Americanisms gone too far, are you guilty?

Harry Palmr

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Is 'Gordon Bennett' not a cockney thing?

They have culturally appropriated it! James Gordon Bennett was an Irish-Scots American who was a newspaper magnet and early fan of motor-racing and other death defying pursuits .

Grayson

Hamsterchops wrote: »

Agreed, same goes for elevator (instead of lift).

Why don't you call it the living stairs then ya west brit :P

Edit: ever have that bit where somethings funny in your head and then you read it and realise "he said elevator, not escalator".So let's all pretend that the poster said escalator and that way my post is mildly funny instead of mildly stupid.

Thelonious Monk

jimgoose wrote: »

"Right" is a Newfoundland thing. We have a Newfie here in the office. He tells me a typical conversation back home would go "So I go to the store, right? I need to get some .243 Winchester for the rifle, right? And some beans. Because these Polar bears, are getting ridiculous. Right??"

I used to be married to one and never noticed that!

the beer revolu

jimgoose wrote: »

"Right" is a Newfoundland thing. We have a Newfie here in the office. He tells me a typical conversation back home would go "So I go to the store, right? I need to get some .243 Winchester for the rifle, right? And some beans. Because these Polar bears, are getting ridiculous. Right??"

A bit like how certain English people constantly add on "didn't I" , "wasn't I" etc.
Seeking approval or conformation in every sentence.

Gwynplaine

Up til I was 26 or 27 I always thought it was 'coldslaw'

The one that makes me shudder is "my bad". Lad you're a muck savage from Wexford, why dont you go call your mom on your cellphone and axe her to get some jello.

jimgoose

Harry Palmr wrote: »

They have culturally appropriated it! James Gordon Bennett was an Irish-Scots American who was a newspaper magnet and early fan of motor-racing and other death defying pursuits .

His son, James Gordon Bennett Jr. and commonly known as Gordon Bennett to distinguish him more easily from his rather eminent if ruthless father, was a mad bastard. His excesses and escapades inspired the use of "Gordon Bennett!" as a mild expletive. I'm not quite sure hoe the British picked it up, though.

Ush1

My 5 years old calls crisps "chips" because of that little bollocks Ryans Toy Reviews.

ILoveYourVibes

Ush1 wrote: »

My 5 years old calls crisps "chips" because of that little bollocks Ryans Toy Reviews.

This is too far.:mad:

jimgoose

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

I used to be married to one and never noticed that!

No bears here, Chief. And you can't get .243 Winchester without a deer license.

Pherekydes

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

They view their own culture as inferior so they ape a trendy one.

How do you work that out? These kids are playing Camogie, Hurling and GAA; doing Irish dancing and going to Gaelscoileanna, all while aping American accents they hear on Telly.

Better 'Mom' than 'Maaaaaaaa'.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Pherekydes wrote: »

How do you work that out? These kids are playing Camogie, Hurling and GAA; doing Irish dancing and going to Gaelscoileanna, all while aping American accents they hear on Telly.

Better 'Mom' than 'Maaaaaaaa'.

I'm talking about D4 teenagers who ride the DART not the general public.

Hamsterchops

Ush1 wrote: »

My 5 years old calls crisps "chips" because of that little bollocks Ryans Toy Reviews.

OMG, that really takes the cookie biscuit

'Math' is another one that wrecks my old fashioned Irish brain.

Thelonious Monk

Something that I've noticed lately is that little wannabe gangster youngfellas out my way are saying "Bro" now to each other. Where did that come from?

Thelonious Monk

jimgoose wrote: »

No bears here, Chief. And you can't get .243 Winchester without a deer license.

Do you live in NFLD? Aren’t there bears in Labrador or do they not come down that far? Killing seals is more their jam.

jimgoose

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Do you live in NFLD? Aren’t there bears in Labrador or do they not come down that far? Killing seals is more their jam.

No, I live in Cork. I mean there are no bears in Ireland, and powerful centrefire rifles are strictly licensed and controlled - in short, you can only license one for deer.

I believe Polar bears do wander into Labrador province, yes.

phunkadelic

I dont know any, period

HopsAndJumps

People are saying quac here too and some people saying cilantro instead of coriander.

We are not in 'norcal!!!!'

topper75

Is the telly to blame, or is it internet/gaming culture?

