🇬🇧BRIT Reacts To IN DEFENSE OF AMERICAN ENGLISH!

🇬🇧BRIT Reacts To IN DEFENSE OF AMERICAN ENGLISH!
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Hi everyone, I’m Kabir and welcome to another episode of Kabir Considers! In this video I’m Going to React To IN DEFENSE OF AMERICAN ENGLISH!
• In Defense of American...
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[@Trifler500]

@Kabir Considers 7:27 - Not quite. Petroleum is the chemical name for crude oil. It's the generic term for all oil products lumped together. Petroleum is then distilled into gasoline, diesel, kerosene, butane, propane, etc. That's why Americans find it odd to call it "petrol", because that's a generic term that could include diesel and other products that would wreck a car.

[@weebeevillaging587]

Yes dead organisms make up fossil fuels , crude oil, petroleum.

[@adamgt4037]

Thank You!

[@jusblazed1ful]

Exactly, just like Vaseline is a petroleum product but you wouldn't want to fuel your car with it.

[@circedelune]

Exactly

[@kmillerdevx3]

Gasoline (shortened to gas) is also distinct from the stand-alone "gas" referring to a state of matter. (which is believed to come from the Dutch word for "chaos")

[@wompa70]

Us guys in the US have long accepted the fact that "our" language is ever evolving. Sometimes rapidly. It doesn't matter if the word came from French, Old English, German, Italian, Spanish, etc, we're more than happy to make it out own.

[@christopherboada7921]

That's "we guys", not "us guys".

[@HermanVonPetri]

@@christopherboada7921 The irony.

[@dugowt9243]

@Christopher Boada His point just went right over your head, didn't it?

[@rzawistowski33]

@@HermanVonPetri exactly

[@lennyo5165]

Yes modern English as a whole not just the American version is as some comedian stated (sorry can't recall who) and I paraphrase here. "English is a language that drags the other languages into a back alley and beats the crap out of them then goes through their pockets for words to steal."

[@coolmantoole]

When it comes to the American pronunciation of taco and other Spanish derived words, Americans generally more or less follow the Spanish pronunciation. That's partly because we share a continent with Mexico, and Spanish is the second most common language in the country.

[@sainjawoof3506]

Spain is just a waterway away from the UK. It's closer than most of the US is to Mexico. It's strange how the UK didn't generally pick up the pronounciation, especially since it's a commonly learnt second language.

[@chrisrivera3961]

@@sainjawoof3506 Well Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are heavily dispersed in the United states. You can find them around the border or all the way up in New York. I grew up in a Latino area of Chicago. in fact im pretty sure that most bit cities in the States have Latino areas. Im pretty sure that is why Americans pronounce things better.

[@sainjawoof3506]

@@chrisrivera3961 I have lived in the US before, and speak Spanish myself, so I understand what you are saying. Now as a complete nerd I looked at the statistics, approximately one in six in the US can speak Spanish, whilst one in three hundred and thirty five do so in the UK. The population numbers are significantly different too, with 67 million in the UK vs 332 million in the US. The UK has 8% Spanish speakers, which is also with the amount of people that speak Spanish worldwide. The US has a significantly higher percentage of Spanish speakers at 12%

[@chrisrivera3961]

@@sainjawoof3506 yea that seems about right.

[@coolmantoole]

@@sainjawoof3506more than a third of US states comprise territory once owned by Spain and Mexico. Accordingly Spanish speakers have comprised a large minority within the country since the days of President James Polk. Florida was flooded by Cuban immigrants with the rise of Castro in the 50s. New York has long had a huge Puerto Rican population. And immigration from Mexico and the rest of Latin America has continued unabated since WWII. While Spain is nearby to England, England simply hasn't had the constant flow of Spanish Speakers into its homeland to the level that the USA has had for the past hundred years. Just about every town of any size, at least in Southwestern and Southeastern states, has multiple Mexican restaurants run by Latino immigrants. England has nothing to compare.

[@Sandman60077]

It's not just English. Most languages take on a form of their own in different areas. Spanish spoken in Mexico has differences to Spanish spoken in Spain.

[@RHCole]

100%

[@matthewbrennan4032]

That’s because they have other influences, which I think they’re failing to realize both of these guys

[@matthewbrennan4032]

Canadian French is different than France French

[@matthewbrennan4032]

Louisiana French is different than French French like way different

[@matthewbrennan4032]

I would love to see a video of a French speaking person, talking about Louisiana French that would be funny to me

[@jakewhite1760]

The fact that so many people somehow don’t know that Bologna is Italian and that’s why it’s pronounced the way it is, never ceases to amuse me lol

[@Thornbloom]

Baloney is synonymous with bullshit!

[@hammerpocket]

Not sure of your point here. Bologna in Italian is pronounced "bo LONE ya," not like baloney.

[@bobbimccain2385]

@@hammerpocket spot on…

[@jakewhite1760]

@@hammerpocket that’s a fair point, although tbh I was more so thinking of the people that look at the word and go “huh why isnt it pronounced bo-log-na?” I think that the -nya vs -ney difference has more to do with how that specific ‘gna’ sound came from Italian immigrants melding it with the English of their new communities after arriving, more so than it does an intentional change in pronunciation. But that’s speculation, I’d be interested to learn more about how it was transferred over

[@ESUSAMEX]

The way the Brits say taco is wrong because it is a Spanish word. The same goes for paella, which is pronounced correctly as Pie Eh yah

[@sherryford667]

Paella pronunciation differs according to Spanish or Mexican/South American influence so both pronunciations are correct. However, as far as I know "Tako" is not considered correct anywhere. It's tahko everywhere, to be correct.

