2010年—2011学年第一学期英语词汇学期末论文DifferencesbetweenAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglish08级本科一班15DifferencesbetweenBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglishAbstract:Iwanttoexplainthedifferencesinthefollowingaspects:pronunciation,spelling,meaning,vocabularyandusage.Iwillcomparethesetwolanguagesintheoryandusesomeexamples.Ithinkwecanlearnmorethroughthiskindofresearch.Keywords:differences,AmericanEnglish,BritishEnglish,pronunciation,spelling,meaning,use.Englishisoneofthemostimportantlanguagesintheworld.Itisimportantbecauseofitsworldwideuse.LargenumbersofpeopleintheworldspeakandwriteEnglishasaforeignlanguageforthepurposeofscience,technology,andinternationalcommunication.ItisapparentlythatEnglishisthemoststudiedandusedlanguageintheworld.Englishisunmistakablyonelanguagebutcanbegroupedintotwomajorvarieties,BritishandAmericanEnglishwhichhavetheirowncharacter.GrammaticaldifferencesbetweenBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglisharefew.WhatIwanttoexplaininmythesisismainlyaboutlexical.Iwanttoexplainthedifferencesinthefollowingaspects:pronunciation,spelling,meaning,vocabularyandusage.Iwillcomparethesetwolanguagesintheoryandusesomeexamples.Ithinkwecanlearnmorethroughthiskindofresearch.ⅠDifferencesinPronunciation：：⒈differencesinindividualsounds：：⑴Americansretaintherattheendofthewordscar,etc.,orbeforeconsonantsasinhard,etc.;inBritishEnglishtherisnotpronounced,asinteacher[＇ti:t??].＇?BrEAmEstar[sta:]star[st?r]?car[ka:]car[st?r]?⑵Intermsoftheconsonant,themostobvioussystematicdifferenceisthepronunciationof/r/behindvowelsinAmericanEnglish.Butthispronunciation2donotexistinBritishEnglish.Herearesomeexamples:AmEdoorfatherpleasure/d?:r//`fa:??r//`ple??r/?BrE/d?://`fa:??//`ple??/⑶Theotherimportantsystematicisthepronunciationof/t/betweentwovowels.Itpronouncedas/t/inBritishEnglishbutpronouncedas/d/inAmericanEnglish.e.g.:butterbettermatterfatter⑷Americansprefertouseflatasimilarto/?/,inwordspath,grass,answer,etc.againstthebroadacurrentlyusedbyEnglishmen.⑸Thethirdobvioussystematicdifferenceisrelate