"Gary Woods" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote:

Americans think they speak English,

I should probably remain silent and be just though a fool, but:

I never thought I spoke English, though I understand a lot of it passably.
Watching "Last of the Summer Wine" has taught me there are subsets of
English that might as well be Swahili!

g Fine for me. I don't thing there are many regional Uk accents that I
can't understand. Extreme Glaswegian is difficult though.

"David Hill" wrote in message
...
On 06/12/2015 17:16, Vir Campestris wrote:
On 05/12/2015 20:44, Christina Websell wrote:
Americans think they speak English, I can assure them that they don't.

"Do you speak English?"
"Yes, and I understand American"

Bob Heinlein, Glory Road. And he was a Yank...


I remember going on a AAA course at Motspur park in the mid 50's. The
course was headed by Jeff Dyson who was the national head coach.
As he was lecturing he would often come out with "and I say unto thee".
On that course was a lad from Cornwall, it wasn't till the 3rd day I
realised he was talking English,between his accent and his dialect.
Also when I was market gardening outside Hastings in the early 60's we had
a driver come down form Fort William to pick up some stuff we were
selling. My Boss was Irish but had been a fighter pilot in the war,
Margaret was Sussex born and bred and owing to my Father being a Captain
in the RFA I had been to many parts of the UK when he was home and we were
on board ship with him.
I found myself acting as an interpretor between My Boss and the driver.
So much for a common language in the UK.


I so disagree with this. I can understand every accent and dialect in the
Uk, and I'm surprised by this post. As I said upthread my only difficulty
is with *extreme* Glaswegian. I simply cannot understand it - it sounds
like "a hoot, a hoot, a hoot.."

"Christina Websell" wrote:

English is constantly evolving and it evolves from the UK

Wrong tense, methinks: "evolved?" The various versions that left the UK
at various times have taken their own course like Darwin's birds.


--
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

On Mon, 7 Dec 2015 00:05:05 -0000, "Christina Websell"
wrote:


English is constantly evolving and it evolves from the UK. Because we are
English and it's our language. Americans speak American. Do you have a
faucet in your house, does your car have a hood or fender? I rest my case.


Ford Anglias had a knob on the dashboard quite clearly marked Hood.
This is a photo of one.
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTU1WDEyODA=/z/mjgAAOSw3ydVlYjK/$_1.JPG
Quite a few people had one at one time.

G Harman

Christina Websell wrote:

I have quite a few American friends and we disagree all the time about
their
idea of English and mine. American English is very different from
"English" English.

Sorry, that is complete nonsense.
Ask someone if a book they are reading was published in the UK or US,
and I'll guarantee they will have no idea 90% of the time.
The language spoken in the two countries is essentially identical.
I don't know why people make up this pretence
that there is a great difference between them.
Even the accents are converging,
as are accents within the UK.

--
Timothy Murphy
gayleard /at/ eircom.net
School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin

"Timothy Murphy" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell wrote:

I have quite a few American friends and we disagree all the time about
their
idea of English and mine. American English is very different from
"English" English.

Sorry, that is complete nonsense.
Ask someone if a book they are reading was published in the UK or US,
and I'll guarantee they will have no idea 90% of the time.
The language spoken in the two countries is essentially identical.
I don't know why people make up this pretence
that there is a great difference between them.
Even the accents are converging,
as are accents within the UK.

--
Timothy Murphy
gayleard /at/ eircom.net

Disagree. The Harry Potter books were pages shorter when they took out the
"u"s in colour, behaviour, etc. for Americans.
I'm not saying that Americans don't speak English (as such) it's just that
it's their version. It's American. I'm not trying to horrible about it.

"Gary Woods" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote:

English is constantly evolving and it evolves from the UK

Wrong tense, methinks: "evolved?" The various versions that left the UK
at various times have taken their own course like Darwin's birds.

No wrong tense, English evolves, we are constantly updating our dictionary

On 7/12/2015 11:05 AM, Christina Websell wrote:
"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 6 Dec 2015 09:12:51 +1100, Fran Farmer
wrote:

On 6/12/2015 8:43 AM, Christina Websell wrote:
"David Hill" wrote in message
...
On 05/12/2015 20:44, Christina Websell wrote:


Americans think they speak English, I can assure them that they don't.



Glad that has been sorted out once and for all.

grin Americans used to speak English once: now it's American.

I saw a very interesting TV show quite a few years ago on just this
topic. It suggested that the English now spoken by Americans is more
like the English spoken in the UK a few centuries ago than the sort of
English now spoken in the UK.

The show cited both words still used by Americans that have changed use
over time in the UK and the accent. One example I recall is the way
Americans still use the word "kettle" (ie, a cooking pot, not a spouted
water boiling thingamabob) which is the way it used to be used in the UK
centuries ago. Also the accent in the long "a" when American say "bath"
is the way it used to be said in the UK centuries ago.

