Reply With QuoteYou get extra points if you can suffix "awesome" with "dude".
Eddie
Spain has it's own version of Freeview sadly most of the output is crime drama series (shown out of sequence) 10 year old Discovery Channel type docs with a heavy bias to those covering the hunting of crocs and bothering of great white sharks and tall trees.The biggest eye openers for me have been the tattoo parlour soaps and Jersey Shore which is like watching a motorway crash in slow motion.But all in all the use of the word awesome has been the most interesting thing it seems it can be used a minimum of 3 or four times in a sentence.I must learn to upgrade the way I speak :)
You get extra points if you can suffix "awesome" with "dude".
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
Like, cool story bro?
Don't! :roll:
One American word that seems to have permeated our language now is "guys" . :evil:
In fact I quaked when I wrote it.
I'd never use that expression but it seems to be pretty ingrained now especially amongst office wallahs. :roll:
What's wrong with blokes or geezers? :D
I do have a lot of American friends and even an American daughter in law but sayings that trip off of their lips and sound OK sound so berkish when used by the English IMO.
Cheers,
Neil.
Bro is another biggy in fact no biggy is another......Originally Posted by gentlemenpreferhats
I'd just love it if we have a member who is a linguistic anthropologist who could explain when and how these phrases became prevalent.Did awesome come out of the Gulf War shock and awe campaign? I remember the American media really pushed it at the time.
Thought this was about the Idlewild song :( :lol:
Perhaps we don't need a linguistic anthropologist. I think it's television. :) Choose any decade from the 60s onwards and you can see how the US has influenced us all. You can even date catchphrases so you know who watched which programmes.
Quick quiz:
I still know one sad individual from my childhood who when his wife asks him to do something, says 'I am not a number, I am a free man!' (guess the character and decade).
When his divorce came through, a friend of mine stood up at dinner and commented:
"We have separation." To which another friend of mine commented ' Roger- inboards and outboards are on, coming forward with the side stick - I've got a blowout." (guess the character and decade).
Lastly, there's a chap I currently work with who when things go well, rubs his hands together and says 'I love it when a plan comes together.' (guess the character and decade).
Anyway, we're all becoming homogenised. Or, those of us that watch television (and everyone else through osmosis).
The influx of pop icons (followed by corporate cash) was key along with US-led globalisation, syndication of blah, blah.
Sorry I'm boring myself. I did mean to post something on topic before digressing. Oh yes, that was it. I don't mind American English spoken by Americans. It's a lot easier on the ear than listening to some of our native speakers mangle the language. :)
I also think it cultural hegemony of sorts, but it also works on a smaller scale as well- witness the rise of Estuary English and loss of many regional accents and speech patterns. I have a very old neighbour who speaks in what to me is an odd mixture of Cockney and Yiddish- the rhythms are weird.
It works both ways. I see more and more Americans using "bloody". Austin Powers also popularized "shag" in the US. I used to live there for a decade so my vocabulary is still full of American phrases such as "guys", but after 7 years in the UK saying "awesome" seems really silly.
If you think it's bad here, you should hear some of the under 30 Dutch and Swedes. Many of them sound more American than most Americans I know. That real over the top, Hollywood way of speaking like the US news presenters.
Living in Canada has forced me to become bi-lingual - English English and Canadian English, and I believe I'm pretty fluent now.
But still manage to flumax my Canadian friends with English English sayings and watching their expressions when we explain what they mean :lol:
I've noticed that I use eh a lot now, but haven't got into the "perfect" - which I've noticed my work collegues use a lot and to keep things on an even keel I tend to substitute fuel for petrol instead of using "gas" which in my mind is the smelly stuff that you ignite when you want to cook something :wink:
Mrs Bond tells me that my accent has changed since living here, and there are certain words which I've noticed a certain twang when I speak, but all in all, I think I've managed to keep my accent British - although some of the people I speak to on the phone in my professional capacity think I'm Australian :?
The Prisoner - 60s
So true about Swedes. But its easily explained, television is full of american rubbish which they get exposed to from early childhood, so no surprise they sound like Hollywood. They all seem to spell words the American way, too. It really upsets me when I see powerpoint slides full of organization, realize or recognize.
Someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.
You guys are awesome.......I mean, you wankers are awesome. (Had to de-Americanize it just a bit.) :lol:
I´ll to go into the bank tomorrow and greet the cashier with "watup dog" he´s proud of the little English he speaks and prefers we do business in Valenciano so it should be interesting
Love it! That's just awesome, dude. :thumbleft:
I still know one sad individual from my childhood who when his wife asks him to do something, says 'I am not a number, I am a free man!' (guess the character and decade).
The Prisoner, 1960s
When his divorce came through, a friend of mine stood up at dinner and commented:
"We have separation." To which another friend of mine commented ' Roger- inboards and outboards are on, coming forward with the side stick - I've got a blowout." (guess the character and decade).