[@truthbetold2567]

Even in England the english language is ever evolving. Spreading that language across an ocean and an expanse as large as the US and it's amazing we can communicate at all.

[@Neko_Senpai]

American English like the nation itself is diverse and absorbs many language elements from different languages. The following is about the influences on American English from the perspectives of Spanish, French, Dutch, and German immigration.

[@Jeff_Lichtman]

Languages that are used in different parts of the world always diverge. Spanish is different in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Cuba, and all the other places where it's spoken. Arabic differs so much from country to country that linguists consider it a family of languages rather than a single language. French in Quebec is different from how it's used in France. Different dialects of Chinese (like Mandarin and Cantonese) are mutually unintelligible in spoken form, although not in written form. "Baloney" comes from "bologna," which is a type of sausage or lunchmeat that originally came from Bologna, Italy. Catawampus means "in a mess" or "out of order." "Nucular" is considered an illiteracy in America. I have heard British people use this pronunciation, by the way. Americans pronounce "taco" with a broad "a" because that's how it's pronounced in Spanish. Remember that tacos are Mexican. The Spanish language has no short "a" sound, as in the English word "tack." Similarly, the American pronunciation of "oregano" is like the Spanish pronunciation. The word "soccer" is used not just in the U.S., but also in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and some other countries.

[@Perfectly_Cromulent351]

Damn, Jeff. Well said.

[@andi5262]

I think they do in South Africa too.

[@Xandycane]

I can't see pronouncing taco like that here. It would be like quesadilla being Kwess I dilla or lasagna la sag na. Just wrong.

[@tomhalla426]

Gasoline is used to distinguish it from kerosene, both petroleum products. Most spelling differences can be blamed on Noah Webster, who was both an American nationalist and a spelling reformer/dictionary publisher in the early 1900’s.

[@tomhalla426]

1800’s, the edit function does not work

[@billallen1307]

What about diesel? Jet fuel? All would be petrol.

[@Xandycane]

Also the English. Lots of words literally were one of two choices. Many times, the English people who chose the spelling picked the one that was more Latin, Greek, or French while Webster just went, huh... this makes more sense.

[@SebasTian58323]

A lot of the spelling differences that are simply missing a letter is because it cost ink to print stuff so to save a little money they began dropping certain letters

[@kimharding2246]

I heard a different explanation for the word, OK. I learned that it was an African phrase “dokay” which meant all is good. So, not sure which theory is correct. Also, you mentioned pronunciations …Tomato, potato… regions of our country actually do pronounce those words like you do. That’s why there’s that old Fred Astaire song. 😂 But, I have to say there are some words that the British, “British-ize,” if you will, like Taco, Pasta, for example. We pronounce them as the they do in Mexico and Italy because so many immigrated from those countries. So, say Tah-ko and Pah-stah.

[@Damons-Old-Soul]

From watching a few of these, it seems that American English is closer to the English (proper/written) of the late 18th century, while British English is more of a derivative of spoken of the same era. American spelling tends to be closer to the formal spelling while British tends to be closer to an attempt to spell the spoken English of the era.

[@georgehill5919]

U.S. English is more often than not a time capsule of what British used to be. I recommend "The History Guy" episode "the great vowel shift" for more info

[@kisaia]

As an American I always skip a beat when I hear a British person say controversy.

[@debbyemerson3877]

Same, but then I giggle

[@bobbimccain2385]

My favorite is aluminum. I love the way you guys pronounce it.. puts a smile on my face for sure.

[@katw3070]

@@bobbimccain2385 yes, kinda funny considering aluminum is NOT spelled aluminIum. Brits do not pronounce it correctly.

[@steeljawX]

​@@katw3070 Except aluminium is the exact same thing as aluminum, both spellings and pronunciations are accepted at international scholarly and scientific levels, and while they are not pronouncing aluminum correctly; if they're saying aluminium and we say aluminum to them, we ought to have the maturity to understand we're talking about the same thing. Just saying, we can be understanding and actually be tolerant or we can be d*cks who try to invade each other under the guise of "special military exercises" for a year and keep threatening the world with nuclear recourse should anyone try to intervene.

[@katw3070]

@@steeljawX Well,, bless your heart!

[@lauriemartin490]

I remember watching a Joel and Lia video a while back where they talked about Tackos and Jailapeeenos. They probably went on to talk about words we say wrong. 😂

[@bobbimccain2385]

I think I saw that video…

[@akiram6609]

I like Joel and Lia but they do display a lot of ignorance especially when talking about the US.

[@bobbimccain2385]

@@akiram6609 tbs……silliness to attract more viewers,

[@brianormonde2175]

I do wonder why the English pronounce Taco differently, because in actual Spanish, it's more like the American pronunciation

[@christopherboada7921]

I had a house cleaning business years ago, and I had a client originally from London. She pronounced patio as PAY-shee-oh.

[@carolgage4569]

Catywhampus = wonky/discombobulated

[@paulbradford6475]

@@carolgage4569 That's a bodacious interpretation. Simply splendiferous. 😉😉

[@JustMe-dc6ks]

Because they saw the word and made up their own interpretation and it stuck. The same reason we say Ah dee dus instead of addy das for Adidas.

[@angelleach6866]

@@JustMe-dc6ks actually we all got tricked by Run DMC in the 80’s 😂

[@annemariecronen9096]

Mispronouncing nuclear isn't an American thing, it's just that some Americans happen to mispronounce that word. Meaning, we're not taught to pronounce it like that. I imagine there are people in every country that mispronounce words depending on where they live, education, how they were raised, etc

[@christophercox9311]

There are a lot of words that Brits speak that contradict the rules of the language. Vowel-consonent-vowel arrangement of letters says that the first vowel is pronounced with a long sound. Tomato, potato are examples.

