Two nations divided by the Atlantic Ocean (Eddie Izzard ftw)

[tzikeh]

I know the poll is imperfect, e.g. Brits have had far more exposure to American culture over a longer period of time than Americans have had of British culture; many of you are non-native speakers, but have acquired one of the two forms, or a hybrid of both (and, sorry sorry, but I lumped Australia and New Zealand in with the Brits, and Canadians in with the Americans, which was stupid, but I haven't had coffee), but please choose the best answers you can.

ETA for clarification: If you're American, answer question one of one and two only. If you're British, answer question two of one and two only. A question that starts with "I'm British" probably shouldn't be answered by you if you're, you know, *not British*.

EATA: :sigh: in a coincidental, and sad, turn of events, William Safire (he of the "On Language" column at the New York Times) just died. Okay, 2009, I surrender. You win.

[Poll #1463194]

Comments

[wolfling]

*raises hand* and if you are a native English speaker but are neither British or American? *waves Canadian flag* Should I not fill out the rest of the poll because I don't fall into one of those two nationalities?

(as an aside, I have found the Canadian common usage English tends to have a lot more Britishims in it than American English and a lot more Americanisms in it than British English.)

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I edited because I was stupid - I did lump Canadian into American because it is part of North America, even though it was a British commonwealth. Answer as best you can. Sorry!

[pocketmouse]

I use Brit spelling vs American spelling to denote different meanings, but I've been doing that for ages, since before the 'net, I'm pretty sure. Example: grey has a different color in my mind (moors, fog, dull) than gray (battleships, flat paint).

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

OooH! That's fascinating re: grey/gray. Come to think of it, I associate "gray" with dull--sort of the opposite of you -- flat paint, crappy weather day) and "grey" as more eyes, hair... somehow *richer* than "gray." Weird.

Here's another odd thing -- I find that fanfiction stories set in British tv series or movies are jarring if they don't use the proper British spelling of words, even when written by non-Brits. And vice-versa. Not just the words (truck/lorry, apartment/flat, etc.), but the *spelling* (colour, licence, etc.).

[hubbit.livejournal.com]

I'm actually quite adaptable when it comes to UK/US usage, in that I've known a good many of the differences for over 25 years and thus strive to use the version that is correct for my correspondent. When sending an IM, email or tweet to a UK friend I will use British words/phrases/spelling, and with a US friend I will use the American version.

I do find it somewhat irritating when an American uses British spellings on general principle in the belief that those are more correct, because in my mind those usages are incorrect in American writing. I may be alone in this view, however.

I was raised amongst dour prescriptivists, and in my wayward adult life became aware that every lexicographer of note compiled dictionaries with the thought of reflecting how language was being used rather than dictating how it should be used. Languages live, breathe, and change, and dictionaries are revised and updated. Once I figured that out (oh, about 1990? :P) I became a solid descriptivist.

And with that, for my avatar I have chosen someone who is hopelessly incapable of speaking ANY version of English correctly. :D

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I became a solid descriptivist.

for my avatar I have chosen someone who is hopelessly incapable of speaking ANY version of English correctly.

CONSISTENCY FAIL

[shuilianfic.livejournal.com]

I got my preference for British English the old-fashioned way: books. I read mostly British books from the age of 5-7. I was extremely confused when I got to first grade, and would get into arguments with the teacher all the time about how to spell words.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I find this deliciously awesome.

[merricatk.livejournal.com]

Seconded, only I was a little older. But I was an Agatha Christie addict at the age of 9.

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

I use more British English than I used to, but I don't think the net or TV is a main driving force behind it. It's mostly being best friends with rheanna27 (which could be considered "being on the net" but isn't what you meant, I think), with a dash of reading seven HP books.

[ubixtiz.livejournal.com]

Thank you for making it possible to select all of the options for the last question.

As an aside, I'm Canadian, and I find that as I watch more Canadian media, I become more aware of the patterns in my speech that are distinctly Canadian.

I also wonder if it would ever have been useful to ask whether I had started using more American words/phrases since being exposed to high volumes of American media, but I fear it wouldn't.

ETA: Answered for values of "American" that include Canadian, and values of "British television" that include Eddie Izzard, among other things.

[magdalene1.livejournal.com]

Hey, I checked "yes" for your first question but not because of the 'net. They're called books and Masterpiece Theatre, respectively, and I was raised by them (and wolves).

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

:D Masterpiece Theatre is tv!

[seperis.livejournal.com]

British spelling is actually from when I was abroad and my English class learned British English. After two papers being returned for spelling errors, it was just a lot easier to make the changes. It's never been *consistent*, more situational (my papers in college were hysterical, but my instructor had done a few semesters at Oxford and had what she called situational spelling changes that seemed to be limited to her undergrad thesis topic). In Merlin fandom, it's become situational again, but not consistent.

It's only something I've noticed when spellcheck in Trek started finding a lot of double ll's. Grey's always been grey, but that's been forever, and I have a bad feeling I have the Narnia books to blame.

[ratcreature]

Prescriptivism sucks. Sure in theory it's nice to have a clear set of rules for correct usage, but they can be changed on you by the official language commissions when they decide to reform things because obviously if there is a definite authority they can exert it, and then you have to memorize the new things. Which is somewhat inconvenient.

