To ask if do (or will) miss British English?

[daimbarsatemydogsbone]

License plate - Number plate
Driver's license - Driving licence
Windshield - Windscreen
Envision - Envisage
Bring (instead of take)

So much British English is being replaced with the US versions.

UK courtroom dramas now feature lawyers shouting "objection!" and judges saying "sustained" - something that never actually happens in UK courts but the writers have all grown up watching US dramas and films.

I know it's inevitable but I celebrated the little differences - they seem to become fewer and fewer each year.

To add as someone living in England I would never say "in the hospital". It would either be "in hospital" meaning an inpatient or "at the hospital" meaning visiting or working

@Mummyford absolutely valid. In my defence, I was very hungover when I wrote that sentence. I'm embarrassed that I did so!

@GerbilCurse

To add as someone living in England I would never say "in the hospital". It would either be "in hospital" meaning an inpatient or "at the hospital" meaning visiting or working

Unless you had to be specific ? The hospital as opposed to a hospital ?

I'm fascinated by situations where you can clearly understand a sentence in "US English" although it's nothing like how I would have said it in "English".

Maybe a kindly USian could confirm it's mutual, and that they can understand British English, although if they had to say the same thing they'd never actually use that form of words ?

I love getting the little updates about NOOBs. Especially the forensic analysis to pinpoint origins. There was quite some research around an American actress telling a NY paper about "having builders in" that led back to a residence in London that may have rubbed off.

@GerbilCurse

To add as someone living in England I would never say "in the hospital". It would either be "in hospital" meaning an inpatient or "at the hospital" meaning visiting or working

In Scotland we add a lot of unnecessary 'the' we'd absolutely say in the hospital, I've got the flu etc it's just local dialect

Welcome to the process of ageing.

As a young person, you will have incorporated the latest slang and modern usage into your vocabulary without thinking about it. Your parents would have found it irritating and “incorrect.”

Now, your lexicon is more established and you are irritated by the latest slang and modern usage of the next generation.

Your use is not correct. Their use is not correct. The English language isn’t policed and has no authorities judging it. It evolves and changes.

him and all his friends say pants instead of trousers

I say pants instead of trousers, I'm in NE England. So school pants, work pants, etc. Underwear is knickers (female) or undies/underpants/boxers (male).

In fact, I find Americans to be incredibly polite, "Sir, Ma'am etc" Also very hospitable and friendly

My bestie is American and is very polite, as are her American family. Please and thank you are very important, when we go out they'll do stuff like going over and saying a quick thanks to the bar staff or the waiting staff before we leave, always get a thank you card for gifts or events, they always have something positive to say - for example it's never just "hi, how are you?" It's "hi, how are you? You look great/I love your coat/that's a cute hat".

@hotfroth

There's no such thing as 'British' English.

It's just English.

hth

English English then!

@MasterBeth

Welcome to the process of ageing.

As a young person, you will have incorporated the latest slang and modern usage into your vocabulary without thinking about it. Your parents would have found it irritating and “incorrect.”

Now, your lexicon is more established and you are irritated by the latest slang and modern usage of the next generation.

Your use is not correct. Their use is not correct. The English language isn’t policed and has no authorities judging it. It evolves and changes.

Exactly this.

I would suggest that instead of getting irritated by it, you try to relax and appreciate that language changes over time and it does nobody any harm.

I particularly dislike "normalcy" replacing normality.

@MajorCarolDanvers

I can’t get a context for “outwith “ Can you put it in a sentence for me?

It is necessary to work outwith these hours.
She has lived outwith Scotland for 5 years.
It is outwith my area of responsibility.
Please use the other door outwith normal opening hours.
It is outwith the understanding of many on MN that there are different dialects across the UK.

These examples are not a good advertisement for "outwith", in every one one the more common "outside" would work equally well.

(I was also going to explain how outside made more sense when divided into component parts, but I realised as I wrote that I was wrong. If you think of outwith as the opposite of within it is exactly the same concept as outside. One can be inside/outside a set defined by some phrase, or within/outwith the set.)

My mother is from Ireland and says 'in the hospital ' too. I think a lot of Americanisms have their origins in Irish and Scottish.

Interestingly, someone mentioned that American sounded clunky. I am wondering if the lexical differences are to do with interference from other European languages as we British weren't the only Europeans who invaded. I certainly see a lot of German - eg with the lack of distinction between adjectives and adverbs. I'd imagine the distinctive accent is an amalgamation of English dialects and non native speaker accents, too.

