We Americans + closed captioning
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csimp1123-777-359552 — 12 years ago(August 30, 2013 11:39 PM)
I love your reminder on the word 'rubber'! Thx 4 that. We used that word 4 a totally different necessity, right? I remember when most American boys carried them in their wallets all the time, and Europeans called those very things (in my American context!) 'French Letters'. I really do love the slang & different expressions to compare between British, Australian, Canadian and how our own American slang fits into the same language.& of course our US slang changes in my lifetime..well, huge doesn't even come close. One thing I can' wrap my head around, tho, is that in modern British-inspired movies & tv, subsidized housing is referred 2 as (whatever) Estates. Every type of low-income govt built housing, whether I'm watching Australian movies, or an Irish film or the many British movies or tv shows I enjoy have what we call housing 'projects', they look every bit as distressing as ours & they're all called 'estates.' And too bad also that locals over there seem 2 have the same stereotype when they @ 'the estates' as we do @ our own 'projects.' One very positive L&O UK episode I saw had a wonderful expression, which u may want 2 look up wherever u do ur access. It was the title of the episode too. It was called 'Duty of Care'. Since I saw that episode, the way the expression was used in the legal part of the show, I have begun using it myself.food 4 thought? Catch u again & thx 4 the smile.
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FlyingCircusGirl — 12 years ago(September 21, 2013 07:37 AM)
I love cc, too. I started using it when my first child was little to see if it would help him learn to read & realized quickly that it was useful for me, too. My husband would frequently ask how I could possibly be watching tv with all the noise the kids were making playing in the same room & it was because I was able to see the dialogue. I especially love when the cc gets it wrong-it can be really funny (not for the hearing-impaired, though, I'm sure).
I also love the UK expressions & slang. I think it's much more colorful & less crass than the US.
I wish cc would have been so easily available years ago for my mom. She had a hard time with all accents (we're from Northeastern US) so I would have to repeat dialogue from any BBC shows & even ones with Southern US accents! -
L_O_Addict — 12 years ago(November 26, 2013 01:00 AM)
I've heard that when the first American "talkies" came out in the early 1930s, they were incomprehensible to British listeners. US accents are only widely understood today through steady media exposure. So it may take a while for Geordie or Glaswegian accents to become well-understood outside Britain.
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Natashashkd — 12 years ago(December 20, 2013 03:35 PM)
Ehm Has it ever crossed your American minds that a so-called "British slang" is actually correct English, because Britain is the place where the language originates from??? You Americans are secondary, the Brits are primary in terms of language anyway - remember that! Anyway there's no such a thing as a "British slang"!
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L_O_Addict — 12 years ago(December 20, 2013 03:43 PM)
Absolute rubbish.
Following your argument I suppose that, since the Anglo-Saxons originally sailed from what is now northern Germany/Denmark, we should now defer to the inhabitants of Schleswig-Holstein when it comes to English usage? -
Natashashkd — 12 years ago(December 24, 2013 05:15 AM)
Nah, dnwake, it's not "absolute rubbish", it's just the truth which you don't want to admit.
Why always refer to ancient history if someone else refers to much more recent and relevant history? I'm referring to the period when English language was already known as English, and became pretty much the language that is used nowadays. You can't deny the fact it was originally and primarily spoken in the UK. ALL Americans, apart from Native Americans, are the descendants of the immigrants from different countries. I guess the pioneers spoke their native languages, but when the US have finally become the state that exists nowadays, English had been long adopted as a state language. Therefore, the so-called "American English" is secondary to the so-called "British English" - it's a simple historic fact.
The fact that there's no such a thing as a "British slang", is also merely a fact, so I'd recommend you educate yourself a little bit before dismissing it as "rubbish". Small as the UK might seem, it's incredibly diverse in terms of dialects/slangs/accents - so much so that some Brits originating from certain areas in the UK, often struggle to understand other Brits originating from different areas. Maybe you should check your facts before spitting out verbal abuse. Merry Christmas to you. -
L_O_Addict — 12 years ago(December 25, 2013 04:34 PM)
There has been a continuous line of English speakers in North America since the first successful permanent English colonial ventures in the early 17th century. The English spoken in North America is no less valid than that spoken in the UK; it preserves many older usages as well as innovating some new ones, just as the various forms of the language spoken in Britain have done. Many immigrants to the US adopted English, as also did many immigrants to Britain and other countries, as, indeed, did most of the original Celts living in Britain at the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasions (recently proved by genetic studies).
