Americanisms

[Far_X]

Ok, I learnt to scuba dive over here and I am seriously worried I may have picked up some Americanisms inadvertently. I need your help in keeping me on the straight and narrow...

Should I say...

dived or dove?
dive light or torch?
goodie bag or net?
kiss my a*se or kiss my butt?

Any others that I may be saying without realising? I do know how to say buoy with a single vowel sound unlike the double vowel sound they all say.

[angleseydiver]

Dived.
The rest I'm not arsed/butted about

[ardhill]

Originally Posted by Far_X

Should I say...

dived or dove?
dive light or torch?
goodie bag or net?
kiss my a*se or kiss my butt?

Any others that I may be saying without realising? I do know how to say buoy with a single vowel sound unlike the double vowel sound they all say.

dived or dove?
Please don't say Dove - that is a bird or a line of personal hygiene products, it's got nothing to do with diving over here

dive light or torch?
goodie bag or net?
Whatever you want.

kiss my a*se or kiss my butt?
ar*e is more UK, but with the infaltration on "The Simpsons" butt is catching on. Though "Butt D Rings" is the more used term for that item.

Buoy pronounced "Boy"

Oh, and if you could just appologise at the end of every post 'cause you are American, that would be great LOL
.

[Mal Bridgeman]

As Paul says, some Americanisms are catching on .... Dive lights rather than torches, doubles, rather than twins, but dove will not catch on ....... ever! ..... nor will aluminum ... it's aluminium, ok ?

Also, don't ever mention fags in H Jr.'s presence .... the language barrier may not be as great as you think

Mal

[Stesh]

I don't wish to sound patronising, but patronise is pronoused PAT-RONISE not PATE-RONISE and doesn't have a Z in it!

AND THAT'S A ZED NOT A ZEE!

[purple vonny]

It doesn't really matter what you call things or how you pronounce them but the correct past tense of to dive is dived. Same as the past tense of to live is lived not love.

Some people get really cross when fins are called flippers but they are the same thing. But if you call a buoy a "boooeee" people might look at you as though you are a bit odd.

I used to live in the States and picked up a lot of American pronunciations and I still have to stop and think.

[Lazlo]

Seems to me that since it's the English language, the question of right and wrong is moot. It's up to everyone else to keep up!

Couldn't we claim some kind of Intellectual Property rights over the English language? Then the US would have to call their language "American" or something.

Of course the downside of that would be the slightly uncomfortable realisation that the "international language of business" is in fact American, not English .

[Foggy]

As far as using Dove is concerned its totally fine, see here:-

Dove UK: Skin, body cleansing and hair care products, beauty advice for all skin and hair types

However DO NOT use it out of context.

LOL, Paul

[stevechesh]

Originally Posted by Lazlo

Seems to me that since it's the English language, the question of right and wrong is moot. It's up to everyone else to keep up!

Couldn't we claim some kind of Intellectual Property rights over the English language? Then the US would have to call their language "American" or something.

Of course the downside of that would be the slightly uncomfortable realisation that the "international language of business" is in fact American, not English .

[pedant head on] Actually, English is a combination of languages. Are you all sitting comfortably? then i'll begin. . . . . . .

the Britons were found by Caesar in Southern England, who used Runes to represent familiar things. The Roman alphabet was received from the early Irish monasteries and Roman handwriting was then establised by Saint Augustine. Beowulf wrote one of the earliest poems in 'old english' in 1000AD. In 1066 after the Norman conquest a proffesional class of scribes was established in the monasteries. Latin then became the language of the ruling classes, and "English" was only used for recitation. Between 1150 and 1250 AD, the native language changed into a modification of the latin alphabet used by french scribes. Then there is a gap of nearly 2 centuries. During 1150AD, middle English was introduced as a new language by the Normans.

still with it? A little later on, the Jutes from Jutland, The Angles from Schleswig and the Saxons from Holstein (who all spoke similar dialects of "german") invaded. The Britons called the invaders Saxons. Saint gregory called them Angles, and Alfred called his language English. Camden calls it " Lingua anglosaxonica".

A combination of all the above (Latin, French, Saxon/german dialect etc etc etc) then became "English Language" as we know it at around 1500AD. The time of the printing press. [pedant head off]

Anyway, thats about the only bit i can remember off my technical author course!

[Lazlo]

Originally Posted by stevechesh

Anyway, thats about the only bit i can remember off my technical author course!

Blumin 'ell. All that just so you know what apostrophes are for!



EDIT: When I did a Computer Science degree they forced a "Use Of English" course on us. Something to do with documenting our code I think (the fools )... The only thing I can remember about it was being taught what a gerund was.

No, I still don't know what it is.