Is it normal that i hate americanisms of word?

I hate American spellings of words. I am Irish with English parentage and I live in Ireland. Some words include programme/program, grey/gray, colour/color. I also dislike 'garbage' instead of 'rubbish' and 'trash can' instead of 'rubbish bin'. I just don't understand why, upon moving to a different country, American settlers changed the spelling of various words and invented words for things that there were already words for! I used to not come across many of these but now, with the internet, I cannot avoid them. They're driving me mad! Is hating Americanisms this much normal?

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40% Normal
Based on 82 votes (33 yes)
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Comments ( 29 )
  • wigsplitz

    I think you desperately need to look up word origins.

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    • NeuroNeptunian

      This.
      @OP while doing this, please keep in mind that America wasn't JUST settled by the people of Ireland and England. We had settlers from damned near every European country. This isn't exactly a closely guarded secret.

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  • dinz

    Well OP American English has retrained many terms and spelling that predates their revolution.

    Common examples is "diaper" a term used by the United Kingdom that was later replaced with "Nappy" the United States retained the term.

    Words that end in "zation" eg. Organization is of Latin origin - the spelling of "Organisation" was adopted into English via French from Latin.

    In terms of original pronunciation the United States has retrained the original pronunciation like as in "lieutenant" which is of French orgins, in American English they have kept the original pronunciation where as other English accents have changed.

    English is unique as it doesn't have a organisation or body that oversees the language. Even before the new world was colonised there were no system to dictate the spelling within England itself. Spelling varied due to the numerous accents in England and eventually parts of Wales and Scotland.

    If you are familiar with the "vowel shift" the British English accents were originally Rhotic (most accents) must like most American accents. The irony is, that plays in William Shakespeare were probably spoken in an accent closer to the accents in the United States.

    OP: For the record I am a person who prefers to use commonwealth spelling as oppose to "American spelling".

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  • anti-hero

    You are worrying your life away over nothing. Absolutely nothing. I hope you are happy.

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  • Gawdzirra

    A cookie is a cookie. Not a biscuit. A biscuit is a biscuit. A cookie is not a biscuit. Personally, I dislike "UK-isms". To me they just sound weird, like Americanisms sound weird to you. Despite this, I don't outright hate them. I use grey instead of gray, but that's about it. You shouldn't hate ways of language. It makes you intolerable. America is different from the UK. Their ways of speaking are different too. Get over it.

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  • Shackleford96

    You need to stop being so hateful and diversify your literary knowledge.

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  • howaminotmyself

    It's the nature of the English language. The rules allow for this to happen.

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  • disthing

    Languages develop and shift over time. They always have done and always will. The English we speak in the UK is always changing, including since the 1600s (when the US was first populated by British colonies), and the English spoken in the US has done the same independently.

    It's very rarely a conscious effort by any particular group of people, it just happens, organically.

    I think it's normal for spellings that are different to 'throw you' when you're reading, they make you pause for a moment. That can be irritating. And yes some neologisms have sprung up in American English that seem bizarre ('conversate' is one I hear a lot... Despite there being the existing word 'converse'. Oh and 'burglarize' as a word seems ridiculous).

    But we have to recognise the same applies to all those speaking a different dialect of English to us when they read our writing. When they come across spellings and words of ours that are slightly different from their dialect, that can be distracting, jarring. Spelt instead of spelled, colour instead of color etc.

    You just have to get used to the differences in dialects :) Grow to be more tolerant.

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  • WingGlow163

    I'm British and I've often thought this, but then I studied English Language and came to realise that a lot of words we consider 'Americanised' are the original ones. Many years ago, British people used 'z' rather than 's' in words such as 'organise'. But language is like fashion, it comes and goes and changes constantly.

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  • lc1988

    "Fish and Chips" always bugged me..i dk why...but I still sleep at night amazingly.

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  • davesumba

    Wow, get over yourself. It's not just America that changes words, different regions, countries, cities, neighborhoods make up words that they like or think looks/sounds better to them for their dialect.

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    • searchingnow

      And that's not terrible.

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  • Couman

    Why not install Prixoxy, or some similar program, and have replace American words with whatever substitutions you prefer.

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  • NeuroNeptunian

    Ok, I'll bite.
    AMERICANS ARE FAT FUCKING STUPID BOOTY LOOTERS!

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    • disthing

      Is a booty looter someone who steals shit from ass?

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      • RoseIsabella

        Is that anything like poo mongers?

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        • disthing

          http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=poop%20monger

          You'd have to ask NeuroNeptunian, she knows the lingo and the scene better than I.

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      • NeuroNeptunian

        Steals shit from ass during natural disasters. Jeez.

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    • jim8255

      euro & aus r all pussies

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      • sux

        dont forget canadians

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  • dom180

    Don't use those words then? :P

    Sorry, that's all I've got for you.

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  • RoseIsabella

    I like the word aeroplane!

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  • jc25

    Every time I read color the voice in my head says coloor, I can't stop it, if you add a u to the o that is denoting a lengthened sound. Also foetus (fowtus), oesophagus (oh-e-sophagus).

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  • God I hate that too. Especially when the try to correct you. Being English I always go 'Which language are you speaking?' of course the answer is English. So therefor me being the English person speaking the English language is going to be correct. You don't go to a French person that they're speaking French wrong do you if you've translated something in Google translate which translates it literally and they say it differently do you.

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  • sahtiwaari

    As long as you can understand what the other people are saying, and they can understand you, I don't care. lol

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  • dirtybirdy

    Oh my word.

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  • squeallikeasacofpigs

    I hate how google chrome trys to correct my spelling to the American version.

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    • disthing

      Don't know why you were thumbed down for this. It is annoying. Also annoying when software only has English (US) as an option.

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      • squeallikeasacofpigs

        Americans are very sensitive.

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