Why do some Americanisms irritate people? 9

[sha76]

how did lieutenant come to be pronounced leftenant in so many British movies?

Ermm, because that's the British pronounciation?

Interesting though that the Americans kept the spelling but changed the pronounciation, as opposed to actually sticking an f in it. Are there other words like that?

Oh, & trousers are still pants in some areas, took me a long time to adjust to that one!

"Your rock is eroding wrong." -Dogbert

 

[SantaMufasa]

When I first arrived in Britain, I remember the uproar I caused at Burton's clothiers in Birmingham as a result of this conversation:

Saleslady: May I help you, sir?

I: Yes miss...could you please show me your pants and suspenders?

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
“People may forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

 

[1DMF]

You don't really get Americans pinching bits of British English though do you? So this is purely a one-way issue.

Isn't that the whole irony, American English is original old English, of course they pinched British English, most of them historically are British!

That's why they speak English in the first place! (even if it's more American now!)

It's just their language has evolved (or not in some cases) differently to ours, don't forget our language is a mixture of Danish (Norse), French (Norman), Roman ....etc...etc..

USA has never been invaded to have had it's language morphed like we have, nor have they had an Empire to have been influenced by.

For only being 200+ years old they've done pretty good for themselves none the less!

Ok we have to gloss over the whole native American incident, but lets face it at that time it was Eutropeans not Americans anyway, USA wasn't even a country then, and no-one had yet heard of the Alamo!

At the end of the day, they're still our cousins!



"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

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[CajunCenturion]

==> American English is original old English
Not hardly. The original Old English is considered to have been replaced by Middle English around the 12th century. The current Modern English period is considered to have begun in the 17th century - still scores of years before the USA was even a thought.

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[Turkbear]

Hi,
Remember the USA was settled by the English in 1607 and the language they brought over is what, mainly, has evolved into the odd mixture we have here now ( add to this the waves of immigrants and their language customs that got absorbed).

Anerican English is a polyglot of 15th century English,portmanteau words from other languages, and a few
original neologisms.



To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[FI0L]

I dislike the way that americanisms (sic) embed themselves into the English language but accept that I am as guilty as the rest of using them.

Americans on the whole (unlike the English) are very patriotic and have been since their early beginnings (which wasn't all that long ago historically).

It was inevitable that they'd want to have their own language and from what I can deduce they've tried to take the majority of our words and have made a conscious effort to make it their own by bastardising either the spelling or the pronunciation.

I find that quite acceptable, but why the English/British feel that we need to throw away our pride in our language by mimicking them, escapes me.

Celtic languages spoken by the inhabitants of Wales, Scotland & Manx are unfortunately declining due to outside influences. I wouldn't like to think of English going the same way.

Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are good is like expecting the bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian.

 

[gbaughma]

At least this hasn't devolved into a "Biscuits vs. Cookies" argument, which has been ongoing with my sister and our British friend for months now... lol

When he came here to visit (as mentioned above), she purposely made Biscuits and Sausage Gravy. She gave him a biscuit with honey and butter, and he admitted that he loved it, but the UK didn't have anything similar; she gave him the recipe.

Another Americanism that, thanks to my sister, you guys will have soon.


Just my 2¢

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[sha76]

Now there's a thing that confuses me, to me biscuits & gravy to me translates as slightly strange scones in white sauce; just wrong!

On the other hand, I can't understand why pecan pie hasn't really made it over here, or breakfast burritos, both works of genius!

"Your rock is eroding wrong." -Dogbert

 

[flapeyre]

My favotite Sunday brunch would be grillades and grits.



-- Francis
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--Robert Frost

 

[Welshbird]

{off topic for a change] I made breakfast yesterday that I suspect might already be my favourite even though so far I've only had it once....

Twas a slice of home-made white bread, toasted on one side; flipped over and then toasted with mature chedder ('sharp cheddar?'). I thne fried some cubes of italian smoked bacon and poached an egg.

Place toast on a plate, then agg, then sprinkle with crispy cubes of bacon. YUM!
[/off topic]

Fee

"The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea." Isak Dinesen

 

[1DMF]

Exactly Turkbear!

