INTRODUCTION

When you’re learning English in a classroom, online or offline, it’s easy to

forget that there’s not just one universal English. Even for native speakers,
these different “Englishes” can be really confusing! Like a lot of native
English speakers, I expected the differences between our versions of
English to be small and easy to ignore, but it’s important for us — and for
students — to remember that these differences can be challenging!
Even if dialects come from the same source, like American, British, and
Australian English, there are differences. They are different, such as in
vocabulary, lexis, spelling, pronunciation, grammatical pattern, and so on.
But this research will only focus on analyzing the different spelling between
them.

1. History

1.1. The history of American English

It began in the 17th century when the first wave of English-speaking
settlers arrived in the Americas. Over time, they developed their unique
vocabulary and pronunciation, borrowing from the native tongues of the
American Indians, the earlier Spanish settlers, and even the French. The
history of the American English began with the first massive migration of
the British settlers. Having arrived on the American continent, they found
themselves in a vastly different environment from the one they’d known,
filled with plants and animals that didn’t exist in Europe. They needed to
invent new words to describe the things they saw. Over time, English-
speaking Americans developed their own unique vocabulary and
pronunciations, many of which became widely adopted in England, as well
as in whole other languages. The ubiquitous ok is maybe the best example,
having worked its way into languages across every inhabited continent. Its
history and origins are unclear, although linguists believe it may have
arisen out the ironic wordplay of early 19th century American jokesters.
Around this time, some well-educated young people in American cities led a
fad of creating acronyms for deliberately misspelled phrases—thus, “ok”
came from “oll korrect,” meaning “all correct.”

1.2. The Evolution of British English

Since its arrival in Britain, the language has gone through several
transformations over time. It started out as Old English and then moved on
to Middle and Modern English before eventually developing into what we
know now as British English - a hybrid version of Modern English with
influences from other languages such as French, Latin and Greek. British
English has also been influenced by other cultures due to colonization and
immigration throughout history. These influences have shaped both the
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pronunciation and vocabulary of modern British English, making it distinct
from other forms of the language such as American or Australian English.
The Spread of British English. British English didn’t just stay confined to
Britain; it spread around the world during colonization and continues to be
spoken today in many parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New
Zealand

1.3. Australian English

Australian English had its beginnings in the late eighteenth century in a
convict settlement where people of diverse speech were brought together.
Some leveling of dialects had probably already taken place in England or
even at sea. The first settlers were especially important in setting the
direction of linguistic development in the new land. The vocabulary of the
language grew by borrowing from Aboriginal languages or by retaining or
borrowing from English dialects, by extending the reference of existing
resources or by conjoining existing elements in compounds or set phrases.
The controlling force in directing the actual development of the language
from these potential sources was the social experience of the inhabitants of
Australia. The people who established European settlements in Australia
had no thought of changing the English language. Yet even before the Union
Flag was raised at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788 the forces of change had
been at work. Most of the involuntary passengers had already left rural
England for cities, accommodating their speech to their new neighbours
there, and in some cases learning the ways of urban crime, though not all
who were caught, perhaps in a single minor theft, were professional
criminals. Then they were again thrown among people of varying
background to learn the ways of prisons or to adapt to the new experience
of a sea voyage lasting more than eight months. Finally the passengers of
the several ships in the First Fleet, as it is always called, were brought
together in the small settlement at Sydney Cove.

2. Accent
Sure, here are some interesting facts about British, American, and
Australian accents:

2.1. British Accent

1. Diverse Accents: The United Kingdom is known for its incredible
diversity of accents. From the posh Received Pronunciation (RP) to regional
accents like Cockney, Scouse, and Geordie, there's a wide range of British
accents.

2. RP Myth: The "Queen's English" or Received Pronunciation is often

associated with the British elite, but it's relatively rare in daily life. Most
Brits speak with regional accents.
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3. Estuary English: A popular modern accent in the UK is Estuary English,
which is a mix of RP and London accents. It's often heard in the South East.

2.2. American Accent:

1. Regional Diversity: The United States boasts a vast array of accents due to
its size and history. The Southern drawl, Bostonian, New York, and
Californian accents are just a few examples.

2. Rhotic vs. Non-Rhotic: In the U.S., accents can be classified as rhotic or

non-rhotic. Rhotic accents pronounce the "r" sound in words, while non-
rhotic accents often drop it, as is common in British accents.

