British people using Americanisms

Scirocco_09

Scirocco_09

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My day job involves a lot of interview filming and over the last few months I've noticed a lot of people have started using American Ts and intonations - pronouncing 'better' as 'bedder' and 'chat' as 'chad' etc with uplifts in the intonation - this is only recent and I can't think why this would be but it's very annoying! Americanisms have been creeping in for a while (can I get a coffee rather than have for example), but the accent is only recent, at least in these parts. Has anyone else noticed this?
 
Aarrgghhh - my pet hate. :banghead:

It's all the American TV programmes that everyone watches - it drives me insane. It's bad enough having to listen to Americans crucifying our language - let alone when English people do it. All my grandkids talk like it - did I say I hate it? :mad:
 
That, WHS, plus young white lads talking like Jamaicans, so that they can sound cool and dangerous
 
Scirocco_09 said:
Has anyone else noticed this?
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It was noticeable in both of the central London based information companies I worked at about 20 years ago. In their case I think it may have been due to the staff having daily contact with American colleagues on the 'phone.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
It was noticeable in both of the central London based information companies I worked at about 20 years ago. In their case I think it may have been due to the staff having daily contact with American colleagues on the 'phone.
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That’s interesting and would at least make sense as hateful as it is... I’m in Lincolnshire and it’s only become noticeable in the last few months, can’t for the life of me think why it’s started here! Americanisms mixed with Lincolnshire accents sound incredibly daft
 
It is just not the spoken word. I upload to stock sites and have to include both the English and American spellings together with 'pavement and sidewalk' and the like.

'The United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common language' - George Bernard Shaw circa 1942
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
It was noticeable in both of the central London based information companies I worked at about 20 years ago. In their case I think it may have been due to the staff having daily contact with American colleagues on the 'phone.
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Imagine all those Americans at the other end of the phone now talking like cockneys!
 
Baz777 said:
Imagine all those Americans at the other end of the phone now talking like cockneys!
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Titter ye not. I once had a bizarre conversation with a Canadian colleague. I asked him how long he'd lived in Canada and he told me "all my life". So I asked him why he had a noticeable Scottish accent. It turned out his parents and older sisters had emigrated just before he appeared on the scene. "You try growing up near Quebec when all you get at home is broad Scots!" he finished. :wideyed:
 
The one that gets me the most is reeesearch rather than research, closely followed by math instead of maths - and I've just noticed that maths is underlined in red by the software on this British site, indicating that I've miss-spelled it . . .
All language develops over time, I was reminded by this when I read the Aubrey / Maturin series of books by Patrick O'brien, set in the early 19th century, but yes, this invasion of our language is a step too far.
 
I think we should have followed the French lead and had a government ministry to protect the language.
 
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Funniest thing I have witnessed was an 18 year old son of a friend, white, well brought up... Phoning a friends house... The father of his friend answered and the 18 year old started to ask for his friend in a strange faux Jamaican accent.... Adding in random.... "for real" and "safe" he kept repeating this for a few times.... The father of the friend simply had no idea what he was saying... As all of a sudden the 18 year old broke out of his Jamaican accent and asked, in a very well spoken Surrey accent.... I'm sorry Mr Steel, is David home at all? " myself and the lads Father laughed so much... The son was trying to retain some" street cred init" but 2 grown men wetting themselves and doing an Ali G accent, put pay to that [emoji1787]
 
supergeeman said:
Funniest thing I have witnessed was an 18 year old son of a friend, white, well brought up... Phoning a friends house... The father of his friend answered and the 18 year old started to ask for his friend in a strange faux Jamaican accent.... Adding in random.... "for real" and "safe" he kept repeating this for a few times.... The father of the friend simply had no idea what he was saying... As all of a sudden the 18 year old broke out of his Jamaican accent and asked, in a very well spoken Surrey accent.... I'm sorry Mr Steel, is David home at all? " myself and the lads Father laughed so much... The son was trying to retain some" street cred init" but 2 grown men wetting themselves and doing an Ali G accent, put pay to that [emoji1787]
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:LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
It gets better when the Jamaican accent and "gangster" talk is combined with a fist bump followed by a chest bump, hug and then a pat on the back. :)
Innit blood. ;)
 
Baz777 said:
Imagine all those Americans at the other end of the phone now talking like cockneys!
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Now, what's the surname of that American Dick who tried to do that?...
 
