Celebrate the Decline and Fall of the U.S. Empire at YAPC::NA::2008

[Mark Keating]

To be absolutely fair the only people who refer to it as British English 
are not from Britain.

Also it isn't a divergence it is an evolution, we cannot diverge from 
our own language.

American/Pidgin/Australian Englishes etc and eta al are the 'divergent' 
forms by this definition, as for their hegenomy that's a hugely 
different argument.

But English has always been a slut of a language, mostly Germanic with 
some Latin rules, a host of stolen words from French (beef, rendevouz, 
entrepaneur etc.) and the casual nature to absorb what it cannot simulate.

I love it.

But it doesn't belong to anyone. And comparitively it is closer to 13th 
Century Flemish (but there again we always did have more history ;p )

Also there are many great American Linguists who could argue this for 
you, see Labov or Chomsky for example. You guys are generally lovely, 
your 'Prezident'(1) is a Pillock ;)

1. Stop putting Zs in our words or we'll get our own back


Jonathan Rockway wrote:
> * On Thu, Mar 13 2008, Dave Hodgkinson wrote:
>   
>> Can we have our language back now please? You people have nearly
>> destroyed it.
>>     
>
> To be fair, both British English and American English are two separate
> languages that once shared a (now dead) ancestor.  As far as I know,
> your guys' version of English has diverged more from 18th century
> English than ours has, however.
>
>   http://www.englishclub.com/english-language-history.htm
>
> Never let facts get in the way of bashing us stupid Americans.
>
> Regards,
> Jonathan Rockway
>
>   

-- 
Mark Keating BA (Hons)
Managing Director

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