EXPLORING LINGUISTIC VARIATIONS: AN IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF THE LEXICAL AND ORTHOGRAPHIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH
Abstract
In this era of globalization and trading among different countries, the necessity and insistence for erudition in English have widely increased. The English language is being employed as a mutual language despite differences in customs, social activities, districts, practices, and eccentric factors. Therefore, in the 21st century, the world's population has gotten more condensed, approachable, shared, and familiar for everyone on the planet. Everyone must get oneself acquainted with English for effective communication as it is regarded as an international language (Rao, 2019). It is frequently observed that there are misperceptions as well as exploitation in dealing with two major dialects of English- American English (AmE) and British English (BrE) (Scotto & Carlo, 2013). Following a concise discussion of the major historical elements that have contributed to the distinction between the two dialects of English i.e., British, and American, the present research focused on these two varieties as well as their lexical and orthographic differences. The study’s purpose is to know whether non-native students of the English language are well acquainted with the distinctions between these two prominent dialects of the language. To achieve the desired goal, a questionnaire with a dichotomous format was specifically designed to gain the required information. The questionnaire contained 14 vocabulary and 15 spelling items of both varieties. The respondents were undergraduate students at Ghazi University, D. G. khan. To evaluate and analyse the outcomes of collected data, the SPSS software was employed. The study's outcomes demonstrated that the pupils possessed greater lexical comprehension in contrast to disparities in their orthographic abilities.
