Introduction

In different parts of the world, the English language has come in contact with genetically and culturally unrelated languages. Hence, different regional varieties of the language have developed with variations existing at virtually all levels of language analysis, i.e., phonological, grammatical, syntactic, semantic, lexical, etc. While regional differences in pronunciation and lexicon are often tied to sociolinguistic factors such as different mother tongues, speakers’ philosophy, and cultural differences, variation at the syntactic level appears minimally in varieties. Hence, in this chapter, I will shed light on the salient features that characterize varieties of the English language that users of English in the Nigerian English as a Second Language (ESL) environment could be exposed to.

 British & American English

The most prominent varieties of English among users of the English language in Nigeria are the British English (BrE) and American English (AmE) varieties. British English covers the varieties spoken in England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Australia, and South Africa, while the American variety denotes chiefly the English of Canada and the United States. The variety of English spoken in the USA has a literary normalized form called Standard American English. It is not a separate language because it neither possesses grammar, phonetic system, nor vocabulary of its own. Norms of American English are just slightly modified norms of those accepted in Great Britain. American English differs from British English in pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and more importantly in terms of word spellings. The term ‘Americanism‘ is often used in describing words or phrases peculiar to the English language as used in America.

 Spelling

Most of the differences in British and American varieties are seen at this level of language use. As a result of this, users of the computer nowadays have words underlined or pointed out to them as wrongly spelt by the computer from time to time based on the country where the computer is configured or manufactured. Thus, a computer manufactured in the United States and configured using American spellings will underline words such as cheque, honour, analyse, metre, etc. Below are some common British-American spelling differences.

 -our/or dichotomy

Most words ending in an unstressed -our in British English end in -or in American English, e.g.:

 -re/-er dichotomy

In British English, some words end with a consonant followed by -re. But most of these words have the ending -er in American English. This difference in the two varieties is most common with words ending with -bre or -tre, for example:

 -ce/-se dichotomy

American English and British English both retain the noun/verb distinction in advice/advise and device/devise (where the pronunciation is /s/ for the noun and /z/ for the verb), but American English has abandoned the distinction between licence and license and practice and practise (where the two words in each pair are homophones) and these are retained in British spelling. American English uses license and practice for both meanings. Other examples in this category are:

 -ise/-ize (-isation/-ization) dichotomy

While in British English -ise ends certain words, the American equivalents end in -ize. Here are some examples:

 -yse/-yze dichotomy

The -yse ending in some words is British, while the American equivalents of such words end in -yze as shown in the following examples:

-ogue, -og dichotomy

Some words of Greek origin in the English language end in either -ogue or in -og. The -ogue is common in British English, while -og has a slight edge over the -ogue ending in the American variety. See some examples of this variation in spellings below:

 Other Spelling Variations

Apart from the notable differences pointed out above in the spellings of the British and American Varieties of English, there are other observable spelling differences in the two varieties of the English language. Some of these other differences are given below.

 Double -l/Single -l Dichotomy

The final consonant of an English word is sometimes doubled in both American and British spelling when adding a suffix beginning with a vowel, for example, strip/stripped. In British English, however, a final -l is often doubled, but this is no longer common in American English. The British English doubling is required for all inflections (-ed, -ing, -er, -est) and for the noun suffixes -er and -or. The underlisted words are examples:

Conversely, there are words where British writers prefer a single -l and Americans usually use a double -ll. Words exhibiting this spelling difference are:

Dropped -e in American English

British English sometimes keeps silent e when adding suffixes where American English does not. British English prefers ageing, while American English is usually aging. For the noun or verb ‘route‘, British English often uses routeing, but in American English, routing is used.

See more

Mastering the Art of Reporting in English

Word Meaning

THE ENGLISH SENTENCE: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE ON THE ENGLISH WORD/VOCABULARY