Are you becoming more British?

To answer your question, Jago, at least with my limited knowledge, there are a few words I can think of that seem to have moved in that direction.

I suppose the important thing is that they are recently invented words, as we share almost all our vocabulary otherwise.

`Mobile' as in a mobile phone is used in names for software for mobile phones and the like. Although `cell' phone seems to still be the clear favourite in casual speech, I don't think `mobile' used to have that sense at all in the US, but it seems to be on the increase.

Americans seem to like using the `Pond' to mean the Atlantic Ocean, which was originally British slang. Although they often qualify it by saying that's what the British say, they seem to say it more than the British in my experience.

I think `airplane' originated in Britain, although it hasn't caught on in the UK much at all despite now being universal in the US. `Aeroplane' is by far the favourite in the UK but I assume this was invented in the US along with the flying machine itself. I like that one, as we have swapped words!

I've heard people say `posh' originated in the UK, but is now widely used (if I remember correctly) in the US. I don't know how recent this is though.

Well, that seems like a pretty short list, but I don't know the origin of most words. These things usually happen unconsciously. These are the sort of things that take a generation to become acceptable, as the young-uns don't have preconceived ideas about what might be American or British or whatever.

The English language has a long history of stealing other peoples words, and now we steal other English speakers words. It's a fine tradition! The Americans are probably less inclined to take up British words than via versa, partly due to less exposure, I imagine. But it does happen. Most Americans know what `bollocks' are even if they wouldn't use the word themselves...

PS `Practise' is a verb and `practice' is a noun in British English, just to clarify.

There is a lot more than just language that has to do with why some words are used or preferred in one place over another. Mobile phones/cellphones are something from living memory that many of us can relate to.

When "cellular telephones" came out (originally) in the US back in the 80s they were usually only in cars* as they were too bulky to fit in one's pocket and where called "mobile phones" which were known to be based on some newfangled "cellular networking technology". I remember my father having a "mobile phone" in his car in the mid 80s. To my recollection term "cellphone" only started becoming popular in the US after the company "Cellular One" started selling handheld units. Rather than calling these "mobile phones" the term "cellular telephones" might have made more sense, since the "mobile phone" seemed to be more of something that belongs in a car as the word "mobile" usually invokes images of big things that have to do with things that move and are often motorized. Think "mobile artillery" , "Mobil Service Stations", "Mobile homes". But not something you could easily carry on your person.

Perhaps it's because these devices only became popular in other countries after that handheld units were already widely available that they were given the older name "mobile" as the word "cellular" was no longer being thrown around as much as it was in the US. Case in point, one of my younger colleagues in our Australian office recently asked my why do Americans call the devices "cellphones". I then explained to him what "cellular" meant...


*There were some carry-along units but they were large bulky resembling briefcases or laptops.

<<'Gotten' has just changed to 'got' in the UK (but persists in the phrase "ill-gotten games"). >>

Ill-gotten gains, not games. ;)

"Mobile phone" stills gets used in the US. What we don't generally use is just "mobile" to refer to the phone -- although we will use "cell". However, you will see ads for "mobile-to-mobile minutes". Go figure.

We also tend to pronounce mobile as moble, not mo-bile. Bile is what you throw up on an empty stomach. The long-i version is still an acceptable variant in the US, but not nearly as common as the other. And the city in Alabama is inexplicably pronounced "Mo-beel". Maybe it's French....

Aeroplane just sounds so 19th century to us. You retain quite a few words that strike us as quaint, because we only ever encounter them in dated literature. Same goes for you with some of our terms.

"Posh" is mainly used (when at all) in celebrity magazines when they are trying to be clever and arch. Ya don't hear it so much in normal conversation. It's another word that sounds faintly outdated to my ears, so often it doesn't come across so much as British, but as a revival attempt, like "dig" and "hip".

<<Perhaps it's because these devices only became popular in other countries after that handheld units were already widely available that they were given the older name "mobile" as the word "cellular" was no longer being thrown around as much as it was in the US.>>

Looking on Wikipedia it seems car phones which existed before hand held mobile phones didn't use the cellular technology from which cell phones get their name. Also, take up of mobile phones in the earlier eighties doesn't seem to have been concentrated in any particular country.

I don't care what Wikipedia says. I am speaking from experience. "Mobl Phones" where mostly only used in cars.

Answer to question: No, I am not becoming more British. I am trying to become less British.

John,

Perhaps I don't understand your point. You are saying the term `mobile phone' was used in the US to mean a phone in a car, and later the term `cellular phone' appeared to describe hand held phones. Then you go on to say that perhaps the term `mobile phone' came into use elsewhere because these phones appeared later elsewhere and the term `cellular' was _less_ prevalent in the US by that time.

Are you not contradicting yourself?

The Wikipedia article would support your view that car phones were not called 'cell phones', as they did not use cellular technology. However, I don't see how the trend towards the use of the term `cell phone' would encourage the use of the term `mobile phone' elsewhere.

Also mobile phones did not appear first only in the US.

I'm not questioning your experience, I'm questioning your assumptions of things outside your experience and the conclusions you have draw.

They are invariably called "mobiles" here in the UK....simply that..mobiles...pronounced as 'MOW-byles.

If Americans say "mow'bl" for mobile - as in motion, then how do they pronounce the name of that city on the Gulf coast of Alabama - Mobile? I heard it pronounced as 'MOW-beel'.

It seems that the Americans are every bit as inconsistent in the pronunciation of so many words in our common Language as we are. I read about instances of British guys in the USA who are called Colin....they initially get all wound up trying to convince the Americans that they are actually "Collin" and NOT "Coe-lin" and if any of them have a wife or partner called Megan (a Welsh name in origin) then she in turn is "Megg-un" and NOT "Mee-gan" or, even worse "Mee-gay-un"!

