Assignment on Varieties of English

Assessment 1
Research further on the differences between American and British English. Fill the table below.

Differences between British and American English

American British

- R is being pronounced in - In British accent, R is not

words. being pronounced when ‘R’
Pronunciation/acc - They don’t round the lips when comes after a vowel in the
ent pronouncing some vowels. same syllable.
- When ‘T’ comes after ‘N’ and - They use back rounded open
placed at the end of the word, sound when pronouncing some
the ‘T’ sound is dropped. word.
- When ‘T’ is before an ‘N’, the - Letter ‘T’ is always
sound is stopped and turns into pronounced whether if its in
a hard ‘N’. the beginning, middle or at the
- When ‘T’ is at the middle of the end of a word.
word, it sometimes changes to a - Some words are pronounced
soft ‘D’. long back rounded.
- It has a clear tendency - Some words are pronounced
to pronounce un-stressed significantly longer.
syllables.
- British English words ending - American English word
in ‘-our’ usually end in ‘-or’ in ending in ‘-or’ ends in ‘-our’
Spelling American English. For in British English. For
example, In British English it is example, In American English
spelled as flavour but in it is spelled as color but in
American English it is spelled British English it is spelled as
as flavor. Colour.
- Words ending in ‘ize’ can only - Verbs ending in ‘ize’ can be
be spelled with ‘ize’ spelled with either ‘ize’ or ‘ise.
- Verbs in British English that For example, apologize can be
ends with ‘yse’ are spelled as spelled as apologise.
‘yze’ in American English. - Verbs in American English
- Verbs ending in a vowel plus that ends with ‘yze’ are spelled
‘L’, letter ‘L’ is not being as ‘yse’ in British English.
doubled. For example, - In British spelling, ‘L’ is
traveling. doubled in verbs ending in a
- Double vowels ‘ae’ or ‘oe’ in vowel plus ‘L’. For example,
british english tend to be just Travelling.
spelled with an ‘e’ in American - Some words are spelled with
English. For example, Estrogen double vowel such as ‘ae’ or
or Pediatric. ‘oe’. For example, Oestrogen
- Some nouns that end with or Paediatric.
‘ence’ in British English are - Some nouns that end with
spelled ‘ense’ in American ‘ense’ in American English are
English. spelled ‘ence’ in British
- Some nouns ending in ‘ogue’ in English.
British English can be spelled - Some nouns ending in ‘og’ or
as ‘og’ or ‘ogue’ in American ‘ogue’ in American English is
English. only spelled as ‘ogue’ in
- Simplified spelling. For British English.
example, in American English - Some words ending in ‘er’ in
it is spelled as donut but in American English is spelled as
british English it is ‘doughnut’ ‘re’ in British English.
same goes with ‘aeroplane’ in
British and Airplane in
 American English.
- Words ending in ‘re’ in British
English is spelled as ‘er’ in
American English. Example
would be Calibre in British
English but caliber in American
English.
- Collective nouns are singular - Collective nouns can be
Grammar - In some past tense word, singular or plural.
American English tend to use - British English tend to use
-ed ending. For example, in the ‘-t’ ending with past tense
British English it is spelled as verb. Example would be ‘lent’
Learnt or learned but in instead of ‘lend’.
American English it would be - British only use ‘got’ in the
‘learned’ past participle.
- Americans use - Use the present perfect for
both ‘got’ and ‘gotten’ in the recent actions that affect the
past participle. present.
- American English accepts the - More likely to use formal
present perfect as correct, but it speech.
also offers a second possibility: - ‘at’ is the preposition in
the simple past. relation to time and place
-  ‘on’ is used instead of the
former and ‘in’ for the latter.
- Pants - Trouser
- Apartment - Flat
Vocabulary - Hood (front of car) - Bonnet (front of the car)
- Trunk (back of the car) - Boot (back of car)
- Truck - Lorry
- College - University
- Vacation - Holiday
- Sweater - Jumper
- Chips - Crisps
- French fries - Chips
- Sneakers - Trainers
- Soda - Fizzy drink
- Soccer - Football
- Store - Shop
- Drugstore - Chemist
- Cookie - Biscuit
- Mailbox - Post box
- Thumbtack - Drawing pin
- Driver’s license - Driving license
- Pacifier - Dummy
- Garbage can - Dustbin
- Overpass - Flyover
- Elevator - Elevator
- Diaper - Nappy
- Bar - Bar
- Rubbish - Garbage
- Vest - Waistcoat

ASSESSMENT 2
1. Research on Asian English’s from the outer circle and fill the table below.

