Americanisms

Americanisms are commonly used throughout England and have even been dated back as far to Shakespearian times with Shakespeare saying ‘what trash is Rome’. So why are the British suddenly boycotting Americanisms when they don't even know which words are and which words are not? The answer could be simple traditionalism with many people believing that it is replacing traditional English where Britain was the centre of the English Language. They can also confuse people, with the more straight forward variations of sidewalk and pavement to the more complex small variations of colour and color; especially to anyone new to the English Language trying to learn it.

Although Brits act as traditionalists towards the language it’s important to remember that we Brits have been stealing words from other languages for centuries, stemming from the First King of England, King William I from Normandy, bringing aspects of French and Latin to the language all the way through to the Viking invasions of Anglo Saxon England. Most near and dear ‘British’ words that are close to our hearts are not even originated in Britain. For example tea comes from the Chinese word te; chocolate, although came to England after passing through Spanish, it was originally xoxolatl in the Nahuatl language of modern-day Mexico; music which originates from Greek referring to the art of the muses; and sarcasm which is also Greek and comes from the word sarx. In order for the British to be rightly outraged about Americanisms they should stop using words that do not originate from old English, a feat that is virtually impossible, considering how mixed our language in itself is. As Brits we need to realise that our language is forever evolving and Americanisms are just another example of this evolution. Without the evolution of language we would still be stuck in a language that would not match our current society and how we have evolved as not only a country but a world.

Personally I believe that Americanisms should not be shunned by our ‘stiff upper lip’ and should be further embraced. Not only are they significantly more logical, missing out the unnecessary U’s in every other word, the large majority of words sound British regardless. Words such as centre and center both have the same meaning and yet the spelling is different. This change of spelling adds no significance to the word only confusion to the person spelling them. Another example of this confusion is theatre and theater, yet unnecessary spelling change. Anyone who can see these words can clearly see the easier way of spelling is er rather than re, so why would be just further complicate an already complicated language. A further example is the use of S where there should be a Z sound. Although the use of S in the word does look nicer simple phonetics would mean that the word should be spelt with a Z such as the word realise. Us Brits spell it with a ise rather than the more logical phonetic ize. These are the reasons why I believe Americanisms should be used rather than shunned throughout England.