<<Uriel - why do you, for some reason keep on assuming that my posts are anti-American?>>
I don't. I mostly assume that you are very anti-me.
<<Because I dislike the almost complete whitewash of my native language I am some how anti-American?? How is that exactly?? Please explain this?>>
Because you use words like "whitewash", perhaps?
<<I am not anti-American in the least but very anti-Americanisation. There is a difference!! I do not need to explain that any further. If your backward mind cannot grasp the simplicity of why someone would be unhappy with the loss of much of their culture and language to another then I am never going to get through. It doesn't matter to me if it were French, Australian English or whatever but you clearly have a chip on your shoulder and I think that nothing I will say will change that.>>
Actually, you are the one with the chip on YOUR shoulder. You are the one who came out swinging, and throwing ad hominem attacks in my direction, calling me stupid and ignorant. If you're going to be an asshole, I'm going to treat you with the disdain and disrespect you deserve and obviously crave. People like you go on the offensive because you enjoy picking a fight and being the antagonist. I'm playing along.
<<Uriel, your post focuses on much American slang that is being picked up by Britons - why?? Where in my post did I say anything about slang??? Please point this out???>>
Sure. 99% of American and British English is utterly identical. I can read your whole post without noticing any real deviations in grammar or vocabulary from the way I would put it -- as is the case with almost all posts by the British, Irish, Australians, and New Zealanders that I've read. It is mainly when people use colloquialisms or slang that you can spot regional differences -- the standard language conveys little to give away a poster's identity. And it is those words and phrases that tend to be associated with a particular "other" identity, like American.
<<...how you can say that the learning of a language is not passive is incredible. The next time my sister says "my bad" for example, I will stop and ask her why she chose to use that phrase instead of "my fault".>>
...And here we are, back to slang. I remember the first time *I* heard "my bad". I thought it sounded stupid. I didn't use it. And it did take me a long time to start using it, and it made me feel a little self-conscious. (And of course, now it's pretty passe, and I don't hear it much anymore.) All new slang does that -- partially because it's unusual, and partially because you have to learn how to use it correctly and appropriately so you don't make yourself sound like an idiot. It's not an unconscious thing at all -- you have to pay close attention, because slang has a lot of social baggage attached to it.
<<What I am talking about is the Americanisation of British English in all its forms - pronunciation, diction as well as written. >>
I doubt it, since American pronunciations usually themselves stem from some original British source. Northerners and Irish people, for example, still use the short "cat' A in words like glass and pass, and there are rhotic dialects in the UK as well. The most we might be doing is reintroducing some of your own variations back to you.
Or perhaps the Canadians are to blame. They sound oddly like us, and have stronger ties to you....perhaps you are pointing all this invective in the wrong direction?
<<Oh, and how can you say that you are exposed to British English but choose NOT to use it?? But rather you decide to use influences such as Black American English?? That is silly, I mean how can you compare the amount of exposure of American’s to British English in comparison to American English??? You lot are not exposed to British English nearly enough for it to have any big impact, and certainly no where near as much as you are Black American English.>>
How much time does your average American spend in Compton or Watts? Precious little, but for whatever reason, the slang ends up making the rounds, whether most of the users really have any contact with the original sources or not. I'm guessing virtually every average American has seen a few British movies and watched some British TV or YouTube offerings. Your music is big, your actors and actresses are household names here. We've all watched cable and satellite TV and YouTubed and sat through MTV and VH1. Probably infinitely more times than we've been to the hood. And yet, which one sticks? It's not about sheer number of exposure opportunities, it's about which ones grab you.
<<And how can you say British English is UN-COOL?????? >>
I didn't say it was uncool. I said it wasn't OUR source of cool. Ours is urban black culture, and has been since at least the 20's, when swing and jazz first started going mainstream.
Prior to that, the UK WAS a major source of cool, going so far as to influence the accents of New England and the coastal south. You can even hear vestiges of an artificially anglicized theatrical accent in American movies of the 30's and 40's, which definitely spoke to the higher prestige of the English accent. But it died out as it was replaced by the cultural shifts of the rock and roll era with its roots in black rhythm and blues, the emergence of a distinct teenage identity, and the uncanny ability of emulated black speech to infuriate parents and other authority figures. And because black musical culture has continued to reinvent itself through the decades and remains fresh and vibrant and new from one incarnation to the next, it still maintains a disproportionate and wildly powerful hold on the popular consciousness, that other sources -- like UK pop culture -- can't compete with.