Americanisms

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jimlaad43
  • 916 comments
  • 57,606 views

Do you like Americanisms?

  • Yes, they are better than British spelling

    Votes: 53 15.9%

  • No, proper English should be used

    Votes: 118 35.4%

  • I don't care at all

    Votes: 95 28.5%

  • I prefer a mixture

    Votes: 67 20.1%
  • Total voters
    333
rb26x
Well p1ss drunk is the only time it refers to being intoxicated here. p!ssed or p!ssed off just means angry. Could care less annoys me, maybe the reason it's more common in America is the amount of ignorant people here. Not to sound sexist, but my friend and I went around asking random friends of ours if they know who Kim Jong-Ill is. Not a single girl knew other than my girlfriend, and about 85-90% of the guys knew. I don't get how so many people don't know who that is, but it could explain the whole "could care less" thing coming into existence. Also, I'm not sure if this is only in America, but "guesstimate" is a word that annoys the crap out of me. (It p!sses me off :lol: ) Say guess, say estimate, but don't combine them.
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Here is you say 'Yeah he was well p!ssed!' it will most likely mean drunk, however to add confusion I have heard people say that but meaning annoyed... :crazy:
 
Pupik
If someone's saying "eye-talian", they're just making a point to be uncultured, but I can't say I've heard anyone in person pronounce it that way naturally.

People say "eye-rack" on a regular basis, but maybe 50/50...face it, the word isn't English to begin with, so we're getting off traq here...
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Oh, this is a huge thing for me - people who insist on trying to pronounce places in the way that the people in that place pronounce them. I will rant at anyone who tells me to pronounce EYEraq earACK, same for EYEran not being earON.

...and here's the crux of it.

In mexico, they call the united states "Los Estados Unidos". Do we go over there and say "no, it's pronounced United States you uncultured buffoon!" no. Neither do I say that to anyone who calls my country Amedica. They can call it whatever it is in their language. It's their language, who am I to tell Mexicans that they can't name my country Los Estados Unidos, or Amedica, or Tierra De Los Gordos if they want to. It's their language, they can call it whatever they want. When I speak that language I need to learn what they call my country and call it the same thing if I want them to be able to communicate with me.

So an Iraqi who comes to America should call his country EYE-raq. Not EAR-aq, or HERE-aq, or anything else. He should learn what people call it in the native language and use that.
 
Speaking of Americanisms, has anyone actually read HL Mencken's The American Language?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0394400755/?tag=gtplanet-20

I got it on eBay for a few bucks a year or so ago. Haven't been able to read it yet though. It's huge and I'm too ADD to read with any kind of pace.

Re: Middle eastern country names. I say ee-RAWK. Eye-RACK to me is the equivalent of saying EH-rab instead of AHrab. But we say Mecksicko instead of Mayheeko, and Kwatarr instead of Cutter. There's a threshold somewhere.
 
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If anyone said well p!ssed here, it would mean only angry, I've never heard of p!ssed meaning drunk. Only wasted, retarded (although more for smoking not drinking), ******, or something like that. Also, Chillax is so annoying.
 
Omnis
Re: Middle eastern country names. I say ee-RAWK. Eye-RACK to me is the equivalent of saying EH-rab instead of AHrab. But we say Mecksicko instead of Mayheeko, and Kwatarr instead of Cutter. There's a threshold somewhere.
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It's arbitrary. Doesn't matter which of those things we call it as long as we're consistent. I'd argue that Eye-rack is the adopted American pronunciation, so everyone else should get with the program. Also air-ub.
 
Yeah, air-ub or air-ab. But not "A"-rab. That's super hick right there.
 
Omnis
Yeah, air-ub or air-ab. But not "A"-rab. That's super hick right there.
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You don't like pronouncin' them there A-rabs do ya city boy.

Ear-rock.

Ear-ahn.

Despite being able to pronounce them with a somewhat correct accent, I still say I-rack and I-ran because it's funnier.

Iran; so far away.
 
Danoff
So an Iraqi who comes to America should call his country EYE-raq. Not EAR-aq, or HERE-aq, or anything else. He should learn what people call it in the native language and use that.
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I've never understood where the "eye"bit comes from. How do you pronounce the "I" in irradiate, irrational or irreverent?
 
I'm kind of flipping the topic here but...

