For decades British people have complained about Americanisms creeping across the pond. But now it seems the trend is being reversed with linguists arguing that British English is influencing US speakers, rather than the other way around.
Words such as dodgy, bespoke, wonky and twee have popped up in the vocabulary of American speakers influenced by a desire to sound more sophisticated.
Language expert Ben Yagoda, who has been collecting examples on his blog, says he has even seen examples of mum rather than mom.
The phenomenon is particularly strong on the east coast, where New Yorkers now talk about going to gastropubs, or on holiday, instead of vacation.
Professor David Crystal, one of the worlds foremost experts in linguistics, said the phenomenon was influenced by the success of British cultural exports, such as Downton Abbey.
But interestingly the other way around has start to happen, with Downton Abbey and things like thatProfessor David Crystal, one of the worlds foremost experts in linguistics
The reason is entirely to do with the cultural history of the world. American films, American television, Friends, the Simpsons, all of this, means that British people are exposed to Americanisms in a way which doesn’t happen the other way around.
But interestingly the other way around has start to happen, with Downton Abbey and things like that, so now Americans are suddenly finding that there are Britishisms that are really rather attractive one does find localisms quite from another part of the world quite attractive, he told the Daily Telegraph.
British culture is seen in a positive light by Americans, he said, a process which began with Charles Dickens, who was lionised when he visited the US in the mid-19th century.
There’s always a kind of nostalgia for history in American culture, he added.
Citing the example of gotten, a word which is often cited as an Americanism, he said many distinctively American words can be found even earlier in British English.
If you take that to its logical conclusion and you go back to the things that are distinctively American, linguistically, they’re all British, he said. Gotten’ turns up in Shakespeare, turns up in Chaucer. And you suddenly realise that what you thought were Americanisms were actually brought over from Britain in the first place.
Lynne Murphy, a linguistics professor at Sussex University, also told the New York Times that Americans thought the words made them sound sophisticated or cosmopolitan.
Britain’s outsize influence on worldwide English is also enabled by British-English websites, communication through social media by UK bloggers and Tweeters, and the worldwide broadcast of British events such as royal weddings, Professor Crystal added.
We’re still talking about a relatively small thing but the speed at which it’s happened fostered of course by the internet which makes change happen more quickly anyway does suggest that it’s going to increase, he said.