A Comparative Between British English And American English: Vocabulary Analysis

This research paper aims to analyze the comparative between British English and American English, because many language learners or English users still confuse to differentiate both of them, especially in the countries where English is foreign language. Sometimes, it cause misunderstanding in communication. The research paper use qualitative research design with characteristic of content analysis. It uses observation and documentation in collecting the data. The obtained data is vocabulary in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 9th edition which published in 2015. The researcher took 150 words to be analyzed. Based on the data analysis there are three differences in Vocabulary of British English and American English.  The researchers divide the differences into three categories they are differences in Vocabulary (word using), spelling, and pronunciation. The researcher found 50 different words in vocabulary (word using), 50 different words in spelling and 50 words which have differences in pronunciation. Based on findings of this research, it is significant for language learners or English user to know the differences of British English and American English and improve their vocabulary of British and American English in order to decrease misunderstanding in communication. The researchers hope language learners or English user can decide which English varieties that will they use and the can use one of English varieties consistently.


INTRODUCTION
Language is a systematic symbol that is used by human to communicate, because language is a tool of communication. People use language to deliver ideas, opinions and feeling by oral or written ways. Without language, people cannot communicate each other. Every country has different language to communicate and all of countries have international language namely English.
As international language, English is used by almost countries in the world. Nowadays, English takes important role as communication language. Many people all over the world use English to connect and share with another beside that, many countries use English as Second language. Some of countries which use English as second language are India, Singapore, Malaysia and others while, in Indonesia English hold position as foreign language.
In Indonesia, English is not used in daily life but only used in certain fields like business, law, medical, education and others. Many Indonesian do not realize the importance of English. So, English skill of Indonesian is still low, and in Indonesia English is only learned in school as foreign language. Not all schools in Indonesia use English as intermediate language so, as foreign language, English is challenges subject to be learned in Indonesia.
There are many difficulties in learning a foreign language in Indonesia. Many people feel confuse when teaching and learning English. Among the causes of confusion are two varieties of English that is used in Indonesia, namely British English and American English. In Indonesia, material of English lesson does not differentiate between British English and American English. This is because the curriculum in Indonesia does not specify which English varieties should be used. Sometimes people use both of them when learning English. It makes confuse, therefore many people cannot decide which one correct or incorrect. People doubt to choose the correct spelling, grammar, and vocabulary when people want to express their feelings for example many people confuse which is the correct spelling of colour and color. Some of people also think the correct word to call the season between summer and winter is autumn, but other people think the correct word is fall. It proves that most of problem in learning foreign language is in using vocabulary.
Vocabulary becomes the important aspect in learning a foreign language because vocabulary is one of English subs skill that should be mastered by people who want to master English. In order to communicate well in foreign language, people should acquire adequate number of words and know how to use them accurately. Besides, people should know which varieties that they use when communicate with other whether they use British English or American English because both of varieties have many differences especially in vocabulary either in spelling or its pronunciation. There many differences between British English and American English such as in vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, spelling, and others. Sometimes, British and American English use different term for the same thing for example, to call a person who customers pay money to get money in a store or bank British English use term cashier while in American English it is called teller. This differences becomes problem in the country where English is as foreign language, especially Indonesia. To decrease the problem about the confusion of British English and American English, people can use dictionary to see the correct word that they use. language or because of the contact with other language and cultures. The way that used by someone to speak can be identity of their social group. Kroskrity in Wardhaugh and Fuller (2015:7) said identity is as the linguistic construction of membership in one or more social group or categories. Language variety is also called dialect in sociolinguistic. The term variety is used to mean the different form of language or linguistic expressions.
In this research, the researchers only focus to investigate the varieties of English. Almost countries in the world use English to communicate because English is international language. Although use same language, every country have different way to speak English it is called variety. There are many varieties of English such as British English, American English, Caribbean English, Australian English and others.
In this research, the researchers only focused on British English and American English. Because curriculum in Indonesia of English lesson from basic up to the university do not consist of one style but both. Start from language component, vocabularies, grammar and structure.

British English
British English is variety of English that is used and developed in Britain Isle. It is also called Received Pronunciation. Different with other accent, British English has more formal characteristic because it is influenced by Great Britain Kingdom (monarchic) where everything is more formal and having to do with protocol. According to Horobin (2016:14) stated that English come from Latin, this assumption gain support from the number of English words that is adopted from Latin such as village, picture and figure.

