WELCOME!

This website was created for all people who are interested in learning about British and American varieties of English.

Here you will find good information about the subject. Our intention is to facilitate your research!

So, have a good trip!

AMERICAN ENGLISH

Interesting Websites:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English

Wikipedia is a good site to have an introduction about American English in the sense that it gives us informations about the history, the vocabulary, the morphology and phonology of the US. English. Moreover, it offers sources, notes and external links on the subject.

2. http://www.americannationalcorpus.org/

American National Corpus presents definitions and nice examples of the American English. Through this site you can observe words, phrases and constructs that are recurrent in the American English.

3.. http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html

This page is about English phonetics and there is a list of the sounds of US English. The categories are divided in consonants (manner, place, voice) and vowels (monophthongs and diphthongs). It is interesting for users who want to learn about American English pronunciation.

4. http://www.ldc.upenn.edu/cgi-bin/aesl/aesl

The site cointains pronunciations that were captured in individual audio files for more than 50.000 of the most common words in English. It is nice to mention that the words were extracted from newswire and telephone conversation and that each word was read by an adult female, native speaker of American English in a quiet recording studio. Really nice!

A Good Book online:

1. American English

The book American English by Zoltán Kovecses presents descriptions of the American variety of English and also provides British-American comparisons.

BRITISH ENGLISH

Interesting Websites:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_English

This page gives us some characteristics of the British variety of English. It shows the history of such variety, the dialects, accents, notes about it, discussion on standardization and also provides external links.

2. http://www.uni-due.de/SHE/HE_DialectsModernEnglish.htm

A page where you can find good informations about the several varieties of Modern English (including the rise of the London standard).

3. http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/index.html

in this site you can hear and read about the several dialects and accents of British English. Very interesting.

4. http://www.solinguainglesa.com.br/conteudo/brit_amer1.php and http://rubipelomundo.blogspot.com/2009/07/american-english-x-british-english.html

The cultural differences between American and British English, including a brief history of the language. There are charts comparing differences in vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar.

5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockney

This website presents good information on Cockney English. Enjoy!

AMERICAN vs BRITISH

Interesting Websites

1. http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/jones/spelling.htm

This site provides an interesting contrastive analysis between American and British English showing their spelling differences, common words in both varieties and also links to Internet sites with information on British American English.

2. http://su.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:175218

Through this weblink you can download the academic work Investigating British and American English: Dictionary research and corpus investigation written by Malcolm Golmann from the Stockholm University. Among other things, the author provides a large study of the lexical items of those varieties of English.

3. http://www.inglescurso.net.br/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=1094

A handy PDF file for Brazilians who want to know the differences in the lexical choice of American and British English.

4. http://www.englishexperts.com.br/2006/10/31/british-and-american-english/

Check the transcription of a BBC radio program, about British people understanding movies with an American accent. there are written opinions on the subject also.

Interesting Books

The following books could be found at FLORESTAN FERNANDES LIBRARY at UNIVERSITY OF SÃO PAULO. For who it may concern their locations are indicated below:

1. TRUDGILL, P. & CHAMBERS, J.K. Dialects of English: studies in grammatical variation. Longman.

Volume	Exemplar	Localização
Primeiro vol	1	FFLCH /427.1^D527

2. O DONNELL, W.R & LORETO, T.Variety in contemporary English. Routledge, London, 1991.

Volume	Exemplar	Localização
Primeiro vol	1	FFLCH /420^O23v^2.ed

The following one could be found at any bookstore:

3. ALGEO, J. British or American English? A handbook of word and grammar patterns. Cambridge University Press, USA.
PREVIEW: http://books.google.com.br/books?id=TuWRnRJpO7YC&pg=RA8-PA270&lpg=RA8-PA270&dq=Algeo+British+or+American+English&source=bl&ots=MRX4U1E2kR&sig=gn9oiGFBa3h9yDN2Csec3qFnQwU&hl=pt-BR&ei=goIES6D3KcnbnAfb5YR1&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

These books present interesting information on the grammatical distinctions presented by the American and British varieties of English.

MAPS – ACCENTS AND LANGUAGES

1. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Available at: http://www.city-data.com/

2. BRITISH ISLES

Available at: http://www.irelandinformationguide.com

NICE VIDEOS ON AMERICAN AND BRITISH ENGLISH

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_8v8nIVD0Q&feature=related

The American Accent Course – 50 rules you must know is an interesting video that teaches you the most important rules of the American accent.

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIoD11Q8WQk&feature=related

Learn to pronounce “world” and other difficult words in English taking into account the Standard American Accent.

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN5nVmhYyZw&feature=related

See the difference between American and British varieties when the subject is the R sound.

4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdOgNXwCUYE&feature=related

This video shows how to pronounce the T sound in American English.

5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwgEY2JJXV8&feature=related

Learn to pronounce difficult consonant sounds that are unique to American English. American T plus N combination.

6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbsS3MNofR4

In this video from BBC you can see different English accents.

7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoL4HhFjWOE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btY_PEaFXvc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5rysWFeo74&feature=related

Through these videos you will recognize the phonetic symbols and how to pronounce each sound of the English Language.

8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IowtkM2KHKw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4OIW7PfJ4g&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DogBOfgfR3E&feature=related

An excerpt from the BBC’s Emmy Award winning nine-part documentary series called “The Story of English”, hosted by Robert MacNeil.

9. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn3_bYcAnWI

Here we have a World Tour of English Accent, Very nice video.

HAVE FUN!

• QUIZZES

1. http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz28563020b3618.html

Some slangs used in the United Kingdom

2. http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz16513812e9578.html

Here you will find English slangs for tourists

3. http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz163811e33a0.html

A short quizz to see how much you know about British slang.

4. http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz164741e5f38.html

A quizz on Yorkshire slang

5. http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz30331722b98e0.html

Do you speak Texan?

6. http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz93883ac1cb0.html

A quiz on American slangs