The way bath is pronounced in UK depends on where one comes from.
--
English is constantly evolving and it evolves from the UK. Because we are
English and it's our language.

"OUR"????

Americans speak American. Do you have a
faucet in your house, does your car have a hood or fender? I rest my case.

I'd say, first put forward a case.

On 7/12/2015 12:48 PM, Timothy Murphy wrote:
Christina Websell wrote:

I have quite a few American friends and we disagree all the time about
their
idea of English and mine. American English is very different from
"English" English.

Sorry, that is complete nonsense.

I think so too.

Ask someone if a book they are reading was published in the UK or US,
and I'll guarantee they will have no idea 90% of the time.
The language spoken in the two countries is essentially identical.
I don't know why people make up this pretence
that there is a great difference between them.
Even the accents are converging,

Indeed they are. I know there are a lot of British, Australian and Kiwi
actors on US TV and play spot the actor and then try to find a hint in
the accent of their home country. It's almost impossible these days.

as are accents within the UK.

In message , Christina Websell
writes

I so disagree with this. I can understand every accent and dialect in the
Uk, and I'm surprised by this post.

We moved from Hertfordshire to rural Aberdeenshire 14 years ago, and it
took me a while to understand the accents, particularly pure Aberdeen
and, locally, Doric. There came a point, though, when, after speaking
to someone, I wasn't aware of their accent - I did not notice whether I
had been speaking to an Englishman or a Scot.

--
Graeme

On 07/12/2015 00:32, Christina Websell wrote:
"David Hill" wrote in message
...
On 06/12/2015 17:16, Vir Campestris wrote:
On 05/12/2015 20:44, Christina Websell wrote:
Americans think they speak English, I can assure them that they don't.

"Do you speak English?"
"Yes, and I understand American"

Bob Heinlein, Glory Road. And he was a Yank...


I remember going on a AAA course at Motspur park in the mid 50's. The
course was headed by Jeff Dyson who was the national head coach.
As he was lecturing he would often come out with "and I say unto thee".
On that course was a lad from Cornwall, it wasn't till the 3rd day I
realised he was talking English,between his accent and his dialect.
Also when I was market gardening outside Hastings in the early 60's we had
a driver come down form Fort William to pick up some stuff we were
selling. My Boss was Irish but had been a fighter pilot in the war,
Margaret was Sussex born and bred and owing to my Father being a Captain
in the RFA I had been to many parts of the UK when he was home and we were
on board ship with him.
I found myself acting as an interpretor between My Boss and the driver.
So much for a common language in the UK.


I so disagree with this.

You would.

I can understand every accent and dialect in the
Uk, and I'm surprised by this post. As I said upthread my only difficulty
is with *extreme* Glaswegian. I simply cannot understand it - it sounds
like "a hoot, a hoot, a hoot.."




I'm talking of nearly 50 years ago when regional accents were much
stronger and hadn't been influenced by TV and other media.

In article ,
Gary Woods wrote:
"Christina Websell" wrote:

English is constantly evolving and it evolves from the UK

Wrong tense, methinks: "evolved?" The various versions that left the UK
at various times have taken their own course like Darwin's birds.

With a certain amount of misgenation in all directions, though the
version we speak in the UK is more misgenated than most, as is the
genetics of the population! And, of course, the ecology - a persistent
discussion point on this group.

Do you have a
faucet in your house, does your car have a hood or fender? I rest my case.

Yes, yes, and yes. Those are perfectly reasonable synonyms, and all
educated Britons understand both forms. Indeed, our current 'correct'
spelling dates only from the 19th century, and anyone reading earlier
literature or attempting to write historical fiction needs to learn
some of the other forms. Elizabethan (Tudor, that is) English was
all over the shop, and Chauce spelled bald 5 different ways in the
Prolog alone.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Mon, 7 Dec 2015 00:53:01 wrote:

On Mon, 7 Dec 2015 00:05:05 -0000, "Christina Websell"
wrote:


English is constantly evolving and it evolves from the UK. Because we are
English and it's our language. Americans speak American. Do you have a
faucet in your house, does your car have a hood or fender? I rest my case.


Ford Anglias had a knob on the dashboard quite clearly marked Hood.
This is a photo of one.
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTU1WDEyODA=/z/mjgAAOSw3ydVlYjK/$_1.JPG
Quite a few people had one at one time.

My goodness! You're right! I had a couple of Anglias (105E with the
rake-back rear window) back in the '60s and I'd completely forgotten
that!

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

On Mon, 7 Dec 2015 00:32:30 Christina Websell wrote:

I can understand every accent and dialect in the
Uk, and I'm surprised by this post.

You can? Methinks you haven't heard half of them! ;-)

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

On 07/12/15 14:15, Timothy Murphy wrote:

Actually, I think color is almost acceptable in the UK;

Not to me


Do you find Donald Trump more difficult to understand than David Cameron?

I can hear their words, but I cannot understand what they are
saying. It might help if that explained /why/ they are saying it.