Historical Background of British and American English

　　The history of the English language is divided into three periods: The period from 450 to 1150 is known as the Old English. It is described as the period of full inflections(詞尾變化), since during most of this period the case ending of the noun, the adjective and the conjugation(結合) of the verb were not weakened. Old English was a highly inflected language. It had a complete system of declensions(變格) with four case and conjugations. So Old English grammar differs from Modern English grammar in these aspects(方面).

　　The period from 1150 is known as the Middle English period. It is know as the period inflections. This period was marked by important changes in the English language. The Norman Conquest was the cause of these changes. The change of this period had a great effect on both grammar and vocabulary. In this period many Old English words were lost, but thousands of words borrowed from French and Latin appeared in the English vocabulary. In the Middle English period grammatical gender(性) disappeared, grammatical gender was completely replaced by the natural gender.

　　Modern English period extends from 1500 to the present day. The Early modern English period extends from 1500 to 1700. The chief influence of this time was great humanistic(人文主義的) movement of the Renaissance. The influence of Latin and Greek on English was great. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries are a period of rapid expansion(擴張) for the English vocabulary in the history of the English language.

　　The development of the English language in America can be separated into three periods: The first period extends from the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 to the end of colonial times. In this period the population in America numbered about four million people, 90 of percent of whom came from Britain. The second period covers the expansion of the original thirteen colonies. This time may be said to close with the Civil War, about 1860. This period was marked by the arrival of the new immigrants(移民) from Ireland and Germany. The third period, since the Civil War, is marked by an important change in the source from which the European immigrants came. They came from northern and southern Europe in large numbers.

　　As time went on, the English language gradually changed on both sides of the Atlantic. The Americans adopted(接納) many words from foreign languages and invented large number of new words to meet their various needs.

　　American English began in the seventeenth century. At the beginning of the 17th century the English language was brought to North American by colonists from English. They used the language spoken in England, that is, Elizabethan English, the language used by Shakespeare, Milton and Banyan. At first the language stayed the same as the language used in Britain, but slowly the language began to change. Sometimes, the English spoken in American changed but sometimes the language spoken in the place stayed the same, while the language in England changed.

　　Following American independence, famous persons like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Webster began to consider that the country should have a language of its own. English in America has developed a character(特點) of its own, reflecting the life and the physical and social environment of the American people.


Selected from An Introduction to English Lexicology by Lin Chengzhang