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Americans are angry with us for polluting their language
The Telegraph ^ | February 7, 2011 | Kath Hinton

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: british; english; expats; grammar; tiddler; tittingoffagain
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To: Daveinyork
"I enjoyed the roast lamb and beer, and beef wellington."

I endeavored to partake of the 'Fish and Chips' in the center of London.

Nope...nope, nopity-nope. I would rather have a greasy gag inducing six dollar plate of Long John Silver's..thank you ever so much.

When I eat breakfast anywhere in the UK, I get funny looks because I reflexively stick my tongue out. I'm sorry, someone needs to tell the person who puts the mushy tomato next to my undercooked eggs and bacon that they are committing heresy.

My last time in the area, the spouse and I lived off store bought bananas and instant coffee and jumped for joy when we found a Dunkin' Donuts.

81 posted on 02/07/2011 6:29:06 AM PST by Earthdweller (Harvard won the election again...so what's the problem.......? Embrace a ruler today.)
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To: NCjim

Limeys talk funny..


82 posted on 02/07/2011 6:29:33 AM PST by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole....)
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To: NCjim

Oh bosh, I have used some of those Britishisms for years but then my parents lived in England for a number of years and I have an English auntie, my mother’s best friend who, came to visit, married my uncle and stayed.


83 posted on 02/07/2011 6:35:01 AM PST by kalee (The offences we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we engrave in marble. J Huett 1658)
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To: caver

I grew up reading Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and other great British writers. Not only were the books fantastic but they did wonders at expanding my vocabulary. I still spell words in the British way, such as theatre, grey, etc. I’m no snob, it’s just a preferred spelling


84 posted on 02/07/2011 6:35:37 AM PST by Kieri (The Conservatrarian)
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To: NCjim

I vaguely remember native-born Americans talking about “going to university,” or something like that. It was odd. I had always thought Americans went to college...


85 posted on 02/07/2011 6:39:33 AM PST by PghBaldy (Like the Ft Hood Killer, James Earl Ray was just stressed when he killed MLK Jr.)
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To: NCjim

Rush Limbaugh and I will put this on our shedule to read later.


86 posted on 02/07/2011 6:42:30 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (Yes, as a matter of fact, what you do in your bedroom IS my business.)
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To: NCjim
"Judas Priest! There's an accident on the roundabout again. Bloody 'ell! Now I'll be late getting to 'ospital."

Definitely not the bee's knees...
87 posted on 02/07/2011 6:46:53 AM PST by CygnusTheSwan ("Me fail English? That's unpossible" - Ralph Wiggum)
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To: Earthdweller

For “bloody hell” to work to full effectiveness, it has to be “bloody ‘ell.” No aitches allowed. The same for one of my favorite Britishisms: “ ‘ow’s yer father?”


88 posted on 02/07/2011 6:47:00 AM PST by IronJack (=)
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Comment #89 Removed by Moderator

To: Hawthorn

Nor will I forget the little old Brittish lady at the hair dresser one requesting a blow job.

(Blow drying her hair)


90 posted on 02/07/2011 6:51:04 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (Yes, as a matter of fact, what you do in your bedroom IS my business.)
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To: jla
LOL - What’s wrong with meat, potatoes and peas?

Nothing, if you boil them long enough...

91 posted on 02/07/2011 6:51:42 AM PST by null and void (We are now in day 748 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
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To: NCjim
I'm gobsmacked. GOBSMACKED!

Unununium.

Unununium.

92 posted on 02/07/2011 6:53:01 AM PST by Lazamataz (If Illegal Aliens are Undocumented Workers, then Thieves are Undocumented Shoppers.)
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To: caver
My pet peeve is Americans using the Brit’s spelling. They are just trying to be cute.

Ryght.

93 posted on 02/07/2011 6:54:19 AM PST by Lazamataz (If Illegal Aliens are Undocumented Workers, then Thieves are Undocumented Shoppers.)
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To: Seruzawa
There’s a theory that the true cause of British worldwide expansionism and colonialism was mainly a search for something good for dinner.

And where did they end up?

China and India.

Q.E.D.

94 posted on 02/07/2011 6:54:31 AM PST by null and void (We are now in day 748 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
Here it used to mean just a hobo homeless person.
95 posted on 02/07/2011 6:56:50 AM PST by null and void (We are now in day 748 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
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To: NCjim
WOT YOU SAY!!
96 posted on 02/07/2011 6:58:32 AM PST by RichInOC (HA HA HA HA....)
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To: varon
Talk about someone sounding pretentious, have you ever heard the more than average Conservative Rush Limbaugh pronounce 'schedule'?

He does that to irritate pretentious liberals.

It works.

97 posted on 02/07/2011 7:00:17 AM PST by null and void (We are now in day 748 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
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To: Graybeard58

LOL! I hear ya!


98 posted on 02/07/2011 7:07:25 AM PST by Vor Lady
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To: Graybeard58
Speaking of odd spellings, I wrote a mimicked-up middle English sally with a somewhat contrived plot behind it a few years ago. The spellings were much odder in the time of Henry VII.
99 posted on 02/07/2011 7:08:11 AM PST by danielmryan
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To: Graybeard58

I grew up in Illinois, and people always said “wanna come with?” As an adult I moved to California, where people never say it. I thought it was just an Illinois thing.


100 posted on 02/07/2011 7:15:02 AM PST by Nea Wood (Silly liberal . . . paychecks are for workers!)
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