Oh, you crazy Brits.... I need help understanding our language difference.

[Euclidodese]

Here's one for you Americans, what you guys call a 'fanny-pack,' we in Britain call a 'tampon.'

... I really need to grow up. Nah, actually, we call it a 'bum-bag.'


I remember reading an American children's book in my youth, and I ran across the sentence: 'She gave her a pat on the fanny.'

I was like: '... ... This is a weird book, these people are weird.'

[Heliomance]

Here's one for you Americans, what you guys call a 'fanny-pack,' we in Britain call a 'tampon.'

... I really need to grow up. Nah, actually, we call it a 'bum-bag.'


I remember reading an American children's book in my youth, and I ran across the sentence: 'She gave her a pat on the fanny.'

I was like: '... ... This is a weird book, these people are weird.'

Yeah, that refers to a... slightly different part of the anatomy, over here. Not commonly used though.

[BannedInSchool]

"...so does that mean if I want to borrow an eraser in England I ask for a condom???"

[JustSomeGuy]

"...so does that mean if I want to borrow an eraser in England I ask for a condom???"

'Have you got a rubber johnny?' Was probably 50% of what other kids said to me in the last year of primary school

[FinnLassie]

I'm probably very late to the soda/pop/soft drink discussion... but living in Scotland I just took the habit of calling it fizzy or juice. Never both at the same time. I mostly called it fizzy because juice sounded reeeally off in my head, but my local pals pretty much exclusively used juice to refer to fizzies, but yeah, fizzy was also used.

Also, you people with the rye crisp bread... it's a reeeeally nordic thing and pretty much all of it is imported from Sweden and Finland (what I witnessed back in Scotland). So I dunno. Felt weird seeing others asking what they call it. Because. It's like. What feeds me as a poor student.

[Gnomvid]

Fist as a Swede I have to say Surströmming is not actually rotten although it most certainly smells so, I would never eat it personally although it is supposed to be a delicacy, I've still got vivid memories of smelling the first can ever opened at an early age at the summer house and have stayed well away since then.
Also you with the "Wasa bread" if it's the same as my relatives in Seattle liked, I pity your small range of variety of Crisp bread of the Wasa family compared to what we get in Sweden although Wasa is but one of many producers of this kind of product, personally I prefer the cinnamon, breakfast and oat varieties (guess rye got a bit bland after growing up on it not that I mind it mind you).
Here in the UK there used to be a (Polish) variant in Tesco but it seems to have been discontinued unfortunately so now all that's available is the Finnish Ryvita family of products.
Everybody in Scotland seems to call soda/softdrinks and just about anything which is not pure water or alcohol "juice" I call it läsk to Swedish friends or soft drink as a family or brand ie. fanta, coke, 7up, Irn Bru and so on depending on what it is.

[Maelstrom]

"...so does that mean if I want to borrow an eraser in England I ask for a condom???"

When in France, just don't ask if a product (such as jam) contains 'preservatives' ;)

[Capt Spanner]

If I may: a brief history of American & British English (from the point of view of a British person):

THE BEGINNING

Before the pilgrims left we all spoke - more or less - the same language. Actually, this is a total lie, as anyone who's read Bill Bryson's "Mother Tongue" knows, but the point is that American English didn't exist yet. Neither did British English, because there was no public radio to establish what British English should sound like, and there were (and still are) huge regional variations in British English (which didn't exist yet).

Okay ... let's try again:

THE BEGINNING

In the beginning (before the pilgrims left for the New World) there was just British English.

The Pilgrims leave for the New World. They take the language with them. At some point along the voyage a crate of 'u's falls overboard.

PRONUNCIATION SHIFTS

Because those who left for the New World (who I'll now call "Americans") were far more one group than the British people were, their pronunciation changed less. (Shakespearian English sounds like a cross between American-East-Coast and West Country accents, we believe.) And so British English evolved far more than American English did. Naturally, British people aren't aware of this and tend to accuse Americans of maltreating our shared language.

SPELLING SHIFTS

Being a unified group with a reasonably uniform accent - certainly more uniform than the British accents - also gave the Americans an unprecedented chance to push for new spellings. British English spellings were heavily influenced by French and Latinate versions of words, and some attempts to standardize were better adopted in America, but almost impossible to get into Britain, where we were too entrenched in our ways. For example: the suffix "-ize" had been altered to the more French looking "-ise", despite the fact that it came from a Greek root, spelled with a zeta, and not a sigma.

Of course, when British people see the more sensible "-ize" we complain that Americans are ruining our language, and that we should spell it the way it is in the Oxford English Dictionary. Naturally, the Oxford English Dictionary actually prefers the "-ize" suffix.

The "-our" of British English comes from Latin words which tend to end "-or", but we stuffed a French "u" in there. The Americans went back to the old way. (British accents - certainly BBC English - tends to pronounce this more like "-ur", so I keep the "u" in there. Otherwise the American version makes more etymological sense.)