Garry Edwards said:
The one that gets me the most is reeesearch rather than research, closely followed by math instead of maths - and I've just noticed that maths is underlined in red by the software on this British site, indicating that I've miss-spelled it . . .
All language develops over time, I was reminded by this when I read the Aubrey / Maturin series of books by Patrick O'brien, set in the early 19th century, but yes, this invasion of our language is a step too far.
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Five posts up Garry mentions the pronunciation of ‘reee-search rather than research..I say research so whilst we’re on this issue I can’t be doing with what has become the norm to say ha-rass and ha -rassment rather than harass and harassment. I’m really pleased to get an opportunity in a thread to bring this up. The only time I ever used to hear it pronounced ha- rass /ha -rass-ment was from young men from Jamaican/British families and usually in relation to the police.ie : “.stop ha—rassing me mon”. ‘Don’t ha- rass me mon” Even news readers pronounce it this way too.Seems everyone does, apart from me..lol. . Why is this so ? It annoys the he’ll out me.

Also, annoying are those from the London/south east region who say ‘free’ rather than ‘three’ or Smiff instead of Smith. Infact, thinking about it they actually say Shmiff. ‘ “What’s your surname ’ ? “ Shmiff “ ” Is that with one f or two ?” ...Lol. Irish people say ‘tree’ for three. I suppose that‘s a bit different, though. I think all their th’s are pronounced. ‘T’. Through is. Tru. Thank you..Tank you...etc. Well educated people say it so it’s part of the language but I do wonder how it cane about. Of course I can’t finish with this post without mentioning ‘Haitch ’ instead of Aitch. For the letter H . I heard it today whilst we were looking at kitchen appliances. The sales lady said that the latest model was Haitch C 75B...whatever. Where did this come from ? Here’s an answer. https://www.whichenglish.com/Better-English-Grammar/usage/haitch-or-aitch.html


Just out of interest listen to some people on tv and radio who like to think they’re a cut above most of us and pronounce ‘year’ as ‘yar’. Off as Orff. Are they afraid that ‘year’ is too common ? ...too northern maybe ?....too working class, maybe ?

Anyway, I have to get orff now as we’re about to have visitors that we haven’t seen for yars....lol. ..or rather. Grrrrr !
 
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Current teeth grinders (for me anyway)

Train Station instead of Railway Station
"across the aisle" instead of "across the floor"
"I could care less" instead of "I could not care less"

I could go on, but that's enough teeth grinding for tonight

Anthony
 
JohnC6 said:
Also, annoying are those from the London/south east region who say ‘free’ rather than ‘three’ or Smiff instead of Smith. Infact, thinking about it they actually say Shmiff. ‘ “What’s your surname ’ ? “ Shmiff “ ” Is that with one f or two ?” ...Lol. Irish people say ‘tree’ for three. I suppose that‘s a bit different, though. I think all their th’s are pronounced. ‘T’. Through is. Tru. Thank you..Tank you...etc. Well educated people say it so it’s part of the language but I do wonder how it cane about. Of course I can’t finish with this post without mentioning ‘Haitch ’ instead of Aitch. For the letter H . I heard it today whilst we were looking at kitchen appliances. The sales lady said that the latest model was Haitch C 75B...whatever. Where did this come from ? Here’s an answer. https://www.whichenglish.com/Better-English-Grammar/usage/haitch-or-aitch.html
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Never used a th in my life when an f will do, learn it as a kid with that old tongue twister
firty fousand feathers on a frushes froat
Why bother with h, much easier to just use the next letter
We all know where emel empstead, artlepool, ackney and itchin are anyway

Its not put on, starts in childhood and no different from scouse, geordie, brummie or any other regional dialect
Proper cockney accent is sadly going now to be replaced with a strange lingo, some of us still use a smattering of rhyming slang too
Recently mentioned it was "bleedin ansome now the old currant's come aht" and got blank looks from the local company I was in
p.s. sorry if this as spoilt yer day, just tuf ain't it
 
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JohnC6 said:
Five posts up Garry mentions the pronunciation of ‘reee-search rather than research..I say research so whilst we’re on this issue I can’t be doing with what has become the norm to say ha-rass and ha -rassment rather than harass and harassment. I’m really pleased to get an opportunity in a thread to bring this up. The only time I ever used to hear it pronounced ha- rass /ha -rass-ment was from young men from Jamaican/British families and usually in relation to the police.ie : “.stop ha—rassing me mon”. ‘Don’t ha- rass me mon” Even news readers pronounce it this way too.Seems everyone does, apart from me..lol. . Why is this so ? It annoys the he’ll out me.
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Glad you mentioned this - that really annoys me too! I say it the old school way and I'm in my 30s, but everyone I know says it the ridiculous American way and you stand out for not doing so. Another one is paracetamol and paraceetamol, I don't say that either!
 
nilagin said:
It gets better when the Jamaican accent and "gangster" talk is combined with a fist bump followed by a chest bump, hug and then a pat on the back. :)
Innit blood. ;)
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Y talke mee *** **** mon..yo . ***** ***

The Rules said:
  • Don't swear, even if the word isn't caught by the swear filter (It doesn't catch everything!).
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I being sensible and that’s not easy to do .... growing up in the east end of London in the 50’s and 60’s you had a total mix of languages to listen and learn from ,West Indian, Greek and Turkish , Yiddish, cockney, Russian , with a bit of Indian and Pakistani thrown .
We all communicated well and everyone understood and got on with one another .. no idea what its like these days but it’s hard enough for me to catch on with a mix of scouse and welsh up here ..
 