3. Language Evolution: American accents have evolved over time due to

influences from different immigrant groups, creating a rich linguistic
tapestry.

2.3. Australian Accent:

1. British Roots: The Australian accent has its origins in British accents,
particularly from South-East England. However, it has evolved over time
into a unique and recognizable accent.

2. Strine: "Strine" is Australian slang for the way Australians speak. It's
characterized by a relaxed and often melodious intonation.

3. Vowel Shift: The Australian accent is known for its vowel shift, where
certain vowel sounds are pronounced differently compared to British and
American English. For example, the "i" sound in words like "night" is often
pronounced closer to "noyt."

These are just a few intriguing aspects of these accents, and each one has its
own regional variations and subtleties.

3. Pronunciation
The most obvious difference between Australian English, American English,
and British English is in the accents or pronunciation. This difference is
especially noticeable in vowel sounds.
The letter can also be very tricky! American English is famous for its
clear /r/ sounds, whereas British or Australian English lose the /r/ sound if
it’s at the end of a word or syllable. For example, the word “smarter” is
pronounced /smɑrtər/ in American English, but /smɑːtə/ in British and
Australian English.
In addition to the pronunciation of words, the intonation (the pitch of your
voice) can be very different in different countries. For example, if a person
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asks a yes/no question in American English, their voice goes up at the end.
But if a person asks that question in Australian English or British English,
their voice would go down!

This section focus on how those dialects pronounce or accent the words.
The table below will show the differences:

Table 1. The sound system focussed on pronouncing/dialect of the words

No. Words American British Australian
1 Harry potter Harry potter Harry potteh Harry poddah
/ˈpɑː.t̬ɚ/ /ˈpɒt.ər/ Break down into
(in British the –er is sound
more sound like –eh) [POT] + [UH]
(For Australian
English, it is more
sound like D-fied, like
wadda in water)
2 Tuesday Tuesday Chew-sday Chew-sday
/ˈtuːz.deɪ/ /ˈtʃuːz.deɪ/ /ˈtʃuːz.deɪ/
3 Banana Banana Banana Banana
/bəˈnæn.ə/ /bəˈnɑː.nə/ /bəˈnɑː.nə/
4 Tomato Tomato Tomato Tomato
/təˈmeɪ.t̬oʊ/ /təˈmɑː.təʊ/ /təˈmɑː.təʊ/
5 Water Water Water Water
/ˈwɑː.t̬ɚ/ /ˈwɔː.tər/ /ˈwɔː.tər/
6 Coffee Coffee Coffee Coffee
/ˈkɑː.fi/ /ˈkɒf.i/ /ˈkɒf.i/
7 Dog Dog Dog Dog
/dɑːɡ/ /dɒɡ/ /dɒɡ/
8 Shark Shark Shark Shark
/ʃɑːrk/ /ʃɑːk/ /ʃɑːk/
9 Zebra Zebra Zebra Zebra
/ˈziː.brə/ /ˈzeb.rə/ /ˈzeb.rə/
10 Vase Vase Vase Vase
/veɪs/ /vɑːz/ /vɑːz/

4. Australian English vs. American English vs. British English

Intonation
And it gets even more confusing when you remember that in each country,
there are many different accents! There’s not just one “Australian English”
pronunciation, there are several! For example, a person from Melbourne
will sound slightly different to one from Cairns.

Much of an accent is conveyed by intonation, which in turn is largely

conveyed by pitch trajectory. Pitch trajectory is hence regarded as one of
the most important correlates of accents. In Cruttenden points out that the
initial rise or the final fall/rise in pitch is an indicator of different accent
types. In particular, Scottish and Northern Ireland English tend to use final
pitch rise in declarative utterance.