There is no valid basis to speak of British English as "primary" and North American English as "secondary". Each is as valid as the other (as indeed are all the other Englishes of the southern hemisphere, the Caribbean, etc.).
I have said nothing about "British slang". Perhaps you are confusing me with someone else. Merry Christmas to you too. -
Helena727 — 10 years ago(April 08, 2015 09:25 PM)
Make up your mind,
Natashashkd
:
The fact that
there's no such a thing as a "British slang"
, is also merely a fact, so I'd recommend you educate yourself a little bit before dismissing it as "rubbish". Small as the
UK might seem, it's incredibly diverse in terms of dialects/slangs
/accents - so much so
You're arguing both FOR and AGAINST the existence of Brit slang.
Lift, flat, torch, lorry, bloke, bird, chap, kip, punter, knocking shop, barney, argy-bargy, shag, roger, bloody, gob, git, chuffed -
scott-h-moore — 9 years ago(May 07, 2016 06:05 PM)
"You can't deny the fact it was originally and primarily spoken in the UK." Absolute rubbish! You are an ignorant fool. English existed long before the UK did. The clue is in the name - it originated in England, not in Wales, Scotland nor in Ireland. Many types of "British English" are far less authentic than American English. Indeed, certain dialects of American English are far closer to 17th century English than any modern "British English" dialect.
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mrdavebass-45618 — 9 years ago(September 28, 2016 07:47 AM)
I have had great fun in reading this argument(barney) on the use of or not of slang.
Being from London, I have one of the most unusual accents. even if I travel to Manchester or Liverpool they cannot understand me and I cannot understand them.
I use a lot of Cockney rhyming slang, not that I am doing it on purpose but it has become more of a way of life (lazy English).
Why say " Can you go up the stairs to collect my car and I will give you 25 to drive it to London"
When you can say " shoot up the apples and drive me jam jar to town and there will be a pony in for ya"
Much more fun.
That's all for now, so i'm gonna do one, laters. -
Helena727 — 10 years ago(April 08, 2015 06:00 PM)
Anyway there's no such a thing as a "British slang"!
Natashashkd
, you don't know what you're talking about. Of course there's slang in British English, just as there is in American English, Canadian English, and Australian English. Virtually every language has slang.
Definition of
slang
, from the Oxford dictionary online:
A type of language consisting of words and phrases that are regarded as very informal, are more common in speech than writing, and are typically restricted to a particular context or group of people
For example:
Grass
is slang in both BritE and AmE for
marijuana
; in BritE (but not AmE), it's also slang for
police informant
. From the Oxford dictionary online:
British informal A police informer.
[Perhaps related to the
19th-century rhyming slang
grasshopper 'copper']
From wikipedia, and before you dismiss this quote
because
it's from wikipedia, keep in mind that many people myself included know about and have books by lexicographer Eric Partridge:
British slang has been the subject of many books, including a seven-volume dictionary, published in 1889. Lexicographer Eric Partridge published several works about British slang, most notably Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, revised and edited by Paul Beale.
And, Wikipedia has an entry on British slang, as well as many, many pages on slang in various languages:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_slang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Slang_by_language
"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people." -
pdjackson-1 — 10 years ago(April 10, 2015 05:23 AM)
Australia doesn't have "an accent", as everyone keeps thinking, Australia has broadly three plus the polyglot hybridised versions with others The group is known as a "strayn", there is the Crisp-strayn, kind of the RADA or BBC english version or posh accent, common in the southern states; the Common-strayn, in the UK this would be known as the Neighbours or Home and Away accent; the last is the Broad-strayn, where the inflection goes up at the end, drawling voices and the clicks, buts and eh?
Then there's the New Zealand accent, which is totally different! where six is pronounced sux, fish is fush, chips is chups. and there's the choice ay bro? or is that cuzzy-bro
It annoys many Australians when American Actors attempt the accent Stephen K. Amos (an English Comedian) said that the Australian Accent was "like South African, just less evil."
We have irregular re-runs of JAG - they yes did a couple of episodes filmed in Sydney, but then had Trevor Goddard play Lt.Cdr Mic Brumby, an Australian Naval Lawyer, Goddard is actually English It's like watching the interview between Pamela Stephenson and Billy Connelly from "Not the Nine O'Clock News" both are just about unintelligible with their exaggerated accents Pure Glaswegian vs. High-American