Americans (and now our kids) don't know the difference between 'bring' and 'take'. They just use 'bring' for everything - even when the context of the sentence demands that they should use 'take'. :banghead:
 
tijuana taxi said:
Never used a th in my life when an f will do, learn it as a kid with that old tongue twister
firty fousand feathers on a frushes froat
Why bother with h, much easier to just use the next letter
We all know where emel empstead, artlepool, ackney and itchin are anyway

Its not put on, starts in childhood and no different from scouse, geordie, brummie or any other regional dialect
Proper cockney accent is sadly going now to be replaced with a strange lingo, some of us still use a smattering of rhyming slang too
Recently mentioned it was "bleedin ansome now the old currant's come aht" and got blank looks from the local company I was in
p.s. sorry if this as spoilt yer day, just tuf ain't it
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Not spoilt my day at all, Rich. 11.00am and I’m having a cuppa, chilling out..not something I normally indulge in ...ie chilling out....lol...reading your response and your example of your dialect brought a smile to my face. I definitely wouldn’t want to see cockney fall by the wayside but I did read or hear on the radio that there are fewer true cockneys these days, which you have mentioned ..born within earshot Bow bells, I believe, as you’ll well know,of course but I had to Google to see where exactly that was...the `bells of St Mary-Ie-Bow church,Cheapside. It would be a loss to the nation to see the demise of regional/local accents. It would be hypercritical of me to back-pedal on what I wrote above re my feelings hearing it as it does grate but maybe more so as I was brought up near Liverpool, my parents were born and brought up there so northern dialects are easier on the ear for me..I especially like the Geordie dialect which I could listen to all day,the same with english -speaking welsh. It’s difficult discussing the nuances of the subject in a forum as a face to face chat is much easier.

I’ve been thinking mostly about your own examples...especially where the. H is dropped. eg. Emil emstead ....artlepool..ackney..It could be said it’s lazy english rather than an accent/dialect and dropping the H is very common in all accents but for me, that’s different to pronouncing th as f.. as in my Shmiff example and your ‘furty fousand feathers On a fry she’s frost.. The spell checker is having a nightmare with those words..lol.

A couple of responses above show that the issue really does get under peoples’ skins,

Anyway, really appreciate your response,it was a great read . Sadly, here I am aving a quiet cup of rosy lea and would you Adam and Eve it the trouble and strife has just told me she wants us to go down the frog and toad in my jam jar,not hers ,despite it being really mork and mindy and now comes the Cynthia Paine I see, so I’ll now need to take me billy goat ..no sign whatsoever of a bit of current bun...and I’ll need to take some bread and honey too. I’ll get meself a Joe Blake too to go with me afternoon uncle Fred. I think we’re ‘avin Fanny Craddock, chips and peas for tea tonight......:)
 
Anthony.Ralph said:
Current teeth grinders (for me anyway)

Train Station instead of Railway Station
"across the aisle" instead of "across the floor"
"I could care less" instead of "I could not care less"

I could go on, but that's enough teeth grinding for tonight

Anthony
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This thread seems to have touched a nerve or two.

I now call ‘level crossings, railway crossings’. I have no idea why level is used. It doesn’t even make sense. They’re anything but level..lol

I could care less. I spent two weeks annually for 8 years with Americans and that was a question I asked several times but none had an answer. The phrase doesn’t make sense does it.

It’s a bit complicated but here’s one answer https://www.quora.com/Why-do-some-A...-care-less”-instead-of-“I-couldn’t-care-less”


Graham W said:
Just seen on FB. Some English bloke talking about a "spot of bother" he was in in England...said "I can't afford an "Attorney"!
I mean WT actual F! :mad:
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They probably watch too many American tv shows. Having said that, we have the Attorney General..and from the 13th. century too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attorney_General_for_England_and_Wales
 
Sky said:
Americans (and now our kids) don't know the difference between 'bring' and 'take'. They just use 'bring' for everything - even when the context of the sentence demands that they should use 'take'. :banghead:
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I wasn’t aware of that, Trevor. Like ‘level crossing‘ instead of ‘railway crossing‘ it doesn’t make sense. I expect someone will point out that language changes,which it does but these examples are contradictory so not really a matter of language morphing,if that’s the right expression. We don’t say ye , thee, thy, ..well, some ‘folk‘ in Yorkshire do..lol... words are spelt differently ..olde which is now ‘old’ but that’s not the same as the anomaly that you‘re complaining about...and.. Wherever did ‘innit’ come from ?