Not that I'm still bitter they reformed things so that all through my school days I spent learning one intricate set of rules, that were then changed soon after I left (they started teaching by the new rules the year after I left school) or anything. It's not even that I couldn't see the logic in some of the reforms, but I'll never get back the many, many hours I spent memorizing punctuation and spelling rules to abide by them meticulously or get points and grades deducted in school that I then couldn't even use as such further down the line because many had become obsolete soon after.

[epistrophia.livejournal.com]

I'm a hard-core prescriptivist, but (usually) wear the cloak of moderate prescriptivism in order to avoid arguments. I still have arguments, but if The Husband's there he tends to defuse them by doing something distracting, like spilling a drink or falling over.

I do know that English has changed, is changing and will change, but the things that set me off are, for example, the acceptance of poor grammar and spelling in schools, the lack of understanding of basic apostrophe use, people who don't use betas when they need them (and the people who don't tell them they need them)...

I think I might possibly be an English grammar Nazi, actually. I'm definitely an English grammar power-crazed prefect.

[hubbit.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I should clarify my own prescriptivist/descriptivist tendencies.

When I read the poll question, I understood it to mean regarding the dictionary and word definitions. On that issue I am most definitely descriptivist. But with issues such as proper grammar (or its lack), the (in)correct usage of apostrophes, clumsy sentence construction (a crime of which I'm often guilty), misuse of words ("hopefully" does not mean what 99.5% of the world thinks it means), subject/verb agreement, &c., I am shamelessly prescriptivist.

I'm fully aware that most of our hallowed rules were actually prescribed by a single scholarly pedant in the 19th century. His name eludes me, as does my copy of Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue, in which he is named and his original rules laid out.

[grace-om.livejournal.com]

I ticked "yes" for question 1, but it's really more about having a Brit husband and having lived there for several years.

The spelling was an easy switch (like driving on the left side of the road), but there are differences in grammar and punctuation usage that I never have and never will quite come to grips with.

As for idiom, we kind of have our own "house style" and never know where stuff we say came from.

Oh, and we bought most all of our Harry Potter books in the Brit version, because the American translations are just...not...right.

[epistrophia.livejournal.com]

There are American translations? I did not know this...

[redangel618.livejournal.com]

i blame all spelling issues i have on a combination of C.S.Lewis, other British children's book authors, Masterpiece Theatre, PBS airing comedys, and Buffy being on when I was in high school. also the fact that i am a horrible speller. i've found that the British spellings make more sense than American when you go for phonetic spellings.

[lapillus]

Having spent the summers I was 5 and 7 in the UK and a term there in college I actually fewer Britishisms in my speech in recent years although a few still linger and there are still some I'm just utterly blind to.

[ladysorka]

I got my British spelling from books, mostly. I very honestly didn't know you could spell grey 'gray' until I hit 8th grade and got yelled at by an English teacher.

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

I just wish that British fans when writing SPN fanfic would frikkin' pay attention to the fact that Americans do not say:

Bonnet (hood)
Candy Floss (cotton candy)
In Hospital (in *THE* hospital)
Casualty (Emergency Room)
on Holliday (vacation)
Chips (fries) (except in the case of "fish and chips")
Earth wire (ground wire)
Saloon Car (sedan)
Serviette (napkin)
Boot (trunk)

And I'll end my ranting now.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes - I think that holds true in all fandoms, and writers from both sides of the pond are equally guilty.

[nomadicwriter]

I am very attached to my British spellings in all their quirky illogical glory, but I've picked up a lot of American vocabulary from writing fic set in US-based fandoms, to the point where when I'm writing my novels or a Harry Potter fic I have to actually stop and look at some of my words to figure out if I'm using the right term or I've translated into US English automatically.

[gweneiriol.livejournal.com]

HI! I'm an American, and I don't normally use British spellings, but when I do, it's actually not deliberate.

I didn't realize until I was in my 20s, and in college, but I actually went to a school that taught me how to spell some words in the British manner and some in the American. Like, "forty"? I learned out to spell it "fourty". And, things like "traveler"? My first inclination is to spell it "traveller" cause that's how I learned to spell it.

I don't know what, exactly, that makes me, other then confused ;), but I do think this is an interesting poll.

[epistrophia.livejournal.com]

Is "fourty" correct in US English, then? ::is interested::

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Dude, I would write linguistic papers on internet dialects every chance I got. I love how technology messes with language.

Also, I love English. English is to languages what the Borg is to species.

[epistrophia.livejournal.com]

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." (James Davis Nicoll)

[phoenix64.livejournal.com]

I've been reading British books since I can remember and has lent some variety to my vocabulary over the years, but I definitely have to attribute conversational additions in the last few years to a much higher amount of UK TV.

I tend to get a little funky with the spelling now and then. For instance, sometimes I just can't convince myself that "catalog" looks right. Also, in my personal vocabulary a "theatre" is where live performances are held and a "theater" is where movies are shown.

I am all for the "evolve or die!" philosophy of language as long as it is not used to excuse atrocious spelling and grammar. STOP THAT, IT MAKES BABY IANTO CRY!

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I don't mind most of the ways language changes. The thing that makes me a moderate prescriptivist is FUCKING CORPORATE-SPEAK.

I'll never forget the CEO I worked for who used, in all seriousness, the term "agendize". When people turn nouns into verbs, I want to scream "'Leverage' THIS, asshole!"

Possibly I have issues.