[@TheLastGarou]

Interestingly (to me, at least) is the Cherokee (I think. Might be Navajo? Algonquin?🤔) word "hoka-hay," which means "it is good." I always thought THAT was the origin of "okay."

[@takwaakiwa]

When the British first arrived in America there was no standardized spelling of the language. That happened later on. So two standardized spellings systems were created one on each side of the pond.

[@candybarney5469]

I just assumed it was from different parts of the US. We all have accents, say words differently, even add our own family and community slang to "English"! It's diversified! I love it!! Lol! I've heard our language is the hardest for foreigners tp learn. I can understand that!

[@Perfectly_Cromulent351]

Most of the time it’s harmless, but a lot of the time Brits use our language differences as evidence of American arrogance, while ignoring the double standard that presents. For a country who no longer has an empire, it’s a pretty colonial attitude to have to say that our way is the standard and whenever we make a change or codify something new, other English-speaking countries must follow suit. Most “Americanisms” in the English language occurred long before they became standard in UK and often time they’re a holdover from the colonial era and the US are the ones that kept the tradition while the Brits are the ones who made the change. It all seems so rather silly, especially when considering that these differences are extremely superficial, even more so when compared to the differences of how French and Spanish are spoken throughout the world.

[@jenniowen1969]

I mean you do burn the vapor from gasoline/ petrol, not the liquid. So “gas” makes sense when you think about it.

[@JustMe-dc6ks]

Yes, but it’s just short for gasoline which was a corruption of Cassel’s (sp?) cassoline branding.

[@randykillman6475]

catawampus adjective - askew; awry, positioned diagonally; cater-cornered. adverb - diagonally; obliquely: We took a shortcut and walked catawampus across the field

[@sandrataylor3723]

American English is complicated due to the fact that when America was first colonized, so many different people that spoke different languages immigrated to America bringing their own inflections and meanings to English spoken by the American English people. Over time, when the American colonists started migrating out west, communities sprung up with each community speaking their own version of English. You can really tell this by visiting the Appalachian people today. I'm from the southeastern part of the US and have a hard time figuring out what they are saying even though they are speaking American English. People that live up north and those that live in the western and southern states also have their own take on the English language. Varity makes the world more interesting; don't you think?

[@steeljawX]

Well it is weird how what the majority of the US would now call "eco-terrorism" the Bostonians would pronounce it as "tea party". Just saying. 🤣

[@Roboto2073]

Up until a few years ago, I never knew that most people in Europe refer to "garden" means "yard" to us.

[@Puddlef1sh]

They should be gardens instead of useless ass crab grass. Good for sport, terrible for the environment.

[@Cricket2731]

@@Puddlef1sh, Another British import, the Starling (Turdus migatorious) eats crabgrass seeds!

[@DTG_LOCKETT]

Specifically backyard. The still say yard for the front yard

[@JodiLWK]

My British colleagues pronounce gouda cheese as "gau-duh", while here in America it is mostly pronounced as "goo-duh".

[@snowflakehunter]

Don't blame the Americans for the pronunciation of tacos. The word Taco was first found in a book in Mexico in 1891. Mexicans pronounce it as 'Tah-Kos' and that's why we pronounce it the same way.

[@tombowers6713]

Macho, nacho, taco....

[@snowflakehunter]

@@tombowers6713 are you trying to make a point? Or are you just trying to be a snowflake?

[@snowflakehunter]

@@tombowers6713 after further review I feel that you are just trying to cement my point. No offense taken and I hope you are not offended.

[@MatthewC137]

But what would Ben Affleck say? The dude loves thinking about tacos.

[@shelaughs185]

Americans clearly have the advantage on the pronunciation of taco. Tacko is just stoopid. (Yes that's on purpose).

[@andyv2209]

Mid Atlantic dialect in the us is closer to the original British English of that time then British English is now

[@chaosincarnate380]

Being an American who grew up on British comedies a-la Python and Dwarf and so on, I absolutely *LOVE* using British mannerisms whenever possible. "Bloody hell" is a term I use all the time. It really works when I'm frustrated about something.

[@deborahscalise3215]

What I find fascinating is that in the music world, it doesn"t matter whether the artist is British, Australian or Canadian, the sung words always come out of their mouth as American English, having no accent at all from their country of birth. How is this explained? LOL!

[@lalida6432]

When I was a kid, I went to Thailand it occurred to me that they might not answer the phone the same way. I was relieved when I realized all they do is say “hello.”

[@lone6718]

Cattywampus is another way of saying askew.

[@michaelmcgowen8780]

Regarding the term "soccer" and it's use here in the U.S., until just after World War II, the sport was often referred to as "soccer football" here in America. Until 1974, the governing body in the U.S. was named th United States Soccer Football Association. The present name, United States Soccer Federatiion, was adopted in 1974.

[@michaelmcgowen8780]

Kabir, my apologies, but I've had quite a difficult time trying to access Telegraph with my computer. I don't have a smart phone, which it seems Telegram is made for. You've sent this message to me several times previously, and wanted to notify you as to why you haven't received a reply. Thank you.

[@stevesheroan4131]

I love how every single time Kabir does an “impression” his voice goes up two octaves😂

[@3DJapan]

Cattywampus means disheveled or crooked. Example: "You should fix that shelf, it's all cattywampus". It's mainly used in the southern US.

[@mosesruiz9813]

The word Holiday used in the phrase "Happy Holidays" is another word coined in the UK. Some Brits get offended hearing that instead of "Merry Christmas". "Holiday" comes from the Old English word Halig=Holy and Daeg=Day or "Holiday". It is Christian in origin marking one the highest holy days in the Christian faith. Americans use "Holiday" to signify a festive day of rest while the Brits use it as a period of time taken off work or studies to maybe travel.

