Zed
This is the last A-to-Z Blogging Challenge post for 2013! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my posts this past month. I’ve certainly enjoyed writing them, and interacting with your comments. Thank you!
I’ve been living in the US for 21 years now, and while I have Americanized to an extent (did you see that “-ized” ending, not “-ised”?), there are some ways in which my inherent Britishness seeps through:
- I still have my English accent, at least so I’m told. People can tell I’m not from ’round these here parts. In fact, my family back home say they can tell I’ve been in the States for a long time not so much by a change in my accent, but in a change in my vocabulary. American phrases come more naturally to mind, and when I hear British-isms in dramas from the UK, they strike me as odd (e.g., “I’ll sort that out for you…” (vs. “I’ll take care of that for you…”), “lorry” (vs. “trucks”), “shops” (vs. “stores”), etc.).
- I drink lots of tea, and I prefer Cadbury’s over Hershey’s. And I do still enjoy Jammie Dodgers and Hobnobs… though we have to go to special stores to find them, or have my family import them for me.
- I still say “tomahhto” and not “tomayto.” (But you notice, I put the
full-stopperiod inside the quotation marks, which is the US convention.) I can’t bring myself to say “tomato” the American way. I’ve tried. It’s just… not right!! If feels like I’msaying a swear wordcussing! - I prefer “zed” over “zee.” It’s not as big of a deal for me which I use, but “zee” sounds like it should be said with an American accent, and my kids laugh at my attempts at an American accent. Which isn’t fair, because they can all do very good English accents. But the “ABC” song doesn’t work with “zed.” Try it: “Q R S, T U V, W X, Y and Zed.” To teach my natural-born American children their ABCs, I would either have to pretend there’s a letter “Ved” to make the rhyme, or cave to the American pronunciation. As it is, I caved, largely because I wanted to save them the funny looks other kids would give them if they said “Zed.” Or “Ved.”
As a writer, the linguistic situation can be a problem. One would think I’d be able to set stories in the UK without difficulty. But while I still have a sense for what I might expect an English person to say, UK terms and phrases don’t come as naturally to me as they used to, so I still have to research. And sometimes I let British terms seep into my American fiction. But my wife can usually catch those.
Have you run into problems over vocabulary–yours or someone else’s? Do you have a favorite British-ism or American-ism?
I used to get confused when watching Sesame Street and they would sing the alphabet song. Ecks-Why-Zee didn’t sit well with me :/
My brother and I always used to find that amusing about Sesame Street, too. Okay, yes, we sometimes put on American accents and said “zeeeeee”! 🙂
A very nice light and funny post! I enjoyed in immensely. 🙂
#1196
A to Z April Blogging Challenge
http://mauldinfamily1.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/z-is-for-zipper/
Thanks! Especially after yesterday’s story, I wanted to end with something a little more lighthearted. 🙂
🙂
Yay for zed! And yes, our alphabet song sounds a little lopsided north of the border. 😉 I think in Canada we have kind of the best of both worlds–British and American–as well as the worst. It’s kind of a strange hybrid of both. I’ve really only just begun to notice how frustrating this can be when it comes to writing. I only recently found out that many words that Americans hyphenate, we turn into compound words. The fun thing is trying to figure out which words are affected. And then there’s the word ‘grey’, which up until recently I had no idea Americans spelled with an ‘a’. I don’t imagine I’ll be able to sort out all of the occurrences in my WIP, which will probably just make me look like some totally confused Canadian/British/American amalgam. 🙂
As for HobNobs, they’ve long been a favourite (<–with a 'u'!) of mine. We're fortunate enough to have them (along with Tim Tams, my favourite Aussie cookie…err biscuit) in most of our regular grocery stores.
