Comments on: Horrible Americanisms?

By: Kati

Kati — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 13:40:11 +0000

It sounds as though you need to tweak that program, to switch the default language from American to British English…. The topic of Americanisms has been in the news this week quite a bit – this BBC article from last week http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/14130942 – stirred up discussion (well, criticism really) amongst linguists,cf http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3271.
With English becoming a lingua franca for more and more people around the world, differences between British and American English seem to be less and less important in my opinion.

By: stephband

stephband — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:23:56 +0000

What riles me is not so much Americanisms, but when American English is seen as the de facto standard.

I work on a webapp for a startup based in Switzerland (webdoc.com). I write text for the interface of the editor. When I write ‘colour’, it always gets changed to ‘color’ before it goes out, because American English is perceived as the standard. We’re a European company, for ****’s sake!

Anyyyywayyyy…

By: ciaran moss

ciaran moss — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 02:19:53 +0000

The expression “I am come,” would actually have been the correct form a number of years ago, rather than “I have come” – just another example of how living languages change.

By: Stan Carey

Stan Carey — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:13:30 +0000

One Americanism I love is Fall, a simpler and more evocative word than autumn.

It’s worth stressing that Standard English is a dialect, albeit a very widespread and influential one. Its success stems from historical circumstance rather than inherent superiority. Moreover, there is no standard Standard English (as I recently wrote elsewhere).

While it’s easy to denounce Americanisms (or Britishisms or Irishisms or any other foreign linguistic variety), it’s also a waste of time. For the most part, people can and will use whatever form of language they want. English belongs to everyone and to no one, and it’s all endlessly interweaving. “Hating on” certain geographical forms of it would seem to indicate, as JD remarks above, a kind of cultural defensiveness.

By: Edward Drohan

Edward Drohan — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:21:34 +0000

Canada must be strange – in most of the world ‘Scotch’ is a drink, not a language. Edward Drohan

By: Viviana

Viviana — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:30:22 +0000

These topics make me feel really good =)

“In Canada we have enough to do keeping up with two spoken languages without trying to invent slang, so we just go right ahead and use English for literature, Scotch for sermons and American for conversation.” – Stephen Leacock

artofwordsbiz.wordpress.com

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:43:57 +0000

I want to thank the British for giving us a great language. We’ve improved it and modernized it for them.

By: DJ

DJ — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:47:19 +0000

I`m from Canada and I teach English in China.
I often point out to studetss that language is always in a state of flux. That is, that it is always changing. We don`t speak English now the way we did 500 years ago (Where art thoust from?) and we probably won`t speak English 500 years from now the same way we do now.
With the concept of globalization and the rapid development of China, as an example, I`m sure we won`t. I even find myself talking “Chinglish” sometimes .(You come from where?) After being here for so long I sometimes question as to whether there is anything wrong with some of it since afterall the object of language is communication. Losing my kneejerk use of prepositions is also another corker.
BTW. The use of “You come from where?” is short for “Where did you say you come from?” when asking for confirmation. In an initial exchange the correct sentence would be, “Where do you come from?” since in English we usually put the question words at the front of a sentence. It all has to do with front loading the important information at the start of a sentence.
What really messes things up is variations. When you add “Where are you from?” what more often than not comes out is Q “Where are you come from?” A ” I am come from China.”
The beat goes on.

By: Laine Cole

Laine Cole — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:12:29 +0000

When I was a kid my dad used to tell me about how much he loved Elvis. To him Elvis was on fire with talent and artistry and power. He said his dad used to block his ears and shake his head and say: What is that noise you’re listening to? That’s not music. His dad pretty much banned Elvis from being played in the house.
As I got older and started blasting my own favourite tunes from my bedroom, I could just feel my dad holding back on his desire to say: Do you call THIS music? Sometimes he couldn’t contain himself he had to say it. I wonder at what point I will say the same thing to my kids.
Anyway. I guess my point is:
I wonder when in the 15th century the Middle English speakers started saying to each other: What is becoming of our language? (Except it would have been written differently). They would have seen: His soote shoures maken melody, and asked: ‘What happened to the ‘e’ in melodye??!! Oh here we go…’ (Except it would have been said differently).

[The sweet showers making melody]

By: Norbert Dąbkowski

Norbert Dąbkowski — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:49:27 +0000

I’m a teacher of English, not a native speaker of it. That should set the background for what I would like to say here. Refering to the most pervasive, influential and the largest version of English, maybe one explanation could be offered to be a minor part of the occurence. Some of us, learners of the beautiful language, may “get” the impression that some, or many, British people are rather intolerant or disproving when in contact with us, timid and humble, learners. Which in turn might put the Americans in our “favor” for their being generally more appreciative of one’s efforts.
For me, any kind of variation is just wonderful material to be molded into what we need to convey our message. The problem lays in mastering it to a sufficient level…
Greetings to all!