Americanisms

ArchaeC said:

Purse and pants

?

Oh dear! It’s brilliant to have a written account, but not so great an account for the poor servant.

I had been hoping that 23andMe had made a mistake with my ancestry. I’m not proud of it

He could be the brother or nephew of the person who reached America. It’s difficult to get exact relationships with DNA that far back. 

Nope! They saved him! Otherwise I wouldn’t have had a friend in high school lmao

(if I remember right, they may have considered not saving him over convenience)

profdanger said:

the guy he worked for complained in his journal that this clumsy oaf of a servant went overboard during the journey lol

Doesn't that mean he never reached America so didn't have children? 

Unless he took his children with him.

One of my best friends in high school claimed (and I believe, since he wasn’t a braggart) that during an ancestry dive his family discovered that his ancestor that crossed to America was a servant on the Mayflower.

Apparently he was an indentured servant, and the guy he worked for complained in his journal that this clumsy oaf of a servant went overboard during the journey lol

23andMe recently informed me that my English ancestor was one of the Maryland first colonists. His body, and others in the Catholic cemetery,  were analysed. 

I guess you are referring to him then? Purse and pants to that! 

Here in the States the word that is a huge point of contention regionally is pecan. I DESPISE hearing the word pronounced PEE-CAN. It’s PEH-CAHN. Ughhhhhhhh

Otherwise other Americans are more concerned about whether dark fizzy drinks are pop, soda, or just generic coke (not TM).

Alexa said:

So are all your aunties antis?

Correct! Down with the King! Long let freedom ring!!!

profdanger said:

I bet you pronounce AUNT without it sounding like ANT, too, don’t you? Absolutely ridiculous.

So are all your aunties antis? I'd be tempted to ask anti what? 

We also used to be English-owned, so there is that. We’ve seen the light since then lol

Also your note reminds me of a town I used to live in named Bourbonnais. It’s supposed to be pronounced how you’d expect to say it in French, but after several decades the citizens decided to break away from their French roots by calling it BURR-BONE-UZ. Really dumb Americanization lol. Good news is that when a college popped up there newcomers started referring to it correctly to sound more fancy. Now there’s a cultural crisis (typically pitting younger/older generations against each other) in the area that is due to differences in pronunciation of the city lol.

profdanger said:

I bet you pronounce AUNT without it sounding like ANT, too, don’t you?

Pronunciation varies hugely not just within the countries of the UK but also within the regions of those countries. 

I am from Hampshire and my friend is from Gloucestershire. 

He corrected my pronunciation of almonds until I learnt his version. 

Then I went to a local shop and couldn't buy them because the shop assistant didn't understand what I was saying. 

TheCatWoman said:

Probably around the same time they knew the difference between route and rout and could say thorough, instead of thurrow? lol

I’m deeply offended by such drivel.

I bet you pronounce AUNT without it sounding like ANT, too, don’t you? Absolutely ridiculous.

Well, before they were even films, they were moving pictures. So the real question is "when did moving pictures becomes films become movies?"

Also, consider "movies" is a foreshortening of "moving pictures"

TheCatWoman said:

When did films become movies?

A combination of the vast majority being filmed by US companies and the trailers / films themselves being released as "upcoming movies".

The culture in the UK has a long history of desiring to be more like the US because the marketing has been good (perhaps excluding the last years of anarchy there).

The process of cultural osmosis has left us absorbing many Americanisms into our language simply through long term exposure.

People watch a lot of American TV. Some words are being adopted more commonly, particularly by the younger generation. I think movies is one of the more noticeable. I think it can also come down to TV companies sometimes. For a long time sky cinema was called sky movies. It makes sense, therefore, that those watching would call what they were watching movies and not films.

Some directors always called them movies, as film is the stuff you put in the camera.

Probably around the same time they knew the difference between route and rout and could say thorough, instead of thurrow? lol

I got caught out by an American puzzle that used 'silent films' where I would have expected the US term to be 'silent movies'. So I guess films were known as films at some point in the past in the US.

We've been multicultural for most of my lifetime and for most of that time we went to cinema's to see films, rather than movie theatres or to the movies.

I Wales as in many other parts of the UK, Mum's are Mam's, I think Mum is a southern English thing.

We watched a series or a program on the telly, rather than a show too.

I think a lot of it is because of computers having spelling checkers who's default is American English as opposed to UK and people ether don't bother to to change it when the get a new device, or get fed up of keep having to change it every time it upgrades itself.