Americans Are Barmy Over Britishisms | Hacker News Reader

Americans Are Barmy Over Britishisms

nytimes.com

8 points001sky10 comments

As an Australian I find this hilarious. Britain and Australia have been picking up Americanisms for a long time. I've even heard younger Australians refer to the "boot" of their car as a "trunk". Horrifying.

To see some cultural imperialism going back the other way is very satisfying!

It is pretty weird. You hear a lot of 'no worries' and other Australianisms around SF, too.

I thought people understood that language and particularly English is a moving target. As soon as it's codified another wave of influence injects itself.

What is wonderful is the robustness of the English language, speakers and listeners. In London there are more differences between south and north London speakers then there are between me, a north Londoner and an American.

"...via their iPad apps over “a coffee.”"

What do Americans call a coffee? "via their iPad apps over “a cuppa.”" would be more British.

I was fairly sure they call it coffee, which isn't a particularly British word anyway, as it comes from Arabic, via Turkish and Italian.

Joey from friends says "cwoffee", perhaps that's what they mean...

Nope, that's the New York way of pronounce it :)

Surely you mean New Yoyk. ;)

The next time an American “mate” asks you to “ring” her on her “mobile” about renting your “flat” during your “holiday,” it’s fair to ask, have we all become Madonna?

This is hilarious.

I am so glad the press has noticed that the US may well have been importing words from other countries for a while now, I can't wait for the followup about what the CIA should do to tackle this threat. Next week, Spanish for Texans.

After that "loco" hike to the "mesa" I ate a "burrito" with "cilantro" then took a "siesta" on the "patio."

Get off your "tukhus" you "kvetching" "klutz" and "schlep" these "tchotchkes" over to the "bagel" store.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com