American English
American English is variety of English that is used and developed in United States. It is also called General America. American English has informal characteristic. According to Tagliamonte (2013:7) during the eighteen century, at least 275000 people left British Isles and move to America. As a sequence, the dialect boundaries that have existed in England were jumbled up. This is one of factor emergence of American English and why British English and American English have many differences.
There are many differences between British English and American English start from vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, grammar and others. Horobin (2016:134) said in spelling, American English largely follows British model, though there are some distinctive differences. It means, although have many differences British and American English have little similarities because American English is derived from British English. In this research, the researcher will focus on the differences vocabulary and spelling between British English and American English.
Today, American English is very influential in the world because the USA's dominance of cinema, television, popular music, and technology including the internet. It is more popular because the biggest entertainment industry in the world is in United States.

The Differences Between British English and American English
According to Horobin (2016:1) British English and American English have many differences both in spelling, grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary for example, in Oxford learner's pocket Dictionary fourth edition, there are some words that show the differences between British English and American English such as in British English spelling, we often find the words with-our ending such as colour, neighbour and harbor. Whereas, in American English, the words are written with the -or ending namely color, neighbor and harbor. In vocabulary, sometimes British English and American English use different word to call same thing. Like, in British English Vocabulary, the name of 'biskuit' is biscuit, while in American English, 'biskuit' is cookies.
The example of difference in pronunciation is in British English, the pronunciation of advertisement is /ₔd.v3:.tIs.mₔnt/. In the other hand, in American English it is pronounced /ᵆd.v3:.taIz.mₔnt/. The researcher will explain the differences of British English and American English in more detail in discussion.

Vocabulary
Vocabulary is the important component that has to be mastered by people to master English. With vocabulary, people can say or write something although in limited words. While, without vocabulary, people cannot say or write anything that we would like to deliver. Without vocabulary, people also will be difficult to master basic skill in English such as listening, speaking, reading and writing.
According to Hornby in Alqahtani (2015:2) defines vocabulary as the total number of words in a language or the list of words with their meaning. Besides, Alizadeh (2016:22) said that vocabulary is a list of word arranged in alphabetical order with their definition.
From definition above, the researcher can conclude that vocabulary is the words of foreign language that have meaning or definition that used by native speaker and should be known by nonnative speaker to build good communication with native speaker.
According to Harmer in Alqahtani (2015:25), Vocabularies are divided into two types. The first type is vocabulary that has been taught to the students, and students are expected to use those vocabulary. While, the second type refers to the words that is known by students when they find the words but the probably not be able to pronounce it. The researcher will explain about two types of vocabulary as follows: 1) Receptive vocabulary According to Nation in Febriansyah (2015:9) receptive vocabulary refers to the words that native speaker and foreign language learner know but mostly never use. The learner may find the word in the text but they do not use the words to speak or write.

2) Productive Vocabulary
Productive vocabulary is the words that learners understand and they can pronounce it correctly and always use frequently in speaking and writing. Febriansyah (2015:9) said productive vocabulary is the word that always used actively either in speaking or writing.
From the statement above, the researcher can conclude that there are for units of vocabulary. They are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Listening and reading is a part of receptive vocabulary, writing and speaking is a part of productive vocabulary.
Vocabulary is the essential component to master language because vocabulary can support people in learning four language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. Schmitt in Alqahtani (2015:22) emphasizes that lexical knowledge is a central to communicative competence and to the acquisition of a second language. It means vocabulary is the most essential component to have good communication in second or foreign language.
Vocabulary is not only the stuff of language it is also the stuff of thoughts itself. If we have adequate vocabularies, we can say anything although in incorrect order. Benjamin and Crow (2013:1) said vocabulary is primary key to recalling stored data because when people hear or read a word, people can access an incredible amount of information. For example, if we hear about school, we can remember some words like student, teacher, classroom, etc. It means, vocabulary is the basic component that cannot be separated with the language. People have to master vocabulary, if they want to master language.
Vocabulary is one of the elements which students need in order to be able to master a second language. The importance of learning vocabulary is revealed in many ways. Webb and Nation (2017:20) said vocabulary knowledge emphasizes the fact that the word is the key of communication. In all stages of education, vocabulary is central to learning content. Without vocabulary knowledge, the students will be difficult to follow the course, especially language course. Webb and Nation (2017:20) also said that many people think that no aspect of language learning is affected by vocabulary learning but, the quantifiable nature of vocabulary learning can make the progress of lexical development relatively clear. The students can count the words that they have been learned and it can motivate them to learn further. The student do not have to learn all of vocabulary, they just have to focus on the words based on their needed or based on context in the course.
According to Asyiah (2017:295) teaching English in the country where English is foreign language, must to face obstacles and challenges and they particularly deal with vocabulary. It is the reason why vocabulary being the most essential component that have to be mastered when people learn language.