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5. Spelling
Spelling is the next major difference between these different varieties of
English. The good news is that here, there are only two spelling systems, not
three! The UK and Australia share the same spelling, while the United States
decided to create their own spelling system. (We’ve always been a little
rebellious…) Here are some examples:

Spelling differs between the United States on one side and the UK with
Australia on the other.
Some common spelling differences include:

“our” vs. “or”: Several words that are spelt with an “our” in the UK and
Australia are just spelt with an “o” in the US. These include
favourite/favorite, colour/color, neighbour/neighbor, behaviour/behavior,
and others.
“tre” vs. “ter”: Several words that are spelt with “tre” in the UK and
Australia are spelt with “ter” in the US. These include metre/meter,
theatre/theater, centre/center, and more.
“ll” vs. “l”: Some words that are spelt with two “l”s in the UK and Australia
are spelt with only one in the US. These include travelling/traveling,
modelling/modeling, and more.
“ise” vs. “ize”: The UK and Australia spell several verbs with “ise” instead of
“ize” like the US does. These include realise/realize, organise/organize,
analyse/analyze, and so on.
“ise” vs. “ice”: Some words spelled with “ise” at the end in the UK, are
spelled with “ice” in the US. One example is practise/practice. But be
careful: the difference only occurs for verbs. “Practice” as a noun is spelled
with “ice” in the UK, Australia, and the US.
Generally, these are fixed rules. In the USA, you should use “or” instead of
“our”, and “ize” instead of “ise”. To add some confusion, Canada is in the
middle, using “our”, “ll”, and “tre”, like the UK and Australia, but using “ize”
and “ice”, like the US.
American English doesn’t have a ‘u’ in words like “colour”. Instead, it’s
spelled “color”.
Sometimes, ‘z’ replaces the ‘s’ in American English. You’ll see this in words
like “realize” and “organize”.
‘R’ and ‘e’ at the end of words like “centre” and “theatre” are switched in
American English to “center” and “theater”.
American English only used one ‘l’ in words like “traveled” and “traveling”.
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6. Grammar
Probably the least noticeable difference between American English,
Australian English and British English is grammar. There are only a few
small examples, like collective nouns or past tenses.

One other difference is the use of the Present Perfect (for example, I have
eaten dinner already). This is much more common in Australian English and
British English. In the United States, people will use the past simple more
often — they would say, “I ate dinner already.”
Here are just a few small differences.
“Got” vs. “gotten”: In the UK, the past participle of “get” is “got” (get-got-
got). In the US, it’s “gotten” (get-got-gotten).
“Learned” vs. “learnt”: In British English, the past and past participle of
“learn” is “learnt” (learn-learnt-learnt). In American English, it’s “learned”
(learn-learned-learned).
Collective nouns: In British English, collective nouns (like team, group,
class, family) are often considered plural as in, “my family are wonderful.”
In US English, it’s more common to be singular as in, “my family is
wonderful.” In both cases, it wouldn’t sound strange to use either version,
and you will find many people in Britain saying “my family are wonderful”.
Tense preferences: Americans and Brits differ somewhat in terms of
preference for using certain tenses. For example, when talking about
something that happened in the recent past, Brits will often use the present
perfect tense where Americans will prefer the past simple tense. So a Brit
might say, “I’ve studied English,” where an American would prefer, “I
studied English.”

In this section focused on some tenses that cause differences between those
dialects. The table below will show the differences:

Table 2. Grammar differences focussed on tenses

No. Tenses American British Australian
1 Present perfect She ate too much She has eaten too She has eaten too
Note: American chocolate. much chocolate much chocolate.
English uses the
present perfect less
and past simple
more

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2 - Past simple I dreamed about I dreamt about you last I dreamt about you
(dream) you night. last night.
Note: American last night.
English's verb
ending in +ed,
British's verb ending
in 't', it also happens
in past participle
3 - Past participle I smelled something I smelt something I smelt something
(smell) weird. weird. weird.
Note: "t" is much
more common in
British and
Australian English,
while in American
English people
commonly use +ed

7. Vocabulary differences between British, American and Australian

English
The next difference you’ll probably notice is in vocabulary. Lots of everyday
words are different in different English-speaking countries, like candy
(USA), sweets (UK) and lollies (AU).
There are also huge differences in slang! Casual words like “sanga” may be
perfectly clear in Australia, but no one in the USA would know that they’re
talking about a sandwich!

Australians are a pretty flexible bunch and employ words from both sides of
the pond. They will talk about both gas and petrol and takeout and
takeaway, with little attention paid to the difference.