Steve Austin (six million dollar man) 1970s
Lastly, there's a chap I currently work with who when things go well, rubs his hands together and says 'I love it when a plan comes together.' (guess the character and decade).
Hannibal Smith (the A team) 1980s
Cheers,
As I posted on the shoe thread - My bad - now what exactly does that mean? - aggravates me no end!
I assume its come from America although it may not I supppose.
:compress: :cheers: :compress:
Believe it or not, that quote from No. 6 is has been a part of my signature on another watch forum for several years. I watched that series when it first aired in the States 40+ years ago and still count it among my all-time favorite television series. Much too short, though.
^Agreed - great series. 8)
Speaking of which, it's amazing how people can quote shows they haven't seen for many years. I mentioned to a friend that I'd quoted The Six Million Dollar Man this afternoon and he sent me a link with the full transcript of the intro sequence - who has time to put this kind of thing together?
Anyway, here it is. It matches the footage on youtube apparently.
"It looks good at NASA One." Flight Com
"Roger." B-52 Pilot
"BCS Arm switch is on." B-52 Pilot
"Okay, Victor." Flight Com
"Landing Rocket Arm switch is on." B-52 Pilot
"Here comes the throttle." B-52 Pilot
"Circuit breakers in." B-52 Pilot
"We have separation." M2-F2 Pilot (Austin)
"Roger." SR-71 pilot
"Inboard and outboards are on." B-52 Pilot
"I'm comin' forward with the side stick." B-52 Pilot
"Looks good." Flight Com
"Ah, Roger." B-52 Pilot
"I've got a blow-out in damper three!" M2-F2 Pilot (Austin)
"Get your pitch to zero." SR-71 pilot
"Pitch is out! I can't hold altitude!" M2-F2 Pilot (Austin)
"Correction, Alpha Hold is off. . . Threat selector is emergency!" B-52 Pilot
"Flight Com! I can't hold it! She's breaking up, she's break—" M2-F2 Pilot (Austin)
Narrator (Harve Bennett): "Steve Austin. Astronaut. A man barely alive."
Oscar Goldman: "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better ... stronger ... faster."
Steve Austin was "OK," but gimme Jaime Sommers any day:
Don't forget that the English have quite a few silly expressions as well.
Take for example:
- "You all right?" rather than "How are you?"
- "Ace" -- the English "awesome"
- "brilliant that"
- "Bob's your uncle"
- "jammy" (as in "jammy b@$+@&d")
- "naff"
- "owt"/"nowt"
- "pants" (as in "that song is pants")
- "wanker"
- "well" (as in "well hard" or "well good")
And don't get me started on "innit" or other chavtastic slang or even the joys of cockney rhyming slang. :twisted:
Cheerio,
Jay
All well and entertaining, but surely The Prisoner is a UK produced series?
Certainly was, yes.
We can screw up our own language too- the words 'daily' and 'weekly' are now being replaced by 'on a daily basis' and 'on a weekly basis' which is about as silly as the Americanism 'normalcy.' It tends to be used by the same sort of person who says 'absolutely' when they mean 'yes.' In other words, those who assume that being verbose indicates intelligence.
My pet gripe is 'for free.' Free of charge is what it means, so you could say either 'for nothing' or 'free of charge.'
'For free' is a bastardisation of English.
I'd agree with your first statement except that every film I saw as a child and teenager(and I averaged three a week) was from Hollywood and I'm yet to call a woman a "dame" :)
You dudes are bummin me out, big time.... :(
Surely one of the joys of English as a language has been its adaptation over time; otherwise we'd all be speaking like Chaucer:
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
(That slepen al the nyght with open eye)
So priketh hem Nature in hir corages
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
Quite happy with a bit of change over time!
Would have a totally different connotation in some UK circles :)
Oh p-lease :roll:
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
+1. I know the natural evolution for a language to adopt influences and evolve over time, otherwise we would all speak very differently to how we do today. But while the americanisation of our langue is annoying at times what completely escapes me is people adopting slang from other migrated languages to create a creole language. I must be getting old but sometimes I can be on a bus or train and I have no idea what some kids are talking about. I know this is intentional to create a sub-culture for themselves which is natural but the extremity of it today bemuses me as they don't just use it amongst themselves but in all areas of life as though it is their first language?
I spend quite a bit of time teaching young people (17-23). Although they can all improve their writing, I've don't think that I've encountered any who use slang or text language in serious speech with me or in written work. What they do when they are off on their own, I don't know, and don't want to know.
(About not knowing what they get up to on their own. One student, female, asked me a question about a trip she was making abroad during the Easter vac. I thought she said "Should I get jams?", which I took to mean pajamas, as I've heard that term used by students in that way before. My reply was that I had no view on what would be appropriate sleeping attire for her, and really didn't want to know anything about it. She looked at me in a funny sort of way, then laughed and said, more clearly, "jabs". :) )
Best wishes,
Bob
I work for a US company in Yorkshire.
