The Answer Is Obvious

[Razors Edge ★]

...and it is "the Brits".

Who talks funny? Comparing American English and British English

The U.S. and the U.K. are sharing the excitement as an American actress marries a British prince.

And though our countries share a language, communicating with one another can sometimes be challenging.

Take it from two women who have firsthand experience: an American living in England, and a native of England who now resides in the United States.

Linguist Lynne Murphy was born in Upstate New York and moved to England 18 years ago.

Early on, she was told she had a “soft” American accent.

“That to me meant that they thought that Americans sounded like southerners or like Texans … that sounding a little bit more Canadian made me somehow more palatable,” Murphy said.

Over the years, her speech has changed.

“I hit my Ts hard. I say ‘better’ instead of ‘bedder’,” Murphy said. “I live in Atlantis, accent-wise I think.”

Her interest in comparing how people talk in the U.S. and the U.K. prompted her to start a blog called “Separated By a Common Language.”

Now, she has a book called “The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship between American and British English”.

“England, and Britain more generally, is a really linguistically diverse place, so when Americans say things like, ‘Oh, I love a British accent’, that rubs people the wrong way because not everybody speaks like Hugh Grant,” Murphy said.

She initially had some trouble in British restaurants. For instance when she ordered a hot dog thinking she would get an American treat, she was given a “random” sausage in half a baguette.

Tom

[12string]

(I may have already told this story)

A female friend of mine, after arriving late in the evening for her first night at the college dorm in England, was aghast when one of the male residents asked if she wanted him to "come around in the morning to knock you up?"

[jsharr ★]

Just now, 12string said:

(I may have already told this story)

A female friend of mine, after arriving late in the evening for her first night at the college dorm in England, was aghast when one of the male residents asked if she wanted him to "come around in the morning to knock you up?"

A good friend of mine is English, we have known each other since high school and shared an apartment in college.  He sounded pretty American, as he came here at age 6.   His mother and father though, not so much.  I will always remember Betty calling the apartment looking for her son, Matt.  He was out, so I had to take a message.  It read "tell him I am going to do him for knicking me alarm clock."   Made me sort of want to steal a clock from her at the time.