of the east coast: the New England people moved west into the region of the Great Lakes; the southerners moved along the Gulf Coast, and into Texas; and the midlanders spread out throughout the whole of the vast, mid-western area, across the Mississippi and ultimately into California. The dialect picture was never a neat one, because of widespread north–south movements within the country, and the continuing inflow of immigrants from different parts of the world. There are many mixed dialect areas, and ‘pockets’ of unexpected dialect forms. But the main divisions of North, Midland and South are still demonstrable today.

  An important aspect of American life, its cosmopolitan character, was

  The main dialect divisions in the USA

  present from the beginning, and this had linguistic consequences too. The Spanish had occupied large areas in the west and south-west of the country. The French were present in the northern territories, around the St Lawrence, and throughout the middle regions (French Louisiana) as far as the Gulf of Mexico. The Dutch were in New York (originally New Amsterdam) and the surrounding area. Large numbers of Germans began to arrive at the end of the seventeenth century, settling mainly in Pennsylvania and its hinterland. And there were increasing numbers of blacks in the south, as a result of the slave trade from Africa, which dramatically increased in the eighteenth century: a population of little more than 2,500 blacks in 1700 had become about 100,000 by 1775, far outnumbering the southern whites.

  During the nineteenth century, these immigration patterns increased, with many people fleeing the results of revolution and famine in Europe. Large numbers of Irish came following the potato famine in the 1840s. Germans and Italians came, escaping the consequences of the failure of the 1848 revolutions. And as the century wore on, there were increasing numbers of Central European Jews, especially fleeing from the pogroms of the 1880s. In the decades around the turn of the century, the United States welcomed five million Germans, four million Italians, and two and a half million Jews.

  The origins of American state names

  Alabama Choctaw ‘I open the thicket’ (i.e. one who clears land)

  Alaska Eskimo ‘great land’

  Arizona Papago ‘place of the small spring’

  Arkansas Sioux ‘land of the south wind people’

  California Spanish ‘earthly paradise’

  Colorado Spanish ‘red’ (i.e. colour of the earth)

  Connecticut Mohican ‘at the long tidal river’

  Delaware named after the English governor Lord de la Warr

  Florida Spanish ‘land of flowers’

  Georgia named after King George II

  Hawaii Hawaiian ‘homeland’

  Idaho Shoshone ‘light on the mountains’

  Illinois French from Algonquian ‘warriors’

  Indiana English ‘land of the Indians’

  Iowa Dakota ‘the sleepy one’

  Kansas Sioux ‘land of the south wind people’

  Kentucky Iroquois ‘meadow land’

  Louisiana named after King Louis XIV of France

  Maine named after a French province

  Maryland named after Henrietta Maria, Charles I’s queen

  Massachusetts Algonquian ‘place of the big hill’

  Michigan Chippewa ‘big water’

  Minnesota Dakota Sioux ‘sky-coloured water’

  Mississippi Chippewa ‘big river’

  Missouri probably French from Algonquian ‘muddy water’

  Montana Spanish ‘mountainous’

  Nebraska Omaha ‘river in the flatness’

  Nevada Spanish ‘snowy’

  New Hampshire named after Hampshire, England

  New Jersey named after Jersey (Channel Islands)

  New Mexico named after Mexico

  New York named after the Duke of York

  North Carolina named after King Charles II

  North Dakota Sioux ‘friend’

  Ohio Iroquois ‘beautiful water’

  Oklahoma Choctaw ‘red people’

  Oregon possibly Algonquian ‘beautiful water’ or ‘beaver place’

  Pennsylvania named after Quaker William Penn + Latin for ‘woodland’

  Rhode Island Dutch ‘red clay’ island

  South Carolina named after King Charles II

  South Dakota Sioux ‘friend’

  Tennessee name of a Cherokee settlement – unknown origin

  Texas Spanish ‘allies’

  Utah possibly Navaho ‘upper land’ or ‘land of the Ute’

  Vermont French ‘green mountain’

  Virginia named after Queen Elizabeth I

  Washington named after George Washington

  West Virginia derived from Virginia

  Wisconsin possibly Algonquian ‘grassy place’ or ‘beaver place’

  Wyoming Algonquian ‘place of the big flats’

  The chief linguistic result of this multilingual setting was a large number of loan words, which added to the many new words that were introduced as a consequence of the first per
iod of settlement. In that early period, most of the words had been to do with new fauna and flora, or with notions deriving from contact with the Indian tribes – words like wigwam

