EL2111 Historical Variation
in English
Guide sheet for video screening (‘Pioneers, O
Pioneers!’)
Preliminary points
·
The
video does not discuss earlier developments in the American colonies or the
contribution of the blacks and the Irish to American English (these are
discussed in other programmes of The Story of English)
·
It
focuses on developments after the American Independence (in the late 18th
century) to the First World War (1914–18)
·
It
concentrates on the lexis (with the exception of the Canadian diphthongs)
·
Listen
out for the various American accents that can be heard on the video
|
Focus |
Illustrative image
|
Linguistic
contribution (mainly lexical) |
|
Noah
Webster Political
luminaries |
|
American
spellings like American
lexis like |
|
Canadian
loyalists |
|
Diphthongs:
/@U/ (about), /@I/ (light) Particle: eh
(‘This is good, eh?’) |
|
Riverboat
society and card gambling |
|
|
|
Fur
trappers |
|
|
|
Gold
prospectors (and the ’forty-niners) |
|
|
|
Cowboys and
contact with Spanish |
|
|
|
‘Red
Indians’ (Native Americans) |
|
|
|
Cowboys and
life on the ranch |
|
|
|
Steam
railway |
|
|
|
Mark Twain |
|
|
|
Italian
immigrants and contact with Italian |
|
|
|
German
immigrants and contact with German |
|
|
|
Jewish
immigrants and contact with Yiddish |
|
|
|
The Great
War |
|
|
