Introduction
English is deservedly considered one of the most widespread languages globally because hundreds of millions of people from different countries speak it. This state of affairs contributes to the fact that numerous individuals learn this language to connect with an international community. When it comes to English language teachers and students, they should understand that their native language plays a crucial role in how successful a learning process can be. In particular, these individuals should be aware of the characteristic features of their mother tongues to understand how these peculiarities are similar or different from those in the English language. This knowledge allows teachers to draw more attention to language specifics that are essential for a specific learners’ group. Thus, American English, Spanish, and Arabic have certain similarities and differences on various levels, and being aware of this information can facilitate English learning among students from Spanish and Arabic groups.
General Overview of the Language Development
American English
Even though colonizers from Britain brought English to the USA, it is impossible to state that the language developed identically in the two countries. In the early 18th century, American English impressed with its homogeneity irrespective of the fact that people from Britain, Ireland, and other European countries lived in that territory (Luu, 2017). However, this fact does not mean that the language was easily understandable for newcomers. The rationale behind this fact is that American English became enriched with borrowed words from the languages of Native Americans and immigrants from France, Germany, Spain, and others.
American English developed against the background above and the desires of the local population to have a distinct language. That is why American English set specific pronunciation and word use rules that were different from those in British English. Another essential step toward making American English unique occurred after the end of World War I, when American pride was rising, and the state of Illinois declared that the American language was official. However, the modern era is witnessing the opposite trend because globalization processes and numerous manifestations of popular culture contribute to the fact that the distinctions between the American and British English languages are disappearing.
Spanish
The history of the Spanish language is deep and has a few essential capstones. In the beginning, one should admit that Spanish is an Indo-European Romance language, meaning that it originated from Latin (Arias, 2019). That is why many modern words from Spanish have a Latin origin. The following essential aspect refers to the fact that the Iberian Peninsula, the territory of modern Spain, was invaded by many peoples, including “the Moors from Northern Africa, the Visigoths from Central Europe, and the Christians from the Roman Empire” (Gonzalez, 2020, para. 12). As a result, the Spanish language absorbed many characteristic features of different cultures.
Irrespective of the events above, some Spaniards contributed to the development of their mother tongue. Alfonso X, the Wise, was one of them, and he assembled to create many works on history, law, and astronomy in Castilian that was a continuation of spoken Latin (Arias, 2019). Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco was one more prominent figure who founded the Royal Spanish Academy in 1713 to unify the Spanish language (Arias, 2019). Another significant period started when the Spanish Empire formed its colonies in the USA, which made the language assimilate with local cultures and dialects. As a result, there appeared a language variation that was different from Standard Spanish. This long path contributed to the fact that Spanish is one of the most spoken languages today.
Arabic
Arabic is a widespread language in North Africa and Western Asia. In particular, it is the official language of 22 countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Libya, and others, which makes more than 200 million people speak (Huafeng et al., 2019). Arabic emerged approximately in the 5th century AD when an organization of French-speaking countries required a unified language (Huafeng et al., 2019). The language significantly expanded its coverage area in the 7th century. That period witnessed the expansion of the Arab Empire and the spread of Islam, and this event contributed to the fact that more people were forced to use Arabic (Huafeng et al., 2019). Years passed, and the Empire started losing its power over vast territories. As a result, in approximately the 10th century witnessed various regional dialects appeared, and they were notably different from the literary language (Huafeng et al., 2019). However, this fact did not lead to the decay of Arabic, and this language remains widespread in the modern world.
Analysis Comparing American English, Spanish, and Arabic
This section represents the most significant part of the given essay because it analyzes and compares the three selected languages. A specific structure will be followed to ensure a logical and transparent flow of thoughts. Four subheadings will separately focus on various language levels, including phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, which will allow for identifying similarities and differences among American English, Spanish, and Arabic.
