Why Do Americans Speak English?

Why is American English unique?

Aside from the fact that we mean different things when we talk about “football,” how much do you actually know about American English, especially insofar as it’s claimed its independence from the Brits? Most people can rattle off the subtle differences between the colors of Americana and the colours of a London fog, but there’s more to it than that.

Without getting too deep into the more mundane differences between American and British English, here are a few facts about American English that may honestly surprise you — or at the very least, entertain you.1. American English is the official language of nowhere. Despite what you may have heard, the United States doesn’t have an official language, even if at least 231 million of its residents speak English.

And this was after Rep. Washington J. McCormick unsuccessfully attempted to pass a bill that would officialize “the American language” in 1922, though it did briefly catch on in the state of Illinois.2. American English began as a means to communicate with native peoples.

The first ways of speech that could truly be considered “American” were actually the nautical pidgins that early explorers used to communicate with native people in pre-colonial times. Slaves also had their own version of English from the nautical regions of West Africa.3. American English isn’t the only dialect to blame for the differences across the pond.

British English also continued changing post-1776, most notably by dropping the “r” sounds from words like “car” and “hard.” This de-rhotacization led to what we know of today as the posh British accent. This means the rhotic pronunciation we often associate with American speech didn’t come from Americans — but rather the Brits of yore.4.

• If one man got his way, we would write “wimmen” instead of “women.” In 1806, Noah Webster published the first American dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, which was full of laughable suggestions for streamlining American spelling.
• He eventually arrived to a standardization of American English that was palatable enough to stick (such as our beloved “color” and “theater”), but a lot of his earliest attempts earned him the title of “prostitute wretch.” His biggest crime? Wanting America to form a unique cultural identity — one in which “tung” meant “tongue.” 5.

American English is also unique because of the cultural melting pot that came to inform it. Due to the unique history of migrations to the United States, American English now contains loan words and linguistic influences from various Native American languages, Dutch, German, Yiddish, French, European Spanish, Mexican Spanish and more.6.

1. Most of our state names aren’t “English” at all.
2. Approximately half of U.S.
3. State names have linguistic ties to the Native American tribes that once inhabited the land.7.
4. The United States isn’t actually all that “united” linguistically.
5. The United States is so vast, it’s possible to identify at least 10 distinct geographical accents across the country.

Though to be fair, you could claim “General American” as a national accent and call it a day.

Is American English closer to Old English?

American English displays no particular traits that would put it closer to either Old or for that matter Middle English, as it only began to diverge well into the Early Modern Era, with key differences from the varieties spoken in the British Isles — that are not enough to impede or disrupt successful communication —

How did Americans get their accent?

History – The use of English in the United States is a result of British colonization of the Americas, The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North America during the early 17th century, followed by further migrations in the 18th and 19th centuries.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, dialects from many different regions of England and the British Isles existed in every American colony, allowing a process of extensive dialect mixture and leveling in which English varieties across the colonies became more homogeneous compared with the varieties in Britain.

English thus predominated in the colonies even by the end of the 17th century’s first immigration of non-English speakers from Western Europe and Africa. Additionally, firsthand descriptions of a fairly uniform American English (particularly in contrast to the diverse regional dialects of British English) became common after the mid-18th century, while at the same time speakers’ identification with this new variety increased.

• Since the 18th century, American English has developed into some new varieties, including regional dialects that retain minor influences from waves of immigrant speakers of diverse languages, primarily European languages.
• Some racial and regional variation in American English reflects these groups’ geographic settlement, their de jure or de facto segregation, and patterns in their resettlement.

This can be seen, for example, in the influence of the Scotch-Irish immigration in Appalachia developing Appalachian English and the Great Migration bringing African-American Vernacular English to the Great Lakes urban centers.

When did Americans lose their British accents?

As the title of this post suggests, I often hear questions along the lines of, ” when did Americans stop talking like British people ?” Many readers, of course, know that history offers no such easy answers. But it’s a topic worth delving into. Most scholars have roughly located “split off” point between American and British English as the mid-18th-Century.

There are some clear exceptions. Eastern New England, New York City, and the Coastal South all seem to have maintained various degrees of contact with the “Old World,” and hence adopted some later British innovations. But as a whole, American English started going its own course around the time of the Revolutionary War.

How would these colonials have talked? Everything I’ve read suggests their accent would not have been radically different from today’s General American spectrum of accents.* More marked regional accents would have been different, however. It’s unlikely, for example, that most Southerners spoke with what we think of today as a Southern Accent.

