Mangled language

[zoidberg]

Americans' urge to be different takes many forms - many of them confusing and infuriating - and that's certainly true of matters afloat.

Why on earth did the Yanks decide to buck the international consensus and have their 'Boo-ees' lit the wrong way round as per IALA - B? Then insist that Japan, Korea and The Philippines do the same?
What was the point they were trying to make?

Then there is the odd example of their utter inversion of the meaning of 'Range'. To us, and AFAIK the rest of the world, the word means 'distance off'.... as in Radio Direction (finding ) And Range aka RADAR. To them, a Range is a Transit Bearing ..... that is 'Two Charted Objects Aligned On A Known Bearing'. Europeans had been depicting helpful Transits on charts - New World and Old World - long before any of the States decided to rebel, stop paying taxes and go it alone.

Then there is their perverse attachment to their notions of Imperial Measure.

They mangle our language at every turn. Don't get me started on 'gotten'.....

Do you have other examples of plain daft maritime Americanisms?

 

[newtothis]

I'm sure I've mentioned it here before, but I know a US harbour master at a big commercial port who prefers not having to tell his friends that he is going out at night to pick up boys.

 

[Skysail]

I have read that Booee is the way the English once pronounced the word. American English has preserved this, similarly herb is pronounced ‘erb. And gotten is probably good Anglo Saxon? There is an island off the East coast of the USA that is full of people who speak Old English.

 

[RobbieW]

I have read that Booee is the way the English once pronounced the word. American English has preserved this, similarly herb is pronounced ‘erb. And gotten is probably good Anglo Saxon? There is an island off the East coast of the USA that is full of people who speak Old English.

Bill Bryson makes points like that in his book on English, The Mother Tongue

 

[Rappey]

I came across a cotter pin, which is used to secure a pedal to a crank on a bicycle but Americans call a split pin a cotter pin? I wonder what they call a bicycle cotter pin.
Years ago a rather very expensive satellite was built for the Americans who wanted to build their own propulsion system, against the advice given by the builders of the satellite.
They were given all the dimensions in mm, or Mill as we pronounce it. Ie 10 mill (1cm)
They decided that the dimensions were Mil, ie one Mil is one thousand of an inch.
Needless to say the satellite blew up due to incorrect sizes as they tried to force an imperial propulsion system onto a metric payload.
How about "world series" where they are the only country to play..
Or football, where they pick it up and run with it??

 

[fredrussell]

I could care less!

 

[Praxinoscope]

There does appear to be a use of ‘Old English‘ in the USA, I particuarly like the ‘give way’ road signs that simply say ‘Yield’.

 

[lustyd]

Then there is their perverse attachment to their notions of Imperial Measure.

They mangle our language at every turn.

Their attachment to imperial is nowhere near as perverse as it is in the UK, at least they commit!

It's their language now, and it's the global version of English thanks to the Internet. As such British English is a dying language and we may as well get used to the fact.

 

[zoidberg]

Their attachment to imperial is nowhere near as perverse as it is in the UK, at least they commit!

It's their language now, and it's the global version of English thanks to the Internet. As such British English is a dying language and we may as well get used to the fact.

Over my dead body!

 

[lustyd]

Over my dead body!

It's already happened I'm afraid. Every country and continent on the planet is learning US English from TV and Internet sources as we speak, and they find it very strange when us Brits try to insert silent letters all over the place

 

[James_Calvert]

Over my dead body!

They've even got that covered.

Omicron, as my Greek master had it, is pronounced Ohmycron in English English.

The favoured media pronunciation is American.

 

[PilotWolf]

Americans' urge to be different takes many forms - many of them confusing and infuriating - and that's certainly true of matters afloat.

Why on earth did the Yanks decide to buck the international consensus and have their 'Boo-ees' lit the wrong way round as per IALA - B? Then insist that Japan, Korea and The Philippines do the same?
What was the point they were trying to make?

Then there is the odd example of their utter inversion of the meaning of 'Range'. To us, and AFAIK the rest of the world, the word means 'distance off'.... as in Radio Direction (finding ) And Range aka RADAR. To them, a Range is a Transit Bearing ..... that is 'Two Charted Objects Aligned On A Known Bearing'. Europeans had been depicting helpful Transits on charts - New World and Old World - long before any of the States decided to rebel, stop paying taxes and go it alone.

Then there is their perverse attachment to their notions of Imperial Measure.

They mangle our language at every turn. Don't get me started on 'gotten'.....

Do you have other examples of plain daft maritime Americanisms?

What another US bashing post?

Yawn, must be a slow news day.

PW

 

[TonyMS]

Omicron is a Greek letter, and the BBC pronounce as the (modern) Greeks do. Seems logical to me.

 

[newtothis]

They've even got that covered.

Omicron, as my Greek master had it, is pronounced Ohmycron in English English.

The favoured media pronunciation is American.

It's actually the BBC's pronunciation department's preferred version too. We don't use Greek pronunciation for other Greek letters like veetah (beta) and pee (pi).

 

[lustyd]

do the natives also pronounce it "Greece"? The BBC do

 

[Slowboat35]

Why are they one of the only countrys in the world to use inches of mercury as an altimeter setting on aircraft? (With Canada and Japan) Even the ex Soviet Bloc see the sense on complying with that one. (Though the Russians use other even weirder and much more unpleasant aberrations - metres for altitude, m/s for vertical speed, KMH for speed)
They also don't recognise the proword PANPAN, and are highly unlikely to use MAYDAY in an emergency, preferring to just mumble on about 'malfunctions" and "declaring an emergency" if you are lucky. No 'jolt' factor whatsoever.

 

[Kelpie]

Is the reason for IALA B not that in the war for independence, the Yanks went around painting all the perches and beacons the wrong colour, to confuse the Brits? Hence the shapes are the right way around, but the colours are not.

 

[Skylark]

It's already happened I'm afraid. Every country and continent on the planet is learning US English from TV and Internet sources as we speak, and they find it very strange when us Brits try to insert silent letters all over the place

American Pronunciation of English is more consistent across their land so it’s perfectly understandable as to why it’s easier to learn as a foreign language.

For whatever reasons, spoken English varies significantly across our geography. I find it odd that some pronounce an invisible r after and a. Even a heavily accented Brummy, Scouser or Geordie can manage to complete the word south, many appear to see th as a f.

 

[Frogmogman]

Vive la différence !!

skysail and praxinscope make good points.

Quebecois French uses words long disappeared from the language in France, and if you ever read The Times of India, you’ll find wonderful words that haven’t been employed in the UK since the 1940s.

 

[Stemar]

Is the reason for IALA B not that in the war for independence, the Yanks went around painting all the perches and beacons the wrong colour, to confuse the Brits? Hence the shapes are the right way around, but the colours are not.

While I share the OP's despair at some of the things our transatlantic cousins get up to, IIRC Red Right Returning is the fault of the Admiralty. Red on the left coming home was standard, then some bright spark decided that leaving America was coming home

And those weird spellings - color, theater, etc? Yep, original English spellings until the 18th(?) century, when a mania for Frenchifying changed British spelling.