Americanisms, and the evolution of language

[apple_pathways]

The planets have aligned once again to provide me with a topic for blogging: faery_fall posted a video of Stephen Fry discussing language as part of her 15 Day Meme, and fail_fandomanon had a discussion thread wherein a poster was complaining about the comments to an article on the BBC website about Americanisms creeping into British language. Surely these two occurrences are more than worthy of a mash-up here on this journal?

First, full confession: I used to be a total grammar pedant. I love language, and I love grammar! Mine is a brain easily seduced by the idea that there's a 'correct way' and an 'incorrect way' to do things. I love the idea that things can be done with "perfection", and I love to torture myself with the idea that perfection is obtainable. Unfortunately, I have a sneaking suspicion that it's not obtainable: or even desirable! And yet, despite a couple years of linguistics courses, my grammar pedantry persisted for years.

I can remember the exact day I gave it up.

I went to visit a close friend of mine: we were going swimming at the pool in her parent's condo complex. Before heading off, we chose reading material from her collection to read poolside. I was excited to discover she owned a copy of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, by Lynne Truss, a book I'd been eying up in stores for months. I delight in learning grammar and punctuation rules the way sports enthusiasts obsess over the minutiae of the game.

I could barely make my way more than a few pages in before I was absolutely disgusted with the tone of the book: the way the author describes the shrieking paroxyisms of pain she experiences at the sight of a misplaced apostrophe! The agony of inadequate commas! Incorrect capitalization! Oh, the horror! THE HORROR!

*eyeroll* Please! It didn't take me long to realize I didn't want to give people the same vibe I was getting from this author.

After that experience, I quit cold turkey: no more complaining about the "10 Items or Less" line at Trader Joe's. No more "it's 'whom', not 'who'!" No more "better than 'they', not better than 'them'"!

(I still do have my Do Not Cross lines: it's "should have" or "should've", not "should of"!!! I am taking that one to the grave...)

All of this is to say: I know where these angry commenters are coming from. Really, I do! But...well, just look:

(These are responses readers sent in in response to the article about Americanisms creeping into British culture. I cherry-picked the most hyperbolic responses. You can read all of them in the article listed at the end of this post.) (Bolding is mine.)

14. I caught myself saying "shopping cart" instead of shopping trolley today and was thoroughly disgusted with myself. I've never lived nor been to the US either. Graham Nicholson, Glasgow

22. Train station. My teeth are on edge every time I hear it. Who started it? Have they been punished? Chris Capewell, Queens Park, London

27. "Oftentimes" just makes me shiver with annoyance. Fortunately I've not noticed it over here yet. John, London (Then why are you mentioning it?)

29. I'm a Brit living in New York. The one that always gets me is the American need to use the word bi-weekly when fortnightly would suffice just fine. Ami Grewal, New York

50. "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less" has to be the worst. Opposite meaning of what they're trying to say. Jonathan, Birmingham


(I had to mention that last one, as I've heard it before. It's actually a misunderstanding of the American phrase: "I could care less" is meant sarcastically.)

I have to confess that whenever the discussion of Americanisms comes up, I tend to find myself confused: America is a big country, and some vocabularly is not as wide-spread as one might imagine.

I remember listening to one of my favorite BBC radio programs, when one of the hosts started talking about a program on language that they'd recently listened to. He started talking about the phrase "tit-bits". "Did you know it's actually supposed to be 'tid-bits'?" he said. "'Tit-bits' is an Americanism!"

This was news to me! I've always said "tid-bits", and I'd never heard "tit bits" before I started listening to that program! It might be a genuine Americanism (as I said: it's a big country, and I'm not familiar with all its vocabulary) but I can't imagine that it is: mostly because the word 'tit' is much more common in the UK. I think it's considered a much ruder term in the US.

Which is to say: it's often confusing what terms and phrases are attributed to one country or another. Some 'Americanisms' actually originated in the UK, but fell out of use there before being re-imported via American media. Some Americanisms, reviled at their introduction, have simply merged with the language and become common use everywhere English is spoken: 'lengthy', 'reliable', 'talented', 'influential', and 'tremendous' all originated in the Colonies. (The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was particularly disgusted with the word 'talented'. Read the article listed at the end of this entry for more!)

(Lest anyone think all the Brits are hyperbolically annoyed, here's my favorite reader quote from the article:

19. I enjoy Americanisms. I suspect even some Americans use them in a tongue-in-cheek manner? "That statement was the height of ridiculosity". Bob, Edinburgh

*touches nose* Bingo! Somebody get Bob a prize... And yes. I made up the word 'hyperbolically' to illustrate Bob's point!)

There are many Americanisms I wouldn't bother to defend. No, I take that back: I wouldn't bother to defend any of them! Because that's not how language works. Societies don't choose their vocabulary by committee: language evolves, with little influence from most individuals. (Oh, that I had the influence of Shakespeare and all of the many words he coined!)

The concluding point of the original article is that the author mourns the erosion of British culture as distinct from American culture. I can see why that would be worrying: the increasing globalization of the world means that a lot of change is happening very quickly, and I'm sure all sorts of culture and customs get lost in the shuffle. I just wonder if policing language is the tact to take? (I don't think so. Language evolves, and there's not much use in trying to stop it.)

I do think I might have lost the point in this long ramble of an article: I think mostly I want to spark discussion, as I love talking about language! So, here's a list of discussion questions, followed by a list of resources:

• Do you have an unfavorite Americanism?
  
• What about your grammar and/or punctuation pet peeves?
  
