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The Americanization (Americanisation) of English


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The Guardian has an interesting article on the evolution of the English Language and whether American English is choking out traditional English English. One point I found interesting is that colonists in the Americas and speakers of English in the homeland spoke a very similar English before the American Revolution. Apparently, it was not until the mid-to-late eighteenth-century that the upper classes and speakers in London and the southeast began to drop their "r's", or speak with non-rhotic English. This is called the "received pronunciation," (received from whom?). Today only three percent of the UK speak with received pronunciation. I notice that many of the news readers on the BBC World Service now DO pronounce their "r's".  Interesting look at the evolution of English and what it means to be English. 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/24/worry-americanisation-english-linguists

 

And a related article, "Do You Want Fried With That?"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/13/american-english-language-study

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Yeah, he did.  Old Beatrix made magic using rabbits.

Certainly one of the definitions of czechers is draughts.  I'm not sure how that's pronounced: drafts or droughts?  But there's another definition for czechers.  It's the guys who do strip searches at the Czech Republic airports.

C

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5 hours ago, Cole Parker said:

Yeah, he did.  Old Beatrix made magic using rabbits.

Exactly what kind of magic did those rabbits use under the guidance of poor old Beatrix? And, upon whom did she use that magic? Was there some sort of a crime committed?

Colin  :icon_geek:

 

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8 hours ago, colinian said:

Exactly what kind of magic did those rabbits use under the guidance of poor old Beatrix? And, upon whom did she use that magic? Was there some sort of a crime committed?

Colin  :icon_geek:

 

 

As I remember it, and it's been a few years since I was abreast of the happenings in her tales, there was murder most foul intrinsically involved.  The murderous Farmer Brown, I believe, went after the hapless bunny named Peter with farm implements, which our hero magically escaped.  Not a story for children, obviously.  But it apparently appealed to the English sentiment as she became a national hero.

C

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On 24/7/2017 at 10:28 AM, FreeThinker said:

... "received pronunciation," (received from whom?)...

Apparently, the answer to that was the great public boarding-schools, with A Burrell, in his 1891 Recitation, A Handbook for Teachers in Public Elementary School stating, "It is the business of educated people to speak so that no-one may be able to tell in what county their childhood was passed."

The Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation) is informative.

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On 7/26/2017 at 11:47 PM, PeterSJC said:

Apparently, the answer to that was the great public boarding-schools, with A Burrell, in his 1891 Recitation, A Handbook for Teachers in Public Elementary School stating, "It is the business of educated people to speak so that no-one may be able to tell in what county their childhood was passed."

The Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation) is informative.

I found the article in Wikipedia interesting, and it would have value in a university-level course in Linguistics of the English Language (like the one I took in 2009); for many it is probably TMI.

Collin  :icon_geek: 

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Interestingly, the region where I now live (as a non-native speaker) is in the mid-South close to the West Virginia border with Virginia.  Here folks take great pride in their regional accents, and work at identifying a person’s origin down to the county level based on the way he speaks.  I guess it’s fair to say that instead of a ‘received’ accent ensuring sameness, here we aim for a ‘perceived’ accent.

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Here folks take great pride in their regional accents, and work at identifying a person’s origin down to the county level based on the way he speaks. 

 

Truly, cunning linguists! :sneaky:

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