Is Britain Now Part of America ?

[sherer]

More and more these days I get the feeling that I don't live in Britain any more but just another part of America.

Every day I get a newspaper that has a mast head and every date written in the US Month Day format rather than Date, Month, Year format that we use in the UK. e.g July 26th instead of 26th July.

Now I know nearly all newspapers are made with US DTP software but surely it wouldn't be too hard to make sure that dates are written in the UK format. Somehow I think if the US had some English DTP software they wouldn't accept printing with dates written in our format

The government sponsored advert for the smoking ban, both in print and on TV all mention the ban comes in on July 1st instead of The First of July. We are now such a US state that even the government doesn't realise.

I've been reading on the BBC website usually the home of the establishment and Englishness about the first cash point machine. Even on there, talking about a British invention, they use the phrase ATM. Now i'm not sure what these machines are going to tell me, nor how they will do it automatically.

Every film post we get now also has the date written in US format, where as a few years ago they would convert it to the UK format e.g In cinemas 26th July rather than now we get In cinemas July 26th in their format even though they already have to change the post to put our format up.

More and more I come across more Americanisms but when they start being displayed in adverts and info clips from our own government surely things have gone too far

[Russ]

What doesn't help is the use of americanisms by British people. I don't see it as a major issue though, there are more pressing matters in the world although I long for a Prime Minister with the nuts to stand up to the White House.

[sherer]

i'm not really anti-American but pro British.

our nation and language was built on that of others like the Romans, French, Vikings etc who have invaded in the past and that will probably continue but as you say we are now too happy to accept Americanisms rather than our own sayings and words.

James Bond now carries a "cell phone" whatever they are.

The one that really got me anti was smoking ban ad which is from our own government but no one realised that the date was in US format rather than our own. I'm sure the Us people we have over in the UK who saw it liked that format but it would have been better to have it in our own format to start with.

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by Russ B

I long for a Prime Minister with the nuts to stand up to the White House.

The last one ironically was a woman.
Reagan used to love the looks on his advisors faces when Maggie countered any of their suggestions with pure logic

Did hear her recently on R4 with regards to Hong Kong making a point of saying when told about a billion dollar donation, 1000 million.

I really don't think we're part of America.
Most posts regarding film releases using american format are most likely just copying it from a US site and not converting it.
People don't use Fall instead of Autumn, gasoline instead of petrol etc.

I've always interchanged dd/mmmm and mmmm/dd when writing, yet still use dd/mm/yy
It's like saying 8 45 or a quarter to nine.

As for this government getting the date wrong, come off it, what do you expect? They couldn't even get the start of the 3rd millenium right.

[Pierre]

It's funny but I don't think displaying the date as July 25th is wrong. However I would object if I saw it displayed as 07/25/2007.

I also object strongly to American spelling, you very rarely see Colour spelt as Color. Yet, you will see "defense" spelt like that all the time and on TV, papers etc, and it's pure laziness using an American spell checker.

James Bond may well use a "cell" phone but that's because it's an American film.

In the UK you don't hear of "cell" phones, nor do we use the rail road or walk on the sidewalk.

We are the bridge between Europe and America, we are very close to the yanks on some things and very European on others. I don't think we are part of America but we should keep an eye on the spelling.

[dev]

another thing to add, in software language settings where it's either "English (British)" or "English (International)" for the proper English (you know the one used in England).

[sherer]

Originally Posted by Xaccers

Most posts regarding film releases using american format are most likely just copying it from a US site and not converting it.
People don't use Fall instead of Autumn, gasoline instead of petrol etc.

I've always interchanged dd/mmmm and mmmm/dd when writing, yet still use dd/mm/yy
It's like saying 8 45 or a quarter to nine.

As for this government getting the date wrong, come off it, what do you expect? They couldn't even get the start of the 3rd millenium right.

I was more talking about the official film posters you get in papers and on billboards etc that now all display the date in July 26th rather than 26th July.

I'm sure if you went back to a paper from 100 years ago all the dates would be displayed day month no matter which format they used.

Spelling is creeping in more and more disc, licence, realise are others. I've not checked yet but would be interesting to know if on the US copy a say Harry Potter the book does it use realise etc or do they change it into realize ?

it may only be small things to start with but they all add up to even more Americanisation that slowly erodes the British way of life. A lot of people don't even realise it.

It's one of the things I do admire the US for as they made sure things are done their way and stand up for their values and way or writting and saying things, where as us Brits don't.

I was reading an article in one paper about the Airbus which is being built in collaborating between the UK, France and Germany, but in this article ALL the entries for money were in US dollars even though it was an English newspaper. The US wouldn't have put up with an article being in pounds but I have to put up with dollars in my English paper

[Xaccers]

The US$ is the international monetry unit.
Do you object to oil barrels being sold in dollars too?
Not sure what you're getting at with Harry Potter, why wouldn't they use american spellings in america? After all they changed philosopher to sorcerer.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by sherer

I've been reading on the BBC website usually the home of the establishment and Englishness about the first cash point machine. Even on there, talking about a British invention, they use the phrase ATM. Now i'm not sure what these machines are going to tell me, nor how they will do it automatically.

