U.S. vs. U.K. common terms

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by mathman, Dec 29, 2021.

  1. mathman Valued Senior Member

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    U.S. U.K.
    trolley tram
    gas(oline) petrol
    hood bonnet (car)
    baby carriage pram
    buddy mate
    cop copper (police)

    There are many more. How did this evolve?
     
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  3. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    When populations don't really mix with each other (e.g. due to a vast body of water between them and no quick/easy method of traversing) there is no competition between the terms adopted by each geography. So no "fight for survival" of those terms. That'd be my guess.

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  5. geordief Valued Senior Member

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  7. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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  8. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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    Yanks can save your ass in world wars though...
     
  9. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    They come late if they don't start them

    Want help in the ones they start

    Loose all of those

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  10. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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    We can spell though. It's "lose"

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    We come in "late" because they were your wars. We have to give you time to win (fail).

    There haven't been any U.S. wars since WWII. We've been involved in a few "conflicts" since then and although we could win them the cost in human casualties would be too high. We shouldn't have been in any of them of course but we both know that if there was a legitimate reason to win them we could but there would be little of the original country left. We decided to leave a bit of Iraq and Afghanistan standing and now even Vietnam is largely capitalist in fact if not in name.

    We "protect" most every developed country so they don't have to spend much on their military budget and when they "help" it's always from the rear because they don't really have any modern systems

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  11. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    It's typo

    Came in late because became your war with Pearl Harbour

    (fail) - was not going to happen

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  12. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

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    Language is continually changing. Language is changed primarily by young people, todays slang is tomorrows proper language.
     
  13. RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    blonde with two leg (aussie only ?)


    UK extravaganza
    USA ?
     
  14. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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  15. C C Consular Corps - "the backbone of diplomacy" Valued Senior Member

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    In cases like "buddy", it's usually not known for certain.

    Early religions in the US may have had a tendency for fellow male members to call each other "brother". A slang corruption may have incrementally developed, like from brother to "bruthy" to "bruddy" to buddy.

    At any rate, in the US the comrade meaning of "mate" was relegated to items like "schoolmate" and the offshoot from "brother" instead dominated.

    If that was indeed the origin. Another option for the source of "buddy" is:

    butty: A friend. [colloquial, UK, now chiefly Wales and West Country]

    Expanding to other differences, like spelling and pronunciation...

    The later and supposed purely American spellings of words like "center" and "color" were used as much by Shakespeare as "centre" and "colour".

    And what's always good for muffled giggles is how certain historical dramas -- produced on both sides of the pond -- have characters speaking in anachronistic posh English. Which didn't take off in earnest until the late 18th century. As a means for the higher classes to distinguish themselves (especially the pretentious nouveau rich). Eventually that accent (or an early form of it) was standardized as RP and thereby taught widely.

    Before then, rhotic speech was the norm in both the colonies and Britain. The 16th-century English of Shakespeare's time (so-called Original Pronunciation) was, of coarse, even more laden in "rrr" along with other potential peculiarities.

    "“Every English speaker who hears Original Pronunciation for the first time hears something different in it,” Barrett says. Sometimes that sounds similar to Northern Irish or West Country accents, other times South African or American. --How Americans preserved British English (BBC)

    video link --> Shakespeare: Original pronunciation
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2024
    Pinball1970 likes this.
  16. Pinball1970 Valued Senior Member

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    Defo- Supply chain too not just men and arms.

    America, we thank you.
     
  17. Pinball1970 Valued Senior Member

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    Evolution, two populations separated by a geological feature.
    This is social not biological but same principle.
     
  18. Pinball1970 Valued Senior Member

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    That video was fantastic. I confess that I am very, very ignorant regarding Shakespeare.
     

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