British English and  American English

British English, American English, the same language?

It was said by Sir George Bernard Shaw that "England and America are two countries separated by the same language." My first personal experience of this was when I worked as a camp counselor for two months in 2000 in s Summer Camp run by the Boy Scouts of America, as part of an international leader exchange scheme. Before I went, all the participants in the scheme were given a short list of words that are in common use in the UK which Americans would either be confused by or would even offend them. I memorized the words and thought "I'll cope".
萧伯纳爵士曾说过：“英国和美国是被同一种语言分开的两个国家。”我对此话的第一次亲身感受是在2000年，当时作为国际领导人交换项目的一部分，我在美国男童子军组织的夏令营活动中担任了两个月的营地辅导员。在我动身之前，此次项目所有的参与者每人得到一份简短的单词表、上面列出了在英国通用、在美国则可能引起意义含混甚至会冒犯他人的词汇。我把这些单词记了下来，并认为自己“能够应付”。
When I finally arrived in the States three months later, I realized that perhaps a lifetime of watching American television was not adequate preparation for appreciating and coping with the differences between American and British speech. In the first hour of arriving at the camp I was exposed to High School American English, Black American English and American English spoken by Joe Public, all every different to each other. Needless to say, I did cope in the end. The Americans I met were very welcoming and helpful, and I found they were patient with me when I made a social faux pas when I used an inappropriate word or phrase.
3个月后我终于来到美国，我这才意识到，或许用一辈子的时间来观看美国电视，也不足以让我充分准备好来领略和应对英美两国语言的差异。在到达营地后的第1个小时里，我就大大地领教了美国中学生英语、美国黑人英语及美国普通老百姓所说的英语，它们之间差异很大。不用说，我最终都一一应付了过来。我所遇到的美国人都十分热情且乐于助人，当我因为不恰当地使用了某个单词或短语而失礼时，他们对我很耐心。
Upon my return I began to wonder whether anyone had documented the differences between American and British English. I found several books on the subject but often these were written in a dry and academic way. I felt that I could do better and use my sense of humor and personal experiences to help people from both sides of Atlantic to communicate more effectively when they meet.
回国后，我便开始琢磨，对于英美两国语言间的差异，是否有人曾做过记载。关于这方面的书，我找到了几本，但这些书常常写得枯燥无味，充满学究气。我认为，我能做得更好，我能用我的幽默感及亲身经历帮助大西洋两岸的人们在见面时，更加有效地交流。
My research into the subject led me to several conclusions.
我对这个问题的研究，使我得出了几条结论。
Firstly, American English and British English are covering thanks to increased transatlantic travel and the media. The movement of slang words is mostly eastwards, though a few words from the UK have been adopted by the Ivy league fraternities. This convergent trend is a recent one dating from the emergence of Hollywood as the predominant film making center in the world and also from the Second World War when large numbers of American GIs were stationed in the UK. This trend was consolidated by the advent of television. Before then, it was thought that American English and British English would diverge as the two languages evolved. In 1789, Noah Webster, in whose name American dictionaries are still published to this day, stated that: "Numerous local causes, such as a new country, new associations of people, new combinations of ideas in the arts and some intercourse with tribes wholly unknown in Europe will introduce new words into the American tongue." He was right, but his next statement has since been proved to be incorrect. “These causes will produce in the course of time a language in North America as different from the modern Dutch, Danish and Swedish are from the German or from one another."
首先，由于跨洋交往的增加和新闻媒体的作用，美式英语和英式英语正在相互靠拢。俚语词汇的流向主要是向东的，尽管少数源自英国的词汇已被常青藤院校所接受。这两种语言的会聚趋势刚刚才显露出来，它开始于好莱坞作为世界主要电影生产中心的倔起，以及大量美国士兵驻扎在英国的二战时期。电视的出现使这种趋势得到了增强。此前，人们认为，随着两种语言的演化发展，英式英语和美式英语间的差异会增大。在1789年，诺·韦伯斯特，一位直到今天美国的字典还以其名字出版发行的人物，就曾说过：“许多地方性的原因，例如：一个新的乡村的出现、人际新的联系、艺术中各种思想的新组合及与一些欧洲人从未有过见闻的部落间的交往，都会为美语引人新的词汇。”韦伯斯特是正确的，但那之后他的下一句话已被证明是不正确的。“随着时间的推移，这些原因将使北美大陆上产生一种与今后的英国语言不同的语言，这二者间的差异将与现代荷兰语、丹麦语、瑞典语同德语之间或这几种语言相互间的差异一样大。”
Webster had underrated the amount of social intercourse between England and her former colony. Even before Webster had started to compile his dictionary, words and expressions from the America had already infiltrated the British language, for example "canoe" and "hatchet". Very few people in Britain realize how many of the words they use are of American origin. Often this importation of American words has encountered a linguistic snobbery by the British, which was a manifestation of the cultural snobbery that bedeviled Anglo-American relationships for a long time. This is not, thankfully, the case now.