After a while they give up the fight as a lost cause and accept the American pronunciations ....a case of "Being in Rome" I suppose.

***Also mobile phones did not appear first only in the US.*** - absolutely true, but as we are all good mates,and for the sake of amity and good will, let's just sit back and allow our American friends to continue in the belief that they did, along with everything else that makes the world tick today and which they think, or have been led to think, first saw the light of day over there! Aw....bless them! Mmwah! Mmwah! ;-)

<<If Americans say "mow'bl" for mobile - as in motion, then how do they pronounce the name of that city on the Gulf coast of Alabama - Mobile? I heard it pronounced as 'MOW-beel'.>>

Yes, Americans usually pronounce the adjective "mobile" as /ˈmoʊbl/ or "mow'bl", but we usually pronounce the name of the city (and the spinning work of art) as /ˈmoʊˌbi:l/ or "MOW-beel".

<<I read about instances of British guys in the USA who are called Colin....they initially get all wound up trying to convince the Americans that they are actually "Collin" and NOT "Coe-lin">>

Well it might be because I'm in the Northeast and I have family ties to Britain, but it would never occur to me to pronounce "Colin" in any way other than "Collin" - the exception being Colin Powell, and I've gotten the impression (although I could be mistaken) that his pronunciation is rather idiosyncratic.

<<and if any of them have a wife or partner called Megan (a Welsh name in origin) then she in turn is "Megg-un" and NOT "Mee-gan" or, even worse "Mee-gay-un"!>>

Yes, over here in America we've got about a dozen ways to spell that name, and a dozen ways to pronounce it. ;)

Thanks for all that info, guys! You lot are almost, not quite, as perverse as we are - no mistake! Or as you say - no kiddin'!

MoBEEL for Mobile, Alabama?.....it must be the historical French influence! Good thinkin'! Cheers! (I'd forgotten/overlooked the fact that Uriel had already explained this one.

Would the missing letter "S" in the verbalised Illinois have a similar explanation? No? - ok.....I thought not- doesn't that have some connection with an Indian tribe or something? As with Arkansas? I've a feeling this has all been kindly explained in here before by an American. And what happened to the missing second "c" in the spoken Connecticut?

You really are almost as bad as we are for having place names that are often pronounced a whole lot differently from the way they are spelled.

Moniaive - "Moan-ee-eye" Scotland
Happisburgh "Haze-bruh" Norfolk, Eng.
Trottiscliffe - "Tross-lee" Kent, Eng.
Cholmondeley - "Chum-lee" Cheshire, Eng.
Prinknash - "Prinn-ish" Gloucestershire, Eng.
Milngavie - "Miln-guy" Scotland
Puncknowle - "Punnel" Cheshire, Eng.
Fowey - "Foy" Cornwall, Eng.
Belvoir - "Beaver" Leicestershire, Eng.
Leominster - "Lemstuh" Herefordshire, Eng.
Towcester - "Toastuh"" Northamptonshire, Eng.
Ely - "Ee-lee" Cambridgeshire, Eng.
Launceston - "Lawn-stun" Cornwall, Eng.
Meikleour - "Muck-loorrr" Scotland
Costessey - "Cossy" Norfolk, Eng.
St Asaph - "Sunt-ass-uff" Wales
Beaumaris - "Bow-marris" Wales
Flyford Flavell - first bit is just as it say, the second is "flay-vull" - Worcestershire, Eng.
Pennsylvania - exactly as in the American name! Gloucestershire, England had it first! ;-) A pretty wee village just at the southern end of the Cotswold Hills, to the north of the stately city of Bath (Aqua Sulis to the Romans....the Waters of Sul, a Roman deity, one time home of Jane Austen and other luminaries of the Arts)....oh - and a former uni mate of mine called Jason.

How could I forget the glorious clifftop castle down there on the coast of Ayrshire, Scotland - at Culzean - written; spoken - "Cull-ain".

And further to the south east the wee village of Ae - the place with the shortest name in the UK - it's in Dumfriess-shire (or Dumfries and Galloway Region in South West Scotland) and prounced as - "a" - like the letter itself.

Up in Angus, Eastern Scotand, to the north of Dundee, is another huge, ancient castle at Glamis - the ancestral home of the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, mother to our present Queen, and birthplace of the equally late Princess Margaret, the Queen's sister. Glamis is "GLAH-ms" -single syllable.

You can almost scent the heather in the glen, can't you?

Well, this IS a British thread is it not? ;-)

***Most Americans know what `bollocks' are even if they wouldn't use the word themselves....***

Well, the actual definition of "bollocks" as an offensive word is a wee bit nebulous to tell you the truth. Alright, it may not be used in "polite company" as such, but it most definietly is quite widely used in the average office environment in the UK - certainly in the one I am slave to. It's far from unusual for my boss, just as an example, to slap a file of scripts I'd previous handed in to him right down on my desk and yell out "some of that is a load of f*****g bollocks! Sort it out and come back to me!" We are constantly learning and living, aren't we?

I believe that the average British office is far more likely to buzz with the sound of oaths and expletives than is an American one.....

Bollocks, of course, is another word for testicles. Not too many casual conversations find either word creeping into the discussion - unless of course it involves a group of medics or people of an even more lascivious nature.

Definitely! Grrr.....one of the most widely mispelled words in British English! At least I didn't include an "a" in my earlier version.

<<Fowey - "Foy" Cornwall, ENG. >>

Now, now Damian! I've set you straight on this before!!
:)