United States of Americanisms

      There are many criticisms about how the use of Americanisms are ruining the English language, but it’s all a load of rubbish…or is it trash? Languages adapt and change over the years and so it is entirely plausible that Americanisms are in fact changing the English language, but not “ruining” it.

     

     Now of course there are the obvious adaptations of certain words that immediately come to mind when we think of how Americans spell words, for example: “color”,  “favour”, “realize”, etc. Many of these changes do have a tendency to annoy English language enthusiasts, but there are some changes to British English that initially came from American English.

    

     Noah Webster, an American lexicographer, introduced a number of spelling reforms in the 1820’s that have been widely accepted into the English language. An example of this being the word ‘public’ in place of ‘publick’, and ‘mask’ in place of ‘masque’. Despite having some of his words accepted, there, undoubtedly, were some that did not quite make the cut, for example, ‘tung’ instead of ‘tongue’, and ‘wimmen’ in place of ‘women’, but hey, can’t have everything, right?

    

     There are many Americanisms that we have adopted into the English language and continue to use, most of us using them and not realising that they are, in fact, Americanisms. One common phrase used by the British public is ‘24/7’; initially the phrase would be “24 hours, 7 days a week”, or “all day, every day”. Another popular change is the use of the word ‘season’ to replace ‘series’ when talking about a TV show.

  

     Plenty of words and phrases came from Americanisms, and we didn’t even notice, many of us now wouldn’t realise that these weren’t already British English. To prove my point, here are some words/phrases that are actually Americanisms:

·         Cupcakes used in place of fairy cakes.

·         Playdates

·         A half hour, instead of half an hour

·         Truck

·         Burger and fries now instead of hamburger and chips

·         Football games instead of matches.

    

    The English language is made up of many different languages, and that is why it is one of the most complex languages in the world, yet it is also one of the most common spoken languages. It was inevitable that over time we would adopt certain words and phrases and include them in English language, so if that’s the case, why are we so quick to hate on the Americanisms that are becoming part of our language? And more importantly, why do we assume that it is “ruining” the English language? Language is not one thing that is set in stone, it develops over the years and will continue to change and expand for many more years to come. Instead of ridiculing Americanisms, we should accept them and use them so that we can keep our language growing.