American English – First Changes from British English

Since the first British reached America in 1497, they came in contact with people who did not speak English.

The first successful English settlers arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 where they were greeted and treated by Virginia Indians who spoke Algonquian.  On the way to the New Continent, the travelers had stopped at Puerto Rico, where they dealt with Caribbean Spanish, which had already developed from its European mother tongue just the way American English would, with time branch off from British English.

American Indian American English loan words include: kayak, tomahawk or squaw.

Do you know what the words Chicago, Illinois mean in Algonquian or Manhattan in Delaware?  

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