American Cultural Imperialism

girofan

This is just a personal rant; but some of you guys out there may feel the same?
Have you noticed the amount of "Americanisms" creeping, nay bombarding us from the cycling media?
Procycling being in the vanguard. Such words and phrases as: duking it out, rookie, upcoming, winningest, drafting and the commentator's favourite Belgiums instead of the correct plural word for those that live in that country Belgians!
I mean, c'mon, this is the British cycling media who SHOULD know better, we invented the bl***y language, and now because they wish to increase sales in the good 'ol US of A they use this moronic style.
Please, anyone, help, I feel as though I'm drowning in bulls**t.
Anyone for tennis? :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

heavymental

Yes! I gone saw the use of Winningest on some website the other day. What in hell does that dang word mean anyhow!?

arranandy

I don't know if its an Americanisim or not but I hate the phrase '2 times' as in ' 2 times the winner of Paris-Roubaix' or similar. In my book the word used should be 'twice'

Mini-rant over!!

pneumatic

Actually, we didn't invent the English language; it came to us via migrants from what is now Germany, Scandanavia, and France (who also got a lot of it from Scandanavia). Before that, they all got it from the middle East, who possibly got it from the Indian subcontinent.

One of the reasons English has done so well in the last 200 years is that, whereas Latin and French got entangled in a whole lot of rules, English managed to resist definition and remain flexible. It is incredibly good, therefore, at absorbing new vocabulary from other languages and dialects.

This process is quite healthy and it is inevitable. Unless, of course, you are French, in which case you foolishly and Canute-like set up the Academie Francaise to protect the purity of your langage and then watch it disappear off the world stage as an international language, like snow off a dyke, to be replaced by one that is less demanding. Generally, people, like rivers, follow the path of least resistance.

That said, I still wince a bit when I climb onto my Specialized bike - I nearly didn't buy it because of the spelling "mistake" on the downtube!

Eat My Dust

girofan wrote:

Please, anyone, help, I feel as though I'm drowning in bulls**t.

Isn't bullsh*t an americanism?

cycologist

arranandy wrote:

I don't know if its an Americanisim or not but I hate the phrase '2 times' as in ' 2 times the winner of Paris-Roubaix' or similar. In my book the word used should be 'twice'

Mini-rant over!!

I agree wholeheartedly but then i wonder how many people use the words "three times" rather than "thrice". I'm happy to let the Americans use their own form of English but would prefer the British version to continue to develop from it's traditional European roots rather than re-import (is that a real word ? ) a second rate version from the USA.

passout

But America is cool isn't it? They've got guns and everything.

Why don't you guys just stay cool and accept that the good old US of A kicks our no good limey asses in every department (except irony maybe).

heavymental

Why I oughta.......!

flattythehurdler

Disimprove him?

Brains

Liberate him

lardarse rider

pneumatic wrote:

Actually, we didn't invent the English language; it came to us via migrants from what is now Germany, Scandanavia, and France (who also got a lot of it from Scandanavia). Before that, they all got it from the middle East, who possibly got it from the Indian subcontinent.

One of the reasons English has done so well in the last 200 years is that, whereas Latin and French got entangled in a whole lot of rules, English managed to resist definition and remain flexible. It is incredibly good, therefore, at absorbing new vocabulary from other languages and dialects.

This process is quite healthy and it is inevitable. Unless, of course, you are French, in which case you foolishly and Canute-like set up the Academie Francaise to protect the purity of your langage and then watch it disappear off the world stage as an international language, like snow off a dyke, to be replaced by one that is less demanding. Generally, people, like rivers, follow the path of least resistance.

That said, I still wince a bit when I climb onto my Specialized bike - I nearly didn't buy it because of the spelling "mistake" on the downtube!

What you are saying makes perfect sense to me - all except the highlighted (highlit?) bit. What has the lesbian sorority got to do with French and snow?

heavymental

Yeh I wondered about that! Snow off a dyke? Wossat mean then!?

pneumatic

ok, ok, ok but you see English is so flexible that you can spell things in different ways

dyke is a variant of dike, folks.

see:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dyke

Where I come from, there are quite a lot of them, mostly made of dry stone and that absorbs the heat quite well. When snow falls on them, it melts quicker than on the surrounding area. Hence the expression which is very commonly used here in Scotland, but perhaps not in England or America. Who knows?

On the other hand, snow might melt quite well off a lesbian hottie, but, sadly, I have never seen that happen!

Titanium

Going back to the original point, Pro Cycling sells way more copies in the US than Britain, so it's targetted firmly at the US market. Some of the contributors are American too. So it's not much of a British publication.

trailtrash

For years I thought those golf balls were pronounced 'TIT-LIEST' not 'TITLE-IST'. What sort of word is 'Title-ist'?!

It's much better if you over emphasise the'TIT'!

(I always liked the quote from some british politician who said: 'The problem with the Russians is that they haven't got a word for detente!')

Crapaud

I haven't heard it hear yet, but one Americanism that I deteste is 'burglarized'. No, you haven't been burglarized - you've been burgled!! I hate the way English has been butchered. It's like they're just making it up on the spot.

