{"id":2109,"date":"2023-02-03T19:59:58","date_gmt":"2023-02-04T01:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/richyrocks.com\/?p=2109"},"modified":"2024-11-12T19:00:18","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T01:00:18","slug":"america-americans-american-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richyrocks.com\/coolenglish\/america-americans-american-english\/","title":{"rendered":"america, americans & american english: controversies surrounding a dumb name"},"content":{"rendered":"

a while back<\/a> a student informed me about the bbc<\/strong> docu-series the adventure of english.<\/strong><\/em> specifically he wanted to confirm that he had correctly understood a claim<\/a> in one of the videos that americans speak better english than the british.<\/p>\n

\"lord<\/a><\/h6>\n
lord gordon was impressed by\u00a0american english when he visited colonial america in the 1760s. (henri-pierre danloux)<\/em><\/h5>\n

at 1:11 in this excerpt<\/strong><\/em> (little piece) from episode 5 (english in america<\/strong><\/em>) u can hear british\u00a0lord gordon<\/strong>‘s high opinion of late 18th century american english…<\/p>\n

[english is]\u00a0spoken by all ranks in a degree of purity and perfection surpassing<\/em> any but the polite part of london<\/h4>\n
\nhttp:\/\/richyrocks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/history-of-english.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

surpass<\/strong><\/em> means be better than<\/em>. indeed <\/a>presenter melvyn bragg<\/strong>‘s conclusion is<\/p>\n

the americans didn’t just speak good english, they spoke it better than the english themselves.<\/h4>\n

themselves<\/em><\/strong> is used to emphasize that american english was better than the english spoken by the english, the inventors of the language<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

\"drifiting<\/a> \"drifting<\/a><\/h4>\n
drifting away in the air and at sea (lupographics)<\/em><\/h6>\n

some other interesting points from the bbc vid…..<\/p>\n

    \n
  • at the beginning of the vid, bragg remarks that<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    as english spread<\/a>, it also started to…drift away<\/em> from the language spoken in england. those were already the beginnings of the tomahto\/tomayto problem.<\/h4>\n

    drift away<\/strong><\/em> means gradually and unintentionally move apart<\/em>. \u00a0it gives the idea of how objects move on the water or through the air.<\/p>\n

    in this beautiful\u00a0seventies song, dobie gray<\/strong>, wearing a dope ass shirt<\/a>, sings about how music inspires your mind to drift away<\/em><\/p>\n