Title: Mapping the Americanization of English in Space and Time,
Abstract: As global political preeminence gradually shifted from the United Kingdom to
the United States, so did the capacity to culturally influence the rest of the
world. In this work, we analyze how the world-wide varieties of written English
are evolving. We study both the spatial and temporal variations of vocabulary
and spelling of English using a large corpus of geolocated tweets and the
Google Books datasets corresponding to books published in the US and the UK.
The advantage of our approach is that we can address both standard written
language (Google Books) and the more colloquial forms of microblogging messages
(Twitter). We find that American English is the dominant form of English
outside the UK and that its influence is felt even within the UK borders.
Finally, we analyze how this trend has evolved over time and the impact that
some cultural events have had in shaping it.