Sub-par U.S. drama efforts have been beamed into Irish living rooms since the early 70s - evening after evening, and Hollywood on the screens of our towns for a lot longer. However, this accent/voice aping and noun substitution has only intensified in the last decade or so.

My generation, indicated by my username, would typically self-police this thing through derision. We grew up without devices and interfaced directly. There was a clear divide for us between the entertainment world across the Atlantic and our own day-to-day reality.

The 'millennials', on the other hand, typically accept it as normal here in Ireland, which is telling. Apart from the adoption of words and accents, I also see millennials typically lacking healthy cynicism and as imports go that worries me a lot more.

TeaBagMania

just FYI for those less traveled, only the most backward bucktoothed hillbillies in the mountains of West Virginia uses the term "ma"

Thelonious Monk

topper75 wrote: »

Is the telly to blame, or is it internet/gaming culture?

Sub-par U.S. drama efforts have been beamed into Irish living rooms since the early 70s - evening after evening, but this accent/voice aping and noun substitution has only intensified in the last decade or so.

My generation, indicated by my username, would typically self-police this thing through derision. We grew up without devices and interfaced directly. There was a clear divide for us between the entertainment world across the Atlantic and our own day-to-day reality.

The 'millennials', on the other hand, typically accept it as normal here in Ireland, which is telling. Apart from the adoption of words and accents, I also see millennials typically lacking healthy cynicism and as imports go that worries me a lot more.

I think Friends started it all. I remember I started college in '98 and girls in my class were saying things like "I soooo don't want to be here", and "Oh my god video store guy asked me out last night".

Full on copying the way they spoke in Friends. That was my first noticing of it.

jimgoose

TeaBagMania wrote: »

just FYI for those less traveled, only the most backward bucktoothed hillbillies in the mountains of West Virginia uses the term "ma"

The Cajuns say "Momma". Now there's an accent we should introduce here, by stealth if necessary:

Grampappy him say, good whiskey she make jack-rabbit howl at the wolf. Ca c'est bon!

Cienciano

I don't really mind most of them. Except one. I don't know why, but it annoys me any time I hear it, including genuine Americans.

"Where you at?"

It's fúcking "Where are you?", it's not that hard to say.

BENDYBINN

No Americanisms here even though I visit the place fairly often. Hope to go again in the fall.

jimgoose

BENDYBINN wrote: »

No Americanisms here even though I visit the place fairly often. Hope to go again in the fall.

Ya bastid!

IAMAMORON

Totally.

freshpopcorn

I went to school with a guy.
He'd say
I'm went to the mall.
I bought a pair of sneakers.
Mom parked the car in the lot and put the shopping in the trunk.
The car wouldn't start so mon popped the hood.
She called triple A on her cell phone.

Mickeroo

jimgoose wrote: »

"Right" is a Newfoundland thing. We have a Newfie here in the office. He tells me a typical conversation back home would go "So I go to the store, right? I need to get some .243 Winchester for the rifle, right? And some beans. Because these Polar bears, are getting ridiculous. Right??"

Equivalent of "D'yaknow"

Deebles McBeebles

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

If I tried the same thing or asked a child to do the same thing, as was no doubt the case, he would have reported me to the cops.

Sh*t.

Gimme A Pound

Wibbs wrote: »

I have heard this every time this comes up Z, though sometimes it's Kerry. However find me any audio or video on the interwebs pre the mid 90's where any Irish person uses "Mom" speaking english. But let's say that's the case and it's from the Irish(though it always sounded like a broader Ahh sound to me and where we get the very Irish "mam") and a south west thing, it sure as night follows day wasn't an east coast/Dublin thing Z, yet it's endemic nowadays.

The whole Yank accent thing started back in the late 90's more with young women as these things tend do(as women have a generally better ear for them and languages) and some of them now sound like nasal valley girls. Tends to be more a middle class thing too. Just like the Dort accent before it where they more aped a received British accent.

It's definitely a rural Cork and Kerry (they're next door neighbours!) thing Wibbs - definitely. You have no reason to doubt that. Really old people from the absolute bogs say it - the closest they'd get to American TV is their VHS of The Quiet Man.

This may not explain it in Dublin for sure, but that doesn't mean the Cork/Kerry rural thing isn't correct.

And I have no patience for those who parrot Americanisms or whateverisms.