• Pro or anti-pedant?
  
• How do you feel about the natural evolution of language? Should we try to prevent it from happening in certain instances, or stand out of its way?
  
• Any favorite language anecdotes or facts to share?

Resources:

Stephen Fry! (The video faery_fall posted.)

The BBC articles:
Viewpoint: Why do some Americanisms irritate people?
Americanisms: 50 of your most noted examples

Separated By a Common Language: I should have guessed that she would be discussing these articles! :P I was merely going to suggest this as an excellent blog dealing with the differences between American and British English. It's written by an American linguist living in the UK.

Comments

[ladylovelace.livejournal.com]

Dude with anti-"train station" hard-on is a moron. Train station has been in the British vocabulary for about as long as fucking trains have.

Actually, so is oftentimes dude. Don't these people read?

Having more ways to say things is a good thing. No-one is stopping (general) you, personally, from saying things the way you want to say them. If you have to explain yourself all the time, you can either choose to keep explaining yourself or use the culturally appropriate word. LEARNING IS FREE. Your preference is no more valid than anyone else's preference.

Tell you what, though, the next time someone describes 'colour' as a misspelling is getting a visit. It is a perfectly acceptable spelling and was here first.

Grammar, on the other hand, I've decided can go to hell. As long as the sentence makes sense to a person with a high-school reading level, I'll call it fine (because I have read that many style guides which advocate completely incorrect grammar that I've given up and decided that there is no such thing. Like perfection itself, grammar is in the eye of the beholder.)

ETA: FUCKING SHAKESPEARE USED OFT'TIMES. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK THAT MEANT, ANTI-OFTENTIMES DUDE? /stupidity rage

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

As I said: I find it confusing what words and phrases are deemed Americanisms! I think more often than not, "Americanism" means "word or phrase I personally dislike and would like to see discontinued".

LEARNING IS FREE.

Awesome, and well-put! I would love to be able to reframe the argument this way: "What, are you opposed to learning?"

Spelling is a much thornier issue, as it's much more resistant to change than the spoken language. Just look at the word 'knight': a silent K? I don't think so! The 'K' is there because that word originally began with a 'K' sound! And yet I don't see language pedants insisting we bring it back.

And the word 'often': many language pedants will pronounce the 't' in the word because they somehow think it's 'more correct', and that the loss of the 't' sound is the result of lazy pronunciation. WRONG! The correct pronunciation of the word is and always has been "offen", sans the 't' sound.

As for the (let's face it: Americans) who go around correcting people's perfectly valid spelling choices: if I could apologize on behalf of the country, I would! (Sadly I don't hold that authority.) Instead, let me join you in shaking my fist at their dastardly deeds, and recommend that these idiots broaden their horizons a bit and read a damn book that they didn't buy in line at the grocery store! :P

[ladylovelace.livejournal.com]

The only one I really agree with of the above is bi-weekly, which probably is an American-originated term. But is also a lot more descriptive than fortnightly and therefore not actually evil. (Although makes me think twice a week rather than once every two weeks).

You know, you joke about being opposed to learning, but I am noticing an attitude of 'learning is something you only do in school' getting more and more prevalent and it scares me.

Spelling is beyond help, in a lot of ways, but I kind of like it. It's like that really ugly dog with the overbite and a missing leg and fleas that's still adorable.

Mind, I do often pronounce the 't' in often. Not because of any language-related prejudice that I'm aware of, just because that's the way I've always heard it in certain situations (kind of like 'ah' and 'ay' for 'a' - I can make no pronunciation rule for that, but I know it when I hear it). I think it might be because I encounter it as oft a lot. Which just makes me a poetry-reading classics dork who you are free to ignore.

What confuses me most is that apparently the addition of a 'u' or the substitution of an 's' for a 'z' makes a word unfathomable. I wonder how long until I can claim to be bilingual because I can read and write both British English and American English fluently?

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

You know what? I don't know what to think about "bi-weekly", as I can't recall a time I've needed a word that meant "every two weeks". In fact, if I did, I'd probably say just that: "every two weeks"! (Or "twice a month", which sounds much more natural to me.) But I will say that the term "fortnight" has completely fallen out of common usage in the US (though some of the materials I present to my students teach them the term, strangely enough) therefore any attempts to replace "bi-weekly" (a term which most could easily guess the meaning of) with "fortnightly" are likely to be met with a lot of confusion! (Oh, and I think your assumption that 'bi-weekly' should mean "twice a week" is technically correct: after all, 'biannual' means "twice a year".)

Yeah, it is hard for me to believe that people actually would be opposed to learning, but I suppose you're right! Do you think it's an offshoot of anti-intellectualism, a movement that is disappointingly pervasive?

I believe I wrote the "'t' in 'often'" rant in a fit of pique over all this language pedantry: of course not everyone who pronounces the 't' in often does so out of pretentiousness! It's become standard pronunciation for many English speakers. I only meant it as one more example of how attempts to be the "most correct" are often mis-guided and incorrect!

You should read that blog I linked to: Separated by a Common Language. I am tempted to start spelling words the way she does: "rationali(s/z)e" or "colo(u)r", or to note the original origin and country of chief usage for all of my idioms! :P In any case, her take on the BBC articles (and the resources she links to) is very entertaining and informative, and the comments to her blog are much more reasoned and rational than the comments to the BBC article. (Which I have been avoiding. The desire to defend my country against foreign language pedants while simultaneously distancing myself from all of the Ugly Americans who are commenting creates in me a level of cognitive dissonance that is highly uncomfortable!)