[@dennisstafford1749]

To add another dimension to Noah Webster et al . . Words of French and Spanish origin like auxvasse, coeur de bois, voyageur, Aux d'Arc (Ozark), habitant and taco were also present in the American Experience with other European populations present or immigrants settling inside American borders. I live in St. Louis founded by the French in 1764. But they were mainly Canadien (French spelling)French and Cajun (New Orleans) French emigres plying the Mississippi River Valley in trade. The Spanish (King Carlos) were ceded the Louisiana (by Louis XV) and took possession of country they wished to use as a buffer between English settlement and Mexican gold and silver. They shut down the Santa Fe Trail until 1820 when Mexican independence re-opened it. By the 1850s half the city's White population was either German or Irish with a very high concentration of Black Slaves. By the early 1900s many Hungarians and Italian Immigrants arrived to work coal mines and become terra cotta tradesmen. In the mid to late 1990s many Somali and Bosnian populations arrived. The Asian communities are varied and dispersed but there are markets and restaurants in many locations of Asian ethnicities. So words, slangs, and pronunciations are varied and have evolved over time and have become layered. Then there are native American words like Ouachita, Kaw, Wichita, Omaha, Kansas, tomahawk, moccasin, et al. And new animals like opossum, skunk, raccoon, Pronghorn, rattlesnake, copperhead, and chipmunk. And Rivers called Arkansas, Missouri, Chouteau, Lamine, Marais de Cygne, Gasconade, . . . and towns like Auxvasse, Ste. Genevieve, and Cape Girardeau. So the Brits have their experience and we have ours. Words reflect that.

[@pyro1047]

American English usually has the correct pronunciation and close spelling from whatever language the word is taken or modified from. A lot of these words were French, which explains why UK/Commonwealth English was like "No... This can't be, 102% French, with a 2% margin of error" and we ended up getting a different English pronunciation and/or spelling. Which is why you get Honor vs Honour, Color vs Colour, Armor vs Armour. And "Hor-derves" vs the American "Oar-derves", etc.

[@linusromey561]

"The Mother Tongue" and "Made in America" are two excellent books discussing the English language and the geographic distinctions. In "Made in America" the point is made that the English language has been more extensively corrupted in England than in America.

[@johnnielson4341]

Credit where credit is due. The Brits made a great first draft of a language. We Americans polished it off for you.

[@Blondie42]

When Webster was making his dictionary he wanted a them vs us take on the language and it wound up that the "us" version pay homage to word origins in many cases; both pronunciation and spellings. Not to mention adopting words, like sushi - not an English word but can be found in the dictionary.

[@jlpack62]

Gas is a diminutive of gasoline as much as the word petrol is a diminutive of petroleum. Petroleum is yet to be refined into how we use it, so I can make an argument that petrol doesn't make logical sense.

[@irishbears2103]

Whenever I hear English people talk about American differences in language, I usually take it as humerus fun. I think people from the States, and UK have always had a little poking fun at each other about cultural differences.

[@NotSoFast71]

I never got why the Brits use "petrol" (short for petroleum) to mean gasoline. Petroleum is made into thousands of items. Motor oil, grease, diesel, kerosene, any number of plastics...why only use the term "petrol" to describe that one particular product? It'd be like using the shortened version of automobile (auto) to ONLY refer to a sports car, but not a sedan or station wagon (saloon or estate car for you Brits).

[@rainbowdude6485]

When Laurence was talking about presidents it made me remember a fun fact: Martin Van Buren was the only president in US history who did not speak English as his first language, it was his second, his first was Dutch.

[@ryanswaynow]

To be fair “Taco” isn’t an English word and the way it’s pronounced in America is absolutely the correct one seeing as how the word originates in the country right next to ours and came over here with the immigrants.

[@sarahcrossen550]

Noah Webster was a big supporter of the ratification of the US Constitution. He altered the spelling of many words specifically to make them less British. He published the first American dictionary in 1806, with an expanded second edition published in 1828. So when Brits ask why we don’t do English the British way, it’s because-well-we aren’t British.🤷‍♀️

[@kristieestille6016]

When you consider American English, you also have to remember that American English was also influenced by other countries. American English is also different in geographical areas based on the earlier settlers to the area.

[@titusmartin9120]

The British are known in history to change words and their pronunciations of other countries, because they could not correctly said the word, and they didn't care to know how to correctly say the words because the UK were the colonizers. They didn't care about the proper pronunciation of words from people "below' them. Ask an American or Mexican to pronounce "taco". The American and Mexican will say it pretty much the exact same way, but you Brits change to fit you because of the spelling not the correct pronunciation. Also, every Brits I have met, and I was married to a Brit pronounce the word "Yosemite" incorrect. Its pronounced "Yo-sem-i-te" not "Yo-se-mite" and "taco" is "ta-co" not "tac-o". The word "conversation" did not exist officially until a few years ago. Finally, did you just pick your nose on camera!?

[@lalida6432]

American English is also developed through the crucible of very many other cultures passing through and modifying it bit by bit. In that respect, Brit English is more provincial.

[@teddennison344]

Nobody really knows the origin of "OK". If someone says they do, they are just giving you their favorite theory they heard. There's actually an entire Wikipedia page with nothing but proposed etymologies, and it includes potential origins in 13 different languages.

[@melissabelle8626]

What I don’t understand is why Brits don’t use the English eggplant, but instead use the French aubergine

[@timhuffmaster3588]

In the event you have been exposed to “cooties”, not the lice variety, there is an American remedy or inoculation. It’s performed in the upper arm where a jab would be given. The process is to use the index finger and recite the phrase, “circle, circle, dot, dot, now you’ve had your cootie shot”. This is only effective until roughly ten years of age. You’re welcome.

