Characteristics of early American English

Includes bibliographical references (pages 68-69)American English began as seventeenth century\ud British English, brought to the original thirteen colonies\ud by the English colonists. It was inevitable,\ud however, that its subsequent development should diverge\ud from that of British English. This thesis surveys the\ud characteristics of Early American English, as it changed\ud and developed from the period of the seventeenth century\ud colonization to the period of the eighteenth century\ud American Revolution. This paper represents a synthesis\ud of existing data and covers English dialects of the\ud American colonists, eighteenth century attitudes toward\ud language, spelling of Early American English, the effects\ud of education in the colonies, Noah Webster and his \ud contributions, Americanisms, and foreign loan words\ud entering American English