Americanisms

[SecretsInSpitalfield]

I have family in the US. I love going there. Since lockdown my DS’s (9 and 11) have said ‘OMG’ and ‘like’ about a thousand times a day!

Do our lovely cousins across the pond have this with their DC? Is it normal?

"That's not bashing Americans, that's bashing Britons, who go and take American expressions out of context, and shoe horn them into their own language, when there's a perfectly good expression they could use, but probably used by the older generation, so not cool."

Verily, they should speaketh ye olde English, just like thy forefathers.

(or something)

Maybe not that far back!

Other countries pronounce things differently to the UK. There you go.

Countries within the U.K. pronounce things differently.

Countries within the U.K. pronounce things differently.

Indeed. Yet no one here is expecting them to explain why.

Noting wrong with 'gotten'. We still use it in UK English, or have you for-gotten?

Countries within the U.K. pronounce things differently.

Yes they do, it has taken years to get DH to say loch, not lock.

I can say loch. As an American, I'm very proud of that. Of course, it helped to have lived in Scotland during part my youth.

Then you'd also be able to say Lough.

I was about 30 years old and faced with someone doing this face at me before I discovered that Loughborough in England is not pronounced in the same way as 'Lough' at home. I had always thought, from hearing it on the radio, that there was a place called Luffborough. And that when I saw the word Loughborough written down, that was a different place.

Sorry, should clarify that home in this scenario is Ireland.

As an English person, I had exactly the same experience with Towcester / Toaster isabellerossignol Do you know about 'lemster' in England?

The people who said:

Countries within the U.K. pronounce things differently.

Indeed. Yet no one here is expecting them to explain why.

clearly missed our long exchange on the differences in pronunciation of the letter 'e' between England and NI (A fruitless attempt to solve the Creg mystery, that did clarify the difference between eggs and elephants).

I have had lengthy conversations with friends on our differences within the same country e.g. on why north-easteners use short vowels for most words but make an exception for plaster and master, which they elongate hugely (though its a bit more like plawster than the open long 'a' used by southerners).

Perhaps Creg, like plaster, really is just an example of an internal inconsistency that's difficult to explain. But it is that inconcistency that is of interest.

People in Sheffield also talk about Plahster and Mahster, although not quite the S English variety, but then use a short a for words like castle/cassel. None of this carsel nonsense!

The whole Creg vs Craig thing isn’t that serious.

I grew up hearing both in the US never thought of one as right or wrong, just thought there was different ways to pronounce it like they show words in a dictionary.

@VeryQuaintIrene you should make your BIL watch this scene from Buffy 😂😂😂

From BBC today: "Finding babies' nappies, or diapers, on supermarket shelves is a challenge for many families across the UK at the moment."

I am not sure why they are saying "nappies, or diapers"? I've never heard anyone in the UK say "diapers" and surely everyone knows what nappies are? It's a bit strange.

Diapers

The Middle English word diaper originally referred to a type of cloth rather than the use thereof; "diaper" was the term for a pattern of repeated, rhombic shapes, and later came to describe white cotton or linen fabric with this pattern. According to the Oxford Dictionary, it is a piece of soft cloth or other thick material that is folded around a baby’s bottom and between its legs to absorb and hold its body waste. [2] The first cloth diapers consisted of a specific type of soft tissue sheet, cut into geometric shapes. This type of pattern was called diapering and eventually gave its name to the cloth used to make diapers and then to the diaper itself, which was traced back to 1590s England.[3] This usage stuck in the United States and Canada following the British colonization of North America, but in the United Kingdom the word "nappy" took its place. Most sources believe nappy is a diminutive form of the word napkin, which itself was originally a diminutive.

Thinking due to the influx of North American TV as well as Americans watching British shows, both are used.

You did AMAZING!

Thankfully, no one has adopted 'yard' for garden.

Off of

Right now (heard in too many British period dramas aaargh)

April 7th. No, it's April the 7th

The worst though is the fry. Clear your bloody throat.

Thankfully, no one has adopted 'yard' for garden.

Yard and garden come from the Anglo-Saxon word “geard”. The ge was pronounced with a y sound. Likely another word brought over by English settlers.

The worst though is the fry. Clear your bloody throat.

Huh?

vocal fry

Or it's 7th April...

Odd about the BBC referring to diapers. An American source referring to the British being short of diapers or nappies as they call them, I could understand. Does nappy come from the French nappe plié, a folded cloth?

In the old days before sanitary protection was commercially available my late DM told me that they made diapers out of soft cloth, for that function. So the same derivation.

@springydaff

Never heard of it and thank you for the example. I do know several people whose voices are naturally deep and no amount of throat clearing changes it.

The kids next door were playing in the garden and one of the shouted "there's been an accident, call 911 now". We live in Wales.

That's hilarious CaveMum thank you!

I work in the world of books, and there are many complaints from American readers that they can't understand British slang/colloquialisms. Do people find the same applies the other way round - when you're reading a US based or authored book, do you find things you don't 'get'?

Yes.