highdudgeon;157140 Wrote: > To my English friends out there: I am kidding. Actually, it's an odd > fact that some 4,000 words in our two versions of the language have > taken on different meanings, or no longer even exist in one of the > versions, and this is to say nothing of the spelling differences. > Strangely enough, or perhaps not, scholars seem to agree to British > English is more and more influenced by the American version rather than > the other way around. I suppose that has something to do with our > almighty empire.
Actually I believe that American English is more reflective of the state of the English language at the time when the founding fathers came across. Words like "skedaddle" and "fall" were in common use in the UK with the same meaning as in the US now and it was mainly the Victorians who gave us modern UK English. If you watch TV in the UK right now, English is more influenced by Estruary English and the Chav culture than American English. I haven't heard the phrase "Look at the 20 inchers on me Nova, it's well phat innit!" on any US rap video lately, but you hear something similar everytime you walk the streets. A lot of the speach is also derived from Jamaican patois too, with a few bits of rap terminology thrown in. It's hard to find anyone who speaks the "Queen's English" in most town centres. -- CardinalFang ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CardinalFang's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=962 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29972 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
