Journalism professor Ben Yagoda wrote a column not long ago snarking on the use of British expressions in American English. He is mystified as to why these things ("gone missing," "going to hospital," "on holiday," "sell-by date," etc.) had crept into American journalism with increasing frequency in recent years.
Yagoda is mystified as to the source of the trend. He thinks maybe it's the rise of BBC America that's caused it, thinking it's just because people are trying to sound stuffy. (British accents always sound a little formal to Americans after all.) So in the end he sniffs that the whole thing's pretentious, has gotten out of control, and journalists should stop doing it.
Poor, poor Old Media expert. He seems to miss that young journalists these days are all internet-savvy. Part of it is also that more and more journalists are making their way from British and British Commonwealth countries to the U.S., while U.S. people travelling the other way is also extremely common nowadays. But most of all, it's the internet.
I read British (and Australian and Israeli and South African and Canadian and....) news sources all the time. Practically every day. For free, and without a second's hesitation. Indeed, when I read some news on "ABC" these days, I have to stop a minute and think whether I'm reading these guys or these guys.
It's called the Internet. As a writer I can't help but be influenced by the words of others I read. If you're in Texas long enough you pick up a bit of a twang. If you're in New York long enough you get a bit of a honk.
And if you read the internet a lot, you start to pick up a mishmash of the written expressions of whoever you read regularly--and the most intriguing and fun phrases are the ones that stick to you. I expect that if someone were to read through my writing in a single day, they'd find things they could identify as britishisms, American southernisms, American midwesternisms, and lots else besides. Maybe even some Aussie stuff, who knows?
Poor old J-School guy, thinking that the world's still about people reading the local paper and writing like they teach at Columbia or Northwestern. The world's a much bigger place now I'm afraid. (Oooh, was that last a Britishsm too?)
(Link via Jerry Kindall.)
Brilliant. Having visited Ireland recently, the superlative response to most questions such as how was (X) or what do you think of (X) or how was your visit to (X) is the expression: brilliant, as I had a brilliant time on holiday.
I travel the world every day, The IPL (Internet Public Library, just ask Google) will take me to newspapers all over the world, many of them in English.
An interesting side note; Of all the major countries in the world, only France has not one English version of any newspaper...or for that matter any foreign language version.
I, often, will go to some other country to read a newspaper to see what their outlook is, if there is no English version then they can't share their opinion with me...we both loose.
I love the internet for permitting to roam the world.
It's all about the Python.
"Brilliant" is one of those Britishisms I just can't bring myself to use. It just seems wrong to elevate random inanimate objects -- such as, say, cheese -- not merely to sapience but to genius-level intelligence.
Owen:
"It's all about the Python."...Brilliant!
I would make a small addition: it's all about the Python...and the Fawlty Towers, and the Red Dwarf, and the "'Allo, 'Allo", and the "Are You Being Served", and the Doctor Who. Bloggers seem be more often fans of these shows, that's why they use the Britishisms.
not only that, either. how many Net-users of a certain age are, like me, still slogging around (ooh, there's another one!) with the Anglicisms picked up from "Upstairs Downstairs"? i rather think (there's ANOTHER one!) that crediting a few specific "geek-friendly" cult shows is casting the net too close to the shore.
also, as something of an "idiom sponge," i tend to pick up Anglicisms from reading the UK music magazines, where IMO the only halfway-intelligent writing on contemporary music can be found. and i've noticed that among "rave culture" enthusiasts the usage of Anglicisms is far greater than in the general population, probably due to the UK-music-press factor and the rave scene's UK roots.
I see a lot of military terms becoming commonplace. I say, is that a problem too?
My accent varies a little from day to day. If I've watched Sense & Sensibility back-to-back with Notting Hill, people come up to me and ask if I'm British. They're always terribly shocked to find out that I've lived all my life in Texas. (Although if their ears were a bit more sensitive they'd notice my wide Texas vowels, which I just can't seem to get rid of.)
It's really bad when I watch too much anime and start accidentally talking to people in Japanese.
I do not honk!
I drawl.
Jim, you forgot about Terry Pratchett and JK Rowling... :)
I view more film plays than most folks. And I can't help noticing that the Brit and Aussie actors and actresses mimic American and Canadian accents just about perfectly. But I've few onscreen Americans or Canadians able to mimic the various British dialects, or even harder, 'Strine from down under.
As for us sucking up anglicisms in wholesale quantities in our daily speech and writings in this country, I'd say you find more of that around New York, Boston and the left coast. Here in the north-central heartland, most of the folks still talk like the transplanted Germans, Scandinavians, Poles, Irish and others who settled in after the early Yankees stole the Indian lands and drove Black Hawk and Tonto off to their various reservations.
Outside of British films, I've never heard anyone say "I'm going on holiday" when we expect them to say "I'm going on vacation" (or even more terse, "I'm vacationing").
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
I married a Brit - that's my excuse. I think I have the only children in Kansas who say "I trod on something" instead of "I stepped on something." They don't have British accents (although they have good diction) but they do use British terms at times. Their teachers just think they're brilliant. Really.
I find myself using some Anglisism, no accent, just turn of phrases; half the time feeling self-conscious afterwards after realizing what I had said. I'd definately say it's from reading writers, both in print and internet from accross the pound (to use a shared phrase).
I grew up reading tons of books that were written by British authors (not intentionally, but it was what my parents read, and I just picked them up). Hence my tendency to talk about skiving, throwing spanners into things, scarpering and so forth. (The fun part is that some of the terms of very out of date in all forms of English).
Robert - hey, I'm watching "Upstairs, Downstairs" for the first time now, on DVD. I love it, but I have this terrible temptation to talk like Sarah just after watching it. "What are we going to do wiv Uncle Arthur?" :)
I've seen these phrases creep into society, but I blame this on having to much contact with Canadians. Here in Michigan it is unusal for people not to have almost daily contact with Canadians, so naturally you pick up phrases of people you hang around.
Was working closely with Canadians for a couple months and didn't realize it but I started saying "eh" all the time, it frightened me.
Could be worse. Journalists could be picking up the Michigan habit of of putting "'n' shit" at the end of a sentence, i.e., "At this evening's debates, John Kerry will be faced with some tough questions 'n' shit."
Jerry,
LOL! I was just thinking how many, uh, "urbanisms" may be inflicted on the world through my blog and others.
Another possible influence, from way back: the Beatles?
I'm sure reading George Bernard Shaw, G. K. Chesterton, and C. S. Lewis has influenced my sppech patterns at least somewhat.
But I didn't know that "sell-by date" was a Britishism. I thought it was just a grocery-store expression that people found a useful analogy for other things. Interesting...
Barry Goldwater used to say: "The laws of God and of Nature have no dateline [deadline]." Were he living today, he would probably say: "The laws of God and of Nature have no sell-by date." Either way, in my heart I know he was right.
Some of those British phrases "going to hospital", "going to university", etc. are also used by Canadians. As Canada is right next door to the US, would it be a surprise if phrases would seep back and forth?
What surprises me the most are the things that other people are surprised by.
Mike:
"What surprises me the most are the things that other people are suprised by."
How true. I've often thought that myself.