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Merging of AmE and BrE | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6428 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 17 of 35 11 May 2012 at 6:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
I've never heard anyone say "take a decision" anywhere, and it would definitely catch my attention if I did, because I'd probably stop and be like "what?" I learned the expression "have a wazz" meaning "urinate" from a British friend, and I think it's hilarious and I say it regularly. Excuse me, I'm gonna go have a wazz. "Wazz" is pronounced with a short American "a," like in the word "apple." I find that hilarious too because British doesn't really use that American short "a" sound, so when it pops up from time to time it always makes me laugh. The two examples I can think of off hand are 1) when a British person says "um" (like when they are thinking about something) they pronounce it like the American word "am." 2) When British people say the name of the car company Mazda, they say "Mäzder" with a short American "a" and an "er" on the end. It always makes me laugh, but not in a ridiculing sort of way. It seems like the only time British people use a short American "A" is when American people use a British sounding "ah." Edited by IronFist on 11 May 2012 at 7:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| LaughingChimp Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4690 days ago 346 posts - 594 votes Speaks: Czech* | Message 18 of 35 11 May 2012 at 11:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
They do, the change doesn't affect all words. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English _short_A#Trap.E2.80.93bath_split 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4656 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 19 of 35 12 May 2012 at 1:03am | IP Logged | |||||
The short vowels are mostly up north in the UK (i.e. north of the Watford Gap!). When we moved (slightly further down) south my wife had to learn to say "clarss" (long a) instead of continuing with "class" (short a) otherwise the kids just looked at each other in a bemused sort of way. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| yong321 Groupie United States yong321.freeshe Joined 5533 days ago 80 posts - 104 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 20 of 35 19 May 2012 at 1:42am | IP Logged | |||||
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Most of you talked about vocabulary or spelling. How about other aspects of difference? I think British English uses or used to use the form "Have you <something>?" to mean "Do you have <something>?" Is that still the case?
Unrelated. If somebody normally says "Have you ...?" (meaning "Do you have ...?"), and if he learns a language that inverts a lot, such as German, do you think the learning is easier for him than for one that normally says "Do you have ...?" In other words, do the British feel German easier than Americans in terms of naturally and intuitively (i.e. without thinking or analysis) understanding the structure of a German sentence? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| PillowRock Groupie United States Joined 4725 days ago 87 posts - 151 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 21 of 35 19 May 2012 at 2:25am | IP Logged | |||||
I seriously doubt it. Forming questions by inversion is completely routine in other places in common American usage such as "Are you ...?" / "Is there ...?" / "Have you been ...?" / "Has anybody ...?" For that matter, even the "Do you have ...?" phrasing that you mentioned inverts "You" and "Do" to form the question. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| sipes23 Diglot Senior Member United States pluteopleno.com/wprs Joined 4861 days ago 134 posts - 235 votes Speaks: English*, Latin Studies: Spanish, Ancient Greek, Persian | Message 22 of 35 19 May 2012 at 2:42am | IP Logged | |||||
But no one I know here in the States would say *"Has anybody a fork?" We would ask "Does anybody have a fork?" Of course we sometimes *do* invert "have", as in "Has anybody left?" The only way that "have" can be inverted in AmE is when the question involves "have" as some sort of auxiliary verb. That is to say *only* items that are at I in the syntax tree can be moved to form questions. If the "have" is used as an ordinary verb showing possession and is not I in the syntax tree but at V, then it can't move to form a question in AmE. You need do-support at this point. I'd also agree that BrE can ask "have you any wool?" Whether this use is moribund or not, I can't say. I can say that a character on an episode of 1970s Dr. Who asked a question in that fashion. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| July Diglot Senior Member Spain Joined 5264 days ago 113 posts - 208 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishB2 Studies: French | Message 23 of 35 19 May 2012 at 2:58am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think the 'Have you...?' tag is pretty outdated these days. In most areas of the UK
(obviously with vast variations), it comes across as pretentious or ridiculously posh, so perhaps it still shows up in dramas for that reason. Old Queenie probably uses it all the time, though. I, (twenty-something originally from south-eastern England) would never use it. 'Have you got..?' may be used slightly more than 'Do you have..?', but they're interchangeable. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| yong321 Groupie United States yong321.freeshe Joined 5533 days ago 80 posts - 104 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 24 of 35 19 May 2012 at 5:32am | IP Logged | |||||
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> the 'Have you...?' tag is pretty outdated these days.
Thank you. That's what I thought. > Forming questions by inversion is completely routine in other places in common American usage such as "Are you ...?" English has far less inversion than German. Although you say "Rarely do they do something...", you don't say "Today do they do...". But in German, "Today John gives Jane a book" becomes, literally, "Today John Jane a book" (Heute gibt John Jane ein Buch), since "today" is at the beginning, one of many conditions for inversion. The subject-object adjacency (for lack of a better phrase) of "John Jane" always bothers me, I mean, takes a little brain power to analyze and understand, until of course I become fluent a few years down the road hopefully. So I was thinking, the more inversion somebody's native language has, the easier he would feel about the ubiquitous inversion of German (or maybe Japanese, which I didn't study). I have no doubt about it theoretically, but would like to find real examples to prove the theory. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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