  New words and phrases in American English

  From Indian languages

  chipmunk, hickory, how!, moccasin, moose, opossum, papoose, pemmican, pow-wow, racoon, skunk, tomahawk, totem, wigwam

  From Dutch

  boss, caboose, coleslaw, cookie, snoop

  From French

  bayou, butte, cache, caribou, cent, chowder, crevasse, gopher, levee, poker, praline, saloon

  From German

  and how, cookbook, delicatessen, dumb, frankfurter, hoodlum, kindergarten, nix, no way, phooey, pretzel, sauerkraut, spiel

  From Italian

  capo, espresso, mafia, minestrone, pasta, pizza, spaghetti, zucchini

  From Spanish

  bonanza, cafeteria, canyon, coyote, lassoo, loco (mad), marijuana, mustang, plaza, ranch, rodeo, stampede, tacos, tornado, vamoose

  From Yiddish

  gonif, kosher, mazuma, mensch, nosh, schmaltz, schmuck, schnoz, scram, shlemiel; Enjoy!, You should worry!, Get lost!, Crazy she isn’t!

  and skunk. Now, there were many words from Spanish, French, German, Dutch, and the other immigrant languages, which were increasingly becoming part of the American environment.

  The many stages in the history of the country are reflected in its remarkable variety of place names:

  Indian names, like Oshkosh, Saratoga, Tallahassee, Weewahitchka.

  European names, like Athens, Berlin, London, Paris.

  Personal names, like Dallas, Houston, Jackson, Washington.

  French names in -ville, like Higginsville, Louisville, Nashville, Niceville, Washingtonville.

  ‘Poetic’ names, like Arcadia, Aurora, Belvedere, Meadowvale.

  Landmarks, like Little Rock, Pine Bluff, South Bend.

  Animal names, like Beaver City, Buffalo, Eagletown, Elkton.

  Spanish names, like Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Rio Grande, Sacramento.

  At the same time, an enormous number of coinages were introduced – words and phrases based on earlier English elements which reflected the many social and cultural developments in American history. Specific events and activities, such as cattle ranching, the railroad, gambling, the gold rush, and the new political system added thousands of new words, senses, and idioms to the language:

  bartender, bluff (promontory), bootleg, caucus, congress, corn (maize), cowboy, eggplant, freight, groundhog, maverick, popcorn, prairie, prospector, stagecoach, steamboat, bite the dust, bury the hatchet, face the music, go off the rails, go on the warpath, hit the jackpot, stake a claim, strike it rich, the real McCoy, up the ante.

  Many of these words and phrases have entered the standard language, and are used wherever English is spoken. But there remains a substantial distinctive vocabulary restricted to the United States, along with several features of grammar, spelling and pronunciation that combine to set ‘American English’ off from ‘British English’ and the other varieties in the world. These are reviewed on pp. 264–9.

  Noah Webster

  The patriotism of the newly independent United States of America found its linguistic expression in the teacher Noah Webster (1758–1843). His first books, on English spelling and grammar, were extremely successful – his American Spelling Book selling around eighty million copies in the century following its publication. In 1828, he published An American Dictionary of the English Language, in two volumes – what in later revisions has come to be known simply as Webster’s. This work was the foundation of American lexicography, and was held in similar esteem to Johnson’s Dictionary in England. Webster’s aim was to show the way the language was developing independently in America: ‘our honour’, he wrote, ‘requires us to have a system of our own, in languages as well as in government. Great Britain, whose children we are, should no longer be our standard; for the taste of her writers is already corrupted, and her language on the decline.’ He introduced several spelling reforms – one of the few people ever to have done so successfully – which resulted in such spellings as color, center, defense, and traveler. Some, such as his proposal to spell medicin, examin, etc. without the e, did not succeed; on the other hand, his spelling of music, logic, etc. without a final k has since become standard.

  Canada

  The roots of Canadian English can be found in the events which followed the American Revolution of 1776. Those who had supported Britain found themselves unable to stay in the new United States, and most went into exile in the Ontario region of Canada. From there they spread to all parts of the country. They were soon followed by many thousands who were attracted by the cheapness of land. Within fifty years, the population of Upper Canada (above Montreal) had reached 100,000 – mainly people from the United States.