[@bohicagaming4462]

I think a lot of British realize the US is large but don't quite grasp how large. You can fit 30 European Nations in the continental US. Of course there's going to be language drift, how many different accents and regional slang is in the UK? Then imagine that in a country 40x bigger and with approximately 5 times the population.

[@janetmoreno8909]

My take is that language is fluid, always has been and will ALWAYS change. My question for the "purist" is, if language is never suppose to change, then why aren't the British still speaking and spelling their language as England did in the Middle Age for instance.

[@RogCBrand]

I don't know if it still applies today, but I remember reading that several decades ago, when the Appalachian Mountains still had communities that remained isolated, with little contact with the outside world since the 1700s, the English they spoke had barely changed since they settled there, and was closer to the English of 300 years ago, than what Americans or British speak today.

[@oneslikeme]

@@RogCBrand I'm from Appalachian Kentucky and I would say that this is still true to an extent among older folks. But I think with influences from TV, radio, and the internet, that's changed quite a bit. There are still lots of words we use every day that are older or that others just don't use though. For example, I can't think of a time when I've heard other Americans use "quarrel" (or "quarrelsome"), but it's an everyday word in my hometown.

[@ephennell4ever]

As to spelling ... it wasn't until the 1700s, when various countries started producing dictionaries, that there came to be 'correct spellings'. Prior to that time, as long as the spelling actually matched what you were saying ... it was 'correct'.

[@RogCBrand]

@@oneslikeme Yeah, quarrelsome doesn't sound odd, but it's definitely not something I hear people use. It is kind of sad to see parts of our heritage fade away! It would be a boring world where everyone talked the same!

[@paulbradford6475]

I blame William the Conqueror in 1066.

[@garyedwardgray7549]

One defense I’m surprised he didn’t point out is that American pronunciation is the more original version of English. British English went through “the great vowel shift” in the 1700s. But they’d already largely colonized America by then, so Americans didn’t do the shift. To be fair, that’s not some great defense. I mean, there are so many different accents within both countries, who’s to even say what an American or British accent are (though I think the American Midwest accent is considered the “standard”, while the British London accent is considered the “standard” there… so, I guess you could compare those two). Furthermore, just because it’s “original” doesn’t make it “better”. But it is worth noting since you asked why we didn’t just copy and paste since Brits invented the language. In actuality, when it comes to pronunciation, Americans speak a version closest to the “invention” (of course, it was invented long before that and spoken much more differently than Americans speak it too… you don’t see a lot of Americans walking around speaking Old English, lol). So, no one is speaking “original” English. All I’m noting is that Americans are one large derivation (the vowel shift was a pretty big deal) closer to the original. Still not saying it’s better. Sometimes changes are made to improve things. I’m not sure the vowel shift improved anything, but a lot of changes did… like borrowing from other languages; it expands are vocabulary and makes it easier to express ideas. So, maybe British English IS better. Who knows? Again, I’m just noting it because you pointed out that Brits invented the language. That’s not actually true when you’re trying to address whether Americans or Brits are using the most original form. For better or for worse, Americans are closer to the “invention”.

[@SebasTian58323]

So I was wondering why we also have a different way of pronouncing the last letter of the alphabet z. So I began looking it up and found this. So zed is British and zee is American, yes? Well, that might be the case today, but once upon a time things were quite different. Historically, both zed and zee were used pretty much interchangeably in both British and American English, alongside a whole host of other more outlandish names for the last (or rather, second last) letter of the alphabet, like izzard, uzzard, zad, shard and, our personal favorite, ezod. Of the two we’re talking about here, however, zed is by far the oldest, and takes its name via French and Latin from that of its Greek equivalent, zeta. Zed first appeared in print in the early 1400s, in a Middle English document that fairly straightforwardly described it as “þe laste lettre of þe a b c”-which is considerably nicer than what William Shakespeare had to say about it. Zee, on the other hand, first appeared in print in a British language textbook-Thomas Lye’s New Spelling-book-in 1677. The name zee itself is thought to have originated as nothing more than a dialect variation of zed, probably influenced by the regular bee, cee, dee, ee pattern of much of the rest of the alphabet. But precisely how or why it became the predominant form in American English is unclear. One widely-held theory is that because zed, as the older of the two, was the most widespread variation amongst British English speakers, during the Revolutionary War American English speakers looking to distance themselves from anything even vaguely British simply adopted the zee version as their own to make a stand-no matter how small it might seem-against British control. Alternatively, there mightn’t have been any political reasoning behind it at all, and the name might simply have come to the forefront as American English was forced to adapt and simplify as more and more colonists-coming from ever more distant countries, and speaking an ever more varied array of languages-began arriving in the New World. Whatever the motivation might have been, by the mid-nineteenth century zee had become the standard form of the letter Z in the United States, and has remained so ever since. Though the campaign to resurrect ezod begins here...

[@anarchyneverdies3567]

Your cursing is at an acceptable level 😂😂😂 and cattywompus (that’s how I would pronounce it) is when something is off-kilter or just wrong or messed up

[@pinecone2455]

Take a gander at Canadian English, which I adopt as much as I can when crossing the northern border. English changes in different countries. Thanks there for the support Lawrence.

[@gdhaney136]

We pronounce taco the way we do because we are so close to Spanish speaking countries and people, we learn and adapt their pronunciations. People in the UK probably pronounce french words (in general) much easier than those in the US. Proximity likely has something to do with pronunciations. The brand Nissan is pronounced different in the US than in the UK. The word progress is always one that gets me.

