Americanisation (the) of our language

Alegrias1

^So I avoid books from America.^

I'm sorry, this is just getting comical. ??

.... and very prejudiced. It is shocking and certainly not comical.

I'm disgusted at the narrow-mindedness of some posters.

I think that people in England want to retain their language and as do the Welsh here in Wales.
There is nothing wrong with American English as that is their language but I do understand when such a lot of that language is being used in England some people feel that their native English is in danger.
However there is no need to be rude and some of our American GNs have been upset by this thread and rightly so.

People in Scotland speak the Queens English too!

Marydoll

Alegrias1

So I avoid books from America.

I'm sorry, this is just getting comical. ??

.... and very prejudiced. It is shocking and certainly not comical.

I'm disgusted at the narrow-mindedness of some posters.

I don't disagree Marydoll, but when faced with such ridiculous comments I think laughter and ridicule is a good response.

I don't know about you, but when I read Steinbeck I'm always correcting his spelling in my head. And as for Toni Morrison...

I agree Marydoll as I said earlier on this thread it's seems quite usual to mock Americans on GN. The generalisations often made about American people are quite shocking.

I did find it amusing a first, Alegrias, but I can't get my head around the prejudice shown here. What makes it even more shocking is the fact that some posters don't see that it is unacceptable in this day and age.

People are proud of it, as if it somehow makes them superior.
That's the issue.
Just ride roughshod over others in an attempt to look "better" than.

We're on the same page Marydoll

Marydoll

People in Scotland speak the Queens English too!

MaryDoll Scotland does have her own language as does Wales that's why I mentioned England.
I live in Wales btw.

I'd say we have several AGAA4

Like my mum and most of my family, I grew up speaking a language that is as different from English as Norwegian is from Swedish. When she was young my mum was told that what she was speaking was "bad" English, with the result that she is always nervous about speaking to other people who speak "properly".

Maybe that's one of the reasons I find this mockery of other people and their language so wrong.

Alegrias1

We're on the same page Marydoll

Alegrias, you are scaring me! We rarely agree. ???
Pax! ?

AGAA4. English is the main language spoken in Scotland. I live in the Lowlands and do not know one person, who speaks Gaelic.
Lessons in schools and university are taught in English and as far as I know all legal documents are in English. The same English, which is used in England.

I am a bit of a purist/pedant, but I believe every form of English is valid and we should respect that. Live and let live, it is harming no-one.

Oh that's awful, to make someone feel uncomfortable about communicating with others.
Really so unkind.
I have only realised since using gransnet that I must leave a trail of teeth gnashing people in my wake, with my terrible, lazy accent.

Daisy79

May I ask about one particular phrasing I’ve never understood? Why do Brits say “fell pregnant?” It sounds like an illness or accident.

I never heard this until I was in my 20s. (A long time ago, obviously!). People used to say ‘expecting a baby’, or similar.

To be frank my mother would have put ‘fall pregnant’ in the same category* as ‘a bun in the oven’, or what an adult nephew once said to his elder sister - ‘I hear you’re up the duff again.’ ?
*to her, vulgar if not decidedly ‘common’.

Funnily enough, my American niece on a previous visit loved ‘up the duff’’, especially when spoken in her cousin’s northern accent - ‘Oop the doof’. Said she was going to import it to the US!

Well, just in case we get too pally, Marydoll

As well as Gaelic, there's Doric, Insular Scots, Lallans (which I think is made up!) and Norn, which is extinct as a first language.

I'm a proud Doric spikker but I ken that we're a' Jock Tamson's bairns.

Alegrias, we need to tread warily here.
I admire you for being able to speak Doric, I find it hard to understand it. However, I could be classed as an expert in Parliamo Glesca. How talented we are! .

I was once doing research for a thesis and discovered that my dominant intelligence was linguistic. You would never have guessed, would you? ?

Witzend

Daisy79

May I ask about one particular phrasing I’ve never understood? Why do Brits say “fell pregnant?” It sounds like an illness or accident.

I never heard this until I was in my 20s. (A long time ago, obviously!). People used to say ‘expecting a baby’, or similar.

To be frank my mother would have put ‘fall pregnant’ in the same category* as ‘a bun in the oven’, or what an adult nephew once said to his elder sister - ‘I hear you’re up the duff again.’ ?
*to her, vulgar if not decidedly ‘common’.

Funnily enough, my American niece on a previous visit loved ‘up the duff’’, especially when spoken in her cousin’s northern accent - ‘Oop the doof’. Said she was going to import it to the US!

Conversely, I haven't heard it since I was quite young. It was commonplace (but not, as I remember it, 'common') amongst older women when I was a child, but seems to have fallen* out of use since.

I thought it was connected to 'the fall' - Eve's luring of Adam into Bad Ways, as it was used for married women as well as the girls who miraculously 'got themselves pregnant'.

*see what I did there??

Hoi Alegrias - re Lallans it's a mix of lowland Scots and Northumbrian. I discovered that many of the words I use automatically and which I learned from my grandmother are Lallans words. It was very interesting to research them when I discovered about the various languages and dialects of Scotland.

Sorry Aveline! I had it in my head that it was something to do with Hugh McDairmid.

My bad!

(I just said that last bit to annoy people )

I met a man who raps in Gaelic when I went to Scotland.
Interesting...

Now I am off to find out about Lallans. As I have said previously, every day is a school day on GN!

There's a funny bit in Brave where the son of one of the clan chiefs is speaking and the other people in the scene have no idea what he's saying, although they are Scots. It was Kevin McKidd speaking in how own voice, which I believe is Doric from Cullen.

Made perfect sense to me

in his own voice

Here in Wales there are children still being taught in Welsh. English was forced on the Welsh and children were punished for speaking their own language.
I was taught spelling rigourously at school and some of our words are now being changed to the American way.
I don't agree with those who have been blatantly rude about Americans as that is appalling but putting that aside I prefer our language as it is. It will change. If we went back to the middle ages we wouldn't understand much of what is said but maybe not to copy language in this way.

Marydoll

Alegrias1

So I avoid books from America.

I'm sorry, this is just getting comical. ??

.... and very prejudiced. It is shocking and certainly not comical.

I'm disgusted at the narrow-mindedness of some posters.

Hear hear .

I’m going to keep quoting this whenever someone comes along and slams Americans for using different words……such a waste of “hate” energy!