The arguments about tI-tanium Vs TIT-anium are hillarious.
In that case, you'll almost certainly enjoy this negotiation over The Ritz Hotel in London. :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7xgiO_NdkQ
You can carp about American English all you want, but lemme tell ya that on the average American forum one is far less likely to encounter the horrible mistake's :D that are a common occurrence here.
Jus' sayin' :D
Their, their...
Surely can not be that bad
:lol: :wink:
:laughing6:Would have a totally different connotation in some UK circles :)
I worked for Computer Associates in the 90s and then we had route and router wars i.e route pronounced rhyming with boot by the brits and out by the yanks :roll: :D
For my son and his mates (age 5), the words that grate are awesome, cool, guys and particularly annoying, man. No doubt dude will come soon.
"Awesome!" was quite common long before the first Gulf War, Just watch "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)....I'd just love it if we have a member who is a linguistic anthropologist who could explain when and how these phrases became prevalent.Did awesome come out of the Gulf War shock and awe campaign? I remember the American media really pushed it at the time.
(on second though, don't)
My native tongue is a slavic language spoken by but two million people in the middle of Europe.
My first son is now 26, throughout his childhood I've never heard him use anything else than the expression "full" instead of the proper native word. It blends in rather nicely into our language. Tell me about americanisation!
And English being my third (or fourth, can't decide) language I'm also quite astonished how Ya'll :D natives are butchering it. For instance I don't recall seeing a plural of a watch firm's name written differently than with a Saxon genitive. (There's many Seiko's in my watch box).
AnywayS - a burden I fortunately don't have to carry, my own language is getting tortured enough ...
Cheers chaps/fellas/guys/blokes
Brane
'Berkish' - a great British word :)
AP
Close one. She might have thought you were playing hard-to-get with another kind of 'jab', in raising the topic of sleeping attire :))I spend quite a bit of time teaching young people (17-23). Although they can all improve their writing, I've don't think that I've encountered any who use slang or text language in serious speech with me or in written work. What they do when they are off on their own, I don't know, and don't want to know.
(About not knowing what they get up to on their own. One student, female, asked me a question about a trip she was making abroad during the Easter vac. I thought she said "Should I get jams?", which I took to mean pajamas, as I've heard that term used by students in that way before. My reply was that I had no view on what would be appropriate sleeping attire for her, and really didn't want to know anything about it. She looked at me in a funny sort of way, then laughed and said, more clearly, "jabs". :) )
Best wishes,
Bob
I have frequent contact with the US and I recall once not really being able to understand at all a senior US officer who was/is very bright, on account of the expressions and turns of phrase. It really was a different kind of language particular to the outfit. This is from someone who is used to many different expressions and from that part of the world/organisation. I am increasingly repelled by jargon, as it really tends to obscure and act as a 'clique'. Much of it stems/ I believe, from the need to get a point across 'fast and hard', and is not uncommonly a symptom of group culture and dynamics as much as the individual.
Br,
AP
[quote=A.Pottinger]'Berkish' - a great British word :)
AP[/quote:demf6d08]
Yep, cockney rhyming slang ... Berkshire hunt. :wink:
My Mother was a real Londoner and peppered her talk with all manner of rhyming slang which I have inadvertently carried on.
Cheers,
Neil.
Berk is also a favourite of mine; even at primary school it was considered a very gentle form of abuse but, then again, none of us had any clue as to its' origins. I can only suppose that parents and teachers must have been equally clueless as we used it quite freely at the time.
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
:D
USAnians don't speak English. They speak 'American' and more importantly, they write (can they actually write?) in USAnian. Canadians try and do get closer but their Southern neighbours have too much influence.
The word I found most interesting in that sentence is "vac". Given your role, Bob, it's caused me pause for thought. I'd always assumed "vacation" to be an Americanism, and still do, but for a short period of time following my reading of your post, I wondered if it was originally an English phrase, captured by the Americans and only used in English by those with either a proper education, or maybe a misplaced sense of irony :)
Or maybe because they are an American? :wink:The word I found most interesting in that sentence is "vac". Given your role, Bob, it's caused me pause for thought. I'd always assumed "vacation" to be an Americanism, and still do, but for a short period of time following my reading of your post, I wondered if it was originally an English phrase, captured by the Americans and only used in English by those with either a proper education, or maybe a misplaced sense of irony :)
Cheers,
Neil.
There is that too :)Or maybe because they are an American? :wink:The word I found most interesting in that sentence is "vac". Given your role, Bob, it's caused me pause for thought. I'd always assumed "vacation" to be an Americanism, and still do, but for a short period of time following my reading of your post, I wondered if it was originally an English phrase, captured by the Americans and only used in English by those with either a proper education, or maybe a misplaced sense of irony :)
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