English in England?

[Flasch186]

At dinner tonight I told BF and JFA that I bought WSM on the internet but they have to ship it from England. JFA asked, "Will it be in English?" I waited a moment and then said that that might be the dumbest thing he says for all of '05. But then he says that its different over there. They speak a different type of English. I said, that that BS and that sometimes spellings are different and somtimes words mean different things, ie. Fag. Anyways, what is the verdict on this? Is it English in England or something different? Is JFA in the wrong or did I get taught something here?

[Franklinnoble]

They don't use so many acronyms in England. You might have trouble with WSM. Whatever that is.

Otherwise you're fine. They definately speak English. We're the ones that screw it up.

[ISiddiqui]

Is it English in England or something different?

Well DUH it is! Hell, they are called ENGland . If it is a different language, you should call what we talk as American .

And yes, it is most definetly the same language, we just speak a different dialect of it.

[Telle]

I work with a number of British people (some English, some Irish, some Scottish), and I assure you we all speak the same language. Every once in awhile you run across a word or phrase that's used differently, but that's about it.

[clintl]

Originally Posted by Telle

I work with a number of British people (some English, some Irish, some Scottish), and I assure you we all speak the same language. Every once in awhile you run across a word or phrase that's used differently, but that's about it.

Yes, but it is very entertaining to hear them say "aluminium."

[Dutch]

My in-laws are English and they are a blast to listen to.

I guess the best way I've ever interpreted the language differences are "American-English" and "Queens-English".

I remember reading an article by some language "expert" that said we would hardly understand English people in 50 years because the language would continue to grow apart. I think the "expert" had no idea the internet would change a lot of that.

While we don't hear each other, we see each other writing.

I find myself typing "theatre" and "colour" from time to time because of the "re-introduction". Those are two examples of words I would always have spelled "theater" and "color" before the advent of the internet.

[AZSpeechCoach]

I have always spelled it "theatre," but that's because I'm an elite arrogant theatre major.

[DaddyTorgo]

Eddie Izzard on the difference: "You say erb and we say Herb...because there's a fucking H."

[Mac Howard]

Churchill once said that America and Britain were two countries separated by a common language. But that was 60 years ago and the cultural colonisation of Britain by Hollywood and US TV has changed that.

But one difference that always throws me is the American negative reply to a question as to whether you have something or not.

A Brit will say "I haven't"

An American will say "I don't" (presumably meaning "I don't have")

Whatever, you're a lot closer than a Scot

[Yossarian]

I'm scottish.

Um.. Its basically the same language. But we say pavement where you say sidewalk. We say chips where you say fries (although we have fries too, but they are thin wee macdonalds style ones and not big fucking potato chunky ones), we say crisps where you say chips.

Its mostly the same language though and although you might not know all the 'equivilant' uk words, folks here will know the US ones because our television consists of a large portion of US imports.

We also do dates differently - today's date would be 03/01/2005 (not 2004 d'oh)

[AlexB]

This maybe explains a girl who I thought was the dumbest person in the world - I'm English & was on a flight back from Canada sat next to a group of 17/18 year old girls on a college trip (for once the plane seating plan worked!). Chatting to the girl next to me, she asked where I was from, I told her, she asked 'So where did you learn to speak English so well?'!!!

For one of the few times in my life sombody had said something so dumb I was speechless! Normally dumb comments get the piss taken, but every now and then something is so left field that there's no possible response!

To answer the question, basically the languagues are the same - dialects is maybe the best description. And we certainly don't speak the Queen's English any more - that's now reserved for European school children learning from text books.

The best difference in meaning of word I can think of off the top of my head is 'fanny', especially in 'fanny pack' - while to you guys it means 'bottom', to us it means (for reasons of politeness) 'front bottom'.

[cartman]

As I told folks while I was living in London last year, just because the language is named after your country, doesn't mean you speak it correctly...

[Bubba Wheels]

Favorite quote category: "Hey, your that English guy, from England!" Sherrif J.W. Pepper, "The Man With the Golden Gun"

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by Yossarian

We also do dates differently - today's date would be 03/01/2004

So you're a year behind?

[BreizhManu]

Originally Posted by Jari Rantanen's Shorts

This maybe explains a girl who I thought was the dumbest person in the world - I'm English & was on a flight back from Canada sat next to a group of 17/18 year old girls on a college trip (for once the plane seating plan worked!). Chatting to the girl next to me, she asked where I was from, I told her, she asked 'So where did you learn to speak English so well?'!!!

