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I guess it refers mostly to pronunciation and spelling, but also to vocabulary and syntax, although differences do not necessarily show in every sentence.
Being a technical translator myself, I can usually tell whether or not a text has been written by an American, and I am not talking about spelling. The American mind works differently then the British mind. And it shows in subtle ways. British minds are tidier and more logical, more German in a way, American minds are sloppier And it shows in the language.
For instance, Americans tend to have a different way of putting sentences, clustering nouns, etc.
The frequency of words of the same meaning being used is also different, which however does not mean of course that the less or more frequently used synonym does not exist in either language.
It's like with abacaxi and ananás for pineapple in Portuguese. Both are known in both Portugal and Brazil, but over here they usually say ananás whereas in Brazil they usually say abacaxi.
Brits often use the longer synonym, whereas Americans prefer shorter words.
Brits usually don't make a comma before and in enumerations.
Interesting…I can believe it. Assuming equal educational level and socio-economic class, I imagine the way a person communicates is quite influenced by their culture, history and particular national traits. I've also noticed the subtle differences, especially in the spoken form.
There are place names in the UK that I'm sure I would bungle but not Gloucester, Longborough, Leiceister. Maybe it's just because I'm from New England. We have those same place names and more. We copied you a long time ago.
I was in Gloucester MA the other day--nice fishing village, Longborough? Like Marlborough here, Leicester, we have it too, also Worcester, Haverhill, here in MA. We also have Leominster MA. We have towns named after your long ago generals, like Amherst and Holyoke. And yes, not for pronunciation, but we also have Londonderry and even Derry. But Grosvenor????
Last edited by in_newengland; 03-09-2014 at 09:22 AM..
"America, butchering the English language since 1776"
Some Brits like to think that, that their version of the English language is more legitimate. If that makes them feel better about themselves, good for them
"America, butchering the English language since 1776"
Some Brits like to think that, that their version of the English language is more legitimate. If that makes them feel better about themselves, good for them
An interesting tidbit: In colonial times Americans were known amongst the British for speaking the best English. Americans were more likely to go to school and be literate, and teachers stressed speaking good English as a way to eradicate perceived linguistic problems in Britain.
Most of what people are calling "Schwiizerdütsch" or Swiss German are a bunch of different Alemannic German dialects. Certainly not a distinct language. Similar dialects are spoken in Vorarlberg, parts of Tyrol (both are Austrian regions) and Baden-Württemberg (Germany).
Austrian German is a rather generic term. Here it's used for a variant of German that uses a bunch of different words. Paradeiser for Tomate, Schlagobers instead of Sahne, Gewand for Kleidung. We also use heuer, Palatschinken, Karfiol, Kren, Jänner, ... which are less common in Germany.
Austrian German doesn't refer to a specific dialect or spoken variant. People speak different dialects in each of the 9 federal states. Tyrolean, Salzburger, Upper Austrian, Lower Austrian, Styrian, Carinthian, Viennese and Burgenlandler dialects are all Bavarian dialects, but can differ greatly. Tyrolean and Carinthian dialects in particular are hard to understand at times.
The dialect from Vorarlberg is Alemannic, so basically not understandable for most other Austrians and Germans.
Bonus Round: Even Bavarian from Bavaria is quite different to the one we speak here. Easy to spot the ones from across the border
Well... I'm only a student of German and the only variety I have some degree of proficiency is the Hochdeutsch. Last week I travelled to München, Zurich, Lucerne and Vienna. In München I could speak German without difficulