Rescuing British English

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Boru62

Boru62

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This is a petition to enforce all speakers of British English to refrain from using Americanisms.
It is a cake of soap, not a puck and a pack(et) of blades not a tuck, cars have rear lights not tail lights etc.
Please sign the petition and if you like, list a word you feel is being replaced. Just like the red squirrels are being usurped by their American alternative.
 
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It's a lorry not a truck; it's a boot not a trunk; it's a bonnet not a hood...ad nauseam. Setting this aside, I do get a chuckle when English as spoken in England and the British Isles is referred to as British England. English developed in England, hence the language is known as English. English languages as spoken in other English speaking countries are derivatives of English, i.e. Canadian English, American English, Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English, etc. Other languages don't refer to the mother tongue in such a way: French as spoken in France is French, not French French; German as spoken in Germany is German, not German German; Spanish as spoken in Spain is Spanish, not Spanish Spanish, etc. It is a credit to the English language that it is so wide spread and is the lingua Franca of the world, but I do think that English as spoken in the British Isles should be referred to as just English. I think calling it "British English" is an Americanism of the worst form and should be banned. When I wrote my English (Language and Literature) O and A levels, the most heinous crime was to be caught using an Americanism.
 
Rufus said:
It's a lorry not a truck; it's a boot not a trunk; it's a bonnet not a hood...ad nauseam. Setting this aside, I do get a chuckle when English as spoken in England and the British Isles is referred to as British England. English developed in England, hence the language is known as English. English languages as spoken in other English speaking countries are derivatives of English, i.e. Canadian English, American English, Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English, etc. Other languages don't refer to the mother tongue in such a way: French as spoken in France is French, not French French; German as spoken in Germany is German, not German German; Spanish as spoken in Spain is Spanish, not Spanish Spanish, etc. It is a credit to the English language that it is so wide spread and is the lingua Franca of the world, but I do think that English as spoken in the British Isles should be referred to as just English. I think calling it "British English" is an Americanism of the worst form and should be banned. When I wrote my English (Language and Literature) O and A levels, the most heinous crime was to be caught using an Americanism.
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I have to disagree with this. Are you saying that Celtic words aren't in the English language, and that the Scots, Irish, Welsh and Cornish (not to mention the Greeks, Romans, French and Germans), had no influence on its formation?
 
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Boru62 said:
I have to disagree with this. Are you saying that Celtic words aren't in the English language, and that the Scots, Irish, Welsh and Cornish (not to mention the Greeks, Romans, French and Germans), had no influence on its formation?
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I'm not saying that at all. I think you may have missed my point. I'm saying that English as spoken in the British Isles should be referred to as just "English".
 
Rufus said:
I'm not saying that at all. I think you may have missed my point. I'm saying that English as spoken in the British Isles should be referred to as just "English".
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I think we're broad minded enough to accept that British English encapsulates the language spoken on these Islands, and is probably a truer term for it.
 
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