English Variety Phonological Features Lexical Features

(Pronunciation/accent) (vocabulary)
1. Philippin - Filipino English - Always using specific words
e English pronunciation especially with such as actually, specifically.
 words ending with the “r” - Tend to use colloquialism.
sound is rhotic and easily For example, C.R instead of
understood. This means that bathroom, brownout instead
you can really hear a specific of blackout, course instead
vowel and consonant in most of major.
of word.  - Filipinism or the use of
- Filipino English accent words or phrases that are
sounds almost similar to the usually grammatically
original American English incorrect or are almost
accent. always results of
- Has a very neutral accent. transliteration. Example:
- It is syllable timed, Filipinos tend to say open
following the rhythm of the the light instead of turn on
local languages; full value is the lights or fill up the form
therefore given to unstressed instead of fill out.
syllables and schwa is - Filipinos tend to misuse
usually realized as a full some words such as the word
vowel. salvage. They refer salvage
- Certain polysyllables have as killed where in it actually
distinctive stress patterns, as means save.
with elígible, establísh, ceré - Redundancy of word.
mony. Example: I’ll repeat again,
- Intonation is widely I’m currently at the house
characterized as ‘singsong’. now.
- The distinction between /s,
z/ and /ʃ, ʒ/ is not made.
Example:  azure is
‘ayshure’, pleasure ‘pleshure
’, seize ‘sees’, cars ‘karss’.
- ‘Th’ sounds like ‘D’ or ‘T’.
For example, three of
these is spoken as ‘tree of
dese’.
2. Malaysia - ‘D’ is usually dropped if it is - Instead of saying ‘have you’
n English at the end of a word. at the beginning of the
- It does not have English sentence, Malaysian English
consonant cluster reduction tend to say ‘already’ at the
after ‘n’, ‘t, and ‘d’. end of the sentence.
- Generally non-rhotic Example: “You finish your
- The letter ‘I’ is generally homework already?” instead
clear. of “have you finish your
- Long and short vowels tend homework?”
to have the same length. - They also tend to use the
Example: Seat and Sit. word already to imply
something has happened.
Example: He went back
home already.
- Pragmatic particles
like lah, ah, meh, and hor are
frequently used.
3. Singapor - Singaporean English accent - Shortened sentences and
ean is non-rhotic and syllable- words. Example: instead of
English timed. never mind it would be
- Its intonation flows like nehmind
singing songs, but has short - Mandarin sentence structure
tones; glottalization at final - pragmatic particles
consonants. like lah, ah, and hor are
- Singaporean English has a frequently used.
distinctive rhythm, which - English creole sprinkled with
has been described as loan words, idioms, and
'machine gun' style. syntax structures from the
-  Singaporean English does local Chinese, Indian, and
 not distinguish between Malay dialects of Singapore.
voiced and voiceless - Use of modal auxiliaries
fricatives in final position.
- The cluster is often reduced
when words ending with a
consonant cluster. For
example, act, cast, stopped
are pronounced as ac, cas,
stop.
- Singapore English does not
have a distinction between
short and long vowels.
- There is less distinction
between stressed and
unstressed syllables than in
reference varieties of
English. It also has its own
tunes of speech

4. Indian - Indian-English speakers - Sometimes, speakers of

English usually speak with a syllabic English in India add a new
rhythm. level of meaning to existing
- They tend to have a retroflex words. For instance, if a
pronunciation. person wears a “hi-tech
- They also speak in a rhotic outfit”, it does not mean that
accent they are equipped with the
- Prolonged letter ‘R’ latest digital gadgets.
- The letter ‘t’ tends to sounds Instead, a hi-tech outfit
a ‘D’ stands for fashionable and
- Letter ‘W’ tends to sound ‘V’ modern and that follows the
latest trends.
- There are some words which
are unique to speakers from
India and instances of
misunderstanding are not
uncommon. Two examples
of Indian English words that
non-Indian English speakers
probably never encounter
include “airdash” which is
used for someone who is in a
hurry, and
“badmash”, another word
for a hooligan.

REFERENCES:

https://www.learnersdictionary.com/qa/what-are-the-differences-between-British-and-American-
English

https://www.oxfordinternationalenglish.com/differences-in-british-and-american-spelling/

https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-lovers/9-spelling-differences-between-british-and-
american-english/

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/six-difference-between-britsh-and-american-
english/3063743.html
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/how-british-english-and-american-english-are-different/?
&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=10273012991&utm_targetid=aud-
643433274876:dsa-1233402314764&gclid=CjwKCAjwndCKBhAkEiwAgSDKQfifuQJ61GTAPY5kJH9-
H5ERfJDyMKBd8WcUw9B3p38Kge8NBGykPBoC81wQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

https://www.britishcouncilfoundation.id/en/english/articles/british-and-american-english

https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/philippine-
english

https://qqeng.net/filipino-english-accent-why-do-people-love-the-filipino-english-accent/

https://www.asianfanfics.com/blog/view/863653

https://prezi.com/p/zlf-volm_yg6/lexical-features-of-philippine-english/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb4XSy-d2Ck

https://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/singlish.html

https://icosa.hkbu.edu.hk/listening/english-accents/sinagaporean-accent/index.htm

https://prezi.com/5ob9pkmrxdla/grammatical-features-of-singaporean-english/

https://www.latg.org/blog/2018/06/24/indian-english/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7MIyQS9p5E