American English

"U.S. English" redirects here. For the political organization, see U.S. English (organization). For the English language throughout North America, see North American English. For other uses, see American English (disambiguation).

American English
Distribution of American English by state in 2000
RegionUnited States
Native speakers
242 million, all varieties of English in the United States (2019)[citation needed]
67.3 million L2 speakers of English in the United States (2019)[citation needed]
Early forms
Dialects
Official status
Official language in
United States (main language, 32 U.S. states, five U.S. territories; see article)
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
GlottologNone
IETFen-US[2][3]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English,[b] is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States.[4] English is the most widely spoken language in the United States; the de facto common language used in government, education and commerce; and an official language of most U.S. states (32 out of 50).[5] Since the late 20th century, American English has become the most influential form of English worldwide.[6][7][8][9][10][11]

Varieties of American English include many patterns of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and particularly spelling that are unified nationwide but distinct from other English dialects around the world.[12] Any American or Canadian accent perceived as lacking noticeably local, ethnic, or cultural markers is known in linguistics as General American;[6] it covers a fairly uniform accent continuum native to certain regions of the U.S. but especially associated with broadcast mass media and highly educated speech. However, historical and present linguistic evidence does not support the notion of there being one single mainstream American accent.[13][14] The sound of American English continues to evolve, with some local accents disappearing, but several larger regional accents having emerged in the 20th century.[15]

  1. ^ "Unified English Braille (UEB)". Braille Authority of North America (BANA). November 2, 2016. Archived from the original on November 23, 2016. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  2. ^ "English". IANA language subtag registry. October 16, 2005. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
  3. ^ "United States". IANA language subtag registry. October 16, 2005. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
  4. ^ Crystal, David (1997). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-53032-3.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference WestVirginia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Engel, Matthew (2017). That's the Way It Crumbles: The American Conquest of English. London: Profile Books. ISBN 9781782832621. OCLC 989790918.
  7. ^ "Fears of British English's disappearance are overblown". The Economist. July 20, 2017. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved April 18, 2019.
  8. ^ Harbeck, James (July 15, 2015). "Why isn't 'American' a language?". BBC Culture. Retrieved April 18, 2019.
  9. ^ Reddy, C Rammanohar (August 6, 2017). "The Readers' Editor writes: Why Is American English Becoming Part of Everyday Usage in India?". Scroll.in. Retrieved April 18, 2019.
  10. ^ "Cookies or biscuits? Data shows use of American English is growing the world over". Hindustan Times. The Guardian. July 17, 2017. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
  11. ^ Gonçalves, Bruno; Loureiro-Porto, Lucía; Ramasco, José J.; Sánchez, David (May 25, 2018). "Mapping the Americanization of English in Space and Time". PLOS ONE. 13 (5): e0197741. arXiv:1707.00781. Bibcode:2018PLoSO..1397741G. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0197741. PMC 5969760. PMID 29799872.
  12. ^ Kretzchmar 2004, pp. 262–263.
  13. ^ Labov 2012, pp. 1–2.
  14. ^ Kretzchmar 2004, p. 262.
  15. ^ "Do You Speak American?: What Lies Ahead?". PBS. Retrieved August 15, 2007.


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