American English--two different areas/angles

Eliza · Joined: 21 Aug 2011 Posts: 714

The first is an article I found interesting: "Americans Are Barmy Over Britishisms"
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/fashion/americans-are-barmy-over-britishisms.html?pagewanted=1&ref=general&src=me

The second is from a Brooks analysis of the VP debate as a generation war in approach but I'm also focusing here on what he says about regionalism since there was a dialect/accent discussion a while back. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/12/opinion/brooks-the-generation-war.html?hp&_r=0

That was a time, much more so than now, when there were still regional manners, regional accents and greater distance from the homogenizing influence of mass culture. That was a culture in which emotion was put out there on display....

This was a battle of generations. The age difference was the undercurrent of every exchange. The older man had the virility, but, in a way, that will seem antique to many.

dick · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 2252

Living in the Midwest as I do, were I to hear a Britishism, I'd be certain that person speaking was being sarcastic.

Re the Brooks piece: Although I think some of the commenters read the piece a bit wrong, I was startled by the number of them that were pro Biden. Some of the comments, in fact, were more insightful than Brooks was.

Somewhere on the net was a piece about the number of searches that were made for "malarkey," a word my Irish mother was very fond of throwing at each of her children when expressing doubt about what they were saying. I guess that demonstrates into which generation I fall.