Silent Running

"Can I get..." makes me twitch. No you can't get. That's the job of the person behind the counter. Your job is to ask for something.... they get it for you. :mad:

ellejay

CUP CAKES no no no no!
Whatever happened to the humble bun?
At a push Fairy Cake but please no cup cakes.

Gimme A Pound

Birneybau wrote: »

Saw this in response to that vacuous Tweet from Maria Walsh:

https://twitter.com/oliveblogs/status/1131274366363328514

What did Maria Walsh say? "Momma bear" is dreadful too (unless joking), particularly in a sanctimonious "I'm so much better a person than you because I'm a mother" manner. Ditto people who blame FG for everything due to zero understanding of economics.

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

The Irish are terrible for it.

Obsessed with American culture.

Why are you referring to "the Irish" as if we are another crowd which you're not part of?

the beer revolu wrote: »

What a ridiculous statement.
It's used on menus all the time, I use it this was, I've heard lots of people use it this way. You seem to think that because you don't use a term, nobody does. What a staggeringly insular way to be.

Lol, "staggeringly" insular because of his views on one little word.

pjdarcy wrote: »

Is "mam" not pronounced as "mam" in Ireland any more?

Did someone say it isn't? The post referred to the Irish word for Mam, which is pronounced just like mom in that region, hence country folk in Cork and Kerry using the word mom, not because they're watching to much Lardassians.

ongarboy

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

No Irish person should use the term 'Mom'.

I'm from Kerry and most people there refer to their mother as Mom but I don't hear it anywhere else in Ireland. Although I have one set of cousins who called their mother (my aunt) by her first name...odd....

Gimme A Pound

the beer revolu wrote: »

Slaw as short for coleslaw is annoying, as is mayo for mayonnaise.
But slaw is a description of a type of salad when used correctly.
Asian slaw, for example, gives a very good idea of what to expect - shredded or sliced vegetables with Asian flavours ni the dressing. It is descriptive.

Coleslaw is shredded/sliced white cabbage and carrots bound with mayonnaise - it's a very specific thing.

Don't get angry with people just because you don't understand food terminology.

Lol, a fake helpful, friendly post, punctuated by a sneer. Why feel the need to do that?!

Absolutely agreed, Deebles.

jimgoose

ongarboy wrote: »

I'm from Kerry and most people there refer to their mother as Mom but I don't hear it anywhere else in Ireland. Although I have one set of cousins who called their mother (my aunt) by her first name...odd....

You also hear this kind of thing in the Ballyvourney/Macroom Gaeltacht area. It's because if you're going to hear English spoken with a real Irish accent, it'll be in places like these.

An acquaintance of mine is a native speaker from a remote part of Kerry, and it is a little disconcerting to hear this magnificent specimen occasionally refer to his "Mom" like a Californian kid! :pac:

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Wouldn't be replacing any nouns no, no sidewalks or faucets or anything like that.

Certainly there are some turns of phrase I'd use which seem to bring some people out in hives because they're from America but like*, I follow a lot of social and pop cultural stuff online, reading about and discussing and absorbing it in a context where the biggest Anglophone group of producers and consumers by very very far is the North Americans. It'd be more artificial to NOT assimilate phrases into my own general use.

*fcuk off I live in Cork

Gimme A Pound

Although I admit I say dude, man and awesome all the time since the 90s.

Yeah that croaky thing is ****ing vile. I also notice some Irish folk seem to be insecure about our pronunciation of the letter T - "the soft T" so they do the "hard T" thing which sounds so forced/fake/unnatural from an Irish person. Last year was "two thousand and eighTTTeeen" apparently.

leahyl

the beer revolu wrote: »

I grew up in Cork in the 70s and 80s and my mum was always called mom.

We probably would have referred to her as mum but addressed her as mom.

Yeah I’d say it “mom” too and I’m Cork born and bred!

IamtheWalrus

Super chill. Not ‘super chilled out’ but super chill.

I like Tom, he’s super chill.

leahyl

ellejay wrote: »

CUP CAKES no no no no!
Whatever happened to the humble bun?
At a push Fairy Cake but please no cup cakes.

Cupcakes aren’t the same as fairy cakes though

I was reading abook a while ago that explained how old fashioned colonialism used to be just invasion or annexation of another country. They went on to say that Americans begin to change culture first through Hollywood and the music industry and how this is a from of modern colonialism...

