American 'English'

That'll be me, then, petallus*!

There are some lovely old words in the glossary which accompanies my set of Samuel Pepys diaries. Many words have changed their meanings in the last three hundred years or so. Other words don't exist now.

One of my favourite terms is windfu**er which means a talkative braggart.

My OH worked for an American company so he was brilliant at management speak and I remember learning to say "Can you give me a ball-park on that?". That came back quite quickly when the manager had had time to look it up.
I remember the story about (I think) IBM when they all used overheads (called foils) to death in every meeting. One manager banned them and it caused complete consternation. Of course, that was before death by powerpoint.

Just on the usage of bathroom - I had a very prim great aunt who would always ask if I'd like to see the bathroom. I couldn't understand why she didn't come in with me to show me round

Mamie that takes me back. The management meetings I used to attend were like those that started the Vicar of Dibley, with lots of 'no, no, no...err, yes' moments. We had a phase of choosing new words to include, to see whether they would be repeated by our back-stabbing senior manager, who listened but never heard a thing, if you know what I mean. Sure enough, our 'helicopter view' and 'incentivise' plants (amongst many others) were taken up, and we would be in paroxysms of suppressed laughter. There must surely be a book of 'buzz words' used in the public sector by now.

Oh for an edit button - I just found the answer on French wiki "le cliché est un mot ou locution d'origine artistique, formant image, et qui est répété sans réfléchir" - so it is a word for an image, repeated without reflection.

Well I was always the first to play b*llsh*t bingo in meetings, Ariadne, with a particular dislike of being asked to diarize something (although it is a word). However, I don't think you can single out management speak for twisting language to suit purpose and being bland and cliche-ridden, I think lots of people do that. Actually I quite liked management speak, it made boring meetings more interesting wondering how long the "new" word would take to be adopted. It was "synchronicity" when I left.
As an aside, I was very surprised when I went for a mammogram here in France and was asked to bring my cliches (x-rays) with me. Since it must be a French word in the first place I wonder how it got to mean what it does in English?

Yes, precisely absent. The deviations are the same all around the world, hence so many separate languages and variations within them. Having listen to Bostonians' (Mass) very clipped way of talking, then travelled to Alabama and Louisiana, one would think they were entirely different countries, judging by the language.

Language is dynamic - changing all the time. I agree that we don't own it, and like to stick to our ideas of how things should be, but we needn't deride other countries' English use. Be amused, yes, of course - I used to teach a module about the evolution of language to Y7, and they would make an Anglo / American dictionary, giggling as they worked. Then I took a copy to our friends in the States, and their children giggled too.

We travel a lot to the States, visiting close friends and exploring; I love the country and the people I have met - ordinary people like us.

However management jargon is another thing altogether; it involves twisting language to suit purpose, rather than developing it. It is bland and cliche ridden. So there I am, being derisive myself. Ah well...

when The metal was aluminum before it was aluminium. The English version is the deviation.

btw The assumption that all American English is the same is as inaccurate as suggesting that all British English is the same. The language spoken in Louisiana, for example is as different from that spoken in Massachusetts as the English spoken in London differs from that spoken in Norfolk.

Our American friends love the quirkyness of the English language, for example 'Bob's your uncle'. Mind I find that funny also!

I've enjoyed reading this thread as I love to learn about the different ways that words are manipulated to suit a particular purpose.

Lots of different nationalities are protective about their language. I remember going to stay on a North Wales farm and the farmer's wife (farmerESS?) was determined that we would learn several Welsh words a day every time we called to pick up milk from her shop. She was a Welsh language teacher and one of several who had been employed to promote their language to ensure children spoke it, both at home and in school.

When holidaying in Italy, we were given tips about Italian in exchange for teaching pronunciation of certain English words. It's a source of humour when we get words 'wrong' and discover they mean something entirely different.

One American friend says she knows her pronunciation of certain words does not accord with how they are said in Engllsh or French, but it is how they are spoken in her home town, so she does what everyone else does.

