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In Defense (sic) of My American Friends

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 12:47 — parakletos

    I was listening to someone from the OED the other day talk about American English. She stated that a lot of the words we identify as American - gotten, quit, fall - are actually Elizabethan English. So whilst they had become obsolete over here by the 19th century they carried on in every day use in the US.

    Of course I still struggle with the scarcity of prepositions (I'm going to write Harry) and the miserly use of the letter 'U' (color) and those lonely 'L's (cancel), but I think progress is being made.

    Comments

    Wed, 10/14/2009 - 12:58 — NotACat
    NotACat's picture

    I feel your pain

    parakletos wrote:

    Of course I still struggle with the scarcity of prepositions (I'm going to write Harry) and the misery use of the letter 'U' (color) and those lonely 'L's (cancel), but I think progress is being made.

    I think you mean "miserly but your point is made admirably ;-)

    Also I think "cancel" is spelt like that over here too.

    I blame Noah Webster and his daft notion of prescribing spelling rather than describing. He's safely dead, so I think I can get away with it ;-)

    Wed, 10/14/2009 - 14:25 — rachel
    rachel's picture

    Hah, hah....all forms of

    Hah, hah....all forms of languages change all the time. I can see a future time with HP in LOLcat speak. Harry: "omg, I has luv 4 u, Gin" Ginny: "wtf? "No u doan, U has furball, kbai!." They'll speak like that. You cna thank teh computer for that.

    Wed, 10/14/2009 - 14:36 — parakletos
    parakletos's picture

    rachel wrote: Hah,

    rachel wrote:

    Hah, hah....all forms of languages change all the time. I can see a future time with HP in LOLcat speak. Harry: "omg, I has luv 4 u, Gin" Ginny: "wtf? "No u doan, U has furball, kbai!." They'll speak like that. You cna thank teh computer for that.

    iI think you'll find that fics like that are out there today.....

    Wed, 10/14/2009 - 15:10 — rachel
    rachel's picture

    parakletos wrote: rachel

    parakletos wrote:
    rachel wrote:

    Hah, hah....all forms of languages change all the time. I can see a future time with HP in LOLcat speak. Harry: "omg, I has luv 4 u, Gin" Ginny: "wtf? "No u doan, U has furball, kbai!." They'll speak like that. You cna thank teh computer for that.

    iI think you'll find that fics like that are out there today.....

    Ahem...What happens if the Queen speaks like that? It'll become Oxbridge English.

    Wed, 10/14/2009 - 15:41 — moshpit
    moshpit's picture

    Ow, stop, please . . .

    rachel wrote:

    Hah, hah....all forms of languages change all the time. I can see a future time with HP in LOLcat speak. Harry: "omg, I has luv 4 u, Gin" Ginny: "wtf? "No u doan, U has furball, kbai!." They'll speak like that. You cna thank teh computer for that.

    That was painful to parse. Isn't Doan the name of the FSU stadium?

    Wed, 10/14/2009 - 15:53 — rachel
    rachel's picture

    Nope. You're mixing it with

    Nope. You're mixing it with wtf World Taekwondo Federation

    Wed, 10/14/2009 - 16:37 — NotACat
    NotACat's picture

    Well, actually...

    rachel wrote:

    I can see a future time with HP in LOLcat speak.

    Someone is working on a LOLSpeak Bible, so LOLSpeak Harry Potter shouldn't be too hard a stretch.

    Don't believe me?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOLCat_Bible_Translation_Project

    Enjoy ;-)

    Wed, 10/14/2009 - 16:50 — moshpit
    moshpit's picture

    I hate you

    NotACat wrote:

    Don't believe me? .... Enjoy ;-)

    Seriously, I do. I can't believe that (a) I hadn't heard of that, and (b) just how awful it is.

    I need mind bleach after glancing at just the first verse. Gahhh.

    Wed, 10/14/2009 - 16:52 — Elaithin

    buh

    I... I don't know what to say. I just don't have the words.

    Wed, 10/14/2009 - 16:54 — CaffeineAddict

    Try puzzling your way

    Try puzzling your way through Canadian English, 'tis an odd halfway point between American and UK English. We do use those lovely "U"s you're so fond of but I'm not sure how one would go about spelling "cancel" any other way than that. And as for "quit" and "fall", it shows my ignorance of British parlance in that I've got no clue what else one would use in place of those words that isn't a mouthful. Prepositions are fickle things at the best of times over here, but it's generally considered better grammar to use them. I've always found the linguistic differences between former British colonies interesting.

    Wed, 10/14/2009 - 19:43 — rachel
    rachel's picture

    NotACat wrote: rachel

    NotACat wrote:
    rachel wrote:

    I can see a future time with HP in LOLcat speak.

    Someone is working on a LOLSpeak Bible, so LOLSpeak Harry Potter shouldn't be too hard a stretch.

    Don't believe me?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOLCat_Bible_Translation_Project

    Enjoy ;-)

    For all you cats that want to praise the almighty (and write a HP fic., try this..A helpful translator

    http://speaklolcat.com/

    Wed, 10/14/2009 - 23:26 — Kezzabear

    I always say "I am

    I always say "I am Australian. I speak three languages. Strine, American and English." :P

    Thu, 10/15/2009 - 04:24 — jediprankster

    Majority Rules

    I would suggest we take a vote and go with majority rules, but that would put the Brits at a distinct disadvantage. There seems to be a few more of us Americans.

    By the way, I've never understood those words with an extra 'u'. This is English, not French.

    Thu, 10/15/2009 - 04:53 — V

    I can deal with the Us, but

    I can deal with the Us, but what's up with the second m and e in programme. That's just excessive....this isn't French; you can pronounce the last letter of a word without it being stressed.

    Thu, 10/15/2009 - 05:48 — SiblingCreature

    nothing extra

    jediprankster wrote:

    I would suggest we take a vote and go with majority rules, but that would put the Brits at a distinct disadvantage. There seems to be a few more of us Americans.

    By the way, I've never understood those words with an extra 'u'. This is English, not French.

    There are no words with extra 'u's in English. You Yanks just have a tendency to abbreviate the spelling of some words. ;-)

    - SC

    Thu, 10/15/2009 - 06:00 — Kezzabear

    It's because a lot of the

    It's because a lot of the English language is influenced by the most recent wave of invasion by the Normans in 1066. English will naturally have French conventions in many cases.

    Why is cow meat called beef and sheep meat called mutton? I mean really, relationship please? They are from the French words.

    So although it has Scandinavidan, Latin and Germanic influences a vast majority of Modern English is derived from French. (My motehr gave me a lecture over dinner once ... lol) Once you move a bunch of people to a new country you are bound to get the variations. I mean in Australia we were British until very, very recently. Federation may have been 1901 but we were essentially British until post WWII. The US deliberately broke away from Britain, formed their own governmental systems, schooling etc. I would expect them to be further from the British English than Australia. We are now starting to try and teach kids the bilingualism of written English ... :P

    Thu, 10/15/2009 - 06:55 — ginleake

    Development of English

    I have been lurking on this site for sometime!

    This comment is an area of interest for me so I thought I would join in. You can see it all over former British Empire, as the countries split away from England they have English words that remain in use which have ceased to be used in England. This does not only ocour in English for example the French spoken in Canada also has words that are no longer in use in France. English probably has more examples of it than other languages as it started as a mixing pot of other languages right from the start.

    I know here in Australia we have started to use a lot of Italian and Greek words after the second world war when we had a huge influx of immigrants from that area, and in England they would use the French version. For example aubergine - eggplant, corgette - zuchinni