Why do some with a certain accent say words like idea like I-D-er? Seem to have er at the end.
 
Has anyone considered that "eye-raq” might be the native pronunciation? I’ve never heard an Iraq‎i pronounce the name of their country, especially not when they are speaking Arabic, so I don’t know either way; but I just used Google Translate’s pronunciation feature to hear the Arabic pronunciation of the Arabic word for Iraq (العراق), and the result was “eye-raak” (actually “al-eye-raak” to be precise).

Now, I’m not saying Google Translate’s pronunciation feature is perfect, but it’s the only evidence I have, so it seems to me like “eye-raak” is correct whichever of the two languages you are speaking.

Given that, I’d go with “eye-raan” too. So that’s two more things I’m siding with (most) Americans on rather than (most) Brits…
 
Blackbird.
I'm kind of flipping the topic here but...

Why do some with a certain accent say words like idea like I-D-er? Seem to have er at the end.
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Don't know, but my grandfather used to talk like that, adding extra r's to words that ended in vowels. Nobody else in my family voiced words that way, which lends a certain peculiarity to why folks do it.

Seems to be a northeast US thing.
 
Pupik
Don't know, but my grandfather used to talk like that, adding extra r's to words that ended in vowels. Nobody else in my family voiced words that way, which lends a certain peculiarity to why folks do it.

Seems to be a northeast US thing.
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That happens quite a bit around here as well. The word "wash" is the most common word pronounced this way, as in "can you warsh my car?" It's not exactly the same as what you described, but close enough.
 
TheBook
That happens quite a bit around here as well. The word "wash" is the most common word pronounced this way, as in "can you warsh my car?" It's not exactly the same as what you described, but close enough.
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Yeah, my grandfather used to say "warsh" too. Fellow was "feller".

Heh, this is bringing back lots of old memories. :lol:
 
MTC
Has anyone considered that "eye-raq” might be the native pronunciation? I’ve never heard an Iraq‎i pronounce the name of their country, especially not when they are speaking Arabic, so I don’t know either way
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I went to university - on a very small course - with an Iraqi girl and an Iranian girl. They pronounced their countries as Ih-rak and Ih-ran respectively.
 
Pupik
If someone's saying "eye-talian", they're just making a point to be uncultured, but I can't say I've heard anyone in person pronounce it that way naturally.

People say "eye-rack" on a regular basis, but maybe 50/50...face it, the word isn't English to begin with, so we're getting off traq here...

Minor vowel mispronunciations on your last two examples are not exclusive to Americans.
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Yeah wasn't sure about the last bit but I threw it in there anyway as I was remembering annoying things. My Dad works with Americans a lot and he really annoys me because he says many americanisms now, mainly eye-talian, eye-raq and sem-eye.

Danoff
Oh, this is a huge thing for me - people who insist on trying to pronounce places in the way that the people in that place pronounce them. I will rant at anyone who tells me to pronounce EYEraq earACK, same for EYEran not being earON.

...and here's the crux of it.

In mexico, they call the united states "Los Estados Unidos". Do we go over there and say "no, it's pronounced United States you uncultured buffoon!" no. Neither do I say that to anyone who calls my country Amedica. They can call it whatever it is in their language. It's their language, who am I to tell Mexicans that they can't name my country Los Estados Unidos, or Amedica, or Tierra De Los Gordos if they want to. It's their language, they can call it whatever they want. When I speak that language I need to learn what they call my country and call it the same thing if I want them to be able to communicate with me.

So an Iraqi who comes to America should call his country EYE-raq. Not EAR-aq, or HERE-aq, or anything else. He should learn what people call it in the native language and use that.
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But your meant to be speaking English, and in English it's pronounced It-alian and Ir-aq.
I don't try to pronounce countries names the way they are pronounced in their native language, I just try pronounce it the way it's meant to be in English, because many places don't have the same name in their native language as they do in English.
 
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MazdaPrice
As a Canadian, do you say pop or soda, Vandenal?

I've heard it's a mixture.
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We tend to use both, actually.

It depends though, we have Cream Soda, and club soda. Though beverages like Coca Cola and Pepsi and such is referred to as pop.
 
Interesting. To me, everything is pop, except cream soda because that's a specific name.

Cream soda is a type of pop. But in UK English there's usually the suffix -ade. Orange soda = Orangeade, for example.
 

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