That being said, it’s clear to me that British English has seen at least as much of a change than American English. So the more pertinent question is, when did Britons stop talking like Americans? Let me answer this by turning to the Survey of English Dialects, a massive collection of (mostly rural) English dialects compiled in the 1950’s.

I’ve perused through this collection for years now, and one thing that strikes me the most is how many “cousins” of American English there used to be in the UK. For example, two obvious indicators of American English are rhoticity (pronouncing the r’s at the end of words) and the use of an unrounded vowel in words like “lot” and “cod” (“laht,” “cahd,” etc).

And yet, if you look through the notes for SED recordings you’ll find both these features throughout a huge band of Southern England, extending from the West Country to Kent, with the latter feature (unrounded “lot”) extending further, up to Norfolk, So in some sense, there are pockets of England where people didn’t really stop talking like “Americans” until the 20th-Century.

That is, if you see American English as part of a larger continuum of Southern England-derived dialects*. Regardless of the degree to which these older rural dialects are extinct now, the fact is not so much that the British stopped talking like Americans, so much as urban British dialects became the type of English spoken by a majority of the English populace.

1. Particularly London.
2. In essence, something happened in Southern England that didn’t happen in America.
3. Whereas the local dialects of New York City (the largest city in the US) have remained largely confined to a small portion of that metropolitan area, the dialects of London (the UK’s largest city) have been spreading their influence in various ways for hundreds of years.

In my opinion, these two countries went in very different linguistic directions because their populations went in different directions (both literally and figuratively). England saw rapid industrialization in the 19th-Century, and with it a change in demographics from rural to urban.

The American people, despite great hubs of industrialization like New York and Chicago, remained a mostly rural population for a very long time. The two types of English reflects their history. Obviously, though, this is an incredibly complex topic. Anybody have any insights of their own? *Perhaps debatable, but regardless **In Volume 1 of The Accents of English, John C.

Wells notes one prominent difference: many people would have still had “raised” pronunciations of words like “kite” and “mouth” (similar to Irish accents today).

Why do Americans use Z instead of S?

United States vs. Britain: Who spells better? Before spelling was standardized, there were often multiple ways to spell the same word. Authors had to decide which spellings they preferred. Jane Austen, for instance, favored “shew” and “chuse” to the now-conventional “show” and “choose.” Slightly after Austen’s time, Noah Webster simplified many words in “An American Dictionary of the English Language,” which was first published in 1828.

Although many of Webster’s spelling changes have since become part of standardized American English, Webster occasionally went overboard with his simplifications. For example, he thought “machine” and “soup” look better spelled as “masheen” and “soop.” Needless to say, these spelling changes didn’t make the cut.

Of the words that did, there arose a split between American and British English. American English spellings attempt to boil words down to the bone; extraneous vowels are removed or words are rewritten to read more “logically.” However, not all of these spelling changes make more sense in their simplified American forms.

Here’s a judgmental list of seven words with different American and British spellings, based on which versions make the most sense.1. Cozy vs. cosy Many American words replace the “s” used in British spelling with a “z” for words such as “realize,” “apologize” and “cozy.” Using a “z” instead of an “s” makes more sense because we pronounce these words with a “z” sound.

Besides, “z” is much more fun to use than “s”! Thus, “cozy” is the more logical spelling.2. Mustache vs. moustache The British spelling of “moustache” never fails to bring to my mind images of a Salvador Dalí-like handlebar moustache. For this reason alone, “moustache” is obviously the best spelling.

• Mustache” just looks so plain and ordinary in comparison, lacking the fantastical imagery inherent in the British spelling.3. Mold vs.
• Mould “Mold” reminds me of bread mold and unpleasant-smelling dorm rooms.
• Mould,” however, has more elegant connotations, such as moulding clay (or moulding bread, for that matter).

Therefore, if you’re feeling fancy, both the American and the British spellings could be useful: “mold” for the noun and “mould” for the verb.4. Offense vs. offence (-nse vs -nce word endings) Although we Americans are used to spelling “offense” ending with -nse, the -nce ending in this instance might actually make more sense.

1. After all, we spell “fence” with -nce, not -nse, so “offence” should naturally follow this convention.
2. However, for words such as “pretense,” the opposite could be argued — the -nse ending makes more sense here since the word “tense” is spelled with an -nse ending in both American and British English.

Similarly, words such as “sense,” “immense” and “dense” are spelled with -nse endings in both countries. Therefore, because the endings of “fence” and “sense” sound exactly alike, they should be spelled the same way. However, we’re stuck with two ways to spell the same sound because English is ridiculous, regardless of whether it is “American” or “British.” 5.

