Sample Assignment on Is British English is Conquering America or Vice Versa
Introduction
My topic for this assignment is “Is British English is Conquering America or Vice Versa?”. The article on the aforesaid topic was published by a leading newspaper in America known as The New York Times. The article on this topic was written by Mr. Alex William and it was published on 13 April 2018 on the official website of the New York Times i.e. https://www.nytimes.com/.
According to the said article, Americans are adopting British English very quickly. Like for example, people are using holiday instead of vacation, flat instead of apartment, ring my mobile instead of call my cellphone, cheers instead of thanks etc. Thus, in the recent years Americans are called Anglocreep. It is noticed that Americans are using British English phrases in their day to day American speech.
In this context, an American Professor linguistics at the University of Sussex in England known as Lynne Murphy mentioned in her book named "The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship Between American and British English.”
Topic: Is British English Conquering America, or Vice Versa?
The aforesaid phrase in the said article has been well discussed and explained. According to the said article, if a British person goes to America, American can recognize him a British person just by observing his way of talking and English accent. The use of British words make Americans feel sophisticated because they are organizing themselves to see the world beyond the United States of America. For example, Americans are using some words like fortnight, toffs etc.
In the 21st century the television and films plays a major role in day to day living of a person. The Film and television have done so much to familiarize the British and American English. Now a days, a large number of British editors and writers are working in Hollywood. They must using most of the words from the British English in their writing and editing work. While shooting for a film these words are read out in American voices and accent. The actors do so because they can slip into American English naturally without affecting the British accent.
Britishers also adopt the American English so that they can sound cool or want give a new touch to their language to get good impression from other while speaking. For example they like to use more familiar words instead of new words. The Bristishers do that self consciously.
Analysis of the article revealed that the famous and fantasy series “Harry Potter” was the first book which was translated into American English as per the demand of the fans of the series. After that incident more books like 'Sherlock' and 'Doctor Who' were also translated to American English due to the continuous demand from the fans. A little Americanization was done at that time to meet the customers demand.
The examples of James Corden and John Oliver are the considered as they have included Britishness in their brands. The Americans also using the phrases from the United Kingdom Parliament records like Wake-up call, Rubber meets the road etc.
According to the article English people generally don’t go out of their comfort zone to adopt Americanisms as they feel that it is thrust for them. That is the reason English people watch more American television and hear American music as compared to the Americans and vice versa. Britishers always consider Amercian English as a foreign language. They fear that soon American English may replace the British English across the globe. The British English is about 19th Century old from the very beginning. According to Virginia Woolf British English is considered as a creative and vital language across the globe.
Conclusion
From the above discussion and presentation it can be concluded that there are many vocabulary differences between British and American English. However, it depends on the speaker how he/she interprets to a particular scenario. In the recent times, film and television plays an important role in familiarizing the British and American English. Both the countries language has an influence of each other. As the people of both the countries can communicate with each other easily as there is only a few problems understanding the language of each other.
However, in the recent days most of the British English words are being replaced by American words. For example people are using fries words instead on the word chips. The adoption of the British English and American English are being noticed in other parts of the world as English is now considered as the business language across the globe. Most of the countries in the world follow British English as Britishers in the past used to rule all most all parts of the world. This is the reason most of the laws, rules and regulations are adopted from British English by the countries across the globe. However, people consider American English easy as compared to British English. The accent of both language are different but both works as a medium to communicate with each other.
References
Anderson, H. (2014, September 6). Language. How Americans are killing the english language .
Bardhan, S. (2013, June 29). Americanism or the influence of American English upon British English .
Macqueen, D. S. (2014). American English influence on British English at the height of the British Empire: A case of cross-varietal easement. 38, 105-113.
Magzone (Composer). (2018). Is British English Conquering America, or Vice Versa? . [Youtube, Conductor]
Williams, A. (2018, April 13). (S. Q. A., Ed.) Is British English Conquering America, or Vice Versa?
