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While our language is still called English, it might be more appropriate to start referring to it as “American.” As United States pop culture has increased its exposure in the United Kingdom over the last half-century, American lingo has crept into the British vernacular at a greater pace than ever before.
The result is some Brits getting testy at an increase of American words used in place of British words and what they see as an uncouth perversion of the historically-dignified British way of speaking.
American influence on the language started as far back as the mid-1800s when poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge derided the word “talented” as “barbarous.” A few years later, the word was used by British statesman William Gladstone.
Despite the Brits’ displays of indignation, it is precisely this pliability of English that has contributed to its worldwide success. Now, English is the preferred language of global communication.
Unlike the French, who to this day still issue regular rulings on avoiding certain words via L’Academie Francaise, English has never conformed to one set of guidelines. Supposedly, one needs only a vocabulary of 1,500 words to communicate effectively in English, according to the BBC.
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Yet, this perceived simplification of the language has irked some Brits to no end. 20th century entertainment and technology are most to blame. Talking motion pictures, the majority of which still come from America, began in the 1930s and have only increased overseas exposure.
Computers are programmed in “American,” sending “e-mail” instead of “e-post.” Elevator has replaced lift, rookies instead of newcomers, wrench instead of spanner, apartments in place of flats, and freight trains instead of goods trains. Some are more accurate, some less eloquent.
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