However, there are some regular words and phrases that are completely
different in all three versions of English. A schedule is a rota in the UK and a
roster in Australia. We might talk about candy, but they say sweets and
lollies. Sneakers in the US are known as trainers in Britain and runners in
Australia. Depending on the country you’re in, you’d go to a liquor store, an
off-licence, or a bottle shop to buy beer. It’s hot outside, so are you having a
popsicle, an ice lolly, or an icy pole? When it’s cold at night do you wrap
yourself up in a comforter, a duvet, or a doona?

You need to think about your target audience when you’re creating content,
otherwise it won’t resonate with them. We might all speak the same
language, but in practice, all English-speaking countries have their own
linguistic idiosyncrasies, unique lexicons, and just plain differences. If
you’re in doubt, engage the services of someone who can help localize your
content. That way, you’ll sort your bell peppers from your capsicums and

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your cell phone from your mobile, and you’ll truly be speaking your
readers’ language.

Strong accents in any language can make things difficult. But what really
causes problems is differences in vocabulary and slang words. Put a few
different accents together and mix in lots of unfamiliar slang words and
chances are you’ll have a bunch of Americans, Brits, and Aussies who just
can’t understand each other.

Australian English also uses more diminutives than any other form of
English.
Diminutives are shortened versions of standard English words. And
Australian English really makes an art form out of abbreviation. In fact,
there are more than 4300 recorded diminutives in Australian English,
according to the Australian Geographic.
Common diminutives include:

Brekkie - breakfast
Barbie - barbeque
Arvo - afternoon
Defs - definitely
Probs - probably
Ambos - ambulance workers
Smoko - cigarette break
Servo - service/petrol station
Maccas - McDonalds
Footy - football
Tellie - television
Bevs - beverages
Cossies, togs, or swimmers - swimsuit
Sunnies - sunglasses
Lippy - lipstick
Brolly - umbrella
Mozzie - mosquito

Here are just a few fun vocabulary differences:

American: Afternoon British: Sweets /sweeties

British: Afternoon Australian: Lollies
Australian: Arvo
American: Friend
American: Gas station British: Mate / pal
British: Petrol station Australian: Mate
Australian: Servo
American: Flip flops
American: Candy British: Flip flops
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Australian: Thongs British: Supermarket
Australia: Supermarket
American: Chips
British: Crisps American: Comforter
Australia: Chips British: Duvet
Australia: Doona
American: French fries
British: Chips
Australia: Hot chips American: Bell peppers
British: Peppers
American: Cookies Australia: Capsicums
British: Biscuits
Australia: Biscuits American: Rain Boots
British: Wellies
American: Tractor trailer Australia: Gumboots
British: Lorry
Australia: Truck American: Sidewalk
British: Pavement
American: Bangs Australia: Footpath
British: Fringe
Australia: Fringe American: Sneakers
British: Trainers
American: Swimsuit Australia: Runners
British: Swimming costume
Australia: Togs swimmers American: Movie theatre
British: Cinema
American: Forest Australia: Movies
British: The woods
Australia: Forest American: Cell phone
British: Mobile/mobile phone
American: Bathroom/restrooms Australia: Phone
British: Toilet
Australia: Bathroom American: Shopping cart/cart
British: trolley
American: Apartment Australia: Trolley
British: Flat
Australia: Apartment

American: Grocery store

8. Fun Facts
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-The English language is a unique and valuable language to learn and is full
of interesting facts; some of the language’s fun facts include the following:

-The closest language to Old English was Old Frisian, with an 80% lexical
similarity and is still the easiest language for English speakers to learn

-French was the official language of England between the years 1066 to
1362

-English has approximately 1.35 billion speakers worldwide

-Each year, 4,000 new words are added to the English dictionary

-You and I are the two most used words in the English language

-The letter E is in 11% of all English words

-Good is the most commonly used adjective in the English language

-The first English dictionary was written in 1775, which is Johnson’s

Dictionary

-The original word for butterfly was flutterby

-Town is one of the oldest English words still in use

CONCLUSION

From the findings and discussion, it can be concluded that besides language
being universal, language is also unique. Certain things in common make
language universal. Some of them that are discussed in this research is that
they have grammar, sound systems, suprasegmental sounds, and parts of
speech. Then, there is some uniqueness of language that makes them
different. Some of them that are discussed in this book are grammar
focused on tenses, sound system focused on word stress, suprasegmental
sound focused on pronouncing words/dialects, and vocabulary differences.

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