Is 'gotten' becoming normal English usage?

[bigkidsdidit]

I'm seeing it everywhere on MN at the moment - I would guess almost every thread has one person at least saying gotten rather than got.

Is it becoming standard English English?

[SauceForTheGander]

I does seem to be and I loathe it.

I heard it rarely when I was a teenager (25 years ago) and it was only used by American friends. It's used everywhere now.

[DrankSangriaInThePark]

It was the original English taken to America by the Pilgrim Fathers.

Maybe it's coming home.

[bigkidsdidit]

I know it was. But I don't think that's why people use it!

[badtime]

It is used in a number of dialects of British English. The posters who use it may be from somewhere it is the usual form.

However, I really dislike it, and think anyone who uses it should be shotten.

[SconeRhymesWithGone]

or forgotten?

[MoreBeta]

I also loathe 'gotten' and it is an Americanism and I was also told on MN (I think?) that gotten is actually a proper English word - so that put me back in my box.

I still loathe it though.

[Faverolles]

Hugh Lofting used the word in the Dr Dolittle books in the early 1900's (or thereabouts?)

[SconeRhymesWithGone]

The word Americanism is also an Americanism, coined by John Witherspoon, the first president of Princeton. So if you want to avoid Americanisms . . .

[TallulahBetty]

God I hope not. It's hideous

[throckenholt]

NOOOO !

It makes my teeth itch. Please, NO.

It may be perfectly standard speech for the 1600s, and carried on in the US - but it isn't here.

[KissesBreakingWave]

None of you have gotten any respect for the fine history of our language. It went out of fashion a century or two ago and now you're treating it as dead? FICKLE.

[Weegiemum]

I really dislike it.

[SweetPenelope]

It's completely normal and acceptable in America. I lived there as a child and grew up saying "gotten". I don't say it much here, because it sounds like bad grammar in the UK. I quite like it.

[MoreBeta]

"It's completely normal and acceptable in America."

That is not what I call a recommendation.

[SconeRhymesWithGone]

As an American, I love the fact that with all the neologisms we are responsible for, we have retained words and forms from English contemporaneous with the first settlements. Fall for autumn is another example.

[NigellasDealer]

well i think gotten is fine and not really an Americanism as such. my friend who is from somerset originally says it, and my son says it too.
i mean forgot = forget = forgotten
soo.....got = get = gotten?

what is wrong with that?

[SconeRhymesWithGone]

Nigella Yes, indeed. I was about to ask the same thing. Do people who hate "gotten" also hate "forgotten"?

[bigkidsdidit]

I don't think it's wrong as such. I think normal English use has been got for a long time, and it is now changing. And I think it is changing because people want to appear American. I've also noticed lots of 'assholes' rather than 'arseholes' in Relationships recently!

[NigellasDealer]

to be honest though , assholes does sound kind of less offensive than arseholes doesn't it?
kind of like fuck and feck?

[SconeRhymesWithGone]

Asshole comes from arsehole; we just lost the r along the way, probably due to a non-rhotic accent combined with a shortening of the a sound.

[bigkidsdidit]

Yes, I suppose. It just irritates me when I see it all over the place. Like someone putting on a fake accent.

[barbarianoftheuniverse]

It's not as bad as 'dove'. As in, 'she dove into her sweater'. I don't know what she did after that; I had to stop reading in case she did it again.