The Price of Good Usage is 24/7 Vigilance

[steepholm]

I haven't read any of the 1295 (at the last count) comments on this BBC article about Americanisms and how annoying they are. The list itself is an eclectic one, with people's objections ranging from the aesthetic ("burglarize") to the logical ("I could care less") to a simple dislike of phrases because they are American and we have our own thank you very much (Z pronounced zee).

Quite a few of the items listed don't seem to me to be Americanisms at all, though, and I suspect the US has become a convenient whipping boy for all kinds of pet hates. A person called Gordon Brown (no relation, I assume) objects that "a million and a half" really means 1,000,000.5. Is that an Americanism, or just a piece of pedantry? And what about "Turn that off already" - surely a Jewish idiom on both sides of the Atlantic? "That'll learn you" has always existed here, and "gotten" ("It makes me shudder," says Julie Marrs of Warrington) was merely on holiday from the seventeenth century to the twentieth. While Julie Marrs is shuddering at "gotten", John in London finds that "oftentimes" makes him "shiver with annoyance" - though that is hardly an American coinage either. Such physicality in their reactions!

Ah, but "Is physicality a real word?" asks one bemused correspondent, resident in the US. Why yes, yes it is, both there and here. The fact that you first come across a word in the States, doesn't make it an Americanism.

Just a heads up, going forward.

Comments

[jadelennox]

It's a wicked good thing I could care less what a bunch of English people think about the way I talk.

(I have a general rule these days but before I complain about any usage I try to check the OED so I won't be embarrassed when it turns out that the first person to use it in print was Chaucer.)

[jadelennox]

wow, some of those are complaining about accent, rather than word usage. In which case I will leave the Britons to your own internecine accent wars.

Last time I was in the UK I noticed how many weird regionalisms are what you say rather than how you say it. Frex, in the US I tend to say "you take care, now" or "have a great day" to people I interact with in the service industry: cashiers, bus drivers, etc. In the UK that just sounds ridiculous, and I would just end that interaction with "cheers." Of course there are some word usages that come up in both "you take care" and "cheers", but it's the expression of the sentiment rather than the specific words used which I find so strange to be regional.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I've lived in two places (Bristol and York) where it's usual for those kinds of interactions to involve addressing the other person as "love" (York) or "my lover" (Bristol) - whereas sixty miles away in, say, Hampshire where I grew up, it would seem far too familiar. It's a minefield.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

People seem to feel they have carte blanche to be arseholes when it comes to language.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Is "faze" really an Americanism? I can understand the objection to American sport(s) metaphors, and American spellings have been a source of caustic commentary for two centuries now...but "faze"? Goodness.

I also don't understand the distaste for "ize/ise" words, but I'm just a tiny fish in a sea of American neologisms.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

"Faze" is at least a genuine Americanism, and one I learned only as an adult, though I now use it all the time. The British equivalent, "feeze", was already obsolete before "faze" arrived here, so there's not even any question of "Foreign words coming over here and taking our semantics". People do make a fuss.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Somehow this reminds me of a guidebook that complained that Simla Bazaar was now full of American food such as pizza and eggrolls.

[calimac.livejournal.com]

Now usually spelled "phase", irritatingly.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I am not fazed by the use of "faze", but I can only hope that the confusion of "faze" and "phase" is a passing phase.

I cannot possibly refrain from quoting, aptly:

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

‘Don’t say “learn ’em,” Toad,’ said the Rat, greatly shocked. ‘It’s not good English.’

‘What are you always nagging at Toad for?’ inquired the Badger, rather peevishly. ‘What’s the matter with his English? It’s the same what I use myself, and if it’s good enough for me, it ought to be good enough for you!’

‘I’m very sorry,’ said the Rat humbly. ‘Only I think it ought to be “teach ’em,” not “learn ’em.”’

‘But we don’t want to teach ’em,’ replied the Badger. ‘We want to learn ’em – learn ’em, learn ’em! And what’s more, we’re going to do it, too!’

‘Oh, very well, have it your own way,’ said the Rat. He was getting rather muddled about it himself, and presently he retired into a corner, where he could be heard muttering, ‘Learn ’em, teach ’em, teach ’em, learn ’em!’ ’til the Badger told him rather sharply to leave off.

Re: I cannot possibly refrain from quoting, aptly:

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

In this as in so much else, I am firmly of Badger's party.

Sensible of you.

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

I also share his opinions.

Re: I cannot possibly refrain from quoting, aptly:

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

Oh, that is excellent. :)

Grahame is unbeatable.

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

Shockingly underrated writer nowadays.

[calimac.livejournal.com]

As an Americanism (I don't know how common, outside of this book, it is in Britain), "learn" in this sense is firmly rural and upcountry (read: Appalachian poor whites). The American Heritage Dictionary usage note marked it as "uneducated" 40 years ago. I never heard it used that way as a child, and remain a puzzled Rat in this conversation.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Whenever I hear it I think of German "lehren", to teach.

That'll l'arn the lexicographers, then.

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

I am always amused to recall that Mother Maybelle Carter's maiden name was Addington, and that she was a connexion of the viscounts Sidmouth.

Mr Badger is of course very very County indeed. And in fact, if you wished, in Britain, to find a man commonly referred to as a 'backwoodsman', for whom the past tense of 'eat' was called as 'et' ('We et [spell as "eat"] some foreign kickshaws at the bugger's table. Damme, where's the mutton?'), who aspires to 'l'arn' his opponents the folly of their ways and views, and calls the noble metal as 'gould' ... you would seek out one of the hereditary peers.

Re: That'll l'arn the lexicographers, then.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

There was a lot of that in Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire.

I grew up in Texas; my family was from Tennessee and Georgia. We never said "l'arn" or "et", but I was familiar with them. Never heard "backwoodsman" applied to a peer. Didn't have any peers, though.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

I saw that, and found myself getting rather annoyed with the people in it. There are all sorts of dialects and regionalisms the world over, but what's the point in being cranky about it? It's interesting. :p

And I'm quite sick of the 'gotten' thing. It's the past participle of 'get'. It comes from Old English. We didn't make it up, and if you lot (generic, obviously) lost track of it, that's hardly our fault!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I just find it bizarre that speakers of English - English, of all languages - should get so het up about maintaining its native "purity" when the language's charm lies largely in being a gallimaufry of tongues.

[thinkum]

Yes, this. Exactly!

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

My goodness. This American thought many of those were Britishisms.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

So did this Brit!

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I hate 'gotten', even though it's a good ole(!) traditional English word.

I do like the way Americans still hang onto some old Scots words, like 'ding'. They also use the word 'sally port' in their prisons - I saw it on Louis Theroux once and thought, 'Aw! That's nice!!'