This habit of pushing spellings closer to the language they originated from is an American habit and - in my opinion - a great idea, since it makes it easier to work out the meanings of words without previously seeing them.

One fantastic change was "skeptic", which is spelled "sceptic" in British English (Latin lacking a "k" spelled it with a "c", despite the fact that it's from a Greek work clearly spelled with a kappa.) Not only this, "sc[vowel]-" is normally pronounced "ss" in English (science, for example) so "sceptic" looks like it should be pronounced "septic" which means ... something else.

So yes, here we have a clear case of Americans changing their language although, when you actually look at the changes, it's really hard to say that they were harming the language.

More things are invented

After the pilgrims left there was a time when communication between countries was hard, but new things were getting invented and we ended up with some divergent vocabulary. For example: in Britain the bit that cars drive on that is paved is *not* the "pavement", despite the fact that is is paved. No, the "pavement" refers *only* to the bit at the *side* where pedestrians *walk* which Americans - for some reason opaque to me - call the "sidewalk". Naturally, British people like to complain that Americans are ruining the language over these two independent contributions.

Some things British English does better

So I'm actually a fan of American English - certainly when it comes to spelling. There are a few things I must take issue with, however. "Airplane" vs "aeroplane". The latter more accurate describes what's going on. Also: "aluminum". Most other elements end in "-ium", and the guy who named it actually preferred "aluminium" to better fit the naming conventions. I've no idea why Americans seem so set on "aluminum". (Especially since "aluminium" *used* to be the standard spelling used by the American Chemical Society for over 100 years, until they decided to switch to "aluminum". I can't believe Americans could ruin our language this way.

[FinnLassie]

Also you with the "Wasa bread" if it's the same as my relatives in Seattle liked, I pity your small range of variety of Crisp bread of the Wasa family compared to what we get in Sweden although Wasa is but one of many producers of this kind of product, personally I prefer the cinnamon, breakfast and oat varieties (guess rye got a bit bland after growing up on it not that I mind it mind you).
Here in the UK there used to be a (Polish) variant in Tesco but it seems to have been discontinued unfortunately so now all that's available is the Finnish Ryvita family of products.
Everybody in Scotland seems to call soda/softdrinks and just about anything which is not pure water or alcohol "juice" I call it läsk to Swedish friends or soft drink as a family or brand ie. fanta, coke, 7up, Irn Bru and so on depending on what it is.

Buuut... Ryvita is British, innit? I remember it being not like Finnish rye bread at all, more like Danish. Also, Morrisons has Finnish rye crisp bread, and Finnish and Swedish crispbread are pretty much identical stuff. Though... what is this cinnamon stuff you speak of. Sounds creepy.

Honestly, Scots calling fizzies juice does tell something about the general state of health in the nation...

[Brother Oni]

Honestly, Scots calling fizzies juice does tell something about the general state of health in the nation...

If the 'deep frying everything in sight' discussion earlier didn't give the game away.

[Ashen Lilies]

re: aluminum vs. aluminium

From what I've read, the use of -um over -ium is actually older, and meant to be in keeping to Latin element names, such as Ferrum, Plumbum, Aurum, Argentum and Platinum, compared to -ium, which of course a more modern, French(?) invention that Americans never adapted to.

I could just be talking out of my ass in this case though. Speaking of which, no discussion of dialectal differences across the Atlantic is complete without...

[Peelee]

re: aluminum vs. aluminium

From what I've read, the use of -um over -ium is actually older, and meant to be in keeping to Latin element names, such as Ferrum, Plumbum, Aurum, Argentum and Platinum, compared to -ium, which of course a more modern, French(?) invention that Americans never adapted to.

I could just be talking out of my ass in this case though. Speaking of which, no discussion of dialectal differences across the Atlantic is complete without...

With all these -ise and -ium suffixes supplanting the proper ones, I'm getting the impression that the British really love the French.

[Brother Oni]

With all these -ise and -ium suffixes supplanting the proper ones, I'm getting the impression that the British really love the French.

Them's fighting words they are.

Honestly, you get invaded once by a bunch of French vikings nearly a millenia ago and people are still rubbing it in...

[SirKazum]

Thing is, the British (or at least the highest echelons of society) were French for a long time. By the time they culturally drifted away from their continental forebears, they still wanted to be French for an also long time. Their rivalry is more of a siblings' rivalry. The goddamn Hundred Years' War only happened because British royalty had a stake in the French royal succession, IIRC.

[Spacewolf]

Actually they were Normans who were in turn descendants of the same Anglo Saxon migration that had gone to Britain rather than the Gallic culture of France. The Normans had their own culture at that point but during all the fighting it eventually became British Normans and French Normans before eventually just becoming British or French.

[BannedInSchool]

Even if William the Bastard was a French-speaking Viking he still seems like a jerk to my American eyes. Hmm, was it Richard I who didn't like England and spent most of his time in his lands in France?

