2026-09-27 12:27 UTC
@FaithinBones@mastodon.social @lankohr@mastodon.social @peteorrall@mastodon.bsd.cafe @Fasgadh@mastodon.scot @kibcol1049@mstdn.social Actually, that's a fascinating little backwater of history. Before phonograhs and telephones, there was no way a typical Yank would hear British speech unless someone who spoke it was standing in front of them. British English evolved due to its Empire borrowing words and whatnot from its Empire; American English, isolated geographically, was frozen in amber.
Things got to the point that during WWI US and UK troops had trouble communicating
Replies (1)
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@PopTarts@gaygeek.social 2026-09-27 12:33
@FaithinBones@mastodon.social @lankohr@mastodon.social @peteorrall@mastodon.bsd.cafe @Fasgadh@mastodon.scot @kibcol1049@mstdn.social US and UK english had diverged far enough by the early 20th century that US English was commonly referred to as the "American language", and in fact in 1916 (I think?) H.L. Mencken actually wrote a sort of grammar-cum-style book titled "The American Language", which title was not controversial at the time. Nowadays, radio - then talking pictures, followed by TV and internet - have caused the two to converge once more.