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The most famous Englishman in Australian history, Captain James Cook, missed the entrance to Sydney Harbour during the night. He and fellow Englishman, Sir Joseph Banks, committed future explorers to the less promising site of Botany Bay.Nearly 20 years later, Sydney was founded by the British government as a penal colony. Although there was an established Aboriginal population, they remained on the periphery and were gradually reduced by disease and displacement, a fate suffered by others further out as exploration and settlement proceeded. In contrast to New York, which was established by the Dutch, or Boston, which became predominantly Irish, Sydney was seen from the beginning as an 'English' town. This was despite its growing connections with the Pacific and the presence among its soldiers and convicts of some Scots and many Irishmen. The majority of transported convicts were English, the Church of England was the established religious faith and Catholicism was strictly limited by official control.

This series of books reprints articles from the successful English Historical Linguistics: An International Handbook (HSK 34.1 and 34.2) in a convenient paperback set suitable for use in the classroom or by scholars. While the first volume provides an overview of the history of English, the second to fourth volumes focus on individual periods and the final volume covers language variation from an historical perspective

Of the many different dialects of English such as British English (hereafter BrE), American English (hereafter AmE), Australian English (AsE), or Canadian English (CnE) or even Singaporean English (hereafter Singlish), etc, the most common widely use across the globe are BrE and AmE. The two dialects of English, as a matter of fact, are dominantly used in any kinds of fields to mention a few such as politics, economics, diplomatic relationship, medical, information communication and technology (ICT), and education as well. The debate about the use of BrE and AmE often centers on education especially in the process of learning and acquiring the English itself because the two dialects of English provide some different and distinctive features. Because of their differences and distinctive features, the learners often find difficulties and often make them confused which one to use. This paper is attempting to review the unique features of BrE and AmE focusing on the spellings.