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1、ThedifferencebetweenAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglishWiththedevelopmentofmodernsocietyandglobalization，Englishisusedmoreandmorewidelythaneverbefore.Asoneofthemostimportantlanguagesintheworld，theusingofEnglishisdefinitelysignificant.Englishisoneunmistakablyonelanguagebutcanbegroupe
2、dintotwomajorvarieties—AmericanEnglishandBritishEnglish.Eventhoughtheysharesomesimilaritiessometimes,there’restilldifferencesbetweenthem.ForthestudenteswhosemajorisEnglish,distinguishingthedifferencesisbenefitableintheprocessofstudy.Keywords：AmericanEnglishBritishEnglishdifferenc
3、espronunciationspellingmeaninguseHistoricalbackgroundTheEnglishlanguagewasfirstintroducedtotheAmericasbyBritishcolonization,beginningintheearly17thcentury.Similarly,thelanguagespreadtonumerousotherpartsoftheworldasaresultofBritishtradeandcolonizationelsewhereandthespreadoftheform
4、erBritishEmpire,which,by1921,heldswayoverapopulationofabout470–570millionpeople:approximatelyaquarteroftheworld'spopulationatthattime.Overthepast400years,theformofthelanguageusedintheAmericas—especiallyintheUnitedStates—andthatusedintheUnitedKingdomhavedivergedinafewminorways,lea
5、dingtothedialectsnowoccasionallyreferredtoasAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglish.Differencesbetweenthetwoincludepronunciation,grammar,vocabulary(lexis),spelling,punctuation,idioms,formattingofdatesandnumbers,andsoon,althoughthedifferencesinwrittenandmostspokengrammarstructuretendtobe
6、muchmoreminorthanthoseofotheraspectsofthelanguageintermsofmutualintelligibility.Asmallnumberofwordshavecompletelydifferentmeaningsbetweenthetwodialectsorareevenunknownornotusedinoneofthedialects.OneparticularcontributiontowardsformalizingthesedifferencescamefromNoahWebster,whowro
7、tethefirstAmericandictionary(published1828)withtheintentionofshowingthatpeopleintheUnitedStatesspokeadifferentdialectfromBritain,muchlikearegionalaccent.ThisdivergencebetweenAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglishoncecausedGeorgeBernardShawtosaythattheUnitedStatesandUnitedKingdomare"two
8、countriesdividedbyacommonlanguage";asimi