They are called Automatic Teller Machines because they are Automatic, and the clerks in the bank who would normally give you your money are called Tellers.

Every film post we get now also has the date written in US format, where as a few years ago they would convert it to the UK format e.g In cinemas 26th July rather than now we get In cinemas July 26th in their format even though they already have to change the post to put our format up.

More and more I come across more Americanisms but when they start being displayed in adverts and info clips from our own government surely things have gone too far

Now, that is just plain laziness.

James Bond now carries a "cell phone" whatever they are.

Now, this is one area in our language where the Yanks actually have it correct, and we don't, generally. The phones are actually called Cellular Telephones (hence O2s original name, Cellnet).

---------- Post added at 15:17 ---------- Previous post was at 15:14 ----------

Originally Posted by sherer

I was reading an article in one paper about the Airbus which is being built in collaborating between the UK, France and Germany, but in this article ALL the entries for money were in US dollars even though it was an English newspaper. The US wouldn't have put up with an article being in pounds but I have to put up with dollars in my English paper

That's probably because most international companies work in one currency, then convert to local currencies when needed which makes things easier from a management point of view because it lowers the chance of errors due to fluctuations in currency markets. For instance, I used to do export documentation for Pfizer (the makers of Viagra, amongst other things), and, in Europe and the UK, they worked exclusively in Euros, but converted to other local currencies at the point of sale.

[sherer]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

They are called Automatic Teller Machines because they are Automatic, and the clerks in the bank who would normally give you your money are called Tellers.

Surely that's only in America though. As you stated over here we call them bank clerks, I used to know someone that did that for a job and he never described himself as a teller.

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Now, this is one area in our language where the Yanks actually have it correct, and we don't, generally. The phones are actually called Cellular Telephones (hence O2s original name, Cellnet).

the phones themselves are also mobile and can be carried around as a mobile device

Originally Posted by Stuart C

That's probably because most international companies work in one currency, then convert to local currencies when needed which makes things easier from a management point of view because it lowers the chance of errors due to fluctuations in currency markets. For instance, I used to do export documentation for Pfizer (the makers of Viagra, amongst other things), and, in Europe and the UK, they worked exclusively in Euros, but converted to other local currencies at the point of sale.

i don't object to companies doing it as the US is suge a huge market for companies but when i'm reading a English paper it's not asking too much to expect to print the currency in the English format seeing as that's what their readers will use.

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by sherer

Surely that's only in America though. As you stated over here we call them bank clerks, I used to know someone that did that for a job and he never described himself as a teller.

Clerks have many roles in a bank, those that hand out money are tellers.

Originally Posted by sherer

the phones themselves are also mobile and can be carried around as a mobile device

I've got a dect phone, it's mobile, can be carried around as a mobile device.
Cellular phones however are the ones which connect to cells and enable you to make calls from anywhere within the cellular network.

Originally Posted by sherer

i don't object to companies doing it as the US is suge a huge market for companies but when i'm reading a English paper it's not asking too much to expect to print the currency in the English format seeing as that's what their readers will use.

International story, using international currency units.
Airbus probably released the figures in dollars, and this is what was being quoted.

[sherer]

Originally Posted by Xaccers

International story, using international currency units.
Airbus probably released the figures in dollars, and this is what was being quoted.

your probably right there but it's just lazy that it can't be converted into the currency that the readers of the paper actually use.

I obviously don't read any US papers but I get the feeling that if a British company released a press release with pounds in it they would take the trouble to convert it into a US amount for their readers.

That's what I was talking about with Harry Potter books. i read alot of Stephen King and US crime books but the spelling is still in realised, color etc etc even though the back cover has been changed to show a UK price on it the text in the book is still in US format. I was just wondering if you got a copy of a British book in America if it woud still have British spellings or would it be converted in US ?

[Xaccers]

Most people who read financial articles understand why dollars are generally used though no matter what their local currency is.

American books are probably not Anglicised because we can still understand them, the UK is a smaller audience so no financial benefit, and the costs involved in doing a find replace then proof reading it to ensure no grammatical errors.
Conversely, if they had to replace philosopher with sorcerer anyway, then with the larger audience, it's more likely to occur the other way, with English books being americanised.
It would be down to the local publisher though as they would foot the bill for it.

Language changes anyway, It natually evolves from many different influences and at the moment the biggest is America. Its only natural that given the power of America and the cultures reach that it would start to creep into other lanuages, the same happens in other countrys were American words are used in France and so on.

[Stuart]

Not really sure it's an Americanism, but it irritates me when they are talking about prices in ads, they say (e.g) one nine nine nine nine, instead of one hundred and ninety nine ninety nine. Or better still one hundred and ninety nine pounds ninety nine.