Something else that’s changed is starting a sentence with co-ordinating conjunctions..‘And’. ‘But’ ‘Or’. Etc. I read it in the write-ups of newspaper columnists so it’s used by people with excellent English language skills. I’ve just checked and it seems it’s ok. https://getitwriteonline.com/articles/starting-sentences-and-but
 
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JohnC6 said:
It’s a bit complicated but here’s one answer
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An American relative explains it as "I could care less :rolleyes:". (The eye rolling should be performed out of the other speaker's view - to avoid the whole thing descending to rolling on the floor).
 
Sky said:
I wouldn't believe a word written about the English language on that site - it's American. :eek:
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‘By the time I got to it,I was flagging after all I’ve written ...lol...and didn’t notice that . Point taken.
 
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AndrewFlannigan said:
An American relative explains it as "I could care less :rolleyes:". (The eye rolling should be performed out of the other speaker's view - to avoid the whole thing descending to rolling on the floor).
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Andrew.. here’s one to ask your American relative although I suspect the answer will be ‘that’s just what we say ” It’s just their way. It’s a very common response to a server in a restaurant after the customer has chosen something from the menu. After looking over the menu’s main course or desserts and chosen what they want they’d say .”Why don’t I have” ...whatever. I think it’s a strange way to order, I expect because I take it literally as a question to be answered rather than a rhetorical question which is why I didn’t add a question mark. . I like to take what people say literally..often in jest, so I’m thinking what replies could be given by the server..ok..waiter/waitress as we’re in the UK..lol.

The server. “Well, sir..one reason is we don’t have that item available today” Or..” It’s amounts to 3000 calories and I don’t think it would be good for you”. “Personally, , I think it’s overpriced”.. “ It’s ok but the ribeye is much better”. ‘Yes, you could have that but why not try the sirloin..it‘s chef’s choice today”...lol.
 
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supergeeman said:
Funniest thing I have witnessed was an 18 year old son of a friend, white, well brought up... Phoning a friends house... The father of his friend answered and the 18 year old started to ask for his friend in a strange faux Jamaican accent.... Adding in random.... "for real" and "safe" he kept repeating this for a few times.... The father of the friend simply had no idea what he was saying... As all of a sudden the 18 year old broke out of his Jamaican accent and asked, in a very well spoken Surrey accent.... I'm sorry Mr Steel, is David home at all? " myself and the lads Father laughed so much... The son was trying to retain some" street cred init" but 2 grown men wetting themselves and doing an Ali G accent, put pay to that [emoji1787]
Click to expand...

This has been going on at least since the early 70s. As a group of white peri-pubertal teenagers we would sometimes do the Jamaican accent and add bits of pigeon in there for effect too, even though most of us had no idea what 'raas claat' was. In fairness there were quite a lot of 'west Indian' boys at school with us, and it was probably natural for there to be some cross-cultural fertilisation.

JohnC6 said:
”Why don’t I have”
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I was brought up to ask for something with "would you like to give me said article", which would sometimes be misunderstood as a question.
 
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In the mid 70's, when we were about 17, one of my cousin's mates was a lad from a Jamaican family. I was at my cousin's house one day when his mate came round talking deep Jamaican patois.

My cousin said, " f*** off, I went to school with you." To which he replied in our normal accent, "oh yea, sorry, I forgot."
 
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simon ess said:
In the mid 70's, when we were about 17, one of my cousin's mates was a lad from a Jamaican family. I was at my cousin's house one day when his mate came round talking deep Jamaican patois.

My cousin said said, " f*** off, I went to school with you." To which he replied in our normal accent, "oh yea, sorry, I forgot."
Click to expand...

It was really odd - we were all mates together, running around in groups & gangs one minute, the next puberty had arrived and suddenly accents were thick enough to cut with a knife and half the school was an ethnic minority. Weird.
 
tijuana taxi said:
Never used a th in my life when an f will do, learn it as a kid with that old tongue twister
firty fousand feathers on a frushes froat
Why bother with h, much easier to just use the next letter
We all know where emel empstead, artlepool, ackney and itchin are anyway

Its not put on, starts in childhood and no different from scouse, geordie, brummie or any other regional dialect
Proper cockney accent is sadly going now to be replaced with a strange lingo, some of us still use a smattering of rhyming slang too
Recently mentioned it was "bleedin ansome now the old currant's come aht" and got blank looks from the local company I was in
p.s. sorry if this as spoilt yer day, just tuf ain't it
Click to expand...

As the old northern football chant goes... If yer can't talk proper, shut yer gob! ;)

And you've spelt fevvers wrong too! :giggle:
 
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