# Thursday, March 31, 2005

There were a few surprises here

I tend to think that I have a better understanding of the British, or at least the differences between us (Americans) and the British, than your average American. However there were a few surprises for me on this list:

American English has further changed due to the influx of non-English speakers whose words sometimes enter American vernacular. Many words have entered American English from Spanish, Native American languages, and so on.

[ American English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]

that neck of the woods comes from a Native American tounge? Brits call squashes marrows? Savvy comes from Spanish? American English has borrowed from Tagalog?

We invented some words? Sure gerrrymander I knew, but belittle? Applesauce? Teenager? What on earth do Brits call applesauce and teenagers?

And surely, growning up in the midatlantic/north east I have a good grasp of vocabulary borrowed from Yiddish (which are always fun to say), but I didn't realize that maven and drek came from Yiddish, and I thought that skosh did (yet it came from Japanese).

#    Comments [1] |
Thursday, March 31, 2005 2:45:46 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
WHen I was in Australia, my fellow students didn't even know what applesauce was. They thought it was some exotic sort of chutney. There was literally one brand, two styles in the local supermarket.
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