[@paulbradford6475]

My own pet theory is that the Brits like to tweak the French by purposefully mis-pronouncing most any French word they come across, like "garage", with stress on the first syllable and not the second, rather than using the French pronunciation. That goes for other (non French) words as well; When I say words like "all", "call", "fall" , "ball" and "mall" they all sound the same except for the first letter, of course. They pronounce "mall" as "mal", similar to the word "pal".

[@timriggs08]

So on the new-cle-ar vs new-kyu-lar (phonetic attempt) pronunciation. The latter is looked down upon where I live in the US as well. I think it stems a lot from the short form usage of nuke that a lot of folks use. It was, by far, one of my mother's biggest pet peeves for mispronunciation however. She drilled relentlessly into my siblings and I the correct pronunciation (the former).

[@steveh1792]

The two pronunciations are more regional than anything else. Long, long ago I was a physics major in college, (not a big school, but we did design, and got a sign off by the AECs for a paraffin-moderated research reactor.) One of our professors was a nuclear physicist who had worked as such at Oak Ridge national lab for several years. He pronounced the word as newc-you-lar, probably because he grew up in West Virginia. He was most certainly not an ignorant person.

[@paulbradford6475]

@@steveh1792 I still get rankled by folks for mangling the pronunciation of Noo-klee-er.

[@catw6998]

@@paulbradford6475 wasn’t that ex President George Bush aka junior? I thought that was the way the swaggering Texas men pronounced that word.

[@paulbradford6475]

@@catw6998 Yes, it was junior, or "W" as he was called.

[@mayp5996]

If you’re interested in more pronunciation differences, I’d like to recommend a video by dr geoff lindsey here on KZbin called “who pronounced foreign words like pasta right? 🇺🇸 Or 🇬🇧?” He’s a pronunciation expert specifically, so he’s got a lot of videos specifically about differences in English dialects. This video in particular is just a really interesting subject, and I think illustrates well how language everywhere is very flexible, so trying to define the “right” and “wrong” version of a language is extremely difficult and honestly maybe not a useful way of thinking about languages to begin with And also I’ve seen plenty of Americans react to it (friends family and myself) but I haven’t seen any Brits react to it, and I’m really curious what your thoughts would be

[@elkins4406]

Dr. Lindsey is wonderful! I heartily second the recommendation to anyone who is interested in language.

[@beverlyshane8433]

My granddad was a cockney and always dropped his “h” in every word except for the word honor that one he would pronounce the H when it’s really silent. I grew up saying tomato (the English pronunciation) because that’s how my English Mum said it.

[@tylerpaschall4363]

Cattywampus is a word used in America to describe something that doesn't fit right or is at an odd angle to something else. Although, it bears relation to a mythological animal in Appalachia called a Cattawampus. It's supposedly a large and highly intelligent cat, and if you look into its eyes, you can go insane. J.K. Rowling even incorporated this cat into one of her 4 Ilvormorny houses bu calling it a "Wampus Cat."

[@annemariecronen9096]

I grew up saying kittywampus and kittycorner. Not sure if that's a Midwestern thing or not?

[@tylerpaschall4363]

@@annemariecronen9096 I grew up in Memphis, and spent holidays in Appalachia (still do. I literally just returned from a family Christmas from there). Your pronunciation is a regional thing, but this is the origin of the word. But pronunciations in the US are basically settlement patterns over time, so the German /Slavic origins of the accent in your area might have changed the pronunciation. I still feel like my point is valid about the word's origin.

[@jusblazed1ful]

There are many inconsistencies in British English, such as the pronunciation of the word To-mA-tow instead of To-mAy-tow, but you don't call a Potato a Po-tA-tow. Another one that boggles me is the way Brits pronounce the word schedule as "Shed-jool" and not skeh-jool. where do you learn how to pronounce this word in school or shool.

[@DTG_LOCKETT]

LMFAO

[@TanyaQueen182]

Lost in the Pond is a fantastic channel! Much love from Florida!

[@anarchyneverdies3567]

I had to look it up last night- In America, we say “oriented” and Simon Whistler REPEATEDLY says “orientated”… which is correct in England 😂 it bothered me so many times till I looked it up

[@ephennell4ever]

Yeah, and that drives me nuts! His 'take' isn't, I think, at all universal among Brits; as I've heard plenty use 'oriented', too! I think it's 'accepted', but not considered 'standard'.

[@HermanVonPetri]

And yet, while we Americans tend to say "acclimated" the English would more likely say "acclimatised."

[@DTG_LOCKETT]

We say orientated where I'm from. I don't think I've even ever heard someone say oriented, even on TV.

[@elbruces]

I actually looked up the etymology of the terms, and it seems that "football" refers to any field & ball sport that is played on foot, as opposed to horseback. Of those, there are three main types: 1) Association football (aka. "soccer"), 2) Rugby football, and 3) Gridiron football (aka "American football). These are the facts of the matter.

[@weebeevillaging587]

American English is made of words from all over the world.

[@rath7948]

So is every other language.

[@TNBuckeye1617]

When an English person says that someone else should speak/spell English the way you do in England because the English people invented the language… Yes you did and then you did the whole empire thing in North America (where you invented the start of American English and Canadian English), Oceania (where you invented the start of Australian English and New Zealand English), Africa (where you invented the start of South African English, etc.), etc. This stereotypical complaint is hilariously ironic. I know you didn’t make this complaint and I hope you find my tongue in cheek comment as funny as I find the irony.

