English declares war on American.

I am sure everyoone will agree with the views expressed in this 'Economist' article.
   

Americanisms

If you use Americanisms just to show you know them, people may find you a tad tiresome, so be discriminating. Many American words and expressions have passed into the language; others have vigour, particularly if used sparingly. Some are short and to the point (so prefer lay off to make redundant). But many are unnecessarily long (so use and not additionally, car not automobile, company not corporation, court not courtroom or courthouse, transport not transportation, district not neighbourhood, oblige not obligate, rocket not skyrocket, stocks not inventories unless there is the risk of confusion with stocks and shares). Spat and scam, two words beloved by some journalists, have the merit of brevity, but so do row and fraud; squabble and swindle might sometimes be used instead. The military, used as a noun, is nearly always better put as the army. Normalcy and specialty have good English alternatives, normality and speciality (see Spellings). Gubernatorial is an ugly word that can almost always be avoided.

Other Americanisms are euphemistic or obscure (so avoid affirmative action, rookies, end runs, stand-offs, point men, ball games and almost .......

You can read on at:
http://www.economist.com/node/21532139

"army" and "military" are not synonyms. The former is part of the latter.

I think Americans use "in the hospital", but over all it's well done. I must have overlooked the declaration of war.
Bloody good job, Economist!

Who are these Americans who use "automobile" instead of "car?" I also never got the memo that we should be using "additionally" instead of "and."

*yawn*

ppffftttt, you other countries can whine as much as you want about "how america is destroying the english language," or culture or whatever it is these days you whine about. Cause frankly, we don't care. We're too busy rolling over your culture and forcing ours on you.   

I could be wrong, but it's a good idea with corrections. I can use it as a short discussion handout. There are more errors than I initially thought but it's useful at least in my own misguided mind.

Average bloody work, Economist! (I love The Economist - normally a good read.)

ppffftttt, you other countries can whine as much as you want about "how america is destroying the english language," or culture or whatever it is these days you whine about. Cause frankly, we don't care. We're too busy rolling over your culture and forcing ours on you.   

Hmm...which culture is that? The Irish, Scottish, Jewish, Dutch, German, Spanish, Portugese, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, French, Finnish, Russian...oh, dear, I could go on and on...Unless Americans insist spreading the joys of a Cherokee Sun Dance, I am afraid that there is not much culture that they can force upon the rest of the world that was not already given to them in the first place....Personally, I find the whole idea of drawing a disctinction between American and British English and arguing for why the latter is purer than the former incredibly silly. One could argue that American popular entertainment has, to a degree, corroded the usage of proper English by teaching the easily impressionable youths that the sentence "It's like...you now...whatever" carries any hint of meaning and therefore has produced a large group of people who go through life conversing in half-constructed similes...but the British had their chance to make RP English, which does include the notion of proper vocabulary, the lingua france of the world when they had an empire...so, really, in response to the whole idea of a war being fought between the two linguistic factions, one can only shrug and state, with the insightful clarity of the future leaders of the world, "dude, it's totally like, you know, whatever"

The idea of the two versions being different enough to fuss over is fantasy. The differences are minor.

Like doing twins eh zero?

Throughout the world people resent U.S. influence and perceived arrogance, but there is  a huge sameness among English-speaking Western countries. Particularly in the case of the U.S. and English-speaking Canada. Some Canadians will swear up and down that they have a drastically different culture from the U.S. and that their speech is quite distinct. Most Americans, on the other hand, think of Canada as our benign neighbor to the north, like a part of the U.S., and that of course drives Canadians up the wall. I heard someone on the radio the other day saying, "Yeah, the new policy sounds a little too American for my tastes -- it makes me very uncomfortable ..." and I'm thinking whoa, is this guy some kind of a Benedict Arnold? I had to keep listening and get the context and realize he was Canadian. That's how similar the speech is. Of course British and American English are more distinct. But really, we're all speaking something so similar, arguing over word choice and calling one English and the other American is just petty.

OK, that was my rant.

Who are these Americans who use "automobile" instead of "car?" I also never got the memo that we should be using "additionally" instead of "and."

I think you got them reversed. They're saying Americans say 'car' where others are more likely to say 'automobile', and so on

Quote from: The Local Dialect on February 26, 2012, 10:50:12 PM

Who are these Americans who use "automobile" instead of "car?" I also never got the memo that we should be using "additionally" instead of "and."

I think you got them reversed. They're saying Americans say 'car' where others are more likely to say 'automobile', and so on

No, The Economist got it reversed. In reference to 'Americanisms', the author writes "But many are unnecessarily long (so use and not additionally, car not automobile..."

Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain. From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English. Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is (for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn).

what the writers at the economist fail to highlight is that the vast majority of English language speakers are not native speakers from the UK or England, but are non-native speakers/second language speakers from countries like India, Singapore and the like.

it makes all this squabbling over how to pronounce oregano seem a little inconsequencial, no?

As an Irish man, I speak neither American nor British, but Hiberno English. So there. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno-English

Quote from: Raoul F. Duke on February 27, 2012, 07:56:12 AM

Quote from: The Local Dialect on February 26, 2012, 10:50:12 PM

Who are these Americans who use "automobile" instead of "car?" I also never got the memo that we should be using "additionally" instead of "and."

I think you got them reversed. They're saying Americans say 'car' where others are more likely to say 'automobile', and so on

No, The Economist got it reversed. In reference to 'Americanisms', the author writes "But many are unnecessarily long (so use and not additionally, car not automobile..."

Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain. From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English. Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is (for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn).

I've heard that before too.
And I reread that sentence several times (the one in the Economist, not yours!) because it didn't make any sense to me, but they're definitely saying automobile is the Americanism.