One thing that has not kept pace across the Atlantic in the development of language is the addition or not of the letter 's' to various words. For instance, you hear the following here (sounds strange to British ears): "That's a total savings of ....". In the UK on the other hand people consistently talk about "road-works" again presumably sounding strange to US ears. When the presenter says at the end of the section of the news that he will be "back in 30 minutes with more Sports" - he doesn't mean a different set of sports he means more news about Sport. Finally how's your Maths?Maybe it is the same problem that has many British people singing "Rule Britannia! Britannia rules the waves." instead of "Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves!" That one does actually mean something different though, despite my bias I can't really bring myself to object to any of the others. Actually "a savings" is obviously nonsense. Oops.
It would seem that for all her mastering of American phrases and pronunciation, Exile #3 is still British at heart.
Or maybe she's developing a sense of irony.
Bizzarely I had an email yesterday from a US collegue using the word 'thunk' as the past particple of the verb 'to think'. That sounds very odd to my ears...is that one you've come across?
ReplyDeleteAdrian
Apparently the Americans who invented the computer term 'thunk' said that it was the 'past tense of "think" at 2 in the morning'. We have discovered that the p.p. of shine (shone) is generally pronounced 'shown' here rather than 'shon' though.
ReplyDelete