Language, UK vs USA. (OT).

Curryman

Curryman

Well-known member
I enjoy playing scrabble and have recently, on the site I use, had a challenge from an American who uses the USA way of spelling. It got me thinking about the differences, and one sprung to mind.

Trump in the UK is a fart.

Trump in the USA is a complete fart who used to live in the White House.

Any others?
 
@Lala would be happy to know that a wasp is a bee and a bee is also a bee! It's spelt the same but they may not know that a wasp is a real thing and challenge you.
 
It’s like their way of dropping vowels from their words, e.g. colour, favorite etc, apparently was a concerted effort by Noah Webster, ( of Webster’s dictionary fame) who wanted to be a lot more aggressive and remove all vowels, but didn’t get his way.
Also Victorian Americans were far more prudish than the British hence ‘cock’ being changed to ‘rooster’.
There is a view that some American words are actually more like how we used to say them ages ago, as any changes didn’t reach them very quickly, particularly the further west you went e.g. Varmit (Vermin) and Critter (Creature).
Could all be utter hog-wash though :)
 
Different pronunciations don't bother me. Different spelling does. It's English. You can pronounce it many ways... but it's spelt the same.
 
American is just improper English, yet we seem to be adopting many Americanisms. It infuriates me Grrrr. Movies, seasons & all that bullshit business speak, makes me want to be sick.
 
Wouldn't surprise me if USA is where this bloody awful "can I get" instead of please may I have, has developed from.
 
Spelling and pronunciation has changed endlessly over centuries. As other nations and empires invaded us, as town and village folk started to spread out to cities, as the printing press and radio/tv emerged. There isn't one god given way to say or pronounce anything, it morphs over time. The only function of a language is for one person to be able to understand the other. Why people get so angry about Americanisms, I really don't understand. 3 or 4 hundred years ago there was the great vowel shift, where vowels essentially shifted around and suddenly pronounced completely differently, I might be wrong but I don't think it's even fully understood why. It only makes sense that as one of the biggest exporters of pop culture in the world, America's way of speaking penetrates elsewhere.
 
Vest, suspenders and pants! Old fashioned formal clothes, or a kinky version of Saturday Night and Sunday morning?
 
And "sanction" seems to have completely changed it's meaning. I'll sanction that means 'I'll allow it'. Now seems to be a lazy way of saying "impose sanctions" - ie more or less 'not allow'!
 
Dropping the 'h' from herb. 'erb, is the one that gets me.

Shamefully, having lived here 20 years I sometimes just slip into full American if I don't feel like "where are you from?" questions.
 
To those who it may interest, the works of William Shakespeare have countless examples of the spelling of honour as honor and colour as colour, centre as center etc etc. Having delved into the background of American spelling (which I hate too, for the record), it would appear that it was ourselves, the English who changed the spelling to centre, colour etc etc because it looked and sounded more elegant and French (ffs!!).
 
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I recall Susie Dent on Countdown indicating that quite a lot of " Americanisms " are actually very old versions of the English Language .
Faucet mentioned above being a good example .
 
Watched the first leg of the tour of Britain cycling last night. They had clips of cyclists speaking to the camera about how they were looking forward to the race.
There were at least 2 yanks that said they were ‘super-excited’ about the race. One of them went on to describe the race as super-tough.
To be fair though when I see a typical yank I usually see them as ‘super-sized’.
 
English is one of the hardest languages to get your head around due to its complexity and way we spell words. Many years ago i learnt Serbo-Croat and the instructors took great pleasure in laughing at me asking how certain words are spelt. They would say its spelt as it sounds and so was easy to read and write. If only the English language was as easy!
 
Tangerinewookiee said:
English is one of the hardest languages to get your head around due to its complexity and way we spell words. Many years ago i learnt Serbo-Croat and the instructors took great pleasure in laughing at me asking how certain words are spelt. They would say its spelt as it sounds and so was easy to read and write. If only the English language was as easy!
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German is harder to learn believe me.
 
I think we are so surrounded by Amerispeak that you don’t really notice it creeping into our own mother tongue until its too late and you find yourself singing out a “can I get a …” I quite like that there are differences actually, the more the merrier,

English may be difficult to learn (is it? all our music influence has certainly made it easier for the Dutch and Scandinavians to sound like they were born and bred here) but at least its adaptable and happily absorbs words from other cultures and is quite happy to invent new words, not something you could say about German which uses old words and adds extensions to them.

On a different note I worked with a French lady for a while and she always laughed about French Canadians and how their version of French is stuck in the 18th Century and still refer to the motor car as the horseless carriage! Similarly a fluent Spanish speaker I knew went to Peru to teach English and the Peruvians all laughed at her version of European Spanish compared to the Latin American version - and made her eat Guinea Pig by accident at a BBQ but that story is for an Allez thread!
 
Dollar Thief said:
I don't care what they do, but what I find sad is the way British people use American words.

Awesome instead of brilliant, great or fabulous
Reaching out instead of getting in touch
Ass instead of arse.

One more but it's a Scottish word some English people use.

Numpty
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I think more English people use arse instead of ass except in the West Country where ass is more prevalent.
 
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Trammo said:
German is harder to learn believe me.
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I speak German too (lived there for 9 years) and yes getting the masculine and feminine correct is difficult and the way they construct sentences. My German friends though all say English is by far the harder language to learn.
 
Spent some time working in an office in Atlanta a few years ago & wanted to correct a slight error on a chart.

I quickly learned it’s not a great idea to shout across the shop floor ‘Has anyone got a rubber I can use?’….
 
As a biker who likes Kawasaki's which they can't pronounce correctly or the Z model range of Kawasaki.
We have the Z(zed) and they have the Z(zee) and even worse they can't have a Z on is own as they have to change to the KZ.
 
I was in Llanelli a couple of years ago, and met a group of four Americans while queueing for something, so we got talking.

Their earnest attempts to pronounce some of the local place names was hilarious. Lanelly being a good example.
 
Squirrel is a very hard English word for Germans to pronounce correctly. Try saying it but replacing the S with a Z sound.😀
 
Curryman said:
I enjoy playing scrabble and have recently, on the site I use, had a challenge from an American who uses the USA way of spelling. It got me thinking about the differences, and one sprung to mind.

Trump in the UK is a fart.

Trump in the USA is a complete fart who used to live in the White House.

Any others?
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Language is organic. I don´t know what all the fuss is about. Some very valid points on this thread, too many to itemise now. I lived in Brazil and am now in Portugal. The Portuguese in Brazil is quite,quite different from here, both in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary and some aspects of grammar but it´s all Portuguese, just as there are many types and variations of English. English spelling is anything but consistent. What you see is not always what you get.
 
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