Britishisms used by Americans

[NickStone]

For the past few years I have noticed quite a lot of American words appear in every day speak, which I have always blamed on the number of American TV shows being broadcast here. I have seen the following article on the BBC and discovered that it is also going the other way, some of the British words are being used over the "pond".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19929249

[ronw]

Let's hope some of the differences remain. I get no end of enjoyment by "accidentally" forgetting to call pants trousers when in the UK or around Brits. Juvenile, I know.

[NickStone]

I am not a smoker but if I was and worked in the US, I love the idea of telling my American collegues that I was going out for a fag. As fag is slang here for cigerette.

[woodsmoke]

I just LOVE these words:

perambulator

bumbershoot

anti-macasser

Bunburying

lol

woodsmoke

[Jonas]

Very interesting! Languages are so interesting and fun to learn and know.

I have a question that you might be able to answer. How come that some (i think in both UK and US english) pronounce ask with aks or axe? for example - "I axed him for directions".
Where does this come from ? is it new?

I heard it as recently as yesterday in a movie.

b.r

Jonas

[NickStone]

Jonas, I think it's all down to regional dialect. Depending on which part of the UK your in words are pronounced differently.

[NickStone]

I just LOVE these words:

perambulator

bumbershoot

anti-macasser

Bunburying

lol

woodsmoke

I've never heard of those words, what language are they from? LOL

[woodsmoke]

nickstonefan
LOL
yeah!!

I have especially relished using "bumbershoot" for years! lol

wooddidabitofbunburyingmyselfsmoke

[SteveRiley]

pants trousers

going out for a fag

A joke must exist somewhere in the confabulation of these.

[SteveRiley]

I have especially relished using "bumbershoot" for years!

Here in Seattle, we still do.

[Snowhog]

Balderdash!

[bsniadajewski]

Balderdash!

Now that's just aq bunch of malarkey

[woodsmoke]

Thanks SR, I did not know about that festival! lol

woodsmoke

[jlittle]

As no Americans have responded, I'll jump in.

"aks" is "African American Vernacular English", but its origins are old:

The pronunciation /ˈæsk/ for ask, now considered standard, descends from a northern version of the verb that in most midland and southern texts through the 1500s was spelled with "x" or "cs", showing pronunciation as /ˈæks/. Chaucer, Caxton, and the Coverdale Bible use "ax"; Shakespeare and the King James Bible have "ask".

I take from this that the original was "aks", and standard "ask" was a metathesis of it, rather than the other way around as many assume. However, "aks" has become more than just a different pronunciation, but a bit of a badge. Detractors might say a pretentious way of claiming a bit of gangsta cool, but I'm only an observer from outside 10,000 km away.

Regards, John

[woodsmoke]

Hi jlittle

And also for the "midwestern" "hillbilly" jargon, it is, by and large, a transplant of "britishims" from when the settlers came to the U.S. landed on the eastern seaboard and decided that the FEW settlers on the east coast had built up way too much urban blight and moved further west! lol

They ended up in the midwest, Missouri and Arkansas mostly, since the envirornment was so benign and the AmerIndians relatively friendly. My granddad was full blood AmerIndian.

woodsmoke