ladyofthelake

LOL!! That's the English way! It's zee here!

Pulaski

Oops, slip of the ginger!

.... Gimme a break its getting late and my typing is falling apart. Anyway I've been back and changed it to what I meant.

ladyofthelake

spoilsport!

jaytee

I always use American English spelling, but maybe I might use some British words.

ArsNo2

They certainly don't say it Home-Counties style in Texas - hence my dropping the first 'a'

Ranjini

I'm not British but I went to a private school set up by British missionaries of the Anglican church, back in the home country. To top it all I was a boarder and was raised to be "a proper English lady" . I guess the reason I hang out here is because I can relate to a lot of things said here, and don't feel that much of a fish out of water, because of the way I pronounce words, spell or because of some of the phrases I use, which are naturally, very British. I hadn't realised this until I came to the good ol' US of A.
Just yesterday, I asked my American brother-in-law "How are you keeping?" . He looked at me like an idiot and went "Huh?"
What really gets me is that they don't realise that English is spoken in other ways than the way they speak it. And insist that their way is the right way

Patrick

Of course the real kicker is that most of the words, phrases and pronunciation of American words are actually english. To be more precise the english that was spoken before 1776. After that (because America (unlike India, Australia and New Zealand) was not a colony) the languages evolved seperatly. The English used to spell harbour and colour without the u, the english only started using the world Autumn last century and so on.

Of course this isn't the full story, obviously some words are corrupted by colloquialism as they are in the UK, Buk and boook, mum and mam, tony2003 and tosspot to name just a few in England so extend it across the english speaking world and you will have huge differences in pronunciation.

It stills annoys me the way they say alooominum, urbs and mirr (for mirror). Then again my neigbors take the mickey out of me for saying mileee-on

Just to make the americans hate us even more, most of our pronunciation is french derived - zed, leftenant and so on.

Patrick

Pulaski

In their country Americans can do that. Who are we to complain or say otherwise?

And in any case, are English people entiled to advise Americans on the correct pronunciation (and/or spelling) of coupé, café, pyjamas, fjord, wigwam, etc. etc. ?

Ranjini

Mother actually insisted that I went to Elocution classes, so that I learned speak "proper" English My two American brothers-in-law give me a hard time about the way I say a lot of words
However, I do understand what you are saying (except the reference to tony2003 ).

Haldaman

My USC wife tells me not to speak too American because Americans love to hear an English accent....I keep telling them that mine is English as she is spoke and they have the foreign accent, guess I will never get through though.How do Americans get on with cough, through, though, bough, sough, etc??

I bemoan the increasing loss of the letter H as spoken in yuman, umble, otel etc but why not in history, Harry, hospital?? There is nothing wrong with the honest H, it's only the Frogs who can't say it, and we all know what we think of them!

James Mars

Actually a British accent can be quite charming. However, it is not aways good to be British in the US. In otherwords it is more acceptable to drive home on the right for tea than to drive home on the left for coffee :-)
If it were up to me, keep as much Britain with you as you please. I like the melting pot for the basics but the best thing about the US by far(at least in Chicago) is that I can visit many countries of the world in my own city.

Jan Alaska

haha at Patricks mileee-on ... I spent some time living in scotland where they say Milw-yun ... harhar

Jan

elfman

The way Americans say "burglarized" instead of "burgled" startled me and still does - sounds almost anatomical. I also grit my teeth at "acclimated" rather than "acclimatised" and the way my colleagues say "presentation" - it's preeeesntation to them.

A senior colleague last week reviewed a report I wrote and seemed to think my use of the word "whilst" was terribly amusing. Apparently that's only used on the eastern side of the Atlantic.

DaveC

Americans in Britain often blow the accent
By Steve Stecklow
The Wall Street Journal

For years, Loyd Grossman appeared on a popular TV game show with Sir David Frost. He married the daughter of Chariots of Fire film producer Lord David Puttnam. And as a celebrity chef, he has a big-selling line of spaghetti sauces.

Grossman, undeniably, is a British success story. Except when he opens his mouth.

"It's like, 'Hi, my accent is really mangled and I don't know where I am. It's like I'm in the middle of the Atlantic,' " says Suzanne Levy, a British TV producer.

Grossman, an American who grew up in Massachusetts, has, to many British ears, a fake British accent. He's not the only one, either. After buying a home in London and marrying British film director Guy Ritchie, Madonna went British, too, at least over here. So have many less-notable Americans. Some attempt a complete linguistic makeover. Others merely start saying "bloody," "cheers" and "indeed" a lot -- often to the amusement of Britons.

The irony, says Khalid Aziz, a British communications specialist, is that "the British actually quite like American accents and find it quite highly associated with success in business." His company, Aziz Corp., recently completed a survey that found that 47 percent of British business directors interviewed considered executives with an American accent more successful than those from many British regions.

The trouble for adult Americans in Britain, language experts say, is that because of changes in the brain, only young children can fully master a new accent. "If a kid moves to a new area after 14, that kid will never sound like he or she belongs to that area," says Jack Chambers, a professor of linguistics at the University of Toronto who for two years studied the accents of English-speaking Canadians who had moved to southern England.

Many Americans view British accents -- at least the ones they hear on television, in films and on the radio -- as more sophisticated, cultured and prestigious than theirs. That may be because, even though there actually are a multitude of different British accents, Americans are most familiar with "proper" accents such as the so-called Oxbridge variety, associated with Oxford and Cambridge universities and uttered by people such as actor Hugh Grant.

Upon moving to Britain, some Americans can't seem to resist the temptation to adopt a British accent, even if they're doomed to failure.

Still, there's also a whole camp of Americans here who do resist, some actively. Unlike Madonna, actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who spends a lot of time in London, so far hasn't been overheard mimicking her boyfriend, singer Chris Martin, of the British rock band Coldplay. Brian Henderson, an American investment banker who has lived in London for three years, says he wouldn't think of switching. "The last thing you want to do is try to be pretentious and pick up a British accent," he says. "It's so obvious."

Grossman declined to comment for this article. Madonna -- who drew snickers two years ago when she announced the winners of the Turner Prize art competition in a distinct British accent -- also declined to comment. But her spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, wrote in an e-mail, "She does naturally pick up on languages and sounds of people around her or a country she may be residing in for awhile. It's certainly not meant as an affect. . . . When she's back in New York for awhile, she gets right into the New Yawk sound."

jaytee

Burgled? Sounds like a hamburger attacked someone. Maybe a sudden confusion when presented with burger choices at McDonald's. "I'm burgled!" Maybe indigestion and burping caused by eating too many burgers....