| I was dismayed to learn the other day, that | | | | Germans, Swedes, Dutch, Ukrainians, Irish, |
| my all-time favourite George Bernard Shaw | | | | Poles and Russians. By 1890 there were over |
| quote may not in fact have been uttered by | | | | 300 German newspapers in the U.S.French was |
| him.Nevertheless, even the misquotation that | | | | once spoken broadly in a geographical ribbon |
| Britain and the United States are two | | | | that stretched from Quebec (where it is still |
| countries divided by a common language, will | | | | the first language today) to New Orleans. |
| ring true with any British Expat who has | | | | Cajun - a mangling of Acadian - still |
| tried to make their new home in America.There | | | | survives as a language today.Words poured |
| are hundreds and probably thousands of words | | | | into the American linguistic landscape from |
| that are different or embody a changed | | | | all these groups and others: Cookie came from |
| meaning or intent.British people coming to | | | | the Dutch, avocado and mustang from the |
| America often assume that they've picked up | | | | Spanish, canoe and tobacco from native |
| everything they need to know about American | | | | Americans.It may be a short history but it |
| English from a lifetime of consuming American | | | | has been an intense one. When you really stop |
| movies and television.There is, undeniably, a | | | | to consider it, it's amazing American English |
| huge advantage Britons have over other | | | | does bear as much similarity to what is |
| migrants, just by speaking a variant of the | | | | spoken in modern day Britain. After all, the |
| same language. It is also astonishing how | | | | Dutch and the Belgian Flemish actually share |
| much British English has itself become | | | | a border, but often find each other |
| Americanised.Forty years ago it would have | | | | unintelligible.But even when you've been |
| been difficult to find a British person alive | | | | humbled by the historical evidence, it does |
| who pronounced the word secretary in any way | | | | not prevent the unsuspecting Brit from |
| other than the short, clipped sec-rit-tree. | | | | cocking up (to use a comforting ripe old |
| These days, that sounds old-fashioned to many | | | | British expression).In fact it is because the |
| people in the U.K as the American | | | | English is so similar between the two nations |
| sec-reh-tar-ee has taken full root. Mind you | | | | that the pitfalls become bigger.You can make |
| in Britain forty years ago, no-one said "hi" | | | | a complete fool out of yourself in the simple |
| and few people knew what a teenager was.In | | | | act of ordering a cup of tea. Unless you |
| these globalised days American slang takes | | | | specifically ask for "hot tea" in America |
| only a few months to cross the Atlantic, such | | | | you're just as likely to be served iced tea. |
| as the 90's fad of adding "not"on the end of | | | | (Of course, some would argue that even the |
| sentences, or saying "I'm like" as a | | | | hot tea is neither hot nor tea).Some of the |
| substitute for "I thought" or "I said" which | | | | differences are extremely subtle.A word like |
| has regrettably survived well into the new | | | | jolly in Britain has gained a large range of |
| Millennium on both sides of the | | | | meanings. There is the jolly Father Christmas |
| Atlantic.Perhaps it is because of the every | | | | of course. But we also say somebody is jolly |
| day prevalence of American English in Britain | | | | when they're drunk, or in the sense of |
| that few British Expats realise what a | | | | humouring or appeasing: To jolly along. It's |
| linguistic minefield they are entering when | | | | used to describe perks or salacious fun; "I |
| they cross over that big moat.The very worst | | | | see he's getting his jollies". We describe |
| attitude to adopt when arriving on these | | | | things as being "jolly good". It's also used |
| shores, is what the veteran transatlantic | | | | by some British people, usually those who |
| broadcaster Alasdair Cooke once referred to | | | | sound a bit like Penelope Keith, in phrases |
| as immediately deciding that "....Americans | | | | such as "I'm going to jolly well go down |
| are British people gone wrong."There is a | | | | there and give him a piece of my mind!".In |
| long and inglorious history of British | | | | America jolly has only one meaning - merry. |
| sneering at the way Americans speak, often | | | | Other definitions used on this side of the |
| based on ignorant assumptions.Now of course, | | | | pond will be greeted with bewildered |
| we all have our own beefs about American | | | | stares.Some words are just designed to be |
| pronunciations. I wince every time I hear the | | | | confusing. A pavement in Britain is a |
| American president say noo-coo-ler for | | | | sidewalk in America - where a pavement means |
| nuclear. I've never quite worked out why some | | | | the actual road or street. How potentially |
| Americans say eye-talians for Italians. (Does | | | | dangerous could that be?I once had an |
| this mean the country is called eye-taly?) | | | | extremely long and strange conversation |
