British-ese

I read an article today in The Guardian (seeing as it's a Brit paper, though, it may be biased) bemoaning the American English-ization of headlines and copy in British papers and magazines.  This topic also came up in the book (that shall not be named) that I attempted to read a few weeks ago.  Each side has its own distinct viewpoints.  The Guardian argues that they, as Brits, should keep the native British-ese and not be forced into an American way of thinking.  The American "writer", who moved to England voluntarily, argued that every British-ism was just plain wrong and unnecessary (like everything else she discovered about England...)

As an admitted Anglophile, I think that I fall somewhere in the middle.  I've lived in America for almost 30 (there's that horrid number again...) years now and I'm fairly attached to the American English language.  I've always been an English-y person in that reading and writing in school was so much easier and more enjoyable than any subject containing numbers.  And I tend to get a bit defensive of our national language.  I have been known to correct people's grammar and abhor when others choose to ignore all matters of punctuation and syntax - yes I'm one of those people.  But on the other hand, as a future (hopefully!) Brit I feel I should accept and adapt to the different communication style of those across the pond.  If for no other reason, than not to embarrass myself.

However, when it comes right down to it, there are a few rules and regulations that will always trip me up.  I know that reading and writing these words and phrases, day in and day out, would become second nature but in my American head, they just sound and look wrong.  Not that they are, but they're quite hard to process.

1. I am and will continue to be more than OK with the words: "cuppa", "bloke", "mate", "lift", "posh" and "Tube".  These words are exactly what they sound like.  I'd even go so far as to say American English would be a bit more civilized here in the States if we referred to our "peeps" as our "mates" or every morning we enjoyed a "cuppa" instead of a "pot of joe."

2. Have vs. Has: I have corrected more newspaper articles around these 2 words than I care to admit.  Here in the US we use "has" when we are referring to a major corporation because the corporation is singular - "NBC News has the story at 11."  However, since that corporation contains many people (and I'm taking a stab in the dark at this explanation) the Brits use "have" instead - "The BBC have the story at 10." I hate to say it but it just sounds wrong!

3. re/er, ae/e, s/z, oe/e, and our/or: "An explanation of candour can be found on the centre page of the encyclopaedia before the word civilisation, while foetus can be found 3 books later."  All quite everyday for those in Europe, but you'd be surprised at how accustomed to certain letters your fingers become on a keyboard.  Case in point: Try typing the above sentence...between auto-correct and your fingers using their muscle memory, it takes quite a bit of effort!

4. Dialectic Additions (Totally made this name up, but it sounds good, doesn't it?): I'm in no means an expert on the British language, however these dialectic additions seem to be regional throughout the GBE.  If you're in certain parts of Scotland, "ye" is added to the end of words, from what I can tell, just for the heck of it: "You can see that book over there, can'ye."  Whilst in other parts of England, "in'it" is used at the ends of sentences: "The sky's quite blue, in'it?"  I'm sure there are others too but these 2 always stick out to me.

5. Series vs. Season: A series finale of a television show here in the states is the last ever episode while in England, it's the last episode of the season.  If you're a fan of BBC shows, that little distinction is quite important.

6. NHS, MP, DI, DS, MIT, DC, OBE, GCSE: Something we and the Brits have in common - love of a good acronym.  Fabulous shorthand...if in fact you know what they mean.  If not, it's just alphabet soup!

There are others of course: flat vs. sparkling, football vs. soccer, poorly(by far my favorite!) vs. sick, drugs bust vs. drug bust, row vs. argument, drink driving vs. drunk driving, and I'm sure there are tons others I haven't even discovered yet.  Personally I think that this little language barrier makes England a bit more undiscovered and gives them their own identity. If I were them, I'd want to keep my little language quirks as well.  However, I'll definitely need my own little dictionary if I'm ever going to acclimate myself over there.  If not, I'll just sound like a babbling idiot...