When a Briton and an American meet,
even though they are far from mutually
unintelligible, each is soon aware of
differences in the speech of the other.
First, the accent is different:
pronunciation, tempo, intonation are
distinctive. Next, differences in
vocabulary, idiom and syntax occur, as
they would in a foreign language:
individual words are misunderstood or
not understood at all, metaphorical
expressions sound bizarre, subtle
irregularities become apparent in the
way words are arranged, or in the
position of words in a sentence, or in
the addition or omission of words. It is
estimated that some 4,000 words and
expressions in common use in Britain
today either do not exist or are used
differently in the US. These differences
are reflected in the way British and
American English are written, so that
variations in spelling and punctuation
also emerge. Finally, there are immense
cultural divergences, ranging from
different trademarks for everyday
products to different institutions and
forms of government. Little wonder,
then, that even in this age of global
communications, we are still able to
misunderstand each other. Before
examining each of these major
dissimilarities in detail, it may be useful
to consider how they have arisen.