to wonder when UK English got so Americanised?

[Ringsender2]

I've read 2 threads this morning where people have gone to the 'store'. Then there's the 'gotten' and 'mom' thing. I feel like a spluttering Basil Fawlty saying this, but when did English in the UK lose its identity so much? Was Friends the start of the rot or was it earlier?

I don't like "can I get" either - "could I have" is more polite.

I use 'I would like X please' as the question is usually 'What would you like?'

The only time I think about this is when typing words like 'Serialisation' at work and the computer red lines it and suggests a 'z' instead.

That really pisses me off

Just change the settings?

'Can I' rather than 'May I' is not a universal Americanism, I grew up in the Bible Belt and Midwest and was thoroughly told off if I used the former and a few times in school was refused permission to go to the restroom because I'd used it. I remember as a kid finding it confusing why one was better than the other (because if they said no then I couldn't so both equally accurate) but it was considered improper and impolite. I'd guess it's more a coastal thing which would explain why it shows up in US films and shows.

I have noticed an uptick of Brits using "y'all" in the last couple of years. I don't understand that one (especially when used in the singular) though there maybe a UK regional area that also uses it that I don't know about. It still always sounds odd to me but then I've been told that my saying 'ey up sounds really weird with my accent so maybe my brain having a similar reaction - it certainly did when my son (British born and never been to the US) decided to copy my dialect the other day which I still can't recall him doing before (I got annoyed and told him just to sit with his sister on the couch as 'your butts ain't that big' and he replied that the cord he needed 'ain't that long'). I spent a few minutes bemused on that one - Redneck-British is an interesting clash at times.

Well count up the no. of French words we use. English is a hybrid anyway. I agree the language is evolving, it's interesting and enriching.

People who weren't born and bred in the UK use Mumsnet. So why is it surprising to see different slang, colloquialisms, and usage of the same words?

Moving to another country shouldn't mean being stripped of your identity for the sake of not possibly offending the xenophobic locals.

My husband assured me before I moved here that Brits don't secretly hate Americans. Based on MN he was wrong!!!

On a daily basis I read hateful posts on America and Americans on MN and the mods do fuck all about them. I can only assume because they agree with the hate being spewed out.

As for British kids and teens using more American terminology it is sometimes considered cool to use slang from other cultures or maybe they just aren't as closed-minded as their parents. HTH.

Language evolves constantly, that's what makes it so interesting.

People have stopped reading. That is all.

See also "super" used for very. Super excited, super cute...

I'd rather here "gotten" than "supper"

Supper makes my skin crawl, and it is distinctly British.

Note: I am neither British nor American.

Hear*!

""The only one that irritates me is people in cafes etc saying "can I get..."

I feel old but I was always taught that it was really rude to ask for things that way and I can't get past it."

Yes! Quite. Can you get it? I suppose you could, if you can vault the counter and grab it.

When I was a kid, calling children kids was considered slangy and rather rude (say 1980)!

One of my parents is American so I've been using lots of these words all my life. I used to think that a car park was a building and one that was just a piece of land was a parking lot.

PINKY is Scottish

' Can I get ' and ' gotten ' are used where I come from all the time, have been since I was a child in the early 70's so not new and not classed as Americanisms where I live. Also ' I'm done ' for ' I've finished ' and the use of z instead of s in some spellings is common, again I was brought up with this so my parents and grandparents spoke like this as did friends and their parents. I'm Scottish btw and where I come from this is normal not Americanisms obviously.
But who cares? Language does evolve and why do some think its for the worse?
Any way I speak Doric normally and would love to hear that Incorporated into the English language down South more [grin[

Aye Mawbroon forgot about Pinky!

All the younger people I know (teens - mid-20s) now say "poop" instead of "poo".

Bring back our good old proudly British Poo!

Yes to being irritated by super as in 'super excited'
And can I get sounds rude to me

According to many linguists american is more true to old english then the english in use now in the uk. Its evolved less over the years so if anything its us that have have changed and a lot of rhe americanisms people complain about tend to be old english.

I think you mean early modern English, you would not be able to read / understand old English.

There is a good argument that English is a creole of various European languages. The USA and Canada have had mass immigration over centuries, and in the US there is no official language so English has and continues to be spoken as a second or additional language so the non change may be a result of that pidgin / creole state.

There is some irony here. English is the gift you gave the ‘New World’ - it’s simply that over time their form of English has adapted to their needs. In spreading backwards, that’s a natural way language evolve. That’s how English developed from Latin and French over centuries.

It comes from the internet. Young people are much more integrated linguistically now.

You also see Americans saying 'bollocks', wanker and 'twat' and a lot of other British words that they would not have habitually used in the past.

People who were saying American English is more like 'old English' clearly don't know what Old English actually is. However, American English does preserve some things from Early Modern English which have been lost or changed in Standard British English. At the same time, British, Irish, and other variants of English have preserved some things which have been lost in American English.

crossed with sashh

I sometimes use store and sometimes use shop. If I'm using it generically then I'd say I'm going to the shop - never store.

But if I was talking about a particular retailer then I'd say something like have you tried their Bristol store? Rather than the Bristol shop, branch, etc. That's likely from working in retail where the accepted term seems to be to talk about different branches as stores.

And then I would use shop again if I was talking without specifying a particular retailer - so for example if somebody said I need to get sponges, I've tried Wilkos but they were sold out, I'd say look in the shop on George street or there are more shops in X town, or whatever.

That's another thing, ' poo ' was never used up here but ' poop ' was and still is. ' Poo ' is seen as a very ' twee ' Englishism to us.

One Americanism we all need to adopt is sidewalk instead of pavement. It makes more sense.

'On sale' used to mean available to buy at the usual price, but now it seems to mean reduced in price, or 'in the sale' as it used to be.

Also, I'm not crazy about 'kids' but accept that it's universal, but I can't bear 'kiddies', or worse 'grandkiddies'. Cringe.