The advantage you have in Canada, though, is that EVERYONE speaks the same hybrid language. 🙂 I must say, though, the longer I’ve been in the States, the more I’ve appreciated my British-ness. While some of the things I say may get me confused looks (from my children, even), I’ve come to the point where I’d sooner explain it than constantly revise my vocabulary. And for my writing, I’ve decided that any British-isms my wife and I don’t catch, most agents and editors will pick up on. If anyone asks, I can just say, “I’m British” and they’ll nod knowingly. Of course, you have an advantage there too. When I say, “I’m British,” people think, “Quirky, strange, Monty Python, drive on the wrong side of the road–better watch this one.” When you say “I’m Canadian,” people think, “charming, well-mannered, intelligent–she’s probably right.” 😉
Oddly enough, living with a Brit has changed our family vocabulary as well. I have had people tell me they get amused at my Britishisms–which I don’t even recognize sometime. I think it is a nice quirk to our family. We won’t even mention how many Korean/Japanese/Chinese things keep slipping in now and then. 🙂
Yes, we are a quirky family… in the best possible way, of course. I can’t imagine how that happened… 😀
I was watching this youtube video American vs English accent. (here if anyone is interested) So hilarious.
I really like ‘Fall’ just as much I love the word ‘Autumn’. Fall still makes sense for the season. But I’d still think it was weird saying ‘Fall’ because obviously I’m used to calling it Autumn. I also tend to say ‘cheers’ or ‘ta’ a lot. Two British-isms I like. 🙂
When I was a teenager I used the term ‘dude’ a lot. I had a ‘dude’ phase. ^^
Thanks for the link to the video, Robin–that was fun!! In fact, I have some thoughts on some of the words/phrases they mention:
theatre/theater: You have to admit, this word sounds a lot more sophisticated with an English accent.
caramel: I don’t understand why Americans say this as if there’s no second “a”–“carmel.” It’s okay to have 3-syllable words, you know! 🙂
aluminum/aluminium: To be fair, these are spelled differently, which is why Americans omit a syllable.
renaissance: Another word that sounds so much more sophisticated with an English accent.
herb: In the US, Herb is a name, ‘erb is the plant. And they accuse the Brits of dropping “h” sounds!
pins and needles: I didn’t think about it until now, but yes, Americans tend to refer to parts of one’s body going to sleep, rather than saying they have “pins and needles.” The British term is, of course, descriptive of the feeling. I don’t know about you, but when I go to bed, my body doesn’t get pins and needles… 🙂
regional accent: Yes, Fleur *does* have a regional accent–she just can’t hear it, and most American ears aren’t fine-tuned enough to UK regional accents to detect it. Now, I couldn’t place her accent precisely, but she doesn’t sound like she’s from my home town (Hereford)!
daddy long-legs: My wife refers to these as mosquito hawks. I think “daddy long-legs” refers to a different insect… at least for her.
“same mark”: In the US, it would be “same grade.” In the UK, teachers mark papers, in the US, they grade them.
I agree with you about “Fall” and “Autumn” though I think I prefer Autumn. What’s the US equivalent of “Autumnal”? “Fallal”?? 🙂
Now, did you say “dood” or “deude?” I would have said the latter, but I know in certain parts of the UK, they would use a similar pronunciation as the Americans.
Fun stuff. I should blog some more about this… oh, I basically have! 😀
Haha, I said ‘dood’. I never even realised there would be a difference in the way it was said!
Being Canadian, I can definitely relate to parts of this post. Although I say “zed” now, when I was little I pronounced it “zee” because I watched American Sesame Street. You’re right that zed sounds weird at the end of the alphabet song. Way too clunky and it doesn’t rhyme. On my blog, I spell things the Canadian/British way, but when I write I purposely switch over to American spelling.
In terms of English in Canada, from region to region we’re fairly diverse. I grew up in Ontario while my husband was raised in Saskatchewan and there are definite differences in how we speak, though they’re relatively small. But to hear me talking beside someone from Newfoundland, or Nunavut (Inuktitut is an official language there), or Quebec (where the majority of people speak French as their first language), you might even think we were from different countries even if we were all speaking in English. We’re a pretty big and culturally diverse nation and this definitely shows in our language use.
