Daily Mail article on Americanisms ruining the English language

I think pronouncing Mark with an American R vs a British R is different that saying a different name. Marsha and Marcia are not the same names!

And Jenn- right on!

There is now some good evidence that baseball was invented in Britain a long time before it appeared in America; Jane Austen uses the word baseball in Northanger Abbey in the late 1790s, and recently a diary was found describing a game in 1755 in Surrey: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/baseball/2800199/Major-League-Baseball-told-their-sport-was-invented-in-Surrey-not-America.html

Granted, Britain has since abandoned it, probably deciding that having one extremely dull sport with bats was enough and went with cricket

Granted, Britain has since abandoned it, probably deciding that having one extremely dull sport with bats was enough and went with cricket

LOL! 

DH says they have always had baseball here but its a game "for girls" called Rounders. Is that true?

Rounders is slightly different from baseball, but is much more like baseball than cricket. It does tend to be for girls, yes.

I love me some wikipedia - >
Evolving from older bat-and-ball games, an early form of baseball was being played in England by the mid-eighteenth century. This game and the related rounders were brought by British and Irish immigrants to North America, where the modern version of baseball developed. By the late nineteenth century, baseball was widely recognized as the national sport of the United States. Baseball on the professional, amateur, and youth levels is now popular in North America, parts of Central and South America and the Caribbean, and parts of East Asia. The game is sometimes referred to as hardball, in contrast to the derivative game of softball.

My maiden name is Clemence, pronounced klem-EHNSS, stress on the second syllable.  All my life, people have been completely unable to deal with this name.  They want it to be Clemens or Clements or Clement or Clemente, or pretty much anything except what it is.  I can count on one hand the number of my friends, some of whom I've known for years, who are actually able to pronounce it correctly.  And really, it is not difficult.  I went to school with people named Przywojski and Stuggelmayer, and whose name did the teachers routinely mispronounce?  You guessed it--mine.  No matter how much I explained they just could.not.get.it.right.  So based on my experience, I think Jewlz is right, and that people just can't deal with any prononciations they aren't familiar with.  (Interestingly, when I lived in France, I had a different problem.  Clemence is a French first name, and since my first name is spelled bizarrely and since the French way is to write LASTNAME Firstname, people tended to get my names the wrong way round and were very confused indeed when I attempted to explain.) 

As far as the article goes, don't kill me guys (Jenn have mercy!) but I do actually see his point.  Perhaps he could have expressed it in a less obnoxious manner, but I also find it depressing that British people are adopting American phrasing.  One of my favourite things about the UK is how people talk and how different it is from the way I talk.  Learning the different words and expressions is a point of pride for me, and one of the ways that I am learning to fit in here.  Also, I am the official Word on American English among my colleagues (we teach English as a Foreign Language, so we often get questions from students about American English), which I quite enjoy.  Ultimately, when I go to different countries, I want things to be properly DIFFERENT, not just a different version of America.     

As far as the article goes, don't kill me guys (Jenn have mercy!) but I do actually see his point.  Perhaps he could have expressed it in a less obnoxious manner, but I also find it depressing that British people are adopting American phrasing.  One of my favourite things about the UK is how people talk and how different it is from the way I talk.  Learning the different words and expressions is a point of pride for me, and one of the ways that I am learning to fit in here.  Also, I am the official Word on American English among my colleagues (we teach English as a Foreign Language, so we often get questions from students about American English), which I quite enjoy.  Ultimately, when I go to different countries, I want things to be properly DIFFERENT, not just a different version of America.     

I understand your point, but I also think Jenn is right - with the globalisation taking place in every country (and especially between America and the rest of the world due to the popularity of American films and music, etc.) then there are bound to be some foreign expressions filtering in somewhere.

Jumping in... I think I pointed out somewhere that British expressions seem to have found their way into the American media, or am I wrong? I've seen spot on used, among others. Does chav count? I can barely think of the American equivalent.

I haven't been corrected on my pronunciation very often- that seems terribly silly and rude- but once I tried to say "I can't be arsed" the way I thought it should be said, and was told I sounded like a Cornish farmer. Which made me realize I just can't use the expression. I can't say in my American accent I can't be ahsed. That just sounds ridiculous. So there goes my attempt to use my favorite British idiom, which says it better than "I don't feel like it" or whatever.

