Yantelope Posted January 3, 2011 Report Share Posted January 3, 2011 did you eat the pizza? I had a little bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted January 3, 2011 Report Share Posted January 3, 2011 Yeah, people will say "a little bit" but almost never just "a bit". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadiantViper Posted January 3, 2011 Report Share Posted January 3, 2011 (edited) This thread is now about pizza. Living in Canada, you end up in a sort of middle-ground. We keep the u's in our words, but we share a bunch of slang/expressions with the US (and of course we've got some of our own ). Edited January 3, 2011 by RadiantViper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. GOH! Posted January 3, 2011 Report Share Posted January 3, 2011 I hate the word 'maths.' It just gets on my nerves. The phrase 'in hospital' also makes my skin crawl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battra92 Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Yet we say they are "in school" as opposed to "in THE school." In the UK and Canada they go "on holiday" which is fine if it is actually a Holy day. In the US we go on Vacation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2wXGRU4mEQ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Heart Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 In the UK and Canada they go "on holiday" which is fine if it is actually a Holy day. Is it a crime if it's not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 A crime against language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Heart Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 I guess we are guilty of being the only people to ever change the meaning of words over time. :shifty: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battra92 Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 I guess we are guilty of being the only people to ever change the meaning of words over time. :shifty: Reading Sherlock Holmes has reminded me that "ejaculation" and "knocked up" have very different meanings than from Victorian/Edwardian England. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted January 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Well you guys also call the period just past 'the fall' n 'the holidy'. Whereas we call it 'christmas time' n 'winter'. Oh yeah one I've picked up on from my TV acquiring: Season = Series. So in march Series 6 of Doctor Who starts. But for you guys Season 2 of V starts. Which completely confused my mum when I refereed to a new season of whatever, which thankfully she never picked up on cos I just corrected with Series n they sound similar enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Yeah, that confused me a bit too. I thought that the series might have been more than one season that was just a name for the DVD collection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Heart Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Series and season are two different forms of television production though. An American show in its entirety is still a series. UK shows are usually all filmed as one 'series'. As in, everything is written ready and filmed all in one go. Whereas the US has a different setup with a few episodes done in advance, while production is done week-to-week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Jimmeh Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 We generally call a new season a new series over here in the UK. So, for an example, each September(-ish) time, we get a new series of House M.D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Can Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 (edited) To Dean and other fine Britons, you may not realize this, but the general English/Welsh accent around the time of the American Revolution was more... well... American. Basically, you know how the American accent stresses the 'r' sounds? How 'centuh' becomes 'centerr'? Well, your great-great-grandparents (if your family has been Anglo-Saxon from at least then) probably sounded more like the Yanks instead of sounding like the Standard BBC English accent. Non-rhotic accents (the one which doesn't curl the tongue as much and thus leaves out the hard 'r') did indeed exist at the time, but they were only spoken by the upper class, notable around Cambridge. In the 1800s, due to education reforms in the Victorian era, the non-rhotic accent became standardised and here you are sounding like that! Much of the spelling and written language is exactly the same as the late 1700s, it's just that instead of the American accent jumping off from the main English 'accent tree', the one spoken by British commoners would be a mix between rhotic and non-rhotic accents. Want an example? Listen to the Boston, Brooklyn and Charleston accents. That would have been what the everyday Londoner would have sounded like circa 1775. Spelling and word differences are largely American though, mostly taken from Dutch, Norwegian Gaelic (Irish) and Native American languages. Don't know why you guys drive on the left. When we invented the automobile. Made to drive on the right. Edited January 5, 2011 by Can 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Shepard Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 This thread is now about pizza. Living in Canada... We shall have none of that! You can keep your "aboots" to yerself, my good lad! Blimey, time for tea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 The season/series thing confused me when I was first exposed to it too. In American usage, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek Voyager are different series, each one consisting of multiple seasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Can Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 You know what really screwed me over when I was a kid? Advertisement. Advert-iss-mint = UK. Adver-tize-mint = US. Whadefuc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted January 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 To Dean and other fine Britons, you may not realize this, but the general English/Welsh accent around the time of the American Revolution was more... well... American. [stuff here] Don't know why you guys drive on the left. When we invented the automobile. Made to drive on the right. Be great theory n all except just like the English the Americans don't all speak with one accent. And wouldn't it strike you odd that the English accents advanced n evolved but the 'American accent' stayed the same for 200 years or so? Also the German Karl Benz, of Mercedes-Benz, is the creator of the Automobile. Apart from Henry Fords work on mass production of cars, the Americans had very little to do with the whole thing. The ize n ise stuff is similar to the missing U. Personally the s looks nicer on paper at least. It's not even a Z sound anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Can Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 (edited) I referred to the English accent, as to from, you know, England. It's not really a theory (nor made up by me either), it's pretty widespread knowledge that more than half residents of Britian (not just England, also Wales and Scotland) spoke rhotically then. That's not an American accent, it's just not as 'British' as widely portrayed from the 19th century onwards. The American accent, once you leave the eastern port cities, it changes dramatically, so yes, the 'American' accent has evolved. My main point was that neither one of the countries speak the original widely, and while I've never heard it myself, the native Cornwall accent shares distinct similarities to the Boston accent- both contain elements on rhotic and non-rhotic sounds. The 'ize' was derived from the Dutch or Germans. Dunno 'bout the dropping of the 'u'. However, in the mindset of Eddie Izzard, I can't stand tracing the differences myself. Edit: Bottom line is, a drunk chap from Manchester would sound pretty posh to someone 250 years ago in the same exact location. Edited January 5, 2011 by Can 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 The ize n ise stuff is similar to the missing U. Personally the s looks nicer on paper at least. It's not even a Z sound anyway It's a z sound when we say it... UK pronunciation: ad-VER-tissmint US pronunciation: adver-TIZE-mint I believe I got the emphasis correct on the UK one... Also, short form UK = advert, US = ad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 The 'ize' was derived from the Dutch or Germans. Dunno 'bout the dropping of the 'u'. IIRC, the u was never actually "dropped". For a long time spelling was never really standardized, and Merriam-Webster promulgated some proposed standardized spellings around the same time Oxford did. Americans adopted Webster's and the UK adopted Oxford's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Can Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 (edited) Thus my lack of knowledge of those damned 'u's. Now as much as we can talk about language differences, I'm more intrigued by cultural differences. What would you say would be the main thing that differentiates Britons and American (or North Americans if the Canadians feel left out)? The 'you' in question is aimed at any Briton. Heck, any Aussie or Kiwi can join in (are there any on this board)? Edited January 5, 2011 by Can Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Heart Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 Don't know why you guys drive on the left. When we invented the automobile. Made to drive on the right. The side of the road thing is before automobiles. I believe it's to do with having people pass on your right so you could grab your sword if they were a threat. Seems Dean addressed the other points. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battra92 Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 Also the German Karl Benz, of Mercedes-Benz, is the creator of the Automobile. Apart from Henry Fords work on mass production of cars, the Americans had very little to do with the whole thing. Hardly. The automobile can't really be traced to one person but to a group of people. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built a steam powered car in France back in 1769. http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/auto.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted January 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 Yeah we built a few steam too, but I'd definitely say it's origins aren't American. Primarily the idea was tossed about Europe with a bit of Russia/china in there for a hundred years or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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