Hmm. What really is proper English nowadays? Is it the language spoken in England? If so, which part of England? Is it the language spoken by the most people, across the greatest area? If yes, then it must surely be that spoken in the USA.
That said, I have always considered the English I speak to be ‘proper’, and am often amused by how Americans ‘mangle’ the language. “Why is Dafyd waffling about this?” you might ask. Well, I came across this snippet on Bob’s blog about his trip to the Grand Canyon:
Our first stop was next door to Treasure Island to pick up Paul and Melanie, who were visiting Vegas from the UK. These guys were around our age and were a total blast. It was just plain fun to listen to their various phrases that they used in comparison to ours (UK Dafyd [that's me, by the way] can back me up on this). People don’t wait in line, they “queue up”. You don’t have a chocolate for desert; you have a “chocolate for your pudding”. But even though we came from slightly different cultures, they were both very quick witted folks and we had a good time with them.
Point 1: no, I don’t have a chocolate for desert. The Sahara and Mojave are deserts. I have chocolate for dessert. Sorry. Just me nitpicking. As usual. Ignore me.
Point 2: I would argue, and always have done, that Americans have “different phrases to ours”, and not the other way round.
And point 3: “they were both very quick witted folks” – that’s us Brits all over. Except those you see reading newspapers called, for example, the Sun, the Mirror, the Daily Mail.
Reading this through, I realise that I come across slightly anti-American. That is absolutely not my intention. What I wanted to suggest was how different our viewpoints are. And also to ask the question about how we can really define “English” now that more non-Brits speak it than Brits.
My bad on the missing ‘s’.
It’s always fascinated me that even though we speak the same language, it’s so completely different. From your petrol to our gas, the subtle differences define them each as uniquely ours.
However, as an American, I feel that as a whole we are lazy with our words and phrases; choosing “quick and easy” over “beauty and conciseness’. That having been said, I still think, “Having a chocolate for your pudding (dessert)” is kinda lame
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ooo, you hit a linguistic nerve! I would like to say this is my area of expertise but unfortunately the wonders of my degree mean i can only spout about it rather that give you actual fact.
What I can say though (and i may get lynched for this) is that Americans actually have a purer form of english than we brits do. The reason i say this is because of the wonderful pilgrims taking it over with them when they set foot on distant shores. In fact, there are still some isolated islands on east coast where the language has hardly changed from those times, but how long they will stay like that without modern influence i don’t know.
British english has been under a lot of influence from various other cultures which makes it a bit of a mongrel language. What’s most interesting aboutit at the moment is the reversion of spellings. We’re now adopting the z over the s at the end of some words and they say it’s due to the americans. This however is actually only going back to a much earlier form of spelling that we once had!
Anyhoo, rant over. Apologies for my linguistic-ness! It is my degree after all!
AxXx
Fair enough – I bow to your linguistic knowledge…!
I’m rather annoyed that Durham stopped offering Linguistics – it’s something that really interests me, and I would have really like to take it. Oh well… I’ll just have to make to with “Language, Power, and the Making of the French Nation”!
Well if you really want to know more i have lots and lots of textbooks that are loanable! either that or if you’re really bored you can always pitch up to one of our lectures, i’m sure they won’t notice!
AxXx