American vs. British English. Part, the second
The huge number of words, phrases and expressions that differ between US, British, Canadian, Australian and Indian English can lead to misunderstanding, confusion and, best of all, lots of humour. Some common words that differ are (US first): faucet=tap, sidewalk=pavement, pavement=road-surface, broil=grill, diaper=nappy, soccer=football, apartment=flat, elevator=lift, fries=chips, chips=crisps, jello=jelly, jelly=jam. This list could go on for many more words; it's a wonder we can understand each other at all!
Here are some common spelling differences: favorite/favourite, color/colour, analyze/analyse, memorize/memorise, enrollment/enrolment, catalog/catalogue, check/cheque, plow/plough, tire/tyre, leaped/leapt, strove/strived.
Also in the US it is common to say "You have gotten much better at doing that" while in British English you would say "You have got much better at doing that". (Also what they were actually doing would probably be different too!)
I would be interested in hearing from other English speaking nations about their own differences.
posted by Bazza at 7:56 am
70 Comments:
Many of these spelling differences, of course, result from French influence on English English.
Hence Americans use k or s where British use the softer c for example.
Melvyn Bragg's book "The Adventure of English" deals with the evolution of the English language. In the closing chapters he discusses the Englishes that are evolving in different parts of the world.
I LOVE this post! And I love the fact that we all have these different flavors (or is that flavours) to our language. What a colorful (or is that colourful) world we live in because we all have our own "isms" and unique ways of saying things and spelling things. What joy there is in our diversity!!!!!
Thank you bazza for brightening my day and bringing me a huge smile :)
Bonnet-hood, or is it trunk?
Que-line, however you spell it.
Hispanic Americans see a pick up truck as a 'her', that surprises me.
I will have to think about this, and let you know what I remember.
Interesting subject, I really like language stuff Bazza.
BTW, there is a great similarity between Spanish and Hebrew words and even some very similar meanings. I am very impressed by that. Solomon colonized Spain, I don't think many know that today, hence Hebrew had an influence on the language way back then.
Australian English too often wavers between the two. Yet although we're aligned more with English English, we have our own language.
Some of it is colloquialism, but there's often differences in general usage. I would have picked your usage in each of your examples - bar sidewalk, which we call footpath.
We also use words that have possibly fallen out of use in other places ('rort' is quite common here) - or were only ever regionalisms elsewhere (viz many Australian expressions).
And in particular, there's quite a large number of people here who pronounce H as 'haitch' - due to Irish nuns as teachers, I'm told. Haitch is often quoted as "Irish and sometimes Australian".
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English for more examples - I haven't looked at that page lately, so I didn't quote from it. But it's interesting and worth a read.
Even in Australia, there are differences in words between different states. There is a meat product in south australia that we call fritz, and in victoria they call it devon. In south australia our poles that connect the electric wires are called stobie poles named after the man who invented them. no-where else in australia are they called this, and the design is unique to south australia, there are a lot more, too many to list or even that I remember, in south australia we call swimsuits, bathers and in victoria I think it is they call them cozzies. some of our words are pronounced different as well between the states. when I was living in melbourne a while ago now, I really notice the differnce. I went to a fish and chip shop to buy a yiros, and could not find them anywhere in melbourne, then some-one told me that they call the souvlakis over there. found a blog you might like to check out.
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We here in the Philippines are more oriented towards American English rather than British English. But I enjoy reading and watching British books and shows. Words like telly and bollocks are cool, I think. And I love a British accent! :-)
In the US, accents, grammar, colloquialisms and even spelling variances are particular to the predominant immigrant groups that originally populated, voluntarily or otherwise, a given area. This is also true of musical styles, clothing, food preferences, and politics. The more obvious influences are African American, French Acadians or “Cajuns” in Louisiana, the hillbillies of the Appalachians from which the Irish side of my family originated and the heavy Mexican/Spanish influence of the southwest. The English/American language is being “evolved” at a pace that leaves the older of our population increasingly confused about what in the hell is going on. If television and the internet went away, I doubt Oregonians would be able to hold an intelligible conversation with Mississippians within 5 years. Note: I offer a preemptive apology for the blatant stereotyping and omissions that I indulged in to make this point.
rob: Thanks for that input Rob. I know Bragg's book, there was a radio series based on it when it was published.
serenity: Thank you, Serenity. The interesting thing is that there are many regional differences within the US and within Great Britain too.
jim: Hood=bonnet, trunk=boot & line=queue! I was aware of the strong Arabic influence in the Spanish language but not the Hebrew. That's interesting. There's a book by Stephen Pinker called 'The Language Instinct' which tells how languages have influenced other languages through the ages and it makes fascinating reading.
stephen: I suppose/guess that language variety is as diverse as that of regional accents.
bethany: Wow! Thanks for that comprehensive run-down of Ozzie-speak/Strine. I'm afraid I have no idea what a yiros or a souvlakis is! Thanks for the link I am going to check it out now.
lizza: Funnily enough, I often use the words telly and bollocks in the same sentence. I would come over to you and wow you with my Brit accent but my wife might object!
slaghammer: I think you have succinctly put your proverbial finger on the nub of the matter in that comment. You are quite right to emphasise the different ethnic groupings in the USA as a source of language variations. That matters more than distances between groups.
Bazza...How I love words. And I agree with Lizza about the British accents. As far as language/spelling differences I don't think you really want me to share some of the quaint tidbits I hear in these parts, do you? Trust me, it would be too distressing. (and depressing)
Eddie Izzard's Being Bilingual clip is a funny way of looking at the difference between American and British English. :-)I like this comedian of yours.
I prefer the modern spelling tho. Like thru for through. Altho for although. Thoro for thorough.
And I have the Merriam-Webster with etymologies instead of the Oxford on my computer. And I prefer to learn American colloquials to British idioms. Of course Dutch is a different thing. It keeps getting in the way.
Very interesting comments and information here Bazza, a real interesting subject, this!
You got a winner here comparing the use of English in different countries.
A lone one for you this late at night. You might be already familiar with…
In Australia the BBQ is called "the barbie", we in Canada and the US refer to the barbie as the to the Barbie doll.
(I worked as an Interpreter for over 25 years, and with (what ?) 22 Spanish speaking countries, at times it made for either super-quick thinking or the need for a graphic explanation, as well as a lot of laughter in private circles, due to the fact that the meaning of certain words dramatically changed from country to country, for the naughty or “the worst” I may add!)
love and laughter
mimi: Intriguing. I think you should spill the beans.
lizza: Eddie Izzard is a wonderful live prtformer. I've seen him on stage and he talks non-stop for about two hours in a stream of conciousness sort of way. He is famous for being a cross-dresser but not gay.
imemine: The US style of spelling is certainly more logical than the British but, generally speaking English has a lot of illogical spellings and pronunciations. I have found the Dutch to be excellent speakers of English in most cases.
jim: Fascinating indeed, Jim. I am sure I will come back to the subject again.
"angeldust": I believe European and South American Spanish differ a bit and the same goes for Portuguese. I daresay the language differs from, say, the north of Mexico City to the south!
yeap!
The difference thats gotten me into the most trouble is the difference between the use of the word "pants" in Australia (where it means trousers) and England (where it means undies). Also, the word "thongs" can cause trouble too (Australia = flip flops, England = a type of pants... here I'm using the English version of pants). One other small difference that I always get wrong is that in Australia "chips" can refer to be hot chips and crisps whereas in England chips only ever refers to those which are hot.
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