Sam From England said in a comment to me:
I am from england the land where english was invented, and I have to say that I have never heard an american speak any thing close to english.
Would that be the English spoken by the author of Beowulf? That was Old English. What we speak today is totally different. The vast majority of what we speak today comes from other languages, not Old English.
Middle English maybe? After the French Normans landed? The language of Geoffrey Chaucer? That English?
Or perhaps Early Modern, the language of King James and Queen Elizabeth?
In some respects Sam, Most scholars think American English is closer to Early Modern English than today's British dialect. A lot of words and pronunciations stayed the same here where they didn't in England.
We speak a common language, just different dialects. Neither of us would probably understand a word spoken by Beowulf's author, nor would either of us understand much of a conversation with Mr. Chaucer.
English is a living breathing language. We've always been ready and willing to borrow from others. Here in the States, we borrowed from the Indians, the Dutch, the Africans, the Spanish and just about every other culture in the world. The English have also borrowed heavily from their once vast empire.
You can try to be a snob if you want, but the truth is that the language we speak is easily enough understood by both of us. Our pronounciations may differ slightly, but you'll have no trouble understanding this.
In England, did they teach you proper capitalization? Proper nouns like America and England are usually capitalized. You forgot a comma, but I'll let that slide. I sometimes forget them too.
Be careful playing snob to a guy who, along with history, studied the history of the language.
VW
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