  In the east, the Atlantic Provinces had been settled with English speakers much earlier (the first contacts were as early as 1497, when the British explorer John Cabot claimed Newfoundland), but even today these areas contain less than 10 per cent of the population, so that they have only a marginal role in the development of the Canadian ‘norm’. In Quebec, the use of French language and culture remains from the first period of exploration, with the majority of people using French as a mother-tongue: here, English and French coexist uneasily.

  Because of its origins, Canadian English has a great deal in common with the rest of the English spoken in North America – and is often difficult to distinguish for people who live outside the region. To British people, Canadians may sound American; to Americans, they may sound British. Canadians themselves insist on not being identified with either, and certainly there is evidence in support of this view.

  The vocabulary looks very ‘mixed’, with American and British items coexisting – such as tap (US faucet) and porridge (US oatmeal) alongside gas (Br petrol) and billboard (Br hoarding). Vehicle terms are typically American: trucks, fenders, trunks, cabooses, etc. There is a greater likelihood of encountering British spellings, though the American model is gradually becoming more widespread, especially in popular publications: such words as curb, jail, and tire are normally spelled in the American way. Newspapers tend to use American spellings, and learned journals and school textbooks to use British.

  In pronunciation, Canadian English has several important identifying features – notably the sound of the ou diphthong, which in words like out sounds more like oat (in Received Pronunciation, p. 54); moreover, there is a contrast between such words as out and house and those such

  The direction of English-speaking immigration in Canada

  as loud and houses. Most Canadians rhyme such pairs as cot and caught (as do many US speakers and most Scots). There is also a social preference for the British pronunciation of words like tune, due and news, with a [j] after the first consonant, rather than using the US ‘toon’, ‘do’, ‘nooz’ (though the latter pronunciations are native to many Canadians). This has become one of the usage issues in the country, with broadcasters’ attention being drawn to the point.

  A commonly cited feature of Canadian English occurs in conversation – the use of eh? as a tag with rising intonation at the end of a sentence (So she went into Lincoln, eh?). However, although it is widespread in the speech of Canadians, it is by no means unique to the area, being also found in several other parts of the English-speaking world, such as Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, and Jamaica.

  There are many words originating in Canada, often borrowings from American Indian languages, some of which have entered English directly, and sometimes through the medium of French. Examples include caribou, chesterfield (sofa), kayak, kerosene, mukluk (Eskimo boot), parka, reeve (mayor), riding (constituency), skookum (strong). Ice-hockey terminology, such as puck, face-off, rush, and slot, comes from this region. There are around 10,000 words listed in the Dictionary of Canadianisms, though many of these are restricted to certain dialect areas.

  The regional dialects of
Canada, both rural and urban, have been little studied. There is a widespread impression that Canadian speech is uniform from one end of the continent to the other, but this is a superficial impression, which ignores important differences in such areas as Newfoundland, Quebec, the more isolated parts of the country, and the inner cities.

  Black English

  During the early years of American settlement, a highly distinctive form of English was beginning to develop in the islands of the West Indies and the southern part of the mainland, spoken by the incoming black population. The beginning of the seventeenth century saw the emergence of the slave trade. Ships from Europe travelled to the West African coast, where they exchanged cheap goods for black slaves. The slaves were shipped in barbarous conditions to the Caribbean islands and the American

  English-speaking areas in the Caribbean

  coast, where they were in turn exchanged for such commodities as sugar, rum, and molasses. The ships then returned to England, completing an ‘Atlantic triangle’ of journeys, and the process began again. Britain and the United States had outlawed the slave trade by 1865, but by that time, nearly 200 years of trading had taken place. By the middle of the nineteenth century, there were over four million black slaves in America.

  The policy of the slave-traders was to bring people of different language backgrounds together in the ships, to make it difficult for groups to plot rebellion. The result was the growth of several pidgin forms of communication (see p. 13), and in particular a pidgin between the slaves and the sailors, many of whom spoke English. Once arrived in the Caribbean, this pidgin English continued to act as a major means of communication between the black population and the new landowners, and among the blacks themselves. Then, when children came to be born, the pidgin became their mother tongue, thus producing the first black creole speech in the region. This creole English rapidly came to be used throughout the cotton plantations, and in the coastal towns and islands. Similarly, creolized forms of French, Spanish and Portuguese emerged in and around the Caribbean. The linguistic processes and stages involved in the early development of these varieties are obscure, and their study has led to considerable controversy, giving rise as it does to issues of ethnicity and identity.