What words and phrases do Brits and others see as 'American'? (page 8)

Pole

One funny thing about the different accents of English is the rhoticity feature. In other words whether or not the speakers of the accent pronounce final 'r's.
So do you say 'car' or 'cah' for the word car?
General American - rhotic
American South - non-rhotic
Irish - rhotic
English - non rhotic (except certan parts of England, like in the North)
Australian - non-rhotic
Scottish - rhotic
Canadian rhotic.
South african - not sure :-)
Go figure
Pole

Stephanus

Do you know that we Americans, depending on where we live, pronounce "route" differently?
I say ROOT with a long U sound as in boot or scoot. Some people pronounce it ROWT as in POUT. Others pronounce it RUT as in BUTT. So, just which pronunciation are you referring to?

In Australia we mostly follow the British scheme of things in our terms and spelling. However, we have a few homegrown oddities. One is the word "root". I heard the busdriver pronounce the word "route" as "rowt", just the other day. This isn't correct, but given that Aussies are generally careful in the use of the word "root", I wasn't surprised to see this "Americanism" creeping in. "Root", in Aussie slang, can often be used instead of the F-word, as iether a noun or a verb. So next time you tell an Aussie you'll be "rootin' for him", you'll understand the shocked look on his face!

sonnyboy

shizzle my fizzle - ebonics

LOL! That's Snoop Dogg speak.

I'm still not sure what it means...he keeps the first few letters of a word and replaces the rest with "izzle". It's funny to hear him say an entire sentence in izzleish.

dmouse

Faucet = Tap

Movie = Film; flick

Yard Sale = Car Boot (but on a bigger scale)

Zipper = Zip

Garbage = Rubbish

Pants = Trousers

sonnyboy

Many here say Warshington, and warsh, like "warsh the car".

It's pronounced that way in Maryland too. Hearing someone wahsh reminds me of California surfer talk. "Dude, let's wahsh the car."

Older people in Baltimore have strange accents too. My grandmother used to say 'piller' instead of pillow and a refrigerator was always a 'Frigidaire' regardless of the brand.

My great grandmother (from Virginia) spoke with an accent that almost sounded British; she was she was practically fresh off the Mayflower, so it was understandable. Everything was very proper (she was never called Mom or Grand mom, but Mother and Grandmother), and she didn't overly-pronounce her 'r's.

sonnyboy

Dorayakii: I'm not familiar with that, is it a series or a film?

The Nanny was a sitcom back in the 90's about a woman (Fran Drescher) who attempted to sell cosmetics, or something similar, at a famous British playwright's home and was offered a Nanny position. Then, like all typical American sitcoms, she winds up falling for her boss and they eventually get married. It's sort of a Who's the Boss rip-off (where Tony Danza took the job of housekeeper and ended up marrying his boss).

If an American doctor asks you to take off your "pants" don't get offended (or excited) he only means your "trousers"...

What does pants mean in the UK?

MidwichCuckoo

What does pants mean in the UK?

Pants are underpants -err, knickers, boxers, Y-Fronts, thongs etc...

dorayakii

I was chatting to a guy from Houston, Texas a few months ago and i just couldn't understand 50% of what he was saying, but i really didn't want to offend him so just kept nodding politely. (I think it was because i'm less accustomed to hearing spoken English since i've been in France). Eventually it just got to the point where we couldn't carry on, so seeing as we both spoke fluent French, we decided to leave English altogether... and i can tell you it was much easier. My french friends were laughing at us that English was the native language for us both, but we had to use their language to communicate. They had a field day teasing us.

Do you know that we Americans, depending on where we live, pronounce "route" differently? I say ROOT with a long U sound as in boot or scoot. Some people pronounce it ROWT as in POUT. Others pronounce it RUT as in BUTT. So, just which pronunciation are you referring to?

I was referring to the ROWT pronunciation. I heard it for the first time a few years ago when i was having conversation with an American, i couldn't figure out what he meant until he wrote the word down... LOL

The word actually comes from Old French "rute"[ryt] pronounced like ROOT. Another english word "rout" meaning a 'disorderly retreat of troops' is from the Middle French "route"[rout] and pronounced ROWT.

Not all southerners add syllables to words. I pronounce box as bocks. Personally, I think it sounds very charming when syllables are added. My very posh, socialite southern grandma-ma used to say yay-isss for yes and say-ix for sex. She said lay-inkth for length and stray-inkth for strength. Her accent was a southern Alabama accent. I was born there and moved away at nearly 7. Sadly, I don't retain much of that accent. It's a very coy and flirtatious, yet genteel sound.

Hehe, charming.

So do you say 'car' or 'cah' for the word car?
Scottish - rhotic

yes, the Scottish accent is rhotic but the quality of their "r" is different to the others. Its more of a rolling Southern France/Italian style "r".

dorayakii

It may be interesting to note that even though Britain and Ireland are geographically smaller than the United States and Canada, we have many more accents.

This is because of the four main factors of accent divergence (or language speciation), isolation, time, regional conquest and non-communicative technological advances. These factors were more common in pre-1492 England and less pronounced in the 'former colonies'. The process is slowing down even further now, due to the world-wide availability of telecommunications, common media and popular culture.

dorayakii (sorry if im boring everyone but historical linguistics is my passion)

jgnat

Canadian: Kewl! UK: Brilliant!

American: Martha get your gun! Canadian: Martha, dial 911!

What words and phrases do Brits and others see as 'American'?

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