Gray vs. grey I actually use both spellings — “grey” on a normal, carefree day and “gray” when I want to convey a feeling of misery. “Grey” with an “e” just looks better than “gray” with an “a.” “E” is the preferred vowel, as it sounds better than “a.” “E” also happens to be the most-used letter in the alphabet, which is further proof of its superiority.6.

Aluminum vs. aluminium In fact, neither spelling was the first name of element 13. “Alumium” was its original name, although the man who named Al changed its name several times before settling on “aluminium,” which stuck in both Great Britain and the United States until the 1900s, when the U.S.

began dropping the second “i,” according to World Wide Words. “Aluminum” is clearly the better spelling, as “aluminium” is just too pretentious-looking.7. Traveled vs. travelled Although the American style prefers a single “L,” I think double-“L”s in a word looks better. Words such as “cancelled,” “labelled” and “travelled” look more balanced and concrete with two “L”s.

I might be biased, though, since my name has double-“L”s, which may have led me to believe that two “L”s are better than one. : United States vs. Britain: Who spells better?

How did the British get their accent?

English is derived from a number of Germanic dialects brought to these shores roughly 1,500 years ago by settlers we now call Anglo-Saxons. The Saxons came from present-day northern Germany, and settled mainly in the south and West Country.

Why did Americans lose their British accent?

When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents And More Questions From Our Readers Rogan Brown

• Weather systems in the United States move from west to east, so how is it that Atlantic hurricanes originate off the African coast and move west?
• John Jay Rouse, St. Cloud, Minnesota
• The winds blow from west to east in the mid-latitudes, where the United States is located, but in the tropics, they blow east to west.
• Douglas Herman, geographer, National Museum of the American Indian
• When did the early colonists stop sounding British and start sounding American?
• Katie Cavanaugh, Mason, Michigan

People back in England noted the quirky new ways Americans were speaking English within a generation of the colonists’ arrival. Over time, the changes went beyond accent to include different words and grammatical structures, adding up to a new dialect.

Dialects have two main causes. The first is isolation; early colonists had only sporadic contact with the mother country. The second is exposure to other languages, and the colonists came into contact with Native American languages, mariners’ Indian English pidgin and other settlers, who spoke Dutch, Swedish, French and Spanish.

All of these languages influenced American English, as did the English-speaking colonists’ origins in different parts of England, Wales and Scotland. Later, as metropolitan centers such as Boston and New York City had more contact with England, they adopted the then-trendy r-less accent of the English upper class.

Mary Linn, linguist, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Hummingbirds visit my feeders every spring. Are these the same birds returning because they can remember where the food is? Claire Muskus, Lisbon, Connecticut There’s lots of evidence that birds can recall where they found food previously, but it is unclear whether they remember from day to day or year to year.

Hummingbirds are known to “trap-line,” or to pay regular visits to certain bushes or even flowers for nectar, suggesting at least short-term recall.

1. Peter Marra, ecologist, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, National Zoo
2. Is the Kensington Runestone in Minnesota real or fake?
3. Steven Kispert, Owatonna, Minnesota

Despite recent efforts to “revive” the stone as a monument left by Scandinavian explorers in the 14th century, runic experts, geologists and archaeologists have judged it a 19th-century creation. But it’s still valuable as a focus of modern Scandinavian heritage in the Upper Midwest.

• William Fitzhugh, anthropologist, National Museum of Natural History
• Does anyone know where the plane carrying Glenn Miller went down?
• Mary-Dawn Johnston, Boise, Idaho

No. There are still conflicting theories on where and why the bandleader’s plane disappeared on December 15, 1944. He was en route from England to France, where his band was to play. John Edward Hasse, curator of American music, National Museum of American History It’s your turn to Get the latest on what’s happening At the Smithsonian in your inbox.

Why do British people say Zed?

Here’s the history of how we say the letter “Z,” and why. – Though they technically are the same language, British English and American English have scores of differences—from the small, like the extra “U” in “colour,” to the large, like the very different meanings of words like “boot” and “casket.” But the fact that the differences extend to things as basic as the letters of the alphabet is a little perplexing.

