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" Americanism's " Changing the British language.

" Americanism's " Changing the British language.

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Old Jul 21st 2011, 10:24 pm
  #46  
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Default Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.

Originally Posted by elfman
Who's that in the third picture down? Is it Mohammed Omar, reclusive spiritual leader of the Taliban, photographed clandestinely from a distance?
It's off Michael Bentine's Potty Time!
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Old Jul 21st 2011, 10:29 pm
  #47  
 
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Default Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.

Originally Posted by Bluegrass Lass
What's up with Brits pronouncing filet as "fil-let" instead of the proper "fi-lay", eh? That's one of "Britisms" that irk me.
+1!

And "coop-pay" for 'coupe'.
I think the Brits might have a love/hate thing going with the French, know what I'm sayin'?
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Old Jul 21st 2011, 10:31 pm
  #48  
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Default Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl
My daughter never watched TV or had a McD's until she started school.
I was like that with my eldest, no tv, no juice, applesauce instead of sugar in recipes etc. It all went to hell in a hand-basket when she went to school and now the younger two are hmmm, very acclimatized shall we say!
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Old Jul 21st 2011, 10:36 pm
  #49  
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Default Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.

Originally Posted by N1cky
Do we? I pronounce Filet as in Filet Mignon fi-lay. Salmon Fillet as fil-let, isn't it a different word Or are you talking about people pronouncing filet mignon as fillet?
In the UK it's usually fillet steak...not filet mignon...unless you're in a French or more upscale restaurant.

Originally Posted by N1cky
Were they not around then?







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Old Jul 21st 2011, 11:31 pm
  #50  
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Default Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.

Originally Posted by joto
When did "Nutella" become Nootella, and "Herbs" become 'erbs? Maybe some people think saying 'erbs makes them sound French and sophisticated, but those two don't, very often, go together.
... probably around the same time that "Notre Dame" became "Note-er Day-m" ...
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Old Jul 21st 2011, 11:37 pm
  #51  
 
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Default Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl
In the UK it's usually fillet steak...not filet mignon...unless you're in a French or more upscale restaurant.










I thought fillet was correct for a cut of something, and filet was a french word for a certain type of steak I'm no where near sure of this though and can't be arsed to look it up.
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Old Jul 21st 2011, 11:44 pm
  #52  
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Default Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.

Originally Posted by meauxna
+1!

And "coop-pay" for 'coupe'.
I think the Brits might have a love/hate thing going with the French, know what I'm sayin'?
I never worked out why Americans tend to pronounce French words correctly while massacring Italian words, where the reverse is true in the UK.

Calzone, anyone?
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Old Jul 21st 2011, 11:50 pm
  #53  
 
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Default Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.

Originally Posted by tonrob
I never worked out why Americans tend to pronounce French words correctly while massacring Italian words, where the reverse is true in the UK.

Calzone, anyone?
*I* have always said cal-zone-eh. <smug smiley>

Can we please pick on the Canadians while we are in here? Pa stuh, Maz duh.. don't even get me started on what they'll do to a perfectly good 'a'.
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Old Jul 21st 2011, 11:55 pm
  #54  
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Default Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.

Originally Posted by tonrob
I never worked out why Americans tend to pronounce French words correctly while massacring Italian words, where the reverse is true in the UK.

Calzone, anyone?
But they say cordon blue...not cordon bleu.
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Old Jul 22nd 2011, 12:42 am
  #55  
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Default Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.

Originally Posted by N1cky
Do we? I pronounce Filet as in Filet Mignon fi-lay. Salmon Fillet as fil-let, isn't it a different word Or are you talking about people pronouncing filet mignon as fillet?
I think they are all the same word, and relate to a 'slice' from a whole, regardless of meat or fish. My (UK) brother says a 'fillet steak' (fill-et).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fillet_(cut)

Last edited by Steerpike; Jul 22nd 2011 at 2:26 am.
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Old Jul 22nd 2011, 12:45 am
  #56  
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Default Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.

Originally Posted by Steerpike
....
At the height of the dot-com boom a decade or so ago, there was a fantastic website called the (something like) 'high tech buzzword generator', and there were variations for 'business plan generator', etc. It simply threw together three sets of phrases in a random fashion to generate a sentence, and it was so amazingly reflective of real slogans and buzzwords. 'synergize', 'optimize', 'clicks and mortar', effectualize, etc were some of the key words. It was precious!
IT'S BACK!!! This is so funny ...
http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html
(Web economy bullshit generator). Maybe you have to be in the business, but I can't tell you how many sentences I've seen like this in print!
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Old Jul 22nd 2011, 1:23 am
  #57  
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Default Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.

Originally Posted by SultanOfSwing
Yes, I rather think if more people knew the British English definition of the word 'spunk', they might stop using that particular term

I like the gratuitous use of the word 'knob' in place and business names Stateside though . . .
This is why my ex-pat won't eat Otis Spunkmeyer muffins.! And doesn't want to go to Bald Knob, AR.

Last edited by Egg and Cress; Jul 22nd 2011 at 1:40 am.
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Old Jul 22nd 2011, 1:39 am
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Default Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.

How about the cheering for the "winningest" coach at stuff-it university??? Galls my OH "so bad", he "can't hardly stand it". Butter "wouldn't melt in his mouth" either! when he "gits het up"! Just "aks" his in-laws.
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Old Jul 22nd 2011, 6:47 am
  #59  
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Default Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.

What I would worry about a lot more than "Americanisms" is the effect on the language of texting! I'm starting to see more and more communications along the lines of

'r u fk me? LOL '

and I'm not talking about SMS texts ...

My niece makes no attempt to capitalize in email, and punctuation seems almost optional.
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Old Jul 22nd 2011, 1:01 pm
  #60  
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Default Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.

Originally Posted by Steerpike
I think they are all the same word, and relate to a 'slice' from a whole, regardless of meat or fish. My (UK) brother says a 'fillet steak' (fill-et).
The way I look at it, they are two different words with different spellings.
Filet - French word, with French pronunciation. Used as such in both UK and US.
Fillet - English word with English pronunciation ("FILL-IT") Used as such in UK, not in US. Obviously, it is originally a French loan word, but became an English word hundreds of years ago.

Another similar case is the word HOMAGE. It is pronounced "HOMMIDGE" in the UK, because it is an English word. The original French word has two G's I think, "hommage." So it is a bit strange that Americans often give HOMAGE a French-ified pronunciation..

However, someone mentioned "HERB" pronounced "'ERB"... The OED informs us that "'ERB" was the standard pronunciation for herb before about 1800, since then we pronounce it with the "H" pronounced. So with herb, Americans are just using an archaic pronunciation which is of course quite legitimate.
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