Americanisation (the) of our language

Yes it does for me too Marydoll. What we have in our house is a ‘loo’ which I try to keep fragrant!

Lucca

Esspee

Personally I hate the use of the word toilet when the correct term is lavatory. Not an Americanism but a twee term used by people who think toilet is polite - it is not. As my mother would say, if it's the word used by the Queen and her family then it must be correct. They say lavatory.

I do not like the word toilet either but I would never claim that lavatory is the “correct” word! Who says ? Why is it correct if the queen says it ??

That did make me laugh. I must be very twee, as are my family, friends and all the children, I taught, who always asked for permission to go to "the toilet".
Oh and the children's lavatories, had signs on the doors, saying: Boys' Toilets and Girls' Toilets.
How could we all have got it so wrong?

No matter what anyone says, for me Lavatory, has connotations of public toilets and Izal toilet paper

By the way a lot of you would be seriously irritated if you came to live in Ireland. It seems to be the fashion for young people nowadays to talk with American accents even though most of them have never set foot in the place. The prevalence of American television programmes is blamed, but it sounds absolutely ridiculous.
We had a young intern in work recently. We all thought she must have spent part of her childhood in the States. But no, she was born and bred in the West of Ireland.

Sloegin

When I was a child my mother disapproved of toilet which she insisted had to be lavatory because 'toilet is a nasty American word'. Don't think it was but I still hate it so stick to loo.

Didn't Nancy Mitford give a list of words that are U and Non U:

Lavatory not Toilet
Napkin not Serviette
Scent not Perfume
Looking glass not Mirror

and on and on and on...

Jilly Cooper seems to refer to that list a lot when conveying what class her different characters are but I think a younger generation has probably moved on from that. I can't imagine too many young people talk about lavatories and looking glasses.

Lucca

Apologies to any Americans on here for this thread.

Thought I’d say this again…..

Gingster

People who start by answering a question with ‘So ……..

They do that here too.

People have always said Mom in the West Midlands though

Mom, instead of Mum.

One I totally forgot about was “in the military”. What happened to “in the forces”?

People who start by answering a question with ‘So ……..

MayBeMaw

“Our language”
Isn’t it theirs too?

Indeed

The only real difference between American English and UK English is spelling.

Apart from that both languages are evolving and influencing each other as do other languages.

I hear "c'est la vie" all the time.

It's all English and I for one am grateful for that as we get to share a huge amount of entertainment from the US that we couldn't otherwise.

We shouldn't blame the wrong people for our own language evolving.

Being able to express ourselves in more/individual ways is not a bad thing.

“Our language”
Isn’t it theirs too?

Apologies to any Americans on here for this thread.

Esspee

Personally I hate the use of the word toilet when the correct term is lavatory. Not an Americanism but a twee term used by people who think toilet is polite - it is not. As my mother would say, if it's the word used by the Queen and her family then it must be correct. They say lavatory.

I do not like the word toilet either but I would never claim that lavatory is the “correct” word! Who says ? Why is it correct if the queen says it ??

When I was a child my mother disapproved of toilet which she insisted had to be lavatory because 'toilet is a nasty American word'. Don't think it was but I still hate it so stick to loo.

So, as a 65 year old American I will tell say that many of the words you seem to find offensive are NOT used in most of America. We have many "sections" of the US that use different words for different things. i.e. bathroom vs. men's room or ladies room. The word toilet is seldom used, but older folks (older than myself) used to use it frequently. Words that you use in the UK are sometimes offensive to us in the USA. I had to chuckle as I read this thread. You insinuation that we "yanks" use many of these phrases is quite false. SO.....

Txguiltz I am extremely sorry for you having such a bad accident and hope you make a good recovery. I had a bad fall myself recently but escaped with cuts and bruises but I can empathise with the shock to the system . For my part its only the words I dislike and I dislike plenty of English words and phrases too. I enjoyed my visits to America and the Americans I have worked with have been lovely. My pedantry comes from a classical Grammar school education heavy on the written word and then a clinical career where documentation and reports were required to be clear and concise.

I believe we are people divided by a common language that the mind. The strains of Shakespeare are as gentle in my ear as yours, I share genetic soup with many, yet find Americans despised. This week I took an awful fall, breaking my hip, destroying the other knee and fracturing my arm. What moments of tranquility I have enjoyed living in theUK. Please grant me 3 days without overt hatred so I might bathe in a sense of unity and tolerance finding. A balm for the pain thrift. If after that time anger must return, I will still support praying you claim a better way.

Personally I hate the use of the word toilet when the correct term is lavatory. Not an Americanism but a twee term used by people who think toilet is polite - it is not. As my mother would say, if it's the word used by the Queen and her family then it must be correct. They say lavatory.

Not keen on harrASSment, with the accent on ass?
Also harASSed.

I misread that as I can’t think of any AMERICANS I like. But still.

Grandma70s

Agree about bathroom, but we weren’t even allowed to say ‘toilet’ at home or at school. It was ‘lavatory’.

I can’t think of any Americanisms I like.

I’m American. It sure doesn’t feel good to read this.

I’ve never heard “year on year”. We use “year after year”.
I don’t hear the word “peek” substituted for “peep”.

Most Americans I know are very nice people. There is a very vocal uneducated minority (I hope, anyway) of idiots who don’t represent all of us!

Sadly, this attitude can also be seen in French and Spanish too.

Thank you freedom

Threads like this make british people look snobby and unpopular

If you can generalize about American English, I can do the same, right?

Reminds me of an incident in Heathrow. An employee complained- assumed I couldn't speak English (by looking at my passport), and when I replied in English, he complained it was American English
I told him politely to zip it and stop being snobbish

The kicker? He was not speaking British English either! He was an immigrant himself.