Americanisation (the) of our language

Yeah homicide instead of murder and gotten agh!! I know language evolves but why is it evolving backwards? We sent people over to America with our English language and they changed it and sent it back ?! And why can’t they use silent letters in their spellings eg: color instead of colour ?!?! We’ll be doing that soon too I bet !

This is al quite offensive to the American members of gransnet, I'd imagine.
I have never seen them asking why we say something or don't speak as they do.
Presumably they have better manners.

But they say homicide in Scotland - they have an offence of culpable homicide. I believe homicide is the correct word for the deliberate killing of a person - think of suicide, genocide, matricide etc. Not that I say ‘homicide’.

I love all the differences and I don’t mind what words and phrases are adopted it is what language is all about. Sorry

MissAdventure

Gay people would sound silly coming out of the wardrobe.

Oh, I love that one MissAdventure - I shall use it in future whenever I get the opportunity! Or perhaps it should be the loo/lavatory/toilet?

I've been told the word 'closet' comes from the old English word for a small room where you be closetted away to write or pray as there was little privacy in most houses where one room led from another. It then became a private place to wash - or relieve oneself. Since the smell of urine kept moths at bay, clothes would be hung in there too, thus the closet became a wardrobe too.

I don't object to most American or Australian or any other imported changed words as that just language developing, but I do get niggled that muffins are now English muffins - why can't we in the UK keep our muffins and call those buns with too much raising agent American muffins? Come to that what happened to buns?

Well, buns is a controversial term in itself isn't it?
To me, a bun is a sweet thing like a teacake.

In other places around the UK a bun can be lots of things.
A roll, something to put a burger in...

I don’t like “from the get-go”, or “power-outage”. No offence intended.

Well thank you for reaching out.

Yeah homicide instead of murder and gotten agh!! I know language evolves but why is it evolving backwards? We sent people over to America with our English language and they changed it and sent it back
No they didn’t.
They kept much of it unchanged -color, honor, gotten , homicide and all the rest of them.

A further observation on ‘lavatory’.

When I was a child one of my favourite books was ‘What Katy Did at School’, sequel to What Katy Did, a 19th century American classic. In this book, Katy and her sister Clover go to a boarding school in Connecticut. When the headmistress is showing their father around the school, she shows him a room she proudly refers to as ‘our lavatory’. This startled me a bit when I was nine, but I soon realised she meant ‘washroom’, the place where the girls washed, a literal use of ‘lavatory’. (It was apparently communal, and their father insisted that Katy and Clover had individual washstands in their rooms.)

“Not that big OF a deal” - the of is unnecessary. Annoying. Hear this “of” a lot!

My bad
Pretty please
Wait up instead of wait
Snuck
Dove as in the past tense of to dive
Waitlist
I could think of more......

Absolutely right Maw. I have read many old title deeds, up to the early C20, which refer to the land conveyed as being a certain ‘color’ on the accompanying plan.

'My bad' is just wrong!!

Only two examples that come to mind are
Pants instead of trousers
Purse instead of handbag
They don’t actually bother me, just that the meanings are very different.

Lucca

Apologies to any Americans on here for this thread.

As an American, I thoroughly enjoy the community on GN. I learn something new about your word usage and way of life every day. It is fascinating! I wish I were able to visit.

I had always heard that there is a general dislike of Americans over there and I get it. There is plenty about our culture that I find over-the-top and frankly embarrassing. This is mostly due to an obnoxious, loud and very opinionated segment of society. As a quiet, private type of person, it makes me cringe.

I use all sorts of words for the lavatory (apart from lavatory)
I can't remember ever being that focused on it.
Loo, toilet, having a wee..

MissAdventure

This is al quite offensive to the American members of gransnet, I'd imagine.
I have never seen them asking why we say something or don't speak as they do.
Presumably they have better manners.

Imagine the outcry if the shoe was on the other foot?
How annoying are some Britishisms. ?

‘Americans can be really crude’ what? All 350 million of them?

Let's look at some American terms that are the same as British Terms. Many of the posters on this thread should know these.

uncouth
rude
snobby
unappealing
judgmental

I could think of more......

Americans didn't change the language. We kept it preserved and are now sending it back after you all changed it.

www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180207-how-americans-preserved-british-english

"reaching out" AAAAARGH! Also : normalcy(or any other sort of 'alcy') 'from the get-go' 'and the dreaded 'awesome' I can't go on , I'm shrivelling up as we speak! Appallingly bad diction, non verbs non adjectives and non sensical!?!

We gave them a perfectly good language, they got their own back on us by tweaking it and returning it to us.

Trish9495

We gave them a perfectly good language, they got their own back on us by tweaking it and returning it to us.

Here is another word we have in common.

Incorrect

www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180207-how-americans-preserved-british-english

Aveline

I prefer to 'spend a penny' but modern types have no memory of pay as you enter loos. This old toilet poem may raise a laugh. I couldn't believe it when my very respectable great aunt told me it.

'Here I sit broken hearted,
Paid my penny,
Only farted!'

Passing wind. There's a topic for international language discussion.

Best one from an ancient pub named The Stamford at Bowden in Cheshire:
"Owing to the somewhat delicate and ancient structure of this medieval building
Turds over the weight of two pounds must be lowered by hand" !?????
Written in medieval style lettering and looking very authentic!!!!

Ha ha, Molly, your post makes me laugh- as a dual citizen of both UK and USA I guess I can smile.