韦伯斯特低估了英国和其前属殖民地间社会交往的频度。甚至在他开始编纂字典之前，就有一些来自美国的单词和表达方法已经渗入了英国英语中，例如“独木舟”和“短柄小斧”。没有多少英国人清楚，在他们所使用的词汇中，有多少是源自美国的。常常是，这种美国词语的输入会遭遇到英国人语言上的鄙夷，这种态度是长期以来给英美关系添了不少麻烦的文化势利行为的一种表现。还好，现在情况不是这样了。
Secondly, there are some generalizations that can be made about American and British English which can reveal the nature of the two nations and their peoples. British speech tends to be less general, and directed more, in nuances of meaning, attendant murmurings and pauses, carries a wealth of shared assumptions and attitudes. In other words, the British are preoccupied with their social status within society and speak and act accordingly to fit into the social class they aspire to. This is particularly evident when talking to someone from "the middle class" when he points out that he is "upper middle class" rather than "middle class" or "lower middle class". John Major (the former UK Prime Minister) may have said that we are now living in a "classless society" but the class system still prevails. At that moment both he and the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Blair, were talking about capturing the "middle England", "middle class vote" as the key to winning the next general election. American speech tends to be influenced by the over-heated language of much of the media, which is designed to attach an impression of exciting activity to passive, if sometimes insignificant events. Yet, curiously, really violent activity and life-changing events are hidden in blind antiseptic tones that serve to disguise the reality. Two examples come readily to mind -- the US Military with their "friendly fire" and "collateral damages" and the business world with their downsizing". British people tend to understatement whereas Americans towards hyperbole. A Briton might respond to a suggestion with a word such as "Terrific!" only if he is expressing rapturous enthusiasm, whereas an American might use the word merely to signify polite assent.
第二，就英式英语和美式英语而言，人们可以作出一些归纳，这些归纳能够揭示两国及两国人民的特质。英国人倾向于用相对具体、意义细腻而直接的语言去针对人群中的某一个亚群体。这已经成为了一种社会规范，人们说的话不多，因为每一个词，随着与其相伴的沉吟与停顿，都承载着丰富的共享假定与态度。换句话说，英国人的心思都放在了对其在社会中地位的关注上，其一言一行都是为了适应他们所心仪的社会阶层的需求。这一点最为突出的表现就是当你在同一个来自“中产阶级”的人土交谈时，他会指出他是“中上层阶级”，而不是“普通的中产阶级”或是“中下层阶级”。约翰·梅杰(英国前首相)可能曾说过我们现在生活在一个“无阶级的社会”里，但是阶级体制依旧流行。当时，他和反对党领袖托尼·布莱尔都在谈论抓住“英国的中部地区”、赢得“英国中产阶级的选票”乃是争取下次大选胜利的关键。美语易于受大部分新闻媒体的极富夸张力语言的影响。这类语言在设计时往往赋予那些消极的、有时是没有意义的活动以一种热热闹闹的印象。然而，奇怪的是，真正的暴力行为和改变命运的事件却隐藏在平和、冷静的用以隐匿真情的语调之下。两个例子立即浮现在脑海中，如美国军方使用的“友好火力”和“间接损害”，以及商界使用的“精简”。英国人倾向于言而不过，而美国人则倾向于言过其实。在对一条建议作出反应时，唯有当英国人表达一种极为喜悦的热情时，才会说像“棒极了”这样的词；而美国人在使用这个词时，可能只是想表达一种有礼貌的同意。
Thirdly, The American language had less regard than the British for grammatical form, and will happily bulldoze its way across distinctions rather than steer a path between them. American English will casually use one form of a word for another, for example turning nouns into verbs or verbs and nouns into adjectives.
第三，美语没有英语那样注重语法形式。美语会像推土机一样在语言的差异间从一边到另一边快乐地推出一条路，而不会在差异间独辟一条路径。美式英语会很随意地把一种词性用成另一种词性，例如把名词用成动词，或把动词和名词用成形容词。
I do hope what I have said will be of some help for the people on both sides of the Atlantic when they meet and communicate.
我真诚地希望，当大西洋两岸的人们在相遇和交流时，我以上所说的能对他们有所帮助。