1. Or, more accurately, just one letter of the alphabet—the last one.
2. In Great Britain, if someone is talking about a large group of things, they’ll say “everything from A to Zed.” This phrase probably sounds foreign and clunky to our “zee”-accustomed American ears.
3. But it’s not just the United Kingdom that uses “zed”; it’s what you’ll hear in every English-speaking country, besides the United States, which adheres firmly to “zee.” America certainly has a habit of insisting on doing things differently from the rest of the world, from its non-metric system of measurement to Fahrenheit temperatures,

But when it comes to “zee,” it actually does make a degree of sense. But, then again, “zed” does too. It did, after all, come first. Much of our modern alphabet comes directly from the Greek alphabet, including a letter, that looked just like our “Z,” that the Greeks called “zeta.” “Zeta” evolved into the French “zede,” which in turn gave us “zed” as English was shaped by Romance languages like French.

Then, well into the established existence of modern English, “zee” showed up on the scene. Dr. Adam Crowley, an associate professor of English in Husson University’s College of Science and Humanities, attributes this variation to “regional dialects.” “Between the 1500s and 1700s, the last letter of the English alphabet is represented as both ‘zed’ and ‘zee’ in documents written on either side of the Atlantic Ocean,” explains Dr.

Crowley. He suggests that the popularity of “zee” grew because it rhymes with so many other letters, like B, C, and P. There’s no other letter that ends with the “-ed” sound. So, again, this makes sense. In the United Kingdom, though, “zee” never really caught on.

But in the fledgling United States, it was a different story. After the Revolutionary War, Americans were trying to establish an identity separate from the British, and words and language played a big role in this. And Noah Webster spearheaded this movement when he began publishing standardized dictionaries of “American” English, with deliberate changes from British English.

And while that’s a whole ‘nother story, Webster, sure enough, designated the distinctly-not-British “zee” as the “official” American pronunciation. And then, of course, there’s the song, which was copyrighted in 1835 by a Boston music publisher. “If there was any lingering debate about the differences between ‘zed’ and ‘zee’ for American children, it was settledwhen The Alphabet Song was first copyrighted,” Dr.

Crowley explains. After all, there’s no better way to solidify something than to perfectly rhyme it in a catchy song that easily gets stuck in your head—and that you start learning from infancy. And, indeed, Today I Found Out reports that teachers in England and other countries sometimes have to re-teach children how to pronounce the last letter after they’ve already learned “zee” from hearing the song on American kids’ TV shows.

That’s a whole lot on the history of Z—now check out some fun facts about every letter in the alphabet,

What accent does not pronounce R?

Introduction – Rhotic varieties in English are the pronunciation of the consonant /r/ in all r position contexts (word-initially word-medially, and word-finally), while other varieties of English language are classified as non-rhotic. In non-rhotic varieties, speakers do not pronounce /r/ when it is at the end of a word or in postvocalic environments, that is, when it is immediately after a vowel and not followed by another vowel.

Rhotic and non-rhotic pronunciations can be found both in Received Pronunciation (RP) (standard British English pronunciation) and in General American (GA) pronunciation (standard American English pronunciation). Non-rhotic countries are England, especially the south-west; Wales; New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Black Africa, the Caribbean, except for Barbados; the American southern states, the Boston area of New England, and New York City vernacular speech; and Black English Vernacular in the US.

Why Do Americans Speak So Fast? | How to Speak English Fast and Understand Native Speakers

The main rhotic countries are US (the northern and western states of the US apart from the Boston area and New York City), Canada, India, Ireland, south-western England, Scotland, and Barbados. All English accents were rhotic up until the early Modern English period and non-rhoticity variety was a relatively late development.

It is said to have started in 18th century as a prestige motive in socio cultural contexts in British culture (Demizeren, 2012, p.2660; Boyce et al., 2016, p.3; Villarreal et al., 2020, p.24). The advent of radio and television in the 20th century established a national standard of American pronunciation that preserves historical /r/, with rhotic speech in particular becoming prestigious in the United States rapidly after the Second World War (Labov et al., 2006, p.5, 8, 11–14).

The aim of this article is to study the social factors that influenced rhoticity in English.

What do other countries think of American accents?

Americans Are Most Worried About How They Sound Abroad, According to a New Study Is your holding you back? According to new research, many Americans are anxious about how they sound when traveling abroad. Babbel, a, teamed up with Dr. Alex Baratta, a lecturer in language, linguistics, and communications at the University of Manchester, to conduct a study that asked participants about their perceptions based on people’s accents.

A whopping 7,500 people in the U.S, U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, and Canada were interviewed on their opinions about foreign speakers attempting their native tongue, as well as their own anxieties about speaking in a, The results showed that Americans are most worried when it comes to how their accent is perceived abroad.

