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•  Language experts say that spoken English was almost the same in the American colonies and Britain.
•  Americans began to change the sound of their speech after the Revolutionary War in 1776.
•  They wanted to separate themselves from the British in language as they had separated themselves from the British government.
•  Some American leaders proposed major changes in the language.
•  Benjamin Franklin wanted a new system of spelling.
•  His reforms were rejected, but his ideas influenced others.
•  One was Noah Webster.
•  Webster wrote language books for schools.
•  He thought Americans should learn from American books.
•  He published his first spelling book in 1783.
•  Webster published The American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828.
•  It established rules for speaking and spelling the words used in American English.
•  Webster believed that British English spelling rules were too complex.
•  So he worked to establish an American version of the English language.
•  For example, he spelled the word "center" "c-e-n-t-e-r" instead of the British spelling, "c-e-n-t-r-e."
•  He spelled the word "honor" "h-o-n-o-r" instead of "h-o-n-o-u-r" as it is spelled in Britain.
•  Noah Webster said every part of a word should be spoken.
•  That is why Americans say "sec-re-ta-ry" instead of "sec-re-t’ry" as the British do.
•  Webster’s rule for saying every part of a word made American English easier for immigrants to learn.
•  For example, they learned to say "waist-coat" the way it is spelled instead of the British "wes-kit".
•  The different languages of the immigrants who came to the United States also helped make American English different from British English.
•  Many foreign words and expressions became part of English as Americans speak it.
•  Sometimes Americans and British people do not understand each other because of different word meanings.
•  For example, a "jumper" in Britain is a sweater.
•  In the United States, it is a kind of a dress.
•  The British word "brolly" is an "umbrella" in America.
•  A "wastebasket" in America is a "dustbin" in Britain.
•  French fried potatoes in the United States are called "chips" in Britain.
•  All these differences led British writer George Bernard Shaw to joke that Britain and America are two countries separated by the same language.