Americanisation (the) of our language

Copper was originally someone who captures - viz. 'It's a fair cop'. Thus a police officer became known as a copper/cop. Not American in origin, though adopted into their vocabulary.

Summerlove 14:57

Exactly

Lucca

grannybuy

Mom and cops!

I’m absolutely certain we played cops and robbers as children ….in England.

There are parts of the UK where “mom” is used.

Mom is not used in the US though, so I was surprised that someone would find the term offensive as an American term when it is not, in fact, an American term.

GreenGran: I found a copy you can purchase. But I am going to keep looking to see if I can find a free copy somewhere. I am interested in reading it as well.

I did find this list though: www.iwm.org.uk/history/tips-for-american-servicemen-in-britain-during-the-second-world-war

As far as my opinion on British people, I try not to judge an entire population based on a few. Some days that is harder then others. But me judging an entire country based on a few while asking others not to judge my country based on a few would make me a hypocrite.

AGAA4

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.

I remember thread, not so long ago, about how angry people were that signs in Wales actually had the audacity to be welsh first.

TwinLolly

I can't stand Americanisms and I can hardly read an article or a book without wanting to correct the spelling. So I avoid books from America.

Annoying things, to add to what is already on here:

Paycheck instead of salary or salary/wage slip.

"Pay the check" or ask for the 'check' instead of paying the bill or invoice, or asking for the bill or invoice.

Very poor misuse of the language and very lazy spelling. It grates on my nerves!

I hope you also avoid all television and ‘films’ produced in America as well.

Enjoy your isolationist life

That is a brilliant word, just added it to my vocabulary list!

Lovely word " rapscallion" so descriptive silverlining

I might be guilty of resenting the way we in the uk seem to follow America like the poodle we are, but some of their words are apt and to the point.
Struggle with the ‘can I get a...’ (coffee) etc. I always want to reply ‘ yes, it’s on the top shelf, over there.’
Language develops, we no longer communicate like the Victorians. “Ahoy there rapscallion, whither doth thou wander’” or something similar..

It seems to be Groundhog Day here as regards Americans and their use of language!

Fwiw, my America dil now uses British swear words. So much more expressive than the American equivalent, she says.

I don’t understand much spoken Doric but it’s wonderful on the ears to hear it and when you read about what the words mean, so expressive. I hear it less and less, though. Young people don’t seem to grow up speaking it now.

annodomini I doubt my Granny ever heard of Hugh McDiarmid. She just talked in language she'd always spoken. It's not surprising that there is such regional variation given the limited travel opportunities between large and disparate parts of Scotland (and UK) going back centuries.

I'm sorry if any of our American members have been hurt. Some comments have definitely strayed from discussing differences to being impolite and snobby.
Personally, I would love to find out what the Americans think of we Brits, even if they are rude.
I vaguely remember reading, long ago, a handout which was (allegedly) being given to American Servicemen being posted over here. It pointed out some of our quaint ways, so that they could learn, in advance, how to cope with us without causing offence. It was very amusing, and I would love to read it again if anyone has a copy of it.
Threads where people are asked about their 'pet hates' always seem to encourage people to 'let loose' without a thought of who might be reading their comments.

Thanks to the Scottish grans. I didn't realise there were different languages spoken in Scotland.
Welsh is spoken a bit differently in North and South Wales.
Now this is a much better discussion than the previous one.

I think you're right, Alegrias, in saying that Lallans has something to do with Hugh McDiarmid. As it was a synthesis of different dialects, it was doomed to be a short-lived feature of the literary scene in the 50s and 60s. I had university classes from a Greek lecturer who translated Aristophanes' into Lallans and took 'The Puddocks' (Frogs) to the Festival Fringe. It was a language which, as far as I know, was written by a few and spoken by even fewer.

Alegrias1

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.

I feel the same as this. Each part of the British Isles wishes to conserve its
own identity and language. My way of speaking has been laughed at and joked about all my life, if I speak naturally some people cannot understand me.
When I lived in the east neither parents would come and live with me when elderly because my mother especially was frightened of not being understood.
I have even been asked when talking to a friend if I was a "Scandi" not a nice term.
We can all make ourselves understood and have always laughed and said we were bilingual.
You learn to speak so that people understand you and then speak the way you naturally do at home. You also have the option of rejecting the use of any word or pronunciation that you do not like.
Maybe we should do the same with Americanisms that we do not like. We hear them and reject them as we please.

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!

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.

in his own voice

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

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

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

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 )

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.

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??

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? ?