To hate this Americanism that has crept in to our language

[Mooos]

"Go figure"

Does it wind anyone else up too - or is it just me?

I can't share your loathing of "Can I get", ummagumma. The meaning is almost identical to "May I have". If you want to be super-literal about language (you could get it, but you're not allowed to -> you may not), then you'd have to stop asking "What do you want?" unless you've got all day to hear about your respondent's lifelong dreams, hopes & wishes. And put up with people asking you what for, when you ask if they've got the time [hwink]

:o

I HATE WITH A PASSION:

'You did real good' and 'You did really good'

Parmesan pronouned 'parm-i-jaan'

Croissant pronounced 'cra-ssant'

'I don't care for that'

LOATHSOME

I've never been able to pronounce croissant.

Me neither. And DP is French.

I see a part of him die inside every time I ask for one.

How you say it? I can't do the curly R so I end up saying "Kwasson" which just doesn't sound as nice :(

DP just said it again to me and I nodded and smiled and now I'm pretending to type the correct pronunciation when in fact I still haven't got a fucking clue.

I'm Scottish so I pronounce the R but then I sort of add a W after it and then don't know whether to sound the T at the end of it.

I don't tend to ask for them now.

They're not that nice anyway.

(Love your profile Grace Ghoul) [hgrin]

No, I prefer butteries anyway.

Yum!

I can feel my arteries furring just reading the recipe

I love the fact that they are meant to be buttered...

Thanks, horMOANS! Ooh, we'd make a great seasonal team.

Attagirl

Have heard recently 'Normalcy' (sp?)

It's fucking NORMALITY

parmeejan is more correct than parmesan in some ways - the Italian name for the cheese (which is Italian of course) is Parmigiano, so presumably the large Italian-American contingent have passed on their pronunciation.

"Can I get" and "I'm good" is endemic in Australia as well.

In 'Susanna goes to School'(excellent sequel in the 'Susanna of the Yukon' series) schoolgirls were told off for saying 'I'll do ut' instead of 'I'll do it' as being an Americanism.

Fraid it leaves me feeling they didn't have enough to do in those days. and I like 'go figure'. But I do loathe 'Can I get...', I will still be whining on about that when I am 80.

^Have heard recently 'Normalcy' (sp?)

It's fucking NORMALITY^

Actually, it dates from at least the mid 19th century.

And "go figure" is indeed from Yiddish.

I love the English language.

Did not know that go figure is yiddish but did know that it has been commonaly used for decades in some areas of the Uk. I love it. It is the only remark you can make to some stupid things.

Language is not meant to stand still. It is constantly evolving. Could you imagine how we would be taking if English had never evolved? It would be a very different language...

Married to a yank and have half yankie kids, so not really bothered personally. Tho I understand totally why anyone else without yankee connections might be. Language evolves and we're a global community, no longer in splendid isolation...Inevitable I think. I do see where you're coming from but I don't see that there's anything you can do to stop the Americanisation of English. Our language is already a bastardisation of so many other tongues anyway...

Oops! I used "go figure" on another thread.

Just occurred to me that this is what wound you up in the first place

Am I being paranoid. I just checked and I wrote the comment 2 hours before Mooos posted hers.

Mooos please let me know if my detective work is right or am I just having delusions of grandeur in thinking that any knows or cares what I post.

I always feel pretty invisible on Mn but I enjoy reading all the comments and occasionally throwing in my two cents worth.