U.S. vs. U.K. common terms
- Thread starter mathman
- Start date
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. 
Or maybe the Yanks just can't talk proper?
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p09fv1w9/why-us-english-is-a-history-lesson-for-the-british
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p09fv1w9/why-us-english-is-a-history-lesson-for-the-british
They come late if they don't start them
Want help in the ones they start
Loose all of those
Seattle
Valued Senior Member
We can spell though. It's "lose"They come late if they don't start them
Want help in the ones they start
Loose all of those
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
It's typoWe can spell though. It's "lose"
Came in late because became your war with Pearl Harbour
(fail) - was not going to happen
Language is continually changing. Language is changed primarily by young people, todays slang is tomorrows proper language.
RainbowSingularity
Valued Senior Member
blonde with two leg (aussie only ?)
UK extravaganza
USA ?
UK extravaganza
USA ?
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
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Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
Evolution, two populations separated by a geological feature.
This is social not biological but same principle.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
Shakespeare had a number of ways that he spelt (aka 'spelled') even his own name (e.g. Shakysper, Shackper, and Shaxpeer, to give just 3 that he used), so it could just be that he didn't care too much about "correct" spelling.
- or he was trying to hide who he was when he used those but wasn't bright enough to call himself John Smith!! Chip v Crisp
Elevator v Lift
Sidewalk v Pavement
"I could care less" v "I couldn't care less"
Shakespeare had a number of ways that he spelt (aka 'spelled') even his own name (e.g. Shakysper, Shackper, and Shaxpeer, to give just 3 that he used), so it could just be that he didn't care too much about "correct" spelling.
Some (of the six surviving signatures) were abbreviations, a common practice on legal documents. The "Shakespeare authorship conspiracies" would certainly provides fodder for other reasons, though.
English was still poorly standardized at the time, despite efforts to regulate it. As a result, even varying the spelling of one's own name (and publishers doing the same with it) was a frequent occurrence. Similarly with words in general, featuring assorted personal or regional deviations.
In theory, that sloppy uniformity could have provided a reservoir for other parts of the Anglophone world to spin off their own divergent spellings from. But most likely in Shakespeare's era they were just probabilities falling out of those lax conventions, and thereby only coincidentally matching some of the later standardized spellings in North American English.
_
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
That last one is just ignorance, surely? Like "the proof is in the pudding", or "I see no ships". I don't think it is specifically American.Shakespeare had a number of ways that he spelt (aka 'spelled') even his own name (e.g. Shakysper, Shackper, and Shaxpeer, to give just 3 that he used), so it could just be that he didn't care too much about "correct" spelling.
Chip v Crisp
Elevator v Lift
Sidewalk v Pavement
"I could care less" v "I couldn't care less"
Though a weird one I do recall from my time in Houston was "honing in" on something, as opposed to "homing in". Honing is a process in metalworking of abrading a metal surface to leave a fine but matt, rather than polished, finish. (A typical example would be the finishing process for the inside surfaces of cylinder liners in engines, i.e. the running. surface against which the piston slides.) So "honing in" is quite meaningless. But I heard it quite often.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
Chip v Crisp
Elevator v Lift
Sidewalk v Pavement
"I could care less" v "I couldn't care less"
"Write me" not write TO me.
First time I heard the phrase was the S&G track. It still sounds odd to me as a Brit.
The other one is math, not maths.
"Could care less?
One I prepared earlier
Help with English
Where is Michael these days?Not with the 7 Balinese virgins I hope.
Yes "honing" is so common I have considered adopting it.