Spelling
According to Hatcher and Mallison (2010:1) Spelling is the verb refers to naming off the letters that make up words. It means spelling is the forming of words from letters according to accepted usage, spelling can also define as a sequence of letters becomes word that have meaning that can understand by people.
Spelling is an important element in communication especially in written communication. Hatcher and Mallison (2010:3) stated that misspellings can suggest sloppiness, a telling lack of attention to detail even misspellings can lead to downright confusion and misinterpretation.
There are some reasons why people do misspellings they are carelessness, lack of sufficient knowledge, sometimes, particularly in informal contexts, spelling variants are intentional. From the statement above, the researchers concluded that misspellings can cause misunderstanding among people especially when people use written communication such as letter, e-mail, SMS and others. People have to be careful to avoid misspelling that cause misunderstanding.

Pronunciation
According to Aboe (2018:1) Pronunciation is the way in which a word is pronounced. It means pronunciation is the way how language is spoken by people. To pronounce the word, people push the air from their lungs up through the throat, mouth, past the tongue and out between teeth and lips.
According to Gumelar (2018:3) English has 44 sounds those are divided into three segments they are 12 vowel sounds, 8 diphthongs and 24 consonants they are called the feature of pronunciation. Beside sounds, pronunciation also has other features they are stress and intonation. The explanation about the features of pronunciation can be seen below.
Pronunciation has two features that called as Segmental sounds and supra-segmental sounds. Segmental sound could be segmented into three segment, they are vowel sounds, diphthong and consonant. While, supra-segmental sound refers to how speech sound function. The parts of supra-segmental sounds are stress and intonation. The researcher has explained the features of pronunciation one by one.

Vowel
English has 12 vowel sounds, the sounds can be grouped into long vowel sounds and short vowel sounds. All of vowel sounds is voiced. The table of vowel sound can be seen in appendix sheet that has been attached by researcher.

Stress
Stress is the force of the breath in the production of speech sound. Normally, one word with one syllable is unstressed. When a word has more than one syllable, one of them will be pronounced with more prominence than the others.

Intonation
Intonation is a term that's used to distinguish the different pattern of pitch that carry meaningful information. When people speak, normally the pitch of people's voice is changing. There are two types of intonation namely high and low. The intonation is affecting how the meaning is expressed.

Dictionary
Dictionary is one of important tools in learning English as a second language or foreign language. Walz and Cubillo in Rohmatillah (2016:186) stated that dictionary provide learners with useful linguistic and cultural information especially for independent learners.
In addition, Jackson in Rohmatillah (2016:187) stated dictionary is alphabetical list of words followed by pronunciation information, definition, and etymology.
Based on the statements above, the researchers concludes that dictionary is a book that contain about list of words with its meaning and it is needed to learn second or foreign language. People can find many new words in dictionary to increase their vocabulary.
Dictionary can be classified in many categories. The first way to categorizing dictionary is based on number of languages contained in dictionary. Nation in Rohmatillah (2016:189) categorized dictionary in two classes namely monolingual bilingual and bilingualized. Monolingual dictionary is dictionary that only uses one language while, bilingual dictionary is written in two languages such as English to Indonesia or Indonesia to English, and bilingualized dictionary is monolingual dictionary that also has first language synonym and definition.
Based on the format, dictionary is divided into two types, they are electronic dictionary and printed dictionary. Electronic dictionary is small device that input through a little keyboard, voice recognition or scanning device that reads printed text and shows the translation on small LCD screen or speaks the translation with accurate pronunciation. Usually, electronic dictionary is used in smart phone or personal computer whereas, printed dictionary is written dictionary in the form of book that have many size variation based on people needed. In this research, the researchers used printed dictionary to be analyzed. The researcher use Oxford Advance Learner's Dictionary 9 th edition which published in 2014 to find different words of British and American English.