Fifty-four percent said they feel anxious about their accent when speaking in a foreign language, and 34 percent expressed a desire to get rid of their accent when communicating in a foreign dialect. Abroad, American accents are most likely to be considered “friendly,” (34 percent of non-U.S.

1. Respondents), “straight-forward” (27 percent), and “assertive” (20 percent).
2. Canadians are most likely to find the American accent “assertive” (23 percent of Canadian respondents), and Italians are most likely to find an American accent “funny” (25 percent of Italian respondents).
3. French accents are rated as the “sexiest” in the U.S.

(40 percent of American respondents), while Italian is the most “passionate” (40 percent). Americans also think the Caribbean accent is most “friendly” (37 percent), and British accents are most “sophisticated” (44 percent). Overall, a Spanish accent is considered most “friendly” (39 percent of all respondents), and German is the most “straightforward” and “assertive” (29 percent and 33 percent, respectively) as well as the most “professional” (26 percent).

French and Italian tied for the most “stylish” (30 percent). French accents are also perceived as the most “sophisticated,” “intriguing,” and “sexy” (30 percent, 19 percent, and 37 percent). And Swedish accents are thought to be the most “intelligent” and “trustworthy” (24 percent and 15 percent, respectively).

Getty Images On the flip side, American accents are found to be the most “uneducated” (16 percent), Russian accents are regarded as the most “unfriendly” (18 percent), and German and Russian tied for being most “harsh” (38 percent). The study also found that female (42 percent) and younger respondents (47 percent) are more likely to have anxiety than the global average (38 percent).

1. On the bright side, Americans and the British are most likely to overcome anxiety about speaking in a foreign language.
2. Babbel even has a for people wanting to tackle their fears and master their chosen foreign language.
3. More information about learning a foreign language can be found on the or by downloading the Babbel app.

Thanks for your feedback! : Americans Are Most Worried About How They Sound Abroad, According to a New Study

Who colonized America?

Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands established colonies in North America. Each country had different motivations for colonization and expectations about the potential benefits.

How did Australians get their accent?

Accent change – different generations of speakers – Timeline of Accent Change This timeline shows key events in Australian history which have influenced how our accent has changed since colonisation. People of different ages have different accents and this is because change constantly occurs in the language.

The accent of a community changes alongside social and political change but also because the sounds of speech make up a system that is self-regulating and constantly in flux. We can say that change can be external (social/political) or internal (linguistic/phonetic). Changes usually enter a dialect through the speech of teenagers or pre-teens who desire to express their identity independent of the previous generation.

History – a new dialect of English Australian English is a relatively new dialect of English and is over 200 years old. Australian English can be described as a new dialect that developed as a result of contact between people who spoke different, mutually intelligible, varieties of English.

1. The very early form of Australian English would have been first spoken by the children of the colonists born into the early colony in Sydney.
2. This very first peer group would have spoken in similar ways to each other to help bind the peer group and express their group membership.
3. This very first generation of children created a new dialect that was to become the language of the nation.

The children in the new colony would have been exposed to a wide range of different dialects from all over England but mainly the south east, particularly from London. They would have created the new dialect from elements present in the speech they heard around them in response to their need to express peer solidarity.

How do you say I’m sorry in Old English?

Table of Contents –

1. Difference Between “I Apologize” and “I Am Sorry”
2. When to Say Sorry?
3. When to Say “I Apologize”?
4. 10 Ways to Say “Sorry” in Different Languages

King Alfred the Great introduced the word ‘sorry’ during the translation of book 1 of ‘The Consolation of Philosophy.’ The word ‘sorry’ was derived from the old English word ‘sarig,’ which means expressing grief or mourning. There are several ways of saying sorry.

We all mess up once in a while, probably more than that. It all depends on the kind of apology you want to give and who you are saying sorry to. Saying sorry in different languages is important and the most typical way of expressing your apology. If you’re looking to say this in multiple languages, below you will get an idea of how to say sorry in different languages,

We will also dig deeper to know when and how to use sorry. Source

How do you say thank you in Old English?

From Middle English thanks, thankes, from Old English þancas (‘thanks’), from Proto-Germanic *þankōs, nominative plural of *þankaz (‘thought, gratitude’), from Proto-Indo-European *teng- (‘to think, feel’).

Is it GREY or gray?

