NOOBs, Americanization and the blurred lines between the different flavours of English

By Jess Crutchley

Is that with chips or fries?

On a recent trip home to Wales, I ordered a steak sandwich for my lunch, to which the lady taking my order replied: “Is that with chips or fries?” My first thought was what’s the difference? Aren’t fries just what Americans call chips? It took me a second to wrap my head around the question – which, on a side note, brought back fond memories of a trip to Vietnam a few years ago. When booking accommodation for our stay on Cát Bà Island, we were given the choice of a bungalow with either an “ocean view” or a “sea view”. We never did find out the difference, but we woke up to a wonderful vista of sparking blue water the next morning. Anyway, back to the story: at Klein Wolf Peters, we work both with British and with American English on a daily basis, so I’m well attuned to the major differences between the two flavours.

NOOBs and Americanization

Language is a dynamic system, and one manifestation of this is how the number of Americanisms creeping into British vernacular is growing all the time. These days, it’s not uncommon to hear people in the UK ask if they can get their coffees to go before catching a movie or grabbing take-out. British lexicographer Susi Dent refers to this evolution of language as the “dreaded impact of Americanization” (yes, with a “z” to drive the point home).

But the same thing is happening on the other side of the pond, too. American writer Ben Yagoda refers to what he calls the “alarming number of traditionally British expressions that have found their way into the American vocabulary” as “not one-off Britishisms”, or NOOBs. On his eponymous website (https://notoneoffbritishisms.com/) he provides an extensive list of examples. Among them are “ginger” for red-headed and “baby bump” for when a woman is visibly pregnant; both these examples can perhaps be traced back to content written by British authors – think Harry Potter and the UK tabloids – that makes its way across the Atlantic. “Bespoke” (tailored) is one that I could add to the list from recent customer examples.

Dreaded, alarming or however you want to describe it, this transatlantic “cross-pollination” of the English language is happening whether we like it or not, presumably as a result of increasing internationalisation and easy access to international media. At this point I’d also like to acknowledge that although this blog focuses on American and British English, the same applies to all variants of English spoken around the world to various extents. Personally, I find it fascinating how language evolves in different geographical locations, but I digress.

Same same but different

Back to the restaurant in Wales (not Southeast Asia, as the non-British and non-American phrase I used in the subheader might suggest!). Once my linguist’s brain kicked in, I realised the chunky strips of deep-fried potato we call “chips” in the UK aren’t quite the same thing as skinny, American-style fries. It turned out this particular restaurant offered both – which brings me to my point: with language, not everything is always as it seems. Even on the word level, there can be subtle differences in meaning between so-called equivalents, as we can see from the chips/fries example.

Whether we’re dealing with monolingual texts or translations between two different languages, it’s our job as language experts working in the communications business to be aware of such linguistic subtleties and make sure we get our customer’s message across to the people it’s aimed at. Even writing this blog sparked a lively discussion about which variants of the words to use: Is it a Britishism or a Briticism? Americanization or Americanisation?

It’s thanks to this cross-cultural awareness that my colleagues and I are able to develop content perfectly tailored to our customers’ intended target audiences. Not a day goes by in our office when we don’t discuss the sophisticated nuances of language, be it the differences between British and American English or the finer points of cultural and linguistic transfer between English and German. And we love it!