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British english vs American EnglishDue mostly to the extensive spread of British Imperialism across the globe in the Modern Age, today english is spoken all over the world and is the primary language of several sovereign states. One such example is the united states of America, a former colony of Great Britain, which declared its independence from the Crown in 1776. Unlike states such as Canada and Australia who became independent members of the Commonwealth in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by solely political acts and retained their political ties to the Crown, the united states of america fought for and won complete independence from the British monarchy. Following the American War for Independence in the late eighteenth century, British subjects who now found themselves American citizens worked hard to define their separate identity from Britain. One way in which this search for a separate identity exhibited itself was in the 1828 publication of Noah Webster?s An American Dictionary of the english Language, which disregarded the accepted standard of english at that time: Samuel Johnson?s A Dictionary of the english Language, published in London in 1755. Driven by a sense of need to record the Native American influence as well as simply a lexicographer?s personal preferences for a myriad of spelling options available (not to mention a strong nationalistic desire to distinguish between two forms of a common language), the American dictionary successfully set American english apart as unique from that english used on the other side of the Atlantic. Thus, it was the American search for a clearly-defined identity manifested in the first American english dictionary of 1828 that created a fork in the path of the evolution of the english language and has since resulted in differences of spelling, pronunciation and vocabulary between what is referred to as British english and American english. Though British english and American english differ on other points such as pronunciation and vocabulary, the most obvious difference between them is in the spelling of the language itself. The rationale behind the various spellings differs widely, from which spelling is closer to the original loan word to which spelling better reflects the word?s pronunciation. And yet, because english is not regulated by an academic body (for example, like the french language), english dictionaries have no authority to dictate what is proper english spelling and what is not. english dictionaries simply record what is the most commonly accepted form of a word and thus ?proper? spelling is something that changes over time. So while the publication of a uniquely American english dictionary marked the beginning of a separate evolution of the english language, the lack of true standardisation (spelt ?standardization? in American english) has meant that there is no correct American english spelling or British english spelling, but rather what dictionaries refer to as ?Americanisms? or ?Chiefly British? in usage. In conclusion, British english and American english differ greatly in some respects due to their separate evolution for more than two hundred years, and yet, the lack of a regulatory body to define what is correct and what is incorrect American english or British english has kept the differences between the two from becoming anything more than two variations of one language. Because there are indeed differences between British english and American english, students of the language will need to choose which version they wish to study and their choice will be more a reflection of that country?s (Britain or America) sphere of influence than anything else. For example, students of english in Hong Kong will most likely choose to study the British version of english while students of english in the philippines will most likely choose to study the American version of english for reasons that have nothing to do with the language itself. Though students of english might be frustrated at first that there is no standardised version of english, this malleability of the language is one reason why english has become a global language. This quirky characteristic of english should be embraced by TEFL teachers and students of english, whether they choose to study British english or American english, should be exposed to both versions so that they can readily distinguish between them.