[@ClaireRader]

I didn't know that some Brits actually had a problem with our English. Are they not taught in school that England used to own our first 13 states (which is why they are referred to as New England)? England owned them under the term "colonies" before there was a set standard of how to spell. Most words had multiple different ways to spell them. At the time there wasn't the ability to say "the English should be able to determine how you speak and spell the English language" because we were also "English." Noah Webster is credited for setting the standard of how we spell things but he didn't invent it. He just picked from spellings that already existed unless it was something that didn't exist in England.

[@jenkinda]

While the word "hell" is considered to be a curse word in American culture, it is generally considered to be a *soft* curse word. For whatever it may be worth, you don't seem to be overusing the word at all...

[@citisoccer]

Another Brit discovers soccer is an English term. Gotta love it. And if you're curious about why gasoline makes sense when it's not a gas, look up the Latin suffix roots behind the "ol-ine" in the word. Honestly, any term older than like 60 years is probably going to have British roots, or roots from some other nation. Kinda what we do here lol. "We" built it, they came.

[@christophercox9311]

Just my theory why Brits changed soccer to football: after downing quite a few pints while watching footie, the chaps slurred the word soccer so badly no one could understand what they were speaking. A drunk man watched the "shock-her" this afternoon doesn't sound manly to his drunken state. His mates are going to make fun of him for it. However, football or footie said while inebriated still sounds manly, no slurring of the s sound. TL: dr: British university created Association Football sport, college kids shortened it to soccer, middle-aged blokes getting picked on for saying soccer with a drunken slur can safely say football instead.

[@Belleplainer]

Football and soccer were nearly intrrchabgeable in the UK through the 1960s. What changed is that American football started to gain popularity in the UK at that time. As a means of heading off the competition, the EFL began only using football and also quietly insisting that football be the sole term among the media who covered the game. Rather quickly, football became the overwhelmingly popular term for the game in the UK.

[@brandonmartin08]

Im so glad you pointed out the pronunciation of Nuclear. Ever since we went to war in the Middle East and the word was used or heard everyday it has always drove me bat shit when people say nu-que-lurr. 😂

[@MichaelScheele]

Kabir, Lawrence Brown has mentioned in other videos concerning American English that the US is more likely to retain or adapt the pronunciation of words and the spelling of words from the language of origin than the UK. The latter is more apt to Anglicize those words.

[@irishbears2103]

Bologna is the meat you're thinking of. Baloney is the slang word for using when someone is telling you a lie. Both words sound basically the same.

[@richdiddens4059]

For a long time the spelling of words was far from standardized. Sometimes, in older writings, you can find a word spelled two different ways in the same sentence. The our/or and re/er conflict existed for centuries in England, even before it became the UK. Even Shakespeare used these alternate spellings about equally. Attempts to standardize how words are spelled began in the late 17th century. Samuel Johnson's 18th century (-our and some -re) dictionary eventually was adopted in the UK but it took over a hundred years. Meanwhile, Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary, which used -or and -er, won out in the US. As for saying gas for gasoline may I remind British which of us uses spag bol for spaghetti bolognese? Both nations abbreviate lots of words.

[@corawheeler9355]

My mother came from Jersey, Channel Islands. My children always got a kick out of asking her the day of the week ... Chewsday ... where we pronounce it like Toozday. A couple of Brits on KZbin pronounce their initial as "Haych", where in the US we pronounce the letter 'H' as 'Aych' ... no breathy sound in front.

[@elkins4406]

The British began adding that sounded 'h' at the beginning of the word 'aitch' at just about the same time that they started sounding the 'h' at the beginning of 'herb' -- and for *precisely* the same reason! Namely, they began adding 'h' sounds at the beginning of these words out of fear that otherwise they might sound as if they were speaking the newly-emerged Cockney dialect, and therefore might come across as 'lower class.' This phenomenon -- when people start changing the way they speak out of a misguided attempt to sound more educated, higher status, or more 'proper' -- is one that linguists call "hypercorrection." Hypercorrection doesn't only manifest itself as changes in pronunciation, but also often as awkward grammar. Think of those people who say "you and I" where "you and me" would be more correct. Usually they're making that mistake out of a vague sense that the "I" form is the more prestigious word to use. Of course, the fun thing about language is that if a hypercorrection is widely adopted enough for long enough, then it eventually ceases to become a weird error and instead becomes just another perfectly correct variant of the language!

[@jasonskeans3327]

just point of order, gasoline, or petro if you will, IS a nonliquid substance when it is being burned in an internal combustion engine

[@texadian3392]

Also, the ("standard") American English accent is supposed to be much closer to the English accent of Shakespeare's day than any modern UK accent.

[@MichaelScheele]

Noah Webster wanted a distinctly different path for written English in the US as compared to Samuel Johnson's "Dictionary of the English Language". Hence, his conventions for spelling standardization differed from Johnson's and later Oxford's (OED). After American Independence, we saw fit to follow our own path rather than simply copy that of Great Britain/UK. Accents on both sides of the pond diverged after American Independence. Prior to American Independence, both nations where rhotic, we pronounced the "r" at the end of words. In the US, for the most part, we remained rhotic, while people in the UK changed to non-rhotic. New England, most notably Boston, was an exception; they retained closer ties to the UK through trade and imported some of the shift in accent.

[@micheleperkins1956]

Fun fact: for Valentines Day of 2020, I got my boyfriend a card that said I like you, you don't have cooties! And then Covid happened... Also, you don't cuss too much and hell isn't really offensive to most Americans.

[@shawnnixon2811]

Another factor is the fact America is and has been a melting pot and so is our language. Our language is often a fusion of English, French, Spanish, German and American Indian merged with our own regional flair. This includes both words and pronunciations. To the point where in some regions the dialects are almost their own language. Trust me when someone says I speak southern English, it traditionally is something very different from someone say from Wisconsin.