| And I feel like inflicting a great deal of | | | | before I determined that that an aerial is an |
| real physical pain on someone when I hear, | | | | anttena in America.Similarly video as a noun |
| even seasoned American sports broadcasters, | | | | refers only to a tape, not the machine. In |
| call the tennis championship Wimble-ton or | | | | the States the machine is a VCR.I quite |
| even more horribly Wimple-ton - as if the d | | | | recently had to carry out some swift damage |
| in Wimbledon is somehow invisible.But for | | | | control when I was taken to a party |
| every one of these ear-sores, we are equal | | | | consisting largely of my girlfriend's family. |
| opportunity manglers of American English. | | | | My host, kindly introduced me to |
| Brits routinely mispronounce relatively | | | | everyone."This is Lee." she said and then |
| simple American place names such as Michigan, | | | | added helpfully, "He's English.""Well |
| Houston and Arkansas. And despite pleas from | | | | spotted!" I replied, a tad sarcastically but |
| the performer herself, the British adamantly | | | | meant harmlessly, possibly summoning up a |
| refuse to pronounce Dionne Warwick's name the | | | | little Basil Fawlty humour. The whole room |
| way it is pronounced in America - literally | | | | fell into an uncomfortable silence as I |
| war-wick.In fact, there is a great body of | | | | searched desperately for a hole to open in |
| historical evidence that American English is | | | | the living room carpet that would envelop |
| much closer to historical English in England, | | | | me.Not only was the jovial sarcasm completely |
| than the version that is spoken today in | | | | misinterpreted but nobody in the room had a |
| modern day Britain.It may come as a surprise | | | | clue what "well spotted" meant anyway.That |
| to the sneerers to learn that words such as | | | | story does however illustrate what a lonely |
| fall, for autumn, mad for angry, trash for | | | | place being caught in between two cultures |
| rubbish and scores of other Amercanisms all | | | | can be. This can be compounded by the cruel |
| come from Elizabethan England. Many linguists | | | | attitude of friends looking for any evidence |
| believe that the accent Shakespeare's plays | | | | that you've gone soft in the head when you |
| would have been performed in would have | | | | revisit the U.K"Hmmmm! You've got a twang!" |
| sounded nothing like the classic renditions | | | | is a typical observation usually accompanied |
| we've heard by Gielgud or Olivier. These | | | | by knowing looks signifying an innate |
| linguists believe that the accent typically | | | | cultural superiority. Then, with all the |
| heard in Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, would | | | | human empathy found in the act of pulling |
| had a distinct twang that we would associate | | | | wings off butterflies they'll furtively |
| today with the west country. A little bit | | | | search and pounce upon every piece of newly |
| more like, shock of shocks, the American | | | | acquired vocabulary or potentially offensive |
| accent.Indeed, Gielgud and Olivier spoke what | | | | pronunciation.Once, when submitting a story |
| we know in Britain as received or BBC | | | | to an editor in Britain, she noticed I had |
| English. This is now largely acknowledged to | | | | repeatedly used the word "lines"."Do you mean |
| be an upper-class Victorian affectation. It | | | | queues?" she asked."Oh yes I do." I replied, |
| nevertheless became the standard English of | | | | embarrassed by letting an Americanism slip |
| public schools and was rammed into the | | | | in."Mind you, " she added generously "Line is |
| consciousness of the British people with the | | | | a much more logical word.""Oh I don't know," |
| advent of BBC radio in the 1920s. While it | | | | I replied feeling a sudden rush of British |
| may have created some sort of standard out of | | | | nostalgia. "I think queue is quite a charming |
| a chaotic collection of wildly differing | | | | word.""My dear Mr. Carter," she scolded, in |
| regional dialects, it is an artificial, | | | | her best schoolmistress voice, "if you're |
| almost worthless creation that has almost no | | | | starting to find your own people charming |
| historical value in the understanding of the | | | | then you really have gone native!"And so this |
| way English was spoken.So if we accept that | | | | is the netherworld we inhabit. Neither one |
| those early settlers in America took with | | | | nor the otherBut the next time you're |
| them some of the vocabulary and sound of | | | | struggling to order a cup of tea, or to make |
| historic England, it's still amazing that the | | | | a fool out of yourself in the drug store, or |
| language survived the onslaught of subsequent | | | | if you're called a hopeless yank by your |
| settlers.In the second half of the 19th | | | | British friends, just remind yourself that |
| century some thirty million people poured | | | | you're actually a part of a new breed of |
| into America, including Austro-Hungarians. | | | | hardy internationalists. |