Phonetics and Phonology
When it comes to comparing languages, phonetics and phonology are essential because they determine how people sound. In American English, individuals should draw sufficient attention to their pronunciation since the misuse of a single sound can significantly change the meaning of a word. There are consonants and vowels in American English, and they differ according to functions and creating patterns. 24 consonants are created by using an obstruction to the airstream, and they are subdivided into plosives, affricates, fricatives, nasals, and approximants (Carley & Mees, 2019). Some of the most characteristic features include the interdental [θ, ð], glottal [h], bilabial [w], and nasal [m, n, ŋ] sounds.
In turn, vowels are syllable-forming sounds, and they are significantly different from consonants. The rationale is that the vowels are created “with no obstruction in the vocal tract to the air as it passes through it” (Carley & Mees, 2019, p. 122). Tongue and lips play a crucial role in making vowels. In American English, vowels can be short or long, and the presence of monophthongs and diphthongs is a characteristic feature of this language. According to Carley and Mees (2019), diphthongs “involve a glide from one vowel position toward another during their production,” while monophthongs do not have such a peculiarity (p. 130). R-coloring is another characteristic feature of American English, which implies pronouncing the r-sound when it follows a vowel.
Now, it is possible to use the information above as a basis to compare and contrast the three languages, and the following paragraphs are going to comment on similarities. Firstly, it is possible to mention that the consonant systems of American English and Spanish have certain shared features. For example, the two languages have affricates, fricatives, bilabial, interdental, and dental consonants (Rao, 2019). Secondly, multiple similarities exist between vowels in Spanish and American English. The rationale is that vowels are also voiced and syllable forming in Spanish, diphthongs are frequent, and these sounds have similar articulation properties because Spanish vowels can be high, front, back, mid, and open (Celdran & Elvira-Garcia, 2019). This information denotes that the two languages have resembling phonetics and phonological peculiarities.
One should admit that Arabic also has some similarities with the languages above. According to Mustafawi (2019), the number of consonants is also greater than that of vowels in Arabic, while vowels are used to create syllables. This language also has some similar sound production approaches because Arabic has affricates, fricatives, interdental, and nasal consonants as American English and Spanish do (Mustafawi, 2019). Furthermore, vowels can be high and low as well as front and back, while diphthongs are also used (Mustafawi, 2019). This information allows for concluding that phonetics and phonology of the three languages have some shared features.
However, the three languages have notable differences that deserve attention. As for American English and Spanish, the latter is unique because it has triphthongs (Celdran & Elvira-Garcia, 2019). Another peculiarity is that Spanish vowels are the only syllable forming sounds, while some English consonants can perform this function, and word little is an example since sound [l] creates a syllable. Furthermore, one should admit that some Spanish sounds imply production characteristics that are unique to English. For instance, Spanish has a sound [ñ] that is palatalized, and vowel nasalization is present (Celdran & Elvira-Garcia, 2019). Finally, there is no vowel reduction in Spanish, which results in the fact that this language does not have a counterpart to schwa from American English.
As for Arabic, it implies some notable differences that should be described. Firstly, one should admit that this language uses a distinct system of symbols to represent its sounds orthographically (Mustafawi, 2019). These symbols make it challenging for people who are not familiar with the language to guess how these symbols should be pronounced. Secondly, a peculiar development process could not result in unique features of Arabic. For example, the language has a voiceless uvular stop that has no counterparts in American English and Spanish (Mustafawi, 2019). Simultaneously, Arabic is different from American English because lenition or palatalization and pharyngealization are present in the former (Mustafawi, 2019). These phenomena explain why Arabic may sound strange to Americans and Europeans.
Morphology
Morphology is a part of grammar study, and it focuses on the structure of the word, how it is created, and what separate elements can be distinguished. In the American English language, a root is the most significant part of a word (morpheme) because it conveys a leading meaningful component. Derivational affixes can be added to roots to change or modify their meanings. If an affix precedes a root, it is a prefix, while suffixes follow roots (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2017). In addition to that, American English has inflections or inflectional affixes that can create different forms of words. For example, inflection –ed is used to create the Past Tense of verbs, –er makes a comparative degree of adjectives, while -(e)s serves to create plural forms (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2017). When it comes to the plural form, it is worth admitting that some words do not follow the strategy above. Such words can have identical forms for the plural and singular (sheep), change root vowels (man-men) or use different inflections (phenomenon-phenomena). In addition to that, introducing is used to indicate possession. Finally, American English has compound words that consist of two and more roots.
