Posted on 02/07/2011 5:08:46 AM PST by NCjim
After mangling our language for years, Americans are complaining about the invasion of traditional British lingo, says Kath Hinton.
New Yorkers always fall for a nice English accent: whenever my well-spoken sister-in-law visits, they trill at her flowing diction and faultless vowels. Coming from Liverpool, I have a trickier time. In fact, I stopped ordering butter after three waiters in one smart restaurant failed to grasp my pronunciation. "Bootta! Bootta!" I pleaded, while my American friends wept with joy at my embarrassment.
Now, however, it is the words we Anglo-Saxons use, not how we say them, that is causing a stir. After mangling our language for years, Americans are complaining about their own dialect being polluted by "Britishisms".
New Yorker Ben Yagoda, a professor at Delaware University, is studying the invasion of traditional British lingo. He has set up a website to keep track of the wicked, uniquely British words such as "kerfuffle" or "amidst" that are creeping into everyday American usage.
Yagoda's biggest objection, he tells me, is to words for which there are "perfectly good American equivalents, like 'bits' for 'parts' and 'on holiday' instead of 'on vacation' ". They are, he says, "purely pretentious".
Of course, British English has been under assault from this side of the Atlantic for centuries. America's most notorious linguistic anarchist, Noah Webster, decided more than 200 years ago that the English couldn't spell, decreeing that theatre should become theater; favour, favor; jewellery, jewelry; and so on.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Back in my younger days, every aspiring poet, upon first discovering e.e. cummings, went through a stage where capitalization was shunned. Same phenomenon.
The true lesson here is how you should never believe your home papers concerning what is an important or a current issue in a foreign land.
If there is a truism at all here, it is that Americans treat a highbrow British accent unrealistically as a sign of intelligence. Likewise they mock the same as a sign of pretenciousness. People have been doing this for at least 40 years (my memory) and I assume that it likely started well before 1776.
Do the Frogs really hate the encroachment of English words? No doubt there are Franco purists that do, but I doubt the common Frog gives two shakes.
Papers must have controversy, and the further away the source, the more believable it is that the mole hill really is a mountain.
I experienced this in my early 20’s, when I would read about some widespread issue of deep concern somewhere that had every citizen on edge, only to arrive there and find that no one gave a crap and often had no knowledge of the subject at all.
Remember “Everyone” = “This reporter and my friends”
If there is a truism at all here, it is that Americans treat a highbrow British accent unrealistically as a sign of intelligence. Likewise they mock the same as a sign of pretentiousness. People have been doing this for at least 40 years (my memory) and I assume that it likely started well before 1776.
Do the Frogs really hate the encroachment of English words? No doubt there are Franco purists that do, but I doubt the common Frog gives two shakes.
Papers must have controversy, and the further away the source, the more believable it is that the mole hill really is a mountain.
I experienced this in my early 20’s, when I would read about some widespread issue of deep concern somewhere that had every citizen on edge, only to arrive there and find that no one gave a crap and often had no knowledge of the subject at all.
Remember “Everyone” = “This reporter and my friends”
LOL!!!
Was being helped by a guy at Home Depot and noted his accent. When I asked how long since he left South Africa - he was impressed - most Americans thought he was Australian.
It’s a gift;)
I was imploring the UK Telegraph this very morning to "please speak English."
Yes, I am the World's Muse.
I’ll gladly sit and listen to a Brit (who speak very well) than be forced to endure one of America’s ‘urban residents’.
It is called “English” for a reason.
A popular one today among the young but I don’t know that it’s Brit in origin is:
“Wanna come with?” as in, “I’m going to the mall, wanna come with”?
I’ve forbidden my grand children from using it in my presence.
LOL - What’s wrong with meat, potatoes and peas?
Most New York restaurant menus call it: Starters,rather than Appetizers. Except the old school Italian red sauce places.
Smushey peas, please! With chips.
I think “Come with” is a Philadelphia thing. At least that’s where I was first exposed to it in frequent usage and that was 20+ years ago.
there, fixed it
Read Shakespeare.
It won´t be long before someone really starts messing with their language...and it won´t be Americans.
Me too—and gob smacked. One of my English cousins talks in some version of a cutesy English slang on Facebook. Half the time, I can’t understand a thing she’s talking about. My English born mother wouldn’t be able to understand her either.
it's native-speak to Chicagoans for at least the last sixty years ... companion phrase is "go with"
Very colourful comment, what?
I’ll never forget when the cute British girl in the apartment across the hall told me, “Just come over and knock me up whenever you’re ready to leave.”
What’s wrong with “bits”?
It takes “bits’’ to make “bytes”...................
Now that really let the air out of your tyres.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.