earticle

영어

English in America has, for about four hundred years, acquired some characteristic features different from those of the British English as a result of the differences of geographical surroundings and historical background, although both of them inherited Elizabethan English. The American English, through objective observability, is inclined to be tolerant of dialect, with the sense of progressiveness. It also shows a sense of conservativeness because it has preserved some older usages of English which have already disappeared from British English since 17th century. On the other hand, the British English is thick with the sense of stand-ardization and conservativeness through subjective observability. Compared with the similarities between the two languages, however, the differences can not be magnified Then, the best expression that can be said about the British and American English is that there exists diversity in unity between them. At first, I have surveyed in this article how the American English came into existence and set up a character of its own. The comparative study also shows in detail not only the differences of the two languages in four parts such as pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling, and grammar, but how the two are interacting today. So far Korean learners of English have largely encountered American English. Therefore, I would suggest that the teacher of English should not lay excessive emphasis on the differences of British and American English, familiarizing himself with them without a prejudice of which form is good or superior English, because it will only bring about a more embarrassing effect on the present education of English. I hope this article will be helpful to the Korean learners of English and available for next study effectively.