FIOL -> Well if you watch QI,then you will be disapointed to hear it is beleived we will eventually all talk Panglish!

It's a bit like the way Chinese pronounce Salt & Vinegar (Sore Finger) - Apparently!

"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"

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[BadBigBen]

Lieutenant vs. Lieutenant (leftenant):

"Pronunciation with lef- is common in Britain, and spellings to reflect it date back to 14c., but the origin of it is mysterious."
source: Online Etymology Dictionary...

@Fi0l, from what I had read in the past few days, is that actually the celtic (Gealic, Welsh, etc.) is rather on the way back. I had read that Welsh is taught in school.

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
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[Welshbird]

that's true Ben - My sister brought her children up in Wales, and learning Welsh (and in fact - learning other subjects through the medium of Welsh) is compulsary.

My two nephews are now fluent.

Fee

"The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea." Isak Dinesen

 

[CajunCenturion]

==> Remember the USA was settled by the English in 1607
Yes, Jamestown was settled in 1607.

==> American English is a polyglot of 15th century English
But 1607 is 17th century, not 15th century. And as I said, the Modern English Period began during the 17th century.



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[BadBigBen]

now, looking at Canadian English and American English, both pronounce the words very similar, though the spelling is different...

also they tend to mix it altogether...

e.g.

AE: check
BE&CE: cheque

AE&CE: trunk
BE: boot


but we could go on and on about the varieties of English spoken in the world today, e.g. Australian-, South African-, Jamaican-, etc. Englsh...

don't forget our language is a mixture of Danish (Norse), French (Norman), Roman ....etc...etc...

lets call this STEP1...

STEP1 came before the settlement of North America by the English, thus the language at that stage should've been pretty much the same (ignoring dialects and such)...

after that they have diverged, British English getting more and more influenced through it's holdings overseas and American English through the Native Americans and Immigrants from all over the world...

with that, I actually believe that the Am. English is the more varied of the two... but only slightly... and with globalization both are nearing each other more and more, and most likely in the end it is no longer "England and America are two countries separated by a common language."... (JMO)

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[1DMF]

Very true, though south Africa is more africans, remember thr british were defeated in the Boar war which were Dutch!

And don't forget half of Canda speak French!

But the point of all this was to help Fee calm down and realise USA and UK are not as different as you may think and in most cases USA simply use an older English word.

My Mum goes mad when people say 'H' trying to be posh by saying it 'Haych', when it is incorrect and 'H' is the only letter that can be spelt 'Aitch', which sounds more common!

I think my Mum could do with a few 'special' cookies and chill out!

"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"

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[Welshbird]

I'm calm really - Honest!

I just would prefer it if we enjoy our differences and keep them. This is less of a global village than two different places so if we enjoy the differences we all enjoy holidays in the toher place slightly more just because of those differences.

Fee

"The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea." Isak Dinesen

 

[1DMF]

Fee, that statement is a contradiction to your original post

Some Americanisms really do irritate me you see...

I know what you mean, I do wonder why some Americans have to be so loud!

I will have to wear ear plugs this weekend when my sister and her boyfriend come, he is very loud and in your face!

What is really funny though, is when he first speaks on the phone, he sounds Scottish, it's not until a few sentences that the clearly USA accent comes through, very odd!

"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"

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[strongm]

>africans, remember thr british were defeated in the Boar war which were Dutch!


Given we are in Making an Impression that should firstly be

"afrikaans, remember the British were defeated in the Boer War which were Dutch!"

And secondly, the British won the Boer War of 1899-1902 (the previous conflict of 1880 was, frankly, not a war)

 

[N1GHTEYES]

On the subject of British / American equivalents, I sometimes wonder if we could classify strongm, whom I regard as a national treasure, as Britain's somewhat less verbose answer to Cecil Adams.

Speaking of dear old Uncle Cecil, readers might be interested to peruse this related thread on the Straight Dope message board:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=94914

And just in case a few benighted souls among this forum's readership have yet to encounter the wit and wisdom of "the world's smartest human", why not see the SD site itself:

http://www.straightdope.com/

Enjoy,

Tony