The other day I was chatting with my English friends and mentioned how I'd visited the pool at a leisure center with some of them. Suddenly, a chorus of voices broke out:
"A what center?" they asked. I sighed. I knew what was coming.
"A leisure center," I said, pronouncing it to rhyme with "seizure."
"Steph, it's a leisure center," they said, pronouncing it to rhyme with "measure."
"Hey, be glad I say lee-sure" I said, defensively. "If I were from rural America, I might say lay-sure."
The room erupted in laughter.
I knew they weren't laughing at me but were just amused by yet another instance of crazy American pronunciation. I have to admit, though, that when I am tired and simply want to have a conversation to communicate something, I actually get a bit weary of the endless discussions about language and the endless ways they (affectionately) correct me. My friends here aren't at all mean-spirited about the language differences. They just like to tease me.
"I'm American, and so I'll say it the American way," I tell them stubbornly.
"OK, but it's wrong," they cheerfully reply. My friend Tim, however, sprang to my defense. Sort of.
"Guys," he says, "we have to let some of them go. After all, we love Steph because she says things funny."
I admit I do like to amuse myself trying to say familiar words in a new way. For example, the word "controversy" is here pronounced "con-TRA-versy," with emphasis on the second syllable and making the "ah" sound instead of the "oh" sound.
I've also taken to the English way of saying "frustrated." They pronounce it "frus-TRATE-d," again with emphasis on the second syllable. I do think that saying, "I'm so frus-TRATE-d" conveys the meaning of the word much better than "I'm FRUS-trated."
I've noticed my own speech patterns change in the five months I've been here. Not only has my vocabulary made a slight shift (I say "loads," instead of "lots"; "knackered" or "shattered" instead of "exhausted"; "brilliant" instead of "cool") but my intonation is different.
I don't see many Americans in Nottingham, but I recently met a woman from California who's been here six years. The funny thing is that when I first heard her, I didn't think she was American at all. She sounded more Irish to me. Then there's my friend Abi, an American ex-pat who's been in London about seven years. When Abi and I chat, she sounds completely American. But when she speaks to her 3-year-old son, who's always lived in London, she suddenly becomes very British. Fascinating...
Yeah, but the Brits murder so many other words, like JAG-you-ar for "jaguar" and "KEEEEYYYY-nyah" for Kenya. Don't even get me started on "zed" for Z. So there!
Hi there!
I'm an American living abroad, and though I dearly love my British friends, it bugs me to hear that an American pronunciation is "wrong". To me, "wrong" would be saying "wery" instead of "very", but saying "lee-sure" instead of "leh-sure" isn't wrong, it's American English. Just take a look at your spell checkers, there are a lot of different standards out there.
It's kind of arrogant, even. Like telling Australians that it's wrong to say "Good day" when you meet someone, or like an American telling a Brit that it's wrong to call the things holding up his trousers "braces" -- I mean, everyone *knows* they're called suspenders, right? ;-)
Just because the language is called English doesn't mean that the people living in England have some kind of monopoly on the way it ought to be spoken.
Hmm, that came out somewhat more cranky in print than I intended, but there are parallels in other languages, where a common language has evolved in different directions, often due to geographical conditions. British English hasn't stood still either, new words and new forms of usage are constantly being introduced.
But the differences are funny, though. Especially food. I was slightly repulsed by the thought of "squidgy cake", and puzzled by what "toad in the hole", "bangers and mash," "sarnies," "butties," and "bubble and squeak" could possibly be.
On the other hand, one of my English friends laughed herself silly over "crosswalk" (instead of the "right" word "zebra crossing") and claimed it sounded like one of those Monty Python silly walks.
The way I see it, we're all right. Or wrong...
Yes, Ingrid, I must admit that it does sometimes get tiresome to constantly be told I'm "wrong." I usually don't bother arguing anymore, even when they bring out the tired old, "It's called English, it's not called American!" comment. Like I said in the post, it usually doesn't bother me and I just consider myself lucky to have found so many other people as fascinated by language as I am. Yet there are times when I don't feel like having the same discussion over and over again.
The funny thing is that since I've started this blog, a bunch of my British friends have been reading it, unbeknownst to me, so I get unexpected defenders. On Wednesday night, for instance, I was with a group of friends and asked if anyone else would like a drink of water. For some reason, that tickled the British funny bone and about three of them repeated "wat-uhrrr" in the most ridiculous imitation of an American accent possible. (One thing I've realized, though, is that Brits don't know that when they imitate American accents it sounds offensively nasal and whiny to us. They're not actually making fun of us--usually--they're just trying to repeat what they hear, and they truly don't hear how strange it sounds to us. I'm sure it works the other way round when we try to speak in phony British accents).
In the midst of the "wat-uhrr" remarks, though, Judith spoke up.
"Guys, I'm not going to tease Stephanie about her accent anymore," she said. The room instantly fell quiet. Even I was surprised.
"Why not?" they asked.
"Because I've been reading her blog," Judith said. "She doesn't like it all of the time, and I can see why. It would get really annoying"
Awww, I was so touched. Thank you, Chicago Sun-Times!
P.S. Ingrid, your comments about zebra crossings and bubble and squeak definitely made me laugh. Even now I start when I read a sign saying, "Zebra crossing ahead," especially if I'm somewhere very un-Saharan, like northern Scotland. And, in your list of funny food names, you didn't mention spotted dick!
I'm a Brit living in the US, and I have to say that I don't get anywhere near as many accusations of incorrect pronunciation from Americans as I hear the Brits accusing Americans of. They might find it funny, or quaint, but telling me I'm wrong? Never.
My husband is also British, but he insists that being English makes him much more qualified to know the language than an American when he gets into debates at work about the subject!
Living in Britain, you will learn that there is nothing the Brits will defend more than their country and it's ways. They might hate the place but start knocking it and you will know about it!
Anyway enjoy the UK, someone has to I suppose.