[@hayleyam28]

You can thank Noah Webster (and Benjamin Franklin?) for the simpler spellings of American English. Cutting out "unnecessary letters" (like the u in colour) means fewer letters to print for newspapers and books, and also made it so literacy rates could increase at a time when not many people had a good education.

[@wizloon9052]

English is spoken in many countries, and they all speak it differently. Have you ever had a conversation with someone from Jamaica? I think Jamaica is a former British colony.

[@Sandman60077]

Petroleum is the incorrect word for what is used in vehicles. Petroleum is unrefined crude oil, once the oil is refined and separated it's no longer petroleum and becomes gasoline, diesel, kerosene, ETC...

[@LuvScorpio]

👏🏾

[@steeljawX]

Cattywampus is an adjective to mean odd, off, or just generally wrong. Like if you hung a picture and it was crooked, you could say that picture is all cattywampus. It's typically used as such as well. Things are "all cattywampus", never really sort of or a little. It's an all or nothing adjective and it's a fun one. I've used it more to describe when things are just weird in a visual sense and when a situation is in a less serious awkward sense. Like if you're trying to move out of a house and you lost track of what is going in which box. Everything is all cattywampus. If it was something really awkward that would likely show up on the old Jerry Springer show, that's not really something I'd consider cattywampus an appropriate adjective for. But that's just me. Also, I think we can all agree that the most egregious pronunciations vs spelling shared between all English is military ranks. General, makes sense and is easy. Captain, same there. Corporal, getting a little weird but still sensible. Colonel, why is there an R sound in there when there's no R? Lieutenant, ha ha ha, it's got French in there. Sergeant, but it sounds like sargent, but has weird spellings. But if you need a list of words pronounced differently between the countries; Schedule, tomato/potato, collar (US tends to change the A to an E so it sounds like coller), manufactured (I believe I've heard an occasional Brit pronounce this like "man-you-fact-tyu-werd" in a very literal phonetic sense instead of "man-you-fac-tyured", hawk, falcon, jaguar, Coca-Cola (I've heard an uptight Brit version where the coca was like "quew-kah" instead of a relaxed "coh-ka".) Aquafina (while we're on brands), some Brits try to pronounce the ch in Chicago while I think the majority of the US pronounce it with a sh. Pita (as in the flat bread), burger (slight differences), and let's end with sugar.

[@kathymcbob3137]

In the Midwest, kittycorner is used to describe 2 things, usually street corners, that are diagonally across from each other. Kittywompus means crooked and/or disheveled.

[@miked5814]

If you think about it, gasoline is a gas as it's used. The liquid doesn't combust, it's the fumes that are used, therefore, it actually is a gas when it's in use.

[@DTG_LOCKETT]

Soccer was first called assoccer from the abbreviations assoc and the "as" was dropped shortly after it spread around England.

[@united8586]

Honestly we just know the difference between Gas (gasoline) and Gas. Kinda just depends on the situation it’s used in. Also when talking about Gas we sometimes say steam

[@dodgermartin4895]

Two dictionary editors... England had Samuel Johnson and the USA had Noah Webster, and that had a lot to with English vs American English spelling conventions. I as an American call soccer "KICK BALL." even though there is an American youth game called kick ball that is like baseball.... And I had English friends I used to do party games of American expressions versus English ones... like a lot Brits don't know what "put up your dukes" or "I'll take the 5th" mean versus what a Brit might call "hundreds and thousands" are what Americans call "sprinkles." And torch versus flashlight.... et cetera.

[@user-pe9gz8si8k]

not to contradict lawrence but ok is a shortened version of the phrase “okie dokie” balogna is processed meat. Quite good with mustard and dill pickle.

[@bryanreed1556]

In America the word "booger" is no big deal, but in Canada it's like saying the F word.

[@riccorich]

Aussies hardly call American 🏈 football , it's called Gridiron over there

[@neshobanakni]

Okay actually came from the U.S. trade with Southern Tribes. In Muskogean languages (Like Choctaw) "Yakokeh" is usually translated as Thank You but actually used to mean It's All Good. Traders in the South shortened it to "Okeh."

[@Kenneth_James]

No American teen waits to have a first drink at 21

[@johnnycage1057]

That’s depending on the parents. My parents made sure my ass didn’t have a drink till I was 21

[@ephennell4ever]

Heck, I remember my Mom - and she wasn't/isn't an alcoholic - asked me at a party (I think I was 14 or 15 y.o.) if I wanted to try her 'Bloody Mary'; I think she was maybe recalling that I liked V-8 juice, and figured she'd see if I liked her favorite mixed drink. No go. To this day, I prefer a mixed drink that's strongly flavored enough that there's *no chance* of tasting any alcohol! But that day, I think I sampled something from all six of the grown-ups there! But a 'tradition' was established... any time I wanted to try anything alcoholic, all I had to do was ask! Flip-side of the tradition: I was taste-testing by sipping something from an older relative's glass, as it quickly became apparent that a serving given to me ... wasn't likely to be finished by me. But I did discover that I was partial to certain wines. At the time the legal drinking age was 18 (it was gradually raised to 21 in the 80s), but if one of my preferred wines was being served at a family get-together ... well then, at 17 I was having a glass of wine if I wanted it. I think both my Mom and step-father figured it'd keep me from being 'lured' into bingeing on alcohol when I got to be 18+ ... maybe that helped me some, along with something else.

[@elkevera]

@@ephennell4ever Very smart parents Eric. 👍👍

[@valeriemorton5517]

Baloney! is an an Americanized form of Bologna, a city in Italy known for cured minced meat sausages such as Mortadella, the parent food of the american cold cut.

[@katw3070]

I find it hard to believe Kabir has never heard of baloney.