Americanisms!
Discuss issues that have a social and cultural impact, including but not limited to issues such as racism, teenage pregnancies, the social impact of religion, and the state of the education system.
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Re: Americanisms!They both do it. More notable in some Yank accents than others, I'll admit.(Original post by SoNottingH)
That's Australiaaannnn?? Not Americaaaann? -
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Re: Americanisms!(Original post by Drewski)
The habit some have of going up at the end of every sentence, as if every sentence were a question. -
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Re: Americanisms!(Original post by + polarity -)
I find it strange how they omit words like and and maybe from from sentences, e.g. when they say a year ("two-thousand-three").
I think that is just out of laziness that they do that. Also seems to be something of the younger generation.
(Original post by Drewski)
The habit some have of going up at the end of every sentence, as if every sentence were a question.
Noticed this a lot more recently, but didn't occur that it was an American trait.Last edited by ufo2012; 10-06-2012 at 00:29. -
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Re: Americanisms!Really?! Well I've never been to London and I'm from the North so I can't say I associate it with London folk. Personally, I've always associated it with american TV and films, and obviously it trickles down into popular culture and into language. I don't wish to reinforce any stereotypes, but from personal experience I find it's predominantly said by stoners or rahs.(Original post by SoNottingH)
I thought "like" was a London-ism! Is it from the US then?
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Re: Americanisms!I was going to say that :P For some odd reason it really annoys me. Another one that apparently is an americanism that annoys me is "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less".(Original post by Gthreadgold)
Which, in your opinion, is the worst Americanism?
For me, though it isn't an Americanism alone (international organisations do this also), it's when people spell endings with -ize instead of -ise, such as realise or organise.
The main reason this annoy's me is that grammatically, it is the exact opposite of what they are intending to say. -
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Re: Americanisms!"reaching out" to people.
e.g. I will "reach out to him".
No you won't (at least not physically), you will talk to or make contact with him.
You mean the "transmission"?(Original post by SoNottingH)
Stick-shift instead of manual is annoying. Personally I find "cell" instead of "mobile" quite annoying for some reason, even though it's really just a technical term.
Since when did a gear-stick, gear-shift, stick-shift, whatever you wanna call it become a transmitter
Last edited by ufo2012; 10-06-2012 at 00:41. -
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Re: Americanisms!Linguistically speaking, the substitution of "-ize" for "-ise" makes sense because when you pronounce a word like "organize" you are using a voiced alveolar fricative (the 'z' sound) as opposed to a voiceless alveolar fricative (the 's' sound)...unless if you pronounce it as oar-guh-nice, in which case organise makes sense.
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Re: Americanisms!Haha, I love the idea of "a voiceless alveolar fricative", it sounds like a kind of bat or perhaps a small species of Lemur?(Original post by lindie)
Linguistically speaking, the substitution of "-ize" for "-ise" makes sense because when you pronounce a word like "organize" you are using a voiced alveolar fricative (the 'z' sound) as opposed to a voiceless alveolar fricative (the 's' sound)...unless if you pronounce it as oar-guh-nice, in which case organise makes sense. -
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Re: Americanisms!In that case a lot of things make sense - like how they pronounce "vee - hick - el" instead of just plain saying "car" instead(Original post by lindie)
Linguistically speaking, the substitution of "-ize" for "-ise" makes sense because when you pronounce a word like "organize" you are using a voiced alveolar fricative (the 'z' sound) as opposed to a voiceless alveolar fricative (the 's' sound)...unless if you pronounce it as oar-guh-nice, in which case organise makes sense.
Last edited by ufo2012; 10-06-2012 at 00:46. -
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Re: Americanisms!Why oh why do they say "Monday through Friday" and not "Monday to Friday" - it's not through anything! Sheer mental incapacity lies behind a lot of this.(Original post by miser)
When they write 'thru' instead of 'through', and when they pronounce 'burgh' as in 'berg' rather than 'borough'. -
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Re: Americanisms!Don't get me started on Americanisms...
Just a few:
- Their mispronunciation of various consonants: e.g., Britons pronounce 'water' as 'War-Ter'; Americans pronounce it as 'Wahr-(d)err' (note the American 'slur' on the R, as well).
- Aluminum, instead of AluminIum. Even though they've officially changed to the correct spelling, Americans still say Aluminum (they're all too thick and out of tune with current affairs to realise it's been changed), and it's incredibly annoying.
- Iraq, pronounced as Eye-Rack. Although I think that's just a George-W-Bush-ism.
- Saying "I'm out of town this weekend" instead of "I'm going away this weekend".
- Downtown, as opposed to the City Centre.
- "What's your major?" as opposed to "What are you studying?"
...and countless more.
Such a **** country.Last edited by mc1000; 10-06-2012 at 01:18. -
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Re: Americanisms!Can't 'through' be used to mean 'from the beginning to the end of a period of time'?(Original post by SoNottingH)
Why oh why do they say "Monday through Friday" and not "Monday to Friday" - it's not through anything! Sheer mental incapacity lies behind a lot of this.
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Re: Americanisms!Yeah, the aluminum thing is just dumb, just really, really sad and thick.(Original post by mc1000)
Don't get me started on Americanisms...
Just a few:
- Their mispronunciation of various consonants: e.g., Britons pronounce 'water' as 'War-Ter'; Americans pronounce it as 'Wahr-(d)err' (note the American 'slur' on the R, as well).
- Aluminum, instead of AluminIum. Even though they've officially changed to the correct spelling, Americans still say Aluminum (they're all too thick and out of tune with current affairs to realise it's been changed), and it's incredibly annoying.
- Iraq, pronounced as Eye-Rack. Although I think that's just a George-W-Bush-ism.
- Saying "I'm out of town this weekend" instead of "I'm going away this weekend".
- Downtown, as opposed to the City Centre.
- "What's your major?" as opposed to "What are you studying?"
...and countless more.
Such a **** country. -
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Re: Americanisms!Best bit about this thread is that these "Americanisms" tend not even to apply all across the US xD And some of the compariosns made with British English, I don't use either (like "youtube" is pronounced as "youchoob" apparently in Britain according to one guy in this thread. Personally I say "youtyoob"). Language evolves, there are many more dialectal things going on in British English which irritate me more than Americanisms.
Since when did a gear-stick, gear-shift, stick-shift, whatever you wanna call it become a transmitter 
