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Americanisms in Writing Magazine

OnlinegenieOnlinegenie
edited April 2015 in Writing
I am frequently taken by surprise by Americanisms in Writing Magazine. An example that stood out in April's edition was on page 69 in the mid-story sentence competition. The provided sentence has to be used "someplace" mid-way through the story. Don't we say somewhere on this side of the Atlantic?

In any other type of magazine (e.g. computer) I wouldn't be surprised to find Americanisms, but I would expect a UK-published magazine about writing to use English words. Does the publisher's house style take priority over what the magazine's editorial staff would like?

Comments

  • WiltsWilts
    I agree OG. I find Americanisms very irritating. I love our English language. Why should we change?
  • Island GirlIsland Girl
    edited April 2015
    I think perhaps sometimes these foreign words or expressions creep into conversation and before you know it, they become part of a particular person's vocab without them even realising it.
    My daughter befriended a child in Grade 1 at school who used to say, "like" all the time because her parents let her watch age-inappropriate American TV shows.
    "I was like, going to get out of sports but I like forgot to bring like a note."
    When the pair of them got together...ugh! I told my daughter at the time, "Please don't talk like that," but she was enamoured with her little friend and thought it was a cool way to speak. Now she's 21, still inserting the darn word into most of her sentences and even though she's aware of it - and it irritates HER - she cannot stop saying it. That's a drastic example but I think you get the point.
  • Mrs BearMrs Bear
    I, like, question it every time I, like, hear it, IG. 'You mean, you do question it, or you do something akin to questioning it? You hear it, or manage an approximation?' I can be so pedantic. It's an art.
  • NefertariNefertari
    'gotten' gets me
  • richtricht
    The latest irritant is starting the answer to a question with the word 'so...'
  • mike olleymike olley
    'On the weekend' and yes, definitely 'gotten' bring a groan, like.

    Plus - has anyone else noticed the recent trend for US TV shows to fling English swearwords about willy-nilly?
  • heatherheather
    Oh yes. 'So' drives me up the wall!
  • OnlinegenieOnlinegenie
    So you don't, like, like it?
  • Phots MollPhots Moll
    It's so, like, annoying, right?
  • boredrobotsboredrobots
    If we get rid of all the words borrowed from other languages, we'd be mute!
  • LizLiz
    And - gotten IS ours. We've just stopped using it. They haven't. It is often the case. They are purer than we.
  • mike olleymike olley
    And - gotten IS ours.
    We have forgotten.

  • OnlinegenieOnlinegenie
    And - gotten IS ours.
    As is ize, which is still preferred by many British publishers.

  • doradora
    Can't see the point in getting all huffy over a few words.

    Must be worse things in life to get upset about.
  • Island GirlIsland Girl
    Not huffy, just protective, methinks. I for one appreciate language is always evolving but it's nice to keep a certain amount of one's own identity.
    Even as a small child I remember my father saying, "Why should we take on words such as 'bucks' for dollars or 'trash' for rubbish when we have our own descriptions and unique language?" which I believe was a fair point.
    Due to their usually professional (and some not-so) sleek tv and film productions, by default we import an enormous amount of viewing entertainment from the USA which is naturally going to have an impact, especially on malleable young minds. But to be fair, every year we lose so many outdated words from our dictionary, it seems a shame to expedite the disappearances by replacing ours with theirs, slipping them in between the lines of such places as Writing Magazine.
  • BillBill
    You are so right, IG. The American culture is so dominant. Virulent might be a better description of American culture.
    Ask a child about British/Australian geography and the response is [sometimes] woeful. Ask about US place names and they know of them.
  • richtricht
    If we get rid of all the words borrowed from other languages, we'd be mute!
    Perhaps not even that (mute being derived from the Latin 'mutus,)!
  • LizLiz
    We'd be 'swigian', old English for silent.
  • boredrobotsboredrobots
    From Germanic, from Indo-European. Cognate with Old Saxon swigon (Dutch zwijgen), Old High German swigen (German schweigen); and with Ancient Greek σιγάω.

    By 'eck! <<< That's got to be English, right??
  • Mrs BearMrs Bear
    But who was 'eck, and why do we swear by him/her/it?
  • OnlinegenieOnlinegenie
    I'm pretty sure that heck is a way of avoiding saying hell (although I don't understand why anyone would find the word hell offensive). Then in Lancashire there's 'ecky thump. I can't explain that one!
  • Phots MollPhots Moll
    I don't understand why anyone would find the word hell offensive
    Possibly superstition discouraged people from saying it - a bit like not wanting to name the devil in case he appeared.

    Hell could be considered offensive I suppose, by those whose beliefs don't accept such a concept.
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