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 ...
I was stationed for five years in Yorkshire, in the north of England. Even though I’ve been gone since 1974, I still use a lot of Britishisms, with a Yorkshire accent, mate.
Mmmmmmm
Some Americans just look for a reason to be po'd.
Bloody wankers.
Maybe if they got snogged, their outlook would improve.
I suppose her ‘clarifying’ that the “rubbers” were “for the end of my husband’s pencil” wouldn’t have helped much. ;)
They eventually gave up poetry, became computer geeks and invented "texting"............
In India they use ‘rubbers’ for erasers as well.
I just used it myself this morning on another thread...it felt "quite right".
There’s a theory that the true cause of British worldwide expansionism and colonialism was mainly a search for something good for dinner.
Nothing tastier than a tender lamb shank, served with potatoes and peas, with a bit of gravy if one is feeling roguish!
I figure any American calling something “over the top” is getting a little too pretentious.
I think this has been around longer than you think. When I was growing up that's how my grandmother would ask if I wanted to accompany her to the store. "Do you want to come with? She was first generation American of German extraction. I'm in my 50's so it's been around at least that long.
I give them a thumbs up for “bloody frogs.”
:) I like smushy peas.
Over the last 10 years or so, I’ve noticed Americans using the British phrase “spot on” to mean “exactly right,” “accurate.”
I’ve also heard the word “bum” in place of “posterior” or “fanny.” (The other day at the doctor’s office, the assistant told me to move my bum down the chair.) Here it used to mean just a hobo.
“but it will mark the ultimate decline of civilization if we permit them to have the slightest influence over our cuisine.”
Lies perpetrated by the Italians and the frogs. I enjoyed the roast lamb and beer, and beef wellington.
Nah that’s almost certainly PA Dutch. A similar shortening you won’t hear much beyond 100 miles of Lancaster County PA is simply “all” instead of “all gone”: “Hey can you pass the peas?” “No, the peas are all.”
Not necessarily. I find much of my spelling to be British influenced, but it's entirely inadvertent. I read a lot of books published in the UK (because I am interested in British history) and what you read "colours" how you spell certain words. It is neither an affectation nor being playful -- it just happens.
I've seen it at F.R. but didn't attribute it to e.e. cummings, I just figured it was folks new to typing and didn't know what the "shift" key was for.
We also have the other extreme of ALL CAPS.
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