“Oh, rather!”

Apr 23, 2012 by

“Oh, rather!”

The topic of differences between British and American English has already come up several times in this blog. These differences concern pronunciation (“tomejdo”-“tomahto”), word choice (truck vs. lorry), and...

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Pop vs. Soda vs. Coke

Mar 7, 2012 by

Pop vs. Soda vs. Coke

Several previous posts discussed differences in pronunciation, vocabulary and even grammar across dialects of American English. Which terms do you use: Sneakers or tennis shoes? Hoagie or hero? Dust bunny or house moss? Do you say...

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Au revoir, mademoiselle!

Feb 29, 2012 by

Au revoir, mademoiselle!

French government has recently announced that the word “mademoiselle” would no longer be used in its official documents. Up until now, women were forced by government departments, banks, and private companies to...

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Language Referendum in Latvia

Feb 20, 2012 by

On February 18, 2012 Latvia held a referendum on the issue of Russian as a second official language. A turnout of more than 70 percent underscored the extent that this issue has stirred the public, and the results were overwhelmingly...

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On H-dropping again

Feb 6, 2012 by

On H-dropping again

In an earlier post, I mentioned H-dropping as one of the characteristic features of Cockney, the lower class variety of English from the streets of London’s East End. Recall Professor Higgins’ complaints: “Hear them down in...

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American English from sea to shining sea, part 2

Sep 30, 2011 by

In the previous posting, I’ve mentioned a number of lexical peculiarities of various regional American English dialects. Let’s now consider some pronunciation peculiarities. Take, for example, the name Mary, the adjective...

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