The spread of English beyond the British Isles

The establishment of English-speaking colonies in North America at the beginning of the 17^th century was the most important fact in making English an international language. Remember that South America was the first place to be discovered by Portuguese and Spanish colonizers in the late 15^th century. It is important to have it in mind, because we may know that other European languages often came into contact with English in the colonies and influenced its development. The first successful English settlement was that of Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.

When examining the early period of settlement, we are questioned a) how and when American English became different from British English? And b) how did internal dialect differences in American English arise? The variety of English which was implanted in North America was that of the Early Modern period in Britain. It had been claimed that many of the differences between American and British English can be explained in terms if a “colonial lag”, that the language of colonial settlers is more conservative than that of the country they left. Thus, some features of American English, such as the pronunciation of /r/ in words like card, might be attributed to the fact that /r/ in such words was pronounced in Early Modern period in England. And although the speech of Londoners later became “r-less”, this was too late to influence the speech of those who had already left.

Once colonies were independent of England in 1783, the linguistic matter –the differences between American and British English- became a burning issue for some of the founders of the new republic, such as for Noah Webster.