Abstract
General American English(=A.E.) has conservative elements as well as progressive elements. A.E. and B.E. are languages which have more similarities than differances. In this paper. I studied the process of English progress before the A.E. had come into being, and the historical background and the cahristics of A.E. coming into being. Considering the differences between A.E. and B.E. from spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, I can give the outline as follows. A spelling 1. B.E. : au, ou $${\rightarrow}$$A.E. : a, o 2. B.E. : e $${\rightarrow}$$A.E. : i 3. B.E. : $${\ae}$$ oe $${\rightarrow}$$A.E. : e 4. B.E. : our $${\rightarrow}$$A.E. : or 5. B.E. : re $${\rightarrow}$$A.E. : er B. pronunciation 1. B.E. : [e] $${\rightarrow}$$A.E. : [i], [e], $$[\partial]$$ 2. B.E. : [a] $${\rightarrow}$$A.E. : 3. B.E. : [i(:)] $${\rightarrow}$$A.E. : [ai], $$[\partial]$$, $$[{\varepsilon}]$$ 4. B.E. : $$[{\ae}]$$ $${\rightarrow}$$A.E. : [e], [c] 5. B.E. : [ai] $${\rightarrow}$$A.E. : $$[{\ae}]$$, [e] 6. B.E. : [c] $${\rightarrow}$$A.E. : [e], [a], [o] 7. In case of "Vowel+[t]+Vowel", [t] is pronounced into [d] or [r] 8. In case of "-nt", [t] becomes a mute. 9. [t]+[j, l, m, n, r, u, or, w] $${\rightarrow}$$A.E. : [?] (=glottal stop) 10. B.E. : [w] $${\rightarrow}$$A.E. : [hw] 11. B.E. : [Voiceless consonants], [Voiced consonants] $${\leftarrow}$$A.E. : [Voiced consonants], [Voiceless consonants] C. Vocabulary The historical background and geographical conditions of those days caused lots of new compounds and neologies. D. Grammar Though we use "of" to indicate the possessive case of inanimate object, -s genitive is used in A.E. In the perfect tense, "have" is often omitted and also auxiliary verb "will" is used in any case