{"id":705,"date":"2018-11-07T15:34:04","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T14:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kleinwolfpeters.com\/blog?p=705"},"modified":"2018-11-07T15:55:19","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T14:55:19","slug":"noobs-americanization-and-the-blurred-lines-between-the-different-flavours-of-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/?p=705&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"NOOBs, Americanization and the blurred lines between the different flavours of English"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jess Crutchley<\/em><\/p>\n

Is that with chips or fries?<\/strong><\/p>\n

On a recent trip home to Wales, I ordered a steak sandwich for my lunch, to which the lady taking my order replied: \u201cIs that with chips or fries?\u201d My first thought was what\u2019s the difference? Aren\u2019t fries just what Americans call chips? It took me a second to wrap my head around the question \u2013 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 C\u00e1t B\u00e0 Island, we were given the choice of a bungalow with either an \u201cocean view\u201d or a \u201csea view\u201d. 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\u2019m well attuned to the major differences between the two flavours.<\/p>\n

NOOBs and Americanization<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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 \u201cdreaded impact of Americanization\u201d (yes, with a \u201cz\u201d to drive the point home).<\/p>\n

But the same thing is happening on the other side of the pond, too. American writer Ben Yagoda refers to what he calls the \u201calarming number of traditionally British expressions that have found their way into the American vocabulary\u201d as \u201cnot one-off Britishisms\u201d, or NOOBs. On his eponymous website (https:\/\/notoneoffbritishisms.com\/) he provides an extensive list of examples. Among them are \u201cginger\u201d for red-headed and \u201cbaby bump\u201d for when a woman is visibly pregnant; both these examples can perhaps be traced back to content written by British authors \u2013 think Harry Potter and the UK tabloids \u2013 that makes its way across the Atlantic. \u201cBespoke\u201d (tailored) is one that I could add to the list from recent customer examples.<\/p>\n

Dreaded, alarming or however you want to describe it, this transatlantic \u201ccross-pollination\u201d 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\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

Same same but different<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s brain kicked in, I realised the chunky strips of deep-fried potato we call \u201cchips\u201d in the UK aren\u2019t quite the same thing as skinny, American-style fries. It turned out this particular restaurant offered both \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

Whether we\u2019re dealing with monolingual texts or translations between two different languages, it\u2019s our job as language experts working in the communications business to be aware of such linguistic subtleties and make sure we get our customer\u2019s message across to the people it\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s thanks to this cross-cultural awareness that my colleagues and I are able to develop content perfectly tailored to our customers\u2019 intended target audiences. Not a day goes by in our office when we don\u2019t 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!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Language is a dynamic system full of sophisticated nuances that aren\u2019t always apparent at first glance. Here\u2019s a look at how different flavours of the English language can influence each other and why cross-cultural linguistic awareness is key in the communications business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[238,236,237,240,239,241,37,242],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=705"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":724,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705\/revisions\/724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}