Now, it is rational to represent whether the other languages have similarities to what was mentioned about American English. On the one hand, Spanish also focuses on morphemes as leading components of words. There are the root, derivational, and inflectional morphemes in this European language. In Spanish, inflections are also used to indicate plurality and make clear what time a verb describes (Erichsen, 2018). Prefixes and suffixes are frequently used to modify the meanings of nouns, verbs, and adverbs in Spanish. On the other hand, Arabic morphology does not have many similarities with the other two languages. Word structure is one of the shared features because Arabic words have roots, and various affixes can be added to them with or without changing categories or grammatical meanings (Igaab & Kareem, 2018). The possessive case is present in the Arabic language even though it is marked by adding “al-kasrah at the end of the nouns or adjectives” (Igaab & Kareem, 2018, p. 99). This language also has suffixes, prefixes, and inflections similar to American English and Spanish.
However, the morphology systems of American English and Spanish have many notable differences. The European language has a more developed system of inflections because they indicate the genders of nouns and adjectives (Erichsen, 2018). Simultaneously, Spanish is considered a language with fixed word order, but this rule is not strict, meaning that some variations are possible. In such cases, specific prepositions are typically used to demonstrate where a subject and an object are (Erichsen, 2018). Finally, Spanish nouns cannot have a genitive or possession case (ending in English), and appropriate pronouns are issued to indicate such a relationship between words.
In addition to the fact, Arabic morphology has a few characteristic features. Firstly, it only studies variable words that can be changed or modified to make a new meaning. This fact denotes that, for example, pronouns and articles are not covered by Arabic morphology. Secondly, this branch focuses on derivation which implies adding specific templates to the existing nouns and verbs, and this process results in creating new meanings (Igaab & Kareem, 2018). Finally, Arabic is different from English because its verbs are inflected to demonstrate gender (Igaab & Kareem, 2018). This peculiarity represents a leading challenge for those people who have only started learning Arabic.
Syntax
The syntax is supposedly one of those features that made English a language of international communication. This language has a strict word order, meaning that a sentence should begin with a subject and predicate that are followed by secondary sentence members. The word order allows people to understand relationships between words and uncover the whole meaning. According to Nordquist (2020), the English language has nine parts of speech, including the noun, verb, pronoun, adverb, adjective, preposition, conjunction, interjection, and article. The given language has an extended system of pronouns that are actively used in sentences. Finally, the discussion of syntax should include the explanation that the subject and predicate should agree in number. This statement means that inflection -(e)s or a corresponding form should be used if a verb in Present tense refers to a singular noun. The rationale behind this statement is that verbs in English do not have a grammatical category of gender.
The Spanish language has the same parts of speech as those mentioned above for American English. Furthermore, Erichsen (2018) states that the rule of fixed word order in sentences exists in Spanish, but the following information will comment on this fact in detail. The Spanish language also has many pronouns and extensively uses them. These findings could allow for supposing that American English and Spanish syntax systems are identical, but the truth is the opposite. Firstly, Spanish is different because it is not always necessary to follow a strict word order, meaning that a subject can be omitted when it is easily understood from the context (Erichsen, 2018). Secondly, this European language is gendered, denoting that a subject and a predicate should agree in number, tense, and gender. Simultaneously, one should also ensure that an article agrees in gender and number with a noun.