A French girl I know, spent one year in a Texas high school, someone asked her : "Have you ever been to Europe ?".

[ISiddiqui]

HAHA! Stupid people are funny!

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by BreizhManu

A French girl I know, spent one year in a Texas high school, someone asked her : "Have you ever been to Europe ?".

If they would have said "Just Canada", it would have been amazing

[Yossarian]

So you're a year behind?

A resounding "D'oh" from me I think....

As an aside, a guy I knew (vaguely) who played QB for my uni team went to the states (Oregon I think) to coach at a high school. Apparently the locals were enamoured by his accent and on occassions he was asked to "say something in your own language" or was told "you speak very good english" etc...

[bhlloy]

Yossarian - who would that be and which uni? Do you play?

[rkmsuf]

What about English Muffins?

[Glengoyne]

I have a friend who is from England, and I always tell him that he speaks British when he corrects my english.

[sachmo71]

I left my English-American dictionary in the boot. I'll just take the lift down and go get it. Maybe stop for some chips on the way. They are my favourite. When I'm wearing armour.

If you can understand that, you should be ok.

[Bomber]

WSM = White Single Male?

[Flasch186]

World Soccer Manager

[Yossarian]

The guy's name was Rod - i didn't know him well at all and cant remember his surname, I think i spoke one word to him? can't even remember what he looked like. We have a common friend who tells me all his stories etc..

I played for the Strathclyde Uni Hawks (now defunct and moved to Caledonian University as the 'Roughriders' (ugh)) and for one year for the Claymores under 21 team ( thats me http://www.careers.strath.ac.uk/img/david.jpg ). I wasn't really very good but I did play CB in a 42-2 win for Scotland V England for what it's worth).

Since I'm blowing my trumpet here, my only other claim to fame is that I did stats for the Claymores until they shut this year.

[Yossarian]

I think his name was Roddy Greig come to think of it

[Mac Howard]

Originally Posted by Yossarian

I'm scottish.

Um.. Its basically the same language.

They're currently showing a British tv program over here (Australia) which is set in Glasgow. The accents are so thick and the colloquialisms so Glaswegian that they're including text sub-titles so that we can understand it. I'm told they did the same when shown in Britain but I can't confirm that

[Yossarian]

Colloquialisms can cause some problems, like 'ginger' in glasgow means fizzy soft drink but nowhere else in the world (to my knowledge) is that the case. Even in Edinburgh, a 45 minute train journey from Glasgow, they look at me blankly when I use that term.

But the accent thing... its often over emphasised in TV. There was a crap soap opera set in Glasgow called River City and everyone spoke with really really broad accents (wasn't subtitled over here to my knowledge!).

You do get 'neds' (known as 'chavs' in England) who speak with such a nasal whiny... dunno really kinda agressive tone/accent that's quite hard to understand sometimes - but thats as much a product of socio-economic groupings as the accent of living in this city.

[Francis_Cole]

I'm told they did the same when shown in Britain but I can't confirm that

What program was it?

[Mac Howard]

Originally Posted by Yossarian

such a nasal whiny... dunno really kinda agressive tone/accent that's quite hard to understand sometimes - but thats as much a product of socio-economic groupings as the accent of living in this city.

I find the Edinburgh accent very pleasant to listen to but the Glaswegian accent grates - very similar comparison to the Dublin and Belfast accents.

And while on about Scottish accents and tv programs - they're currently reshowing the Cracker series over here. That has to be one of the best tv series ever (and I can understand the dialogue )

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by Yossarian

The guy's name was Rod - i didn't know him well at all and cant remember his surname, I think i spoke one word to him? can't even remember what he looked like. We have a common friend who tells me all his stories etc..

I played for the Strathclyde Uni Hawks (now defunct and moved to Caledonian University as the 'Roughriders' (ugh)) and for one year for the Claymores under 21 team ( thats me http://www.careers.strath.ac.uk/img/david.jpg ). I wasn't really very good but I did play CB in a 42-2 win for Scotland V England for what it's worth).

Since I'm blowing my trumpet here, my only other claim to fame is that I did stats for the Claymores until they shut this year.

Sweet... I played three years for the Essex Blades and am on the coaching staff this year. Very impressive that you made the Claymores squad, not an easy task at all. I was at a couple of GB Youth development squad camps with a lot of the Claymores guys and apart from the guys from the London O's they were way ahead of any of the other players there. Most of the coaching staff were made up of the Claymores youth coaches as well.