‘Gray’ vs. ‘Grey’: What is the Difference? Gray and grey are both common spellings of the color between black and white. Gray is more frequent in American English, whereas grey is more common in British English. The varying usage of both grey and gray extends to specialized terms such as animal species (gray/grey whale) and scientific terms (gray/grey matter). It’s all a bit. cloudy. The color known to fall in the range between black and white can be spelled or, This is one of the most frequently queried words in English when it comes to spelling, because both spellings are common enough to seem familiar. Of the two, gray occurs more frequently in American English, while grey has historically been the spelling preferred by British English publications.

It derives from the Old English grǣg, “Fifteen-year-old Jo had a decided mouth, a comical nose, and sharp, gray eyes, which appeared to see everything, and were by turns fierce, funny, or thoughtful.” — Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, 1868-9 He was a tall, lean man of fifty, with a drooping moustache and grey hair.

— W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, 1919

Why do Americans say airplane?

‘Aero’ is a prefix meaning ‘of the air’ in British English and other English dialects. This is similar to the use of the prefix ‘Hydro’ in words like Hydrodynamic. In American English, this prefix is simply ‘Air.’ So, Aeroplane becomes Airplane, Aerofoil become Airfoil, etc.

Why does the US spell color differently?

Difference Between Color and Colour – You might have noticed that there are other words with the same duality of spelling—words like ” honor,” ” traveling,” ” favorite,” and the past tense of the verb ” spell,” These variations in spelling exist because of differences between American English and British English,

Color is the spelling used in the United States. Colour is used in other English-speaking countries. The word color has its roots (unsurprisingly) in the Latin word color, It entered Middle English through the Anglo-Norman colur, which was a version of the Old French colour, The current difference in spelling between the American and British variants is credited to (or occasionally blamed on) Noah Webster, the American lexicographer.

Seeking to establish American independence and identity in language, Webster implemented a number of spelling reforms in A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, which he published in 1806.

Why do people prefer American English?

Many people grew up with American music and movies, even though many also grew up watching English football club. Celebrities who often go abroad like to incorporate American English into their local language with their American-ish accent. Many also use American accent to mimic white people.

How is American English different?

What are the differences between British and American English? | Britannica Dictionary

• Ask the Editor
• Question
• What are the differences between British and American English? — Farideh, Iran
• Answer

The most significant differences between British and American English are in their pronunciations, their vocabularies, and their spelling. There are grammatical differences, too, but these are less important and harder to describe, so we will pass over them for today.

2. Vocabulary
3. There are many differences in American and British English vocabulary. Here are 10 common words in American English followed by their British English equivalents:
4. American / British

1. elevator / lift
2. garbage / rubbish
3. vacation / holiday
4. truck / lorry
5. sweater / jumper
6. cookie / biscuit
7. french fries / chips
8. line / queue
9. parking lot / car park
10. silverware / cutlery

Spelling Finally, there are spelling differences. Below are three rules you can follow.

Most words ending in -our in British English are spelled without the u in American English (humour/humor, behaviour/behavior, etc.)

Most words ending in -re in British English are spelled with -er in American English (centre/center, litre/liter, etc.)

Many British English verbs ending in -ise are spelled with -ize in American English (realise/realize, organise/organize, etc.).

You can read more articles in the, : What are the differences between British and American English? | Britannica Dictionary

Why is American English the most influential?

Britain gains power, and so does English – The Gutenberg press invented in 1440 made English become even more widespread as it was published in print and distributed for the whole world to learn and read. This allowed English literature and culture to flourish significantly! Even after Shakespeare’s time, conquests and invasions were commonplace because of power struggles and the acquisition of resources and economic profits.

Mighty nations such as Britain continued to take over a lot of countries, establishing the British Empire. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and for over a century was the foremost global power. With British colonization, the colonized had to learn English, leaving new varieties of the language to develop all over the world.

Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, South African, and Indian, are common variations among others. Around the 1600s, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English. And this dialect became the most influential to the extent that it now influences the vocabulary of British English. Because of America’s dominance over cinema, television, popular music, trade, and technology (including the Internet) throughout the years, made English even more universal! Today, English has become the leading language in business, science, literature, politics, diplomacy, and many more areas and industries.

Is the American accent unique?

Not all Americans sound the same. You’ll hear very different American accents in the east, south, central and western United States. Some accents are subtle. Sometimes they can be hard to understand. We’ll break down the distinct pronunciation and vocabulary of different American accents. And hey! Maybe you’ll be able to do a New York or southern American accent after reading this article.

New England Accent Boston Accent Maine Accent New York Accent Philadelphia Accent Southern Accent Midwestern Accent Californian Accent Hawaiian Accent Pacific Northwest Accent High Tider Accent Cajun Accent Florida accent