When it comes to Arabic, its syntax is much different from that of American English and Spanish. Firstly, the Arabic syntax only offers three parts of speech, including the noun, verb, and particle (Saryara, 2020). While the verb denotes to do something in all three languages, the noun is specific in Arabic because this part of speech includes nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs in their traditional meaning. Simultaneously, Arabic particles can be considered analogs of conjunctions and prepositions in English. Secondly, Arabic is peculiar because this language does not have a fixed word order, which provides speakers with more freedom to choose language means (Saryara, 2020). Finally, Arabic sentences can be nominal when a sentence begins with a noun or when a verb is absent (Saryara, 2020). That is why the agreement between subject and predicate is not always the case, but when the two are present, they should agree in time, gender, and tense as in Spanish.
Semantics
Semantics deals with understanding and interpreting the meaning of words and sentences. In American English, words can have a direct or figurative meaning, and the latter gives rise to multiple expressive means, including metaphor, metonymy, and others, to enrich communication. As for sentences, they have grammatical and referential meaning in American English. The first one focuses on the fact that a sentence should have the correct grammatical structure, meaning that its members should agree in tense and number. Simultaneously, a referential meaning consists of the meanings of every word that is included in the sentence (Magrath, 2017). An example will explain the distinction between the two because the sentence (Laziness eats a hamburger) is correct grammatically, while its referential meaning is absurd. Simultaneously, American English is open to new words, and many word-formation strategies are productive. They include affixation, compounding, borrowing, and creating neologisms because many new phenomena appear and enter the language.
When it comes to the semantics of the Spanish language, it has many similarities with that of American English. Firstly, Spanish also uses a grammatical category to describe the meaning provided by the syntactic structure and a referential or conceptual category that is stored in the lexicon (Marquetta, 2018). Secondly, words in the Spanish language can also be used with either direct or figurative meanings. As for word-formation strategies, they are approximately the same in the two languages, but Marquetta (2018) admits that compounding is associated with higher structural complexity in Spanish. This information allows for concluding that communication in Spanish is not different from that in American English because the two languages follow identical approaches to their semantic systems.
Even though it can seem surprising based on the dissimilarities between the languages above, the Arabic semantic system is not very different from American English and Spanish. The rationale behind this statement is, for example, that Arabic has polysemy which is a common feature of the other two languages (Albader, 2017). In addition to that, Hamdan and Al-Salman (2021) stipulate that neologisms are an accurate and efficient method to enrich the language with new concepts that come from other countries. Thus, it is possible to suppose that all three languages are similar when it comes to their semantics. One can conclude that such a state of affairs is present because all the languages have common goals to enable communication among people, and the semantic systems are designed to meet them.
Implications for Teachers
The information above can be helpful for teachers of English learners (ELs) who have Spanish or Arabic as their native languages. The rationale behind this statement is that the findings above reveal the most significant differences and similarities between the languages under consideration. Even though similar sounds exist in American English, Spanish, and Arabic, their phonology and phonetics systems are peculiar. Thus, Spanish-speaking ELs should get accustomed to vowel reduction in English, while it can be challenging for Arabs to learn how to read sound symbols in English. It is of value for teachers to ensure that their students understand these peculiarities. English morphology can be considered easier for students because this language does not have gender inflections, and this fact also contributes to the fact that it is not necessary to agree on English subjects with predicates on gender. Simultaneously, English teachers should highlight that this language has a fixed word order, which is different from what is found in Spanish and Arabic. As for semantics, teachers should explain that word-forming strategies and communication patterns are approximately the same in the three languages.
Conclusion and Personal Reflection
Finally, this essay is helpful for me because I have identified the most characteristic features of American English, Spain, and Arabic. Based on the comparison of the three, I have understood why English is a language of international communication. A possible rationale behind this choice is that this language has simplified morphological and syntactical systems compared to other languages. In addition to that, the project will be valuable for my future work with English learners from diverse backgrounds. If I understand the peculiarities of their native languages, I will manage to determine what aspects will be challenging for them to grasp. For example, Spanish-speaking learners find it easy that it is not necessary to agree on nouns and verbs in gender, while Arab-speaking ones can face challenges with fixed word order and a different symbol system. Thus, I will draw attention to these peculiarities to ensure that English learners from diverse backgrounds can achieve the best learning outcomes.
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