Like Jaime said, we’re lucky enough to be able to buy Hobnobs at most grocery stores. Along with Scottish oatcakes, I’d have to say they’re one of the best things we import. 🙂
As you might have noticed, I will sometimes switch to UK/Canadian spelling if I’m commenting on someone’s blog who is Canadian or British, but I’m not consistent. It’s probably a bad habit, but it’s fun. Makes me think I’m bi-lingual. 😉
Canada is a huge country, so it’s not really surprising you have such a diversity of accents and languages. But to be honest, aside from French-Canadians, I’d not really given it much thought to the range of diversity there. Wow!
Now I’m craving some Hobnobs… 😀
Ahhh I could totally relate. I only lived in America for a year but it’s amazing how much I picked up which I still have! Some in NZ still say I sound American. I say noooo! I’m heading to the UK next year and I reckon I’ll pick up the accent and a lot more British-isms than I did American because it’s that much more similar to NZ. In saying that, if I had the chance to move permanently back to America I’d do it in a heartbeat and would welcome the American-izms with open arms!
I’m glad you had such a good experience over here, Samantha! I’m sure your NZ accent went down very well. The first night I was in the States, my wife had her friends come to meet me. We sat in a circle and stared at each other for a few minutes until one of them said, “So–say something!” 😀
My English accent tends to inspire odd reactions from people when I’m Stateside. When I was at college, a girl walking in front of me stopped, turned and stared like I was some kind of new life form. Although that doesn’t beat the time I went to a midnight showing of Harry Potter in NC and while chatting with my friends, a woman behind us asked me if I was faking my accent.
*headdesk*
LOL! I’ve not had someone challenge the authenticity of my accent before, but I never went to any Potter midnight showings. 🙂 My SecondBorn gets irritated by the way people in the US say “Harry Potter” (something like “Hairy Podder”). She’s very careful to give his name the short “a” and two distinct “t” sounds. I wonder how many other US Potter fans do the same? 🙂
I much prefer the British spellings of words. It annoys me that when American books are published in the UK, they leave in all the American spellings and American words and phrases. I have had to look up (amongst other things) what ‘bangs’ are and what a ‘hood’ on a car was. Although, to be fair, we call it a bonnet, and they both describe things that go on a person’s head! Books should be published with the words converted to British English, otherwise it confuses the easily confused.
This probably doesn’t bother me so much, simply because I live in the States and I’m used to it. However, I do prefer books originating from the UK to have the original UK spelling. Yes, I have a complete set of the British editions of the Harry Potter books, as well as the US editions. 🙂 Likewise, US books should be read by Americans for the audio book versions, and UK books should be read by Brits. That’s what I think, anyway. 🙂
By the way, I’m available for US-UK translations, if necessary… since I’m now bi-lingual. 😉
Congrats on completing the challenge – enjoyed your last post.
I just have two questions – how do you pronounce scone? And how do you eat it – butter, jam, cream on top or butter, cream, jam on top? ;O)
Thanks, Kirsty! I pronounce “scone” so it rhymes with “gone.” And in the UK, I would usually cut it in half, and put butter and jam on the halves. If I recall correctly, we would normally put the halves back together again to eat, though it would probably be more refined to eat the halves separately. 🙂
For my US readers, a scone is like a US biscuit (the kind you would get at Bojangles or Hardees, only not that big), but they are sweet, and not greasy. 🙂 You can get close to the taste by making biscuits from a mix (e.g., Bisquick), and eating them the way I would eat scones.
Ohhh, yeah, one of my professors is from Ireland, and he has said “zed” once or twice and I had to sit there and think about it. Lol. He told us Americans were the wierd ones for saying “zee.” 😛
There is something satisfying about zed at the end of the alphabet. That nice, closed syllable; that final “d” at the end that says, “The End.” Zee is just so open-ended. Plus the Irish are the smartest people on the planet (C.S. Lewis was born in Belfast, and half my family are Scots-Irish), so you know he’s right. 😉