[veti]

As far as the modern language is concerned, it might be more relevant to talk about the 18th century, when the French basically dominated Europe - and English people with pretensions to Culture would show it by their command of French. At the time when Samuel Johnson published his dictionary (1755) - that is to say, at the crucial moment when British English was becoming formalized and introduced as an educational subject, rather than just "what people spoke" - French was firmly the lingua franca of European culture. Not surprising to see its influence today.

Whereas Noah Webster, as well as being a dyed-in-the-wool republican who wanted to do everything he could to emphasize the differences between America and England, was also a conscious 'spelling reformer'. He wasn't about to let American English just "drift into" a particular spelling regime because that happened to be the way some influential people had been brought up. He actually sat down and thought through each word from - as far as he could - first principles.

[SirKazum]

Even if William the Bastard was a French-speaking Viking he still seems like a jerk to my American eyes. Hmm, was it Richard I who didn't like England and spent most of his time in his lands in France?

I remember hearing that Richard Lionheart (or, as he was known as the time, Richard Coeur-de-Lion) was born, raised and educated in France, spoke pretty much just French, and spent most of his life in France. And he wasn't exactly an oddity in that regard, in terms of the British Royal Family. Again, IIRC (I'm hardly a historian), it's not just a matter of some distant common ancestry - those guys were actually French, in practical terms anyway. That's reflected in British Royal mottoes such as "Dieu et mon droit" and "Honi soit qui mal y pense".

And Veti's right, France dominated Western culture in the 1800's. That's reflected in the Portuguese language and Brazilian culture as well (which I'm a bit more familiar with, of course). Speaking French and being as French as you could was just the cultured thing to do.

[Archonic Energy]

Je suis Desole je ne parlez pas le Francais.

I definitely think we have a love/hate thing going with the French, i mean if we really hated them why would we dig a tunnel to them so we can get from Londres to Paris rather quickly.

suddenly i really fancy an Italian coffee and a French Croissant.

[Brother Oni]

... we can get from Londres to Paris rather quickly.

Or not as the case may be.

[Dexam]

Them's fighting words they are.

Honestly, you get invaded once by a bunch of French vikings nearly a millenia ago and people are still rubbing it in...

Now, now - he's just speaking frankly about speaking Franc-ly...

[Brother Oni]

Now, now - he's just speaking frankly about speaking Franc-ly...

We're having our own back with the rise of Franglais though, or to paraphrase Archonic Energy, "je suis sorry, je no parley francais".

[Archonic Energy]

Or not as the case may be.

Heh, Topical joke is Topical!

We're having our own back with the rise of Franglais though, or to paraphrase Archonic Energy, "je suis sorry, je no parley francais".

"Avec Vous... borrow some milk?"

... that dates me better than C14!

[comicshorse]

Je suis Desole je ne parlez pas le Francais.

I definitely think we have a love/hate thing going with the French, i mean if we really hated them why would we dig a tunnel to them so we can get from Londres to Paris rather quickly.

So we can invade them quickly if we feel the need to

[factotum]

"Avec Vous... borrow some milk?"

"Je suis un rock star
J'ai un residence
A grand chateau
A la south of France"

If you can name the advert *and* the actor who was supposedly singing those lines, it's at least 0.001 internets for you!

[Peelee]

"Je suis un rock star
J'ai un residence
A grand chateau
A la south of France"

If you can name the advert *and* the actor who was supposedly singing those lines, it's at least 0.001 internets for you!

Bender Bending Rodríguez. For both the advert (I'm speaking the Queen's English!) and actor.

[factotum]

Bender Bending Rodríguez. For both the advert (I'm speaking the Queen's English!) and actor.

Wrong on both counts. I was actually thinking of this:

https://youtu.be/_5puDB5IPZQ?t=165

(And yes, that must have scarred me horribly for me to still remember it so clearly 30 years later!). The actor in question is John Altman, who went on to considerably greater fame (in the UK, at least) as Nick Cotton in Eastenders.

[Telonius]

Of course, while the rest of the country has been busy trying to sort out the British/American differences, the Great Lakes region has conspired to throw a wrench in the works. I'm from that bit of Pennsylvania that's valiantly resisting the Vowel Shift - though I'm half convinced we're resisting the shift just because Pittsburgh is to our immediate south (and we still want to be able to make fun of them).

[Archonic Energy]

"Je suis un rock star
J'ai un residence
A grand chateau
A la south of France"

If you can name the advert *and* the actor who was supposedly singing those lines, it's at least 0.001 internets for you!

HOW. MUCH. IS. THE. RUG?
A strange shift to old adverts.

[Thrawn4]

Honestly, Scots calling fizzies juice does tell something about the general state of health in the nation...

So that's a general thing? Because my host family was Scottish, and I was quite disappointed when they offered me juice and I got squash...

That reminds me of the host family of a friend of mine who live near Oxford. They liked squash because it was tasty and suppossedly was one of your "five a day".

And I didn't even mention yet that the tab water in the UK is apparently infused with chlorine... I mean, how could anybody drink that?