Daily Mail article on Americanisms ruining the English language

Re: Melanie Philips

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jun/14/melanie-phillips-digested-read

Wait! I don't know that one! What does it mean?

Your fancy man (or woman) is your lovah! 

Don't forget "fancy man"!!

I love this! I thought it was the best thing ever when I first heard DH say it. 

Your fancy man (or woman) is your lovah! 

Awesome(sauce ) This is so going to become a regular part of my vocabulary!

I see that this writer is still banging on about this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1286129/MATTHEW-ENGEL-Its-time-rise-throw-Prime-Mary-Lee-Britain.html

The article says he is 'start[ing] a weekly dispatch on the latest offenders'

..

Just a comment on two words that Engel seems to think are Americanisms;

KID (colloquialism for child.) Has been used informally in Britain for hundreds of years.  The OED has instances going back to the sixteenth century.  Here's a more recent one;
1841 LD. SHAFTESBURY  Jrnl. 16 Aug. in Life  (1886) I. ix. 347 Passed a few days happily with my wife and kids.

I read a lot of British fiction from the nineteenth and twentieth century, and my impression is that the word "kid" was very popular in the late nineteenth & earlier twentieth century, then faded away, to be re-introduced more recently from America.

FOOTBALL/ SOCCER  When I was young, in England, we called the game interchangeably football or soccer.  Soccer is derived from the formal name of the game, Association Football. (Rugby Football = Rugger, Association Football = Soccer.)  So, the word is NOT an American import!

Football is a funny one.  I finally got used to saying football instead of soccer (after too many comments from English people) and now I'm back in the US, everyone flips out if I say football and not soccer.  Funny enough, there were some people in London who agreed with me and called it soccer -- my Irish friends.  They said this is because to them football means Gaelic football.

As I played soccer as a (watch out Mr Engel) kid, and followed the sport after I stopped playing, I found soccer a very difficult word to let go of.

I have a story, actually.  You guys know Paperchase, the card/stationery company?  They have a section in a Borders here (in the US) and I saw a card that was about things men do, and one of the things listed was something about 'watching the football.'  I thought that was hilarious because due to the different meanings of the word football, this card would be appropriate in the US or UK.  I've never heard anyone in the US refer to 'the football,' though.  Except me, I guess, ha.

I have a story, actually.  You guys know Paperchase, the card/stationery company?  They have a section in a Borders here (in the US) and I saw a card that was about things men do, and one of the things listed was something about 'watching the football.'  I thought that was hilarious because due to the different meanings of the word football, this card would be appropriate in the US or UK.  I've never heard anyone in the US refer to 'the football,' though.  Except me, I guess, ha.

No-one in the US would say watching "the football"  I'm surprised an American greeting card had it worded like that!  Also very un-American would be to say watching "the footie" or watching "the match" unless referring to boxing.

I've asked people here in the UK if they watched "the game", but soon realized I should have said "the match".  They knew what I meant, of course but it does sound very American.

In my 20 years here Ive run the full spectrum of possible reactions to this! Indignation, irritation, a bit of anger (got really fed up with being corrected--hello? I am American, I do speak differently, not incorrectly) and now amusement. Now, if someone corrects me (rarely) I will reply 'oh thats so funny because to me, what you're saying sounds weird!' They're usually a bit taken aback but recognise that i was actually telling them to leave me alone and so they stop. 

Ive also learned how to use the self-deprecating British humour to my advantage and I make fun of myself. For example if I say 'oh my gawd' too loudly then I mimmick myself.

I think it's entertaining how there are no complaints that the introduction of curry has 'ruined British food' (if anything it has improved it! ). Perhaps a fun counter argument would be to use this curry analogy--curry improved British food, just as Americanisms improve the British language (I didn't say the English language on purpose)!! hahaha! Can you imagine what they would say to that one?! 

http://michelloui.blogspot.com

In my 20 years here Ive run the full spectrum of possible reactions to this! Indignation, irritation, a bit of anger (got really fed up with being corrected--hello? I am American, I do speak differently, not incorrectly) and now amusement. Now, if someone corrects me (rarely) I will reply 'oh thats so funny because to me, what you're saying sounds weird!' They're usually a bit taken aback but recognise that i was actually telling them to leave me alone and so they stop. 

Ive also learned how to use the self-deprecating British humour to my advantage and I make fun of myself. For example if I say 'oh my gawd' too loudly then I mimmick myself.

I think it's entertaining how there are no complaints that the introduction of curry has 'ruined British food' (if anything it has improved it! ). Perhaps a fun counter argument would be to use this curry analogy--curry improved British food, just as Americanisms improve the British language (I didn't say the English language on purpose)!! hahaha! Can you imagine what they would say to that one?! 

http://michelloui.blogspot.com

Curry is British food.  If you listen to British expats in America, and what food they miss from home, curry is the category that is mentioned most often.  In terms of its historical presence in England, it is mentioned in Vanity Fair by Thackeray (which was published in  1848 and set in about 1815.)

I think your view is a bit one-dimensional.  First, English is a native language in many countries; not just the United Kingdom and the United States.  Influences go in many directions ... American language changes, British and Indian and Jamaican do too.