I haven't been corrected on my pronunciation very often- that seems terribly silly and rude- but once I tried to say "I can't be arsed" the way I thought it should be said, and was told I sounded like a Cornish farmer. Which made me realize I just can't use the expression. I can't say in my American accent I can't be ahsed. That just sounds ridiculous. So there goes my attempt to use my favorite British idiom, which says it better than "I don't feel like it" or whatever.

I think if you just say it in your normal American accent, you would find you sound more like the Irish, who pronounce the R sound a lot more than the rest of the Brits, from what I have heard. 

I can't say in my American accent I can't be ahsed. That just sounds ridiculous.

This!  This was exactly what I meant earlier about feeling ridiculous when I try to use most British slang or expressions.

I suppose people's results might vary, particularly depending on which American accent they have.  But central Wisconsin just doesn't work.

As far as the article goes, don't kill me guys (Jenn have mercy!) but I do actually see his point.  Perhaps he could have expressed it in a less obnoxious manner, but I also find it depressing that British people are adopting American phrasing.  One of my favourite things about the UK is how people talk and how different it is from the way I talk.  Learning the different words and expressions is a point of pride for me, and one of the ways that I am learning to fit in here.  Also, I am the official Word on American English among my colleagues (we teach English as a Foreign Language, so we often get questions from students about American English), which I quite enjoy.  Ultimately, when I go to different countries, I want things to be properly DIFFERENT, not just a different version of America.     

Aww historyenne I would never kill ya ;-)

BUT for a country to remain as it was 500 years ago or even 100 years ago a few things would need to happen.
1. Stop all other countries TV, music and movies/film from airing
2. Isolate itself from other countries
3. Create you own technology and advances and not ask or buy from other places

This would be mass isolation and honestly I can't see anyone wanting to live like this with the exception to the Amish who prefer their lifestyle and are reluctant to accept technology. I just think its hard to get on any one country and blaming them for "ruining" a culture/language because guess what someone had to accept it and speak it or use the word to make it part of the current culture - right?

I think as a whole we all try to fit a bit in whether its in writing with "ou" when here or when a friend of mine sends her son off to Disney in Florida to work for a year.  He had a meeting on how to handle Americans with the humor, writing, slang and things such as that. 

It will always be different I don't see anyone becoming a cookie cutter nation but my main point was accept it and embrace it and the world will go round happier.  I know some people refuse change or freak out when something is not how it was but welcome to life ;-)
I accept change and I am accepting it here well almost all of it except I refuse to call

One reason I love this forum is I love being able to rationally discuss other points of views!

I think if you just say it in your normal American accent, you would find you sound more like the Irish, who pronounce the R sound a lot more than the rest of the Brits, from what I have heard. 

Exactly, that's why the only option is to say it in my normal accent. And then I get told I sound like a Cornish farmer. (This is one reason I like, even prefer, the Irish accent to the British.)

Exactly, that's why the only option is to say it in my normal accent. And then I get told I sound like a Cornish farmer. (This is one reason I like, even prefer, the Irish accent to the British.)

LOL. So we can't win.  I do use quite a bit of slang and expressions I have picked up here, but I think those words tend to not have the long A or an R in them. I have a hard time with that, too. It's one reason I don't say "Cheers" very often, but I'm starting to use it a bit more since I think my Rs have softened a tiny bit. At least that's what I tell myself. 

Too bad the comments were closed by the time I read it.  I really wanted to post "dude, chill!".   

I feel silly using a lot of British-isms, too.  I probably wouldn't have noticed it so much execpt for the bad example Madonna set.  I'm trying hard not to come across as some wannabe British faker!  So I never say "brilliant", unless I want to talk about someone very smart or something really shiny.  I have picked up "right" instead of "ok" but I'm sure I used to say that before I moved here.

I did find the implication that the appearance of Americanisms in British language was some kind of deliberate imperialist plot to be a bit rich, though.  As if we're all sitting around at home plotting the demise of British English...

ManderW: Oh my god, don't say brilliant. I cannot imagine, as an American, saying brilliant for anything other than the reasons you mentioned. Do Americans actually come here and say oh, brilliant when handed change or whatever? I don't think so. Then again I'd hardly notice if a Brit said awesome- at least not if he were referring to something impressive in size.

I've been saying right for years and years and plenty of Americans do, I'm sure. Is that even a Britishism?