Now I too thought it was a stretch but now you mention how a lot kids sound like, aspire to be like, dress like and want to be American so badly, it's kind of got some truth to it. your essentially changing the culture, it's obvious as fook when you got to Asia too.

anyways....NO I hate that DORT/Atlantic twang.. I'm full Irish, like the breakfast!

Hamsterchops

I notice in Aldi the shop assistants at the checkout now wear a 'store assistant' badge. Was always shop assistant when I was growing up.

Grayson

rusty cole wrote: »

I was reading abook a while ago that explained how old fashioned colonialism used to be just invasion or annexation of another country. They went on to say that Americans begin to change culture first through Hollywood and the music industry and how this is a from of modern colonialism...

Now I too thought it was a stretch but now you mention how a lot kids sound like, aspire to be like, dress like and want to be American so badly, it's kind of got some truth to it. your essentially changing the culture, it's obvious as fook when you got to Asia too.

anyways....NO I hate that DORT/Atlantic twang.. I'm full Irish, like the breakfast!

It's always happened though. Phrases come and go. Some start here and move abroad, some move here. I think it's the fact that we can see this happening now. Years ago we couldn't see it happening because our view of the world was a lot smaller.

tonycascarino

ellejay wrote: »

CUP CAKES no no no no!
Whatever happened to the humble bun?
At a push Fairy Cake but please no cup cakes.

It will always be a bun in Ireland. Anyone calling it a cup cake should be eliminated on the spot.

Gwynplaine wrote: »

The one that makes me shudder is "my bad". Lad you're a muck savage from Wexford, why dont you go call your mom on your cellphone and axe her to get some jello.

I agree. For me, it is 'broke the internet' or 'gone viral' .. No doubt these rubbish phrases uttered by vacuous people started in America too.

valoren

If I enter the word 'dramatise' or any word with the 's' per our own spelling (e.g. compartmentalise) then the Boards word processor complains with the word highlighted red. I can't bear the look of it and end up changing it to the US equivalent i.e 'dramatize' etc. It's annoying but have a nice day!

topper75

TeaBagMania wrote: »

just FYI for those less traveled, only the most backward bucktoothed hillbillies in the mountains of West Virginia uses the term "ma"

Travels, eh?

Regale us here around the fireside about how many of these W. Virginians you actually met when 'travelling'. Or are we talking more about a concept there?

I met a bunch of them. Very quiet at first. Perhaps like you I had consumed several of Hollywood's finest 'documentaries' over the years that explained the backwardness of the rural south, how it was to be either feared or pitied. If they weren't outrunning cops in cars they were plotting to kill strangers. If they weren't high off their face on meth they were trying to shove the bible and God's wrath down your throat.
Got to know them. Personally. Must humble, generous, and witty people I probably have ever met, anywhere. Few Irish people will travel there sadly. They see the U.S. the way Hilary Clinton would like them to.

Yer Da sells Avon

In the unlikely event that I have children, they will not be allowed to watch any American television shows.

MarkY91

Hamsterchops wrote: »

Went with a friend to Dundrum shopping mall centre last week, and as we were leaving the car park she mentioned that she was taking the elevator to the stores on the top floor of the mall :cool:

"Elevator to the stores on the top floor of the mall" really? and I thought to myself, whatever happened with taking the lift to the shops on the top floor of the shopping centre?

I was just waiting for her to suggest we went to the 'movie theatre' after we collected the car from the parking lot, thankfully she hasn't got that bad (yet)!

Curious to know how widespread the terms like :elevator', movie theatre, shopping mall, and parking lot (instead of car park) have become in Ireland.

Maybe I'm showing my age by not adapting to the new American lingo? or are many young people selling out by adopting such Americanisms?

Hands up if I'm an old fuddy duddy

I'm in the Philippines on a regular basis and they're the most Americanised people I've ever seen outside of the states. So much that I always come back to Ireland saying mall, elevator etc.

Ipso

Yer Da sells Avon wrote: »

In the unlikely event that I have children, they will not be allowed to watch any American television shows.

They'll be delighted growing up n The Cassidys, The Big Bow Wow, hot Milk and Pepper and Upwardly Mobile.

beejee

It's a combination of persistent propaganda (American television) and weak personality/identity.

People confident in who they are will not absorb the outward identity of others. It's a serious alarm bell to me