OT but similar: Canadian youth has developed the habit of raising the pitch of their voices at the end of a sentence making everything sound like a question. It's soooo annoying.

bikerbill

"No brainer" is my pet hate (even the forum spell checker has just in formed me that "brainer" is a made up word). Others include starting a sentence with "So", the use of the word "anyways" and that irritating expression, "swapped out".

Bill

passout

Trailtrash - what the hell are you talking about? I like the quote but golf and tittywhatsits....come on.....please assume that we don't share your golfing knowledge and explain. Thanks.

nolf

Worst word i heard an American using was-

Favorability

I mean for Gods sake if it did exist add a "U"!!!!!!

pneumatic

Titanium wrote:

Going back to the original point, Pro Cycling sells way more copies in the US than Britain, so it's targetted firmly at the US market. Some of the contributors are American too. So it's not much of a British publication.

Ah, but there is hope!

Now that Discovery/US Postal has disbanderated, Lance has retirized and Floyd is still protesterizing his innocency (in zpite of the evidenze before the attorney) maybe the Americans will lose interest in cycling altogether and Pro Cycling will have to be written by Europeans.

Crapaud

pneumatic wrote:

Ah, but there is hope!

Now that Discovery/US Postal has disbanderated, Lance has retirized and Floyd is still protesterizing his innocency (in zpite of the evidenze before the attorney) maybe the Americans will lose interest in cycling altogether and Pro Cycling will have to be written by Europeans.

Shouldn't that be 'prostating'?

pneumatic

Yes, you are quite right, prostating against his failed testosterone.

trailtrash

passout wrote:

Trailtrash - what the hell are you talking about? I like the quote but golf and tittywhatsits....come on.....please assume that we don't share your golfing knowledge and explain. Thanks.

I don't really know much about golf, a good walk ruined to quote some wit or another, but I had a couple of old golf balls to putt around the garden as a kid and one of them had 'Titleist' written on it. Apparently it's pronounced 'Title-ist' and means 'one that's won the most titles', sort of like 'winning-ist' (one that's won the most) I mean, like that's a real word?!

But when I was a young chap and didn't realise that people borrowed our language and then gave it back with new bits added I presumed it was pronounced 'Tit-leist'. Well, I was young!

Clearer? Probably not, but it's not my fault, I didn't make up the word!! Actually, I prefer the word Tittywhatsits - now that's a good name for golf balls!

nwallace

Noah Webster vs Dr Johnston round n+i Fight!

jimmythecuckoo

I know this is a little off topic but is anyone else old enough to remember "Winning-Bicycle racing illustrated" and how that magazine vanished without trace when it became all Americanised.

Just thought I would mention it.

Hasufel

Tangentializing a tad here but I'm reminded of meeting an American whilst visiting Florida. She heard my polished Falkirk accent and asked if I was Scotch. She told me that she was Scotch too and her name was Mucalpeen. Wanted to know if I knew anyone from her clan. I was baffled until I realised that she meant MacAlpine. I attempted a gentle correction and she told me that in her homeland that was the correct pronounciation... Hoohoo
:twisted:

Hasufel

Crapaud wrote:

I haven't heard it hear yet, but one Americanism that I deteste is 'burglarized'. No, you haven't been burglarized - you've been burgled!! I hate the way English has been butchered. It's like they're just making it up on the spot.

OT but similar: Canadian youth has developed the habit of raising the pitch of their voices at the end of a sentence making everything sound like a question. It's soooo annoying.

Aw jings my daughter and her friends all speak that way down here in Marlow: "It was like this one time? At band camp? cue cookie girl from American Pie
:twisted:

Crapaud

Hasufel wrote:

Aw jings my daughter and her friends all speak that way down here in Marlow: "It was like this one time? At band camp? cue cookie girl from American Pie

Aaarrrggggghhhh!!!

Titanium

jimmythecuckoo wrote:

I know this is a little off topic but is anyone else old enough to remember "Winning-Bicycle racing illustrated"

I remember Winning, articles by Kenny Pryde and Maynard Hershon. They originally had two versions, one in the US and one in the UK but it wasn't profitable to run them, so they had to merge them together so we got articles on Colin Sturgess and you got stories about a junior called George Hincapie.

LangerDan

Titanium wrote:

jimmythecuckoo wrote:

I know this is a little off topic but is anyone else old enough to remember "Winning-Bicycle racing illustrated"

I remember Winning, articles by Kenny Pryde and Maynard Hershon. They originally had two versions, one in the US and one in the UK but it wasn't profitable to run them, so they had to merge them together so we got articles on Colin Sturgess and you got stories about a junior called George Hincapie.

What caused Winning to go t!ts-up was the fact that they go sooo busy filling it with made-up columns and manufacturers press releases that they forgot to include the actual racing. Waiting until the June or July editions for reports on the Spring Classics is not conducive to retaining readers. (For you young folks out there, there was a time before the internet when you had to get results from newspapers and magazines and everything!)

Having said that, if anyone has the edition from around May of 1984 featuring Kelly's performances in the Spring Classics, I would be very interested in coming aound to your house at night and burgularizing it!

schlepcycling

Isn't the thing about raising the pitch of your voice towards the end of the sentence an Australian thing?, it makes every sentence sound like a question.

As for Americanisms the one I like that you hear on TV in programmes like CSI is 'Home Invasion' sounds bl**dy terrifying!!!.