How do Americans feel about UK spelling?

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

If you're really interested, there's a simple breakdown and explanation of spelling origins in US and UK standard here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America...ng_differences
Cheers. Neil

Have a few problems with that link. I can't speak for the British side, but spelling is far more fluid in the US than the article seems to imply.

Also under miscellaneous differences, I think the entry for Chilli and Chili is just plain wrong depending on whether you are talking about the pepper or the soup. In the US, I don't recall ever having seen references to the pepper spelled any way but Chile. The soup is spelled with either one or two l's depending on the mood of the writer. (I'm normally a 1 'l' guy but will travel to the dark side occasionally.)

[Joebill]

Doesn't matter to me if an author uses British English or American English.

American English has many colloquilisms.

Chili is the food which is meat cooked in a sauce with hot peppers. Sauce added after cooking is not chili. Chili doesn't have beansi n it, regardless of what those living outside the US Southwest claim. Macaroni in chili turns it into chili-mac, not chili.

Seeing chili with extra ingredients in it being sold as chili is like seeing a cake with a station wagon added to the ingredients. It just doesn't work.

Nor is grilled food barbecue. Grilling is grilling, barbecue is barbecue. They are not the same method.

As for word patterns. i.e. colloquilisms.

In New Orleans you don't go buy groceries, you 'make groceries'.

[MacEachaidh]

Originally Posted by Joebill

In New Orleans you don't go buy groceries, you 'make groceries'.

Wow, that's an intriguing one.

I love colloquialisms. One that came to mind just today: when giving directions, many Brits I know would tell you to "turn left", many Americans I know would say you "make a left", and a fair number of Australians would say you should "hang a left".

(And I've no doubt there are many more variations out there!)

[Joebill]

Or don't use street names.

I grew up in a small Texas town a long time ago.

If someone was looking for the grocery store, it might go something like this.

Go down this road that way ( eastward) until you get to Joe's burger place on the corner. Hang a left.

Go across the bridge.

Turn right at the first light, turn left just past the drug store. If you get to the movie theater, you went too far.

Look on the left. You found it.

[MacEachaidh]

Ahh, Jim, thanks for the smiles!

Yes, I love people who give directions like "turn left about a kilometre before the big tree ..." !!

[Joebill]

Texans are also known for adding, and subtracting, syllables in words.

Here is an example: djeet ? d-sound with 'jeet' right after it.

It means 'Did you eat yet ?'

[MacEachaidh]

Ahh Jim, that must be like how Aussie's talk in Far North Queensland and over in the Northern Territory - the bits of my country that are closest to the Equator. You pare every word down to the least possible number of syllables, and never open your mouth very far (because it lets the moisture out and the heat and flies in).

I've never been to Texas, but I'd really love to get there someday, and see if everyone really does walk like John Wayne and talk like George Dubya.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

It can be a challenge. One tiny example of my own: in high school, I was an exchange student to the US, and my very first day at school there, in my very first class (physics), I asked the girl sitting in front of me in my unfortunately-loud voice if she had a rubber I could borrow.

Today she probably would hand you a condom without a second thought.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by dworth

I'm British and I loved 'Frasier' when they showed it over here and watched it religiously every Friday on Channel 4. Frasier was very funny and witty and had clever scripts except... they had a British character. Daphne was supposed to be from Manchester in the north of England but was played by an actress from the south of England who couldn't do the accent. (British accents and dialects can vary enormously even over very short distances, drive an hour in any direction and people will speak differently).

Interestingly, it was actually Martin Crane played by John Mahoney who was originally from Manchester/Blackpool.

The miscasting bothers me too. I don't like when an American plays a Brit and an Australian/Brit plays an American. They sound strained and lose something in their acting abilities.

[Joebill]

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

Ahh Jim, that must be like how Aussie's talk in Far North Queensland and over in the Northern Territory - the bits of my country that are closest to the Equator. You pare every word down to the least possible number of syllables, and never open your mouth very far (because it lets the moisture out and the heat and flies in).

I've never been to Texas, but I'd really love to get there someday, and see if everyone really does walk like John Wayne and talk like George Dubya.

There are 5 regions in Texas. and several sub-regions.

One way to start an argument there is for a town, or person, to say they are in/live in Central Texas, or The Heart of Texas.

A larger than typical area, all claim to be in the Central/Heart of Texas.

One time when I was in the US Navy, we had the television on aboard ship, and Lyndon Baines Johnson, then President, was making a speech.

He mumbled, etc.

I didn't pay any attention.

After it was over with one of the guys poked me and said, "You're from Texas. Whatin hell did he just say ??"

I blinked, looked around, many expectant faces...

So I said, "Well, ya know, hes down yonder from the Perdnales part of Texas, I've never been thar, but he shore does tawk funny. I'm sorry guys, I don't unnerstand a word he sayz."

There was a pause, and they all laughed.

And I wasn't even being funny. Not no how, no way.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Interestingly, it was actually Martin Crane played by John Mahoney who was originally from Manchester/Blackpool.

The miscasting bothers me too. I don't like when an American plays a Brit and an Australian/Brit plays an American. They sound strained and lose something in their acting abilities.

I don't think Australians do too bad a job with American accents, but some British actors, even some otherwise good ones, seem to think we all speak in some sort of generic 'Southern Drawl'. When that occurs, I assume they are lazy, pros will do their homework.

As far as 'Daphne' character goes, the producers should have at least written in an excuse for her inability to get the accent correct. I remember when Freddy Prinz (the original, not the kid) got the series "Chico and The Man". Freddy couldn't speak Spanish like a Mexican, he spoke like a Puerto Rican, They wrote how he had grown up in New York in the P.R. districts.

[MacEachaidh]

Hmm, I think Australian actors tend to be able to manage a generic California(-ish) accent; if we're called on to do Boston or New England or Teyxas, we fare far less well.

Back when I was an actor myself, I know our showreels always required at least one piece in what the casting agencies termed a "trans-Pacific" accent. Because both OZ and US accents tend to have much flatter vowels than most Brit accents, it was maybe easier to connect the two. It was usually just a matter of pulling the sounds away from being formed behind our top lips and throwing them down the back of our throats.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Fbone

The miscasting bothers me too. I don't like when an American plays a Brit and an Australian/Brit plays an American. They sound strained and lose something in their acting abilities.

How does Hugh Laurie do in House? Being British, I'm not qualified to judge how well he does an American accent.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

How does Hugh Laurie do in House? Being British, I'm not qualified to judge how well he does an American accent.

He does rather well, I remember being surprised he was British and even more surprised he was the Blackadder servant character. I hope no one tells me he doesn't really walk with a cane. I saw him on some awards show where he was using his natural voice and even though I KNEW he wasn't from New Jersey, part of me kept thinking, "why is he using that strange silly voice?"

Now that you mention it, it seems to me that in general younger British actors (less than, say, 65 - 70 Years old) seem better than older.

Maybe younger people have grown up hearing American accents more frequently than the older people and feel more comfortable doing it. In the 1960's and 1970's it was HARD to watch a Brit play an American. It's been a while since I've had a truely cringeworthy moment.

I also remember reading, after the TV show "Lost" came out, that Daniel Dae Kim (who is American) had to go to a coach because he spoke Korean with a heavy American accent and they wanted to make sure the show could be sold in Korea.

[MacEachaidh]

I've yet to come across a single non-Aussie actor - Brit or US - who could do a passable Aussie accent, though (or a Kiwi accent, for that matter) - and yeah, I include Meryl Streep in that. Most of them seem to think an Aussie accent is something like Dick van Dyke sounded in Mary Poppins - it really isn't!