As for Chaucer, I remember studying The Canterbury Tales for O Level (GCSE in new money) and not having a clue what it was about. Again, the language looked almost German to me, without the heavy French influence of Modern English.

Oh I hate "Can I get...?" too, it really irritates me. I noticed when I came to live in Ireland permanently that it's now in common use here whereas I do not remember it from all the years I was back and forth visiting . Irish people still say "please" and "thank you" though- manners are very important here and you will become known as "ignorant" if you don't have good manners, which means "rude" and people here generally really dislike ignorance!
I had Irish parents and am used to and now use a lot of Hiberno-English, much of which is a direct translation from the Irish, such as "I'm just after coming back from town." and " Don't be giving out about it" and "Ah, sure lookit!" but I still say " Could I HAVE ...please?" when asking for something and that's never going to change! I like Hiberno-English but I don't like to hear non-American English speakers use American English. It annoys me. That said, I'm not the Speech Police! It's up to the individual but it just gets on my nerves!

@GerbilCurse

To add as someone living in England I would never say "in the hospital". It would either be "in hospital" meaning an inpatient or "at the hospital" meaning visiting or working

Must be an English/Scottish thing then.

In the words of Billy Connolly

If it wasnae for your wellies, where would you be?
You'd be in the hospital or infirmary

So patient = in the hospital.

Chaucer wrote in Middle English
And before the Great Vowel Shift, so it does look and sound markedly different to Modern English.

Scotland had a historic friendship with France, called the Auld Alliance, and we still use lots of fFrench words, such as fache - as in “Dinnae fache me, hen”, or ashet for serving platter (assiette)

There have always been differences in language usage. There were children at school who came from the town nearby who seemed to have a completely different dialect (no doubt they'd same the same).

I think the big difference is with TV and internet local variations are less pronounced and lots of people are adopting what comes across as Americanisations because they're now so open to them.

To me "the hospital" implies that there is only one. He had an accident and was taken to hospital would mean you don't know which one.

You could say he was taken for treatment. If you said "the treatment" it implies some specific treatment.

Language is fluid. A lot of these Americanisms actually come from older English variants e.g. gotten that have since fallen out of use.

In American English, someone who is 'spunky' or indeed full of 'spunk' refers to being feisty.

Of course, it means something entirely different here..........

@hotfroth

There's no such thing as 'British' English.

It's just English.

hth

Well that’s just not true.

Hth.

Re. in "the" hospital, this was a common feature of the Scots language which continued in some forms even after Scots gave way to English. It's features like this that make it Scottish English rather than just English.

The "the" was generally applied to institutions (implying sole authority), so right up until the current older generation, people would say in the hospital, in the jail, at the school. E.g. asking if your child is at the school yet, or still at the nursery.

You still hear these in Scotland, but mainly from the very elderly or as an affectation. I still mock-threaten my adult DC with "you'll get the jail" for minor misdemeanours, as it sounds so much more fun than, "you'll be put in prison"!

But perhaps the question should be why don't the English use "the"? You'd say someone was in the pub, not "in pub", or at the shops, not "at shops", so why not in the hospital?

I have a neighbour who talks about money in ‘bucks’. As in ‘it was about thirty bucks.’ She means pounds.

In American English, someone who is 'spunky' or indeed full of 'spunk' refers to being feisty.

Of course, it means something entirely different here...

From the Scots word sponk or spunk, dating from 1533, originally meaning a spark, small flame then the adjective sponky or spunky came to mean sparky, spirited. Got absorbed into English with the same meaning, then travelled. No idea where the other meaning came from but you never seem to hear it any more. Not round the dinner table anyway...

A PP was right to say so many so-called Americanisms have Irish or Scots origin, and older English too.

You still hear these in Scotland, but mainly from the very elderly or as an affectation. I still mock-threaten my adult DC with "you'll get the jail" for minor misdemeanours, as it sounds so much more fun than, "you'll be put in prison"!

I say "in the hospital/at the school" etc all the time as does everyone I know so it's not just used by the very elderly or as affectation round here.

My mum still uses the "you'll get the jail" as a threat - mind you I'm 42 & she threatened be with the home with jaggy jerseys last week

the home with jaggy jerseys

Not heard that before but it's going straight into my lexicon now!

Was being conservative re. elderly folk using "the". Wasn't sure how widely they were still used so glad to hear it's still alive and kicking.

It's jaggy jumpers here 😆. Definitely not just the elderly just basically anyone who speaks in their local dialect. Many of us are bilingual and can switch easily between the local way of talking and a more formal 'correct' English when needed. (Correct in quotes as that's a matter of opinion and not necessarily mine)