Differences between American and British English

The present dictionary is intended as a tool for students and scholars alike. Essentially, this book contains two types of definition: (i) varieties of English and the regions/countries where these are spoken and (ii) terms and concepts from the linguistic analysis of varieties. The book is intended to give information about present-day varieties around the world, but in order to do some historical facts must also be covered, both for English in England and at other locations. The time depth for varieties stretches back a few centuries, to the beginning of the colonial period. A discussion of English spoken before then, roughly before 1600, properly belongs in histories of the English language, rather than in treatments of varieties. However, there are some references in this book to variation in English prior to the seventeenth century where this throws light on later developments. All varieties of English are essentially sets of varieties and more fine-grained treatments of these are found in individual studies (see the Reference Guide) which reveal many more levels of detail than can be covered here. Nonetheless, the purpose of the definitions is that readers appreciate the broad picture. Many statements in the dictionary entries are true as a first approximation and are useful in delimiting groups of varieties. For instance, Southern Hemisphere Englishes have a raising of short front vowels when compared to Northern Hemisphere Englishes in general. However, in Australian English the vowel in words like hat, sat, pat has been lowered in recent decades, representing a trend in the opposite direction to the overall picture (Cox 2012 [8.1]).