I'll continue to cringe when I hear 'aluminum' or 'squirl' because they are words that I have learned to spell and pronounce differently, but we all know what they mean, whereas there are some UK dialects that leave me completely confused and no wiser about certain words and phrases which bear no relation to what would be said in my part of the world. When I worked only 20 miles from home, I found I needed help with some words spoken in Wigan, that I had never heard of previously. Fascinating! Long may it continue

I'm in complete agreement with your post B - and as Mamie said, would click the "like" button if there was one.

I was beginning to feel there was an escalation in "let's take a pop at the Americans" on GN generally, so it is good to see some posts redressing the balance.

BTW granjura - the French may have a word for entrepreneur, but I am not at all convinced that anyone (at least anyone in l'administration) understands what it entails....

Both fascinating, Bags, I have read them and re-read them many times.
I was just thinking about words invented by Shakespeare and found this:
"He invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original."
The words include excitement, gossip, moonbeam, lustrous, gnarled and grovel.
Do you think people complained about new-fangled words and adulteration of the language at the time? I bet they did!

Absolutely true about the written word. The join does not show. I think I struggled a little with Catcher in the Rye, when young, but rarely is there any hiccup when reading US fiction. (I've been reading Anne Tyler and Barbara Kingsolver recently - smooth experience) And in scientific writing the same applies. And in movies (ooops sorry films) there is rarely a problem - we are more used to their accents than vice versa due to our exposure to film and TV.
Strange isn't it that we have all these problems with faucets and diapers .

Thanks, mamie! Off to amazon right now! I'm struggling to "get into" any book at the moment and one of those might be just the ticket.

Absolutely agree Bags. (I have pressed the "like" button on your post!) I recommend Bill Bryson's "Mother Tongue" and "Made in America" to understand the evolution of British and American English.

Most of the differences mentioned in this thread between American English and British English are in fact quite trivial. Teachers often have to say the same thing in several different ways before all their pupils (of whatever age) understand what they're getting at. Seems to me that understanding Americans, or making oneself understood to them is similar to that. Why not just enjoy life's rich language diversity instead of moaning about it and pretending to be superior? As someone else has already mentioned, well written American English is wonderful and, if one keeps a lively mind, perfectly understandable. There are larger differences between the different ways English is spoken in Glasgow and London than there are between American English and British English. To use a 'vernacular' phrase, people who object to such differences really need to get out more and open their minds. There is a lot of intolerance in this thread.

I first interacted with Americans in Vienna as a young au pair student. The American students were lovely, but we ended up speaking German to each other because we simply constantly misunderstood each other in English. Things like them asking 'where's the bathroom I need to wash my hands' and my reply 'there isn't one, but there's a loo over there and there'll probably be a handbasin'. 'Or, that's a lovely purse' which confused me as my purse was old but my handbag was new. It got worse still, before I realised pocket book meant purse and purse meant handbag.... I don't suppose my Yorkshire accent helped either. We often say 'five and twenty past' instead of twenty five past, when saying the time. That was a real confuser! And I sometimes didn't realise which words were actually Yorkshireisms, which also confused my cockney friends. No wonder we all stuck to German.

I was somewhat puzzled by 'restrooms' with not even a sofa and indeed 'bathrooms' with no sign of a bath - very coy ways of referring to lavatories, toilets or loos. My kiwi niece also refers to 'the bathroom' when excusing herself to go to the loo, so the usage appears to have spread south.

The first time I visited The States 18 years ago I went into a store and asked where the pens were. The assistant took me to the jewellery counter. We were both baffled until, of course, I realised she thought I had said pin (meaning brooch).

And they didn't even know what a brolly was (duh).

Well thats good to hear jess, we have to face facts that we and they use different expressions for the same thing , as i mentioned on an earlier post have a great deal of amusement sorting things out. Lifes rich pattern eh !!!

Just debating nonu just debating. It's easy to get tetchy with them for not talking proper, but there are other ways to look at the issue.
My US friends like watching British TV programmes. But the pause button often gets used as my friend, who lived over here for 2 years, has to translate for her husband. I once tried to give the poor man some complicated parking instructions which he failed to grasp. Over there you don't say "reverse" you say "back up"