METHOD
Research instrument is one of tool that is used to measure the phenomenon or social observation. Instrument is very important in the research because, it is one of way to collect the data. According to Creswell (2018:149) the instrument to collect the data in qualitative research involves four basic types they are observation, interview, documentation, and visual image. In this research, the researcher only used observation and documentation as instruments.
Data collection techniques are the most important step in research, because the main purpose of research is to obtain data. In qualitative research, there are some ways to collect the data, such as observation, interview, documentation and visual image. As stated on the previous page, in this research, the researchers will use observation and documentation to collect the data. The researcher explained the observation and documentation clearly in the below.
Observation is the basic of science, because the scientists can only work based on data. And to gain the data, the scientists have to conduct the observation. In addition, Usman and Purnomo (Hardani et al, 2020:123) said observation is the action to observe the object with a systematic recording of the symptoms studied. From those statements, the researchers thinks that observation is one of data collecting techniques which observe the object of the research. Same with the scientist, the researcher also has to do the observation to collect the data of research.
According to Sugiyono (2016:310) there are some kinds of observation namely participatory observation, direct or obscure observation, and unstructured observation. In this research, the researchers will use unstructured observation because the research is qualitative. Unstructured observation is observation that is not prepared systematically about the object of observation. The researchers has read the oxford advanced learner dictionary and found the data to be analyzed.
Document is a record of events that have already passed. Hardani et al (2020:149) acknowledged documentation method is a way to collect data by recording data that already exists. Document can be in the form of writings, drawings or monumental work.
In this research, the researcher used document in the writing and image form. The researcher captured some vocabularies of British English and American English that gained from dictionary, article or application. The researcher also made some notes about vocabulary that have differences in spelling, pronunciation and word using. The researcher will give the example of data collected in the table below.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The researchers have analyzed the Oxford Advanced learner's dictionary 9 th edition which published in 2015 and the researchers find some words of British English and American English. The researchers have categorized the differences into three categories they are differences in vocabulary (word using), spelling and pronunciation. In this research, the researchers only took 150 words randomly to be analyzed. The differences of British English and American English can be seen in the following table. Apartemen A set of rooms for living in, usually in one floor of building.
The researchers have found 50 words from the Oxford Advanced learner's dictionary 9 th Edition which have differences in British English and American English. All of the words have same meaning. In this chapter, the researcher only shows 15 words as a sample. The complete words can be seen on the appendix sheet. The second difference is the difference in spelling. The researchers shows the example of the words on the table below: A clock or watch that showing the time using hands on a dial and not with a display of numbers To examine the Nature or structure of something especially by separating it into its part in order to understand or explain it.

C-A-C-A-T-A-L-O-G-U-E C-A-T-A-L-O-G Katalog
A complete list of Items, for example of things that people can look at or buy.

C-E-N-T-R-E C-E-N-T-E-R Pusat, tengah
The middle point or Part of something.

C-O-L-O-U-R C-O-L-O-R Warna
The appearance that things have that Results from the way in which they reflect light.
The researchers also found 50 words which have differences in spelling. The differences in spelling occur in the first, middle and in the end of the words. The significant differences are words with ending -or and -our, usually the words with ending -our in British always endingor in American. Beside vocabulary and spelling British and American English also have differences in pronunciation. The list of the words can be seen on the following table: As vocabulary and spelling, in differences of pronunciation the researcher also took 50 words to be analyzed. There a many differences in pronunciation such as the way to pronounce 'student' in British English is /ˈstjuː.dənt/, while in American English, the pronunciation is /ˈstuː.dənt/. In American English, the sound /j/ is unpronounced.
The table on the previous page is show the list of British and American words which have differences in vocabulary (word using), spelling and pronunciation and the researcher attaches more British and American words in appendix sheet. So the reader can see more British and American words which have differences on appendixes sheet which attached by researcher.
After identifying the data, the researcher analyzed and classified them into some categories. Based on the data that showed in the table on the previous page, the researcher divided the differences into three categories. The first is differences in vocabulary or word using. Second is the differences in spelling and the last is differences in pronunciation. These all categories will be explained below.

