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Is the Internet Americanising (or Americanizing) British English?
   Here, though, is a question, posed to mark the centenary of the Commonwealth. Is the common online dialogue also leading to a more direct harmonization of the English language? This blog, in a typical week, attracts 80,000 readers from the UK, 30,000 from the US and 10,000 from elsewhere, mainly from other Anglosphere nations: a proportion that is fairly representative of British websites. In consequence, British bloggers and readers are far more familiar with the American Weltanschauung. But are we also starting to write like Americans? Is the combination of the Internet and US-designed spell-check programmes (or programs) hastening the Americanization of British English?
   There is nothing new in this process. In his 1908 magnum opus, H W Fowler inveighs against such American imports as âplacateâ, âtranspireâ, âhoney-colouredâ, âantagonizeâ, âjust how muchâ and âdo you have?â (instead of âhave you got?â) Hardly anyone these days thinks of these phrases as Americanisms. Yet âsidewalkâ, âback ofâ (for behind) and âexcuse me?â (if you havenât heard someone) have failed to penetrate at all. âMadâ still means insane rather than angry, âsmartâ means well turned-out rather than clever, "pissed" means drunk rather than cross, and âsuspendersâ hold up a womanâs stockings rather than a manâs trousers.
   Let me finish on a positive note. In my own lifetime, there has been a comprehensive shift in Britain towards âiseâ instead of âizeâ in such words as, well, Americanize. You can see why it has happened: using both forms means having to remember which words can only be written with âiseâ; but using âiseâ is never wrong. None the less, it can be clumsy, and the OED has always preferred to maintain the distinction. The movement towards âiseâ seems now to have reached its limit and, under the influence of American software, we are starting to return to the form that our grandparents regarded as correct.
   If we can do so with language, why not with politics? Letâs bring back elected sheriffs, local control of welfare, proper parliamentary control of the executive and the rest of the Direct Democracy agenda. Itâs not Americanization; itâs repatriation.
   Tags: Americanisms, Anglosphere, British Library, dialect, English language, internet