American English

            English may be said to have travelled to North America with the ship "Mayflower” in 1620. The earliest English colonists in the New World were speaking Elizabethan English, the language of Shakespeare, when they came to America. English has been notorious as a word borrower. In the formation of American English there were added to the 17th century form of English many words derived from the languages of the different peoples with whom the English-speaking colonists were brought into contact.

            First come the words derived from the speech of various Indian tribes. From the Indians were borrowed not only many geographical names of rivers, mountains and lakes, but names of objects (such as canoe, moccasin, wigwam, toboggan, tomahawk, squaw).

            From the French language were derived a number of words such as prairie, rapids.

            Spanish words were adopted at 2 different periods. In the old colonial days Americans received Creole, mulatto. After the Mexican war such words as canyon, ranch, sombrero and others appeared.

            The Dutch settlers contributed the following words: boss, cookie, Santa Claus.

            In American English there is a tendency to employ a simplified spelling. This is the use of or in all words that in English contain our, for example harbour - harbor.

            There is difference in the spoken language, too. For example, when you arrive in America and want to continue your journey by railroad (English railway), you won't take your ticket at the booking-office (English) but at the ticket window. The man who hands it to you is no longer the booking-clerk but the ticket agent. They call underground - subway, trolley bus - trolley car or street car or surface car. Cinema is called movies here and so on.