The Differences in Vocabulary (Word Using)
British English and American English have many different words which refer to the same thing. Sometimes, it makes many people confuse and uncertain to use word to express their meaning or ideas. For example, British English use word 'maize' to call 'jagung' while, in American English 'jagung' is 'corn'. In Indonesia, many products use term 'corn' as information that the product made from corn/maize. The example of the products can be seen below.

Picture 1. Example of Products which Use Term 'corn'
The pictures above show all of products use 'corn' to explain that the products contains of corn/maize. Beside 'corn', there is the other word used in product which is orbited in Indonesia such as candy. In Indonesia, the word 'candy' is more common than 'sweet(s)'. The examples of products are: Picture 2. Example of Products which Use Term 'candy' This shows that American English words are more widely used in the products in Indonesia. In the other hand, different with vocabulary (word using), British spelling is more common in Indonesia, especially on the English textbook. The researcher explained the differences in spelling on the next page.

The Differences in Spelling
Besides vocabulary (word using) British English and American English also have differences in Spelling. The first is the words with ending -our in British and -or in American, the second is the words with ending -re in British and -er in American. There are still many differences in British and American words. The complete explanation can be seen on the next page.
1) The words with ending -our and -or British English usually ending in -our on the other hand, American English words ending in -or. The examples of the words are: 2) The words with ending -re and -er The ending -re usually refers to British English words while, the words with ending -er refers to American words. These following words are example of words which ending inre and -er: 3) The words with ending -ence and -ense The other differences spelling is ending -ence and -ense. Usually, British English words are ending in -ence and American English words are ending in -ense. The example of words with ending in -ence and -ense are: 4) The words with ending -ogue and -og The words with ending -ogue is refers to British English words whereas, the words with ending -og is refers to American English words. The example of the words can be seen below: 5) The words with -ae/-oe and -e Not only in the end of the word, the differences of spelling also occurs in the middle of the words. Below is the example of words which have spelling differences of -ae and -e. 6) The words with -ll and -l In British English spelling 'l' is doubled in words ending in a vowel plus 'l'. In American English, the 'l' is not doubled. The list of words that have differences in spelling'll' or 'l' are: The words with -ize and -ise The words in British English that can be spelled with either -ize or -ise at the end are always spelled with -ize at the end in American English. Here is the example of words with -ise and -ize. Based on the differences of spelling in British and American words which explained before, the researchers can conclude that American spelling is simpler than British spelling because spelling in American English usually same with the pronunciation of word itself but, like the researcher said before, although spelling of American English is simpler but spelling of British English which is mostly used in Indonesia especially on the English textbook. The example of English textbook which use British Spelling can be seen in appendix sheet.

The Differences in Pronunciation
There are some differences of pronunciation in British and American English which can be seen in table 4.3. In pronunciation, the differences occur in the features of pronunciation they are vowel, diphthong, consonant and stress. It related to the theory on the chapter two Gumelar (2018:3) that stated pronunciation has two features they are segmental sounds and suprasegmental sounds which divided becomes vowel, diphthong, consonant, stress and intonation.
Based on the researcher analysis, the most significant difference is the way to pronounce /r/. In British, sound /r/ is usually not pronounced especially if /r/ exists in the end of the words. For example, in British English to pronounce word 'Absurd' the pronunciation is /əbˈsɜːd/ the sound /r/ is silent or unpronounced while in American, the pronunciation of word 'Absurd' is /əbˈsɝrːd/. The sound /r/ in the word is pronounced this difference is located in the consonant sound that is /r/. Beside in consonant, other differences is occurs in diphthong sound they are /əʊ/ and /oʊ/. For example, the pronunciation of 'home' is /həʊm/ in British and /hoʊm/ in American. These pronunciation differences are very easy to guess and can be applied to all English vocabulary. The other differences is appear in the stress of the words, for example in British the word advertisement has stress in second syllable /ədˈvɜː.tɪs.mənt/ but in American, it is stressed in the third syllable /aed.vɝːˈtaɪz.mənt.

Limitation of The Research
The researchers realized there are many drawbacks in this research caused by limitation of the research. The limitations in this research are as follow: 1. The researchers is a novice researchers so that the researchers has many deficiencies both in theory, data collection and how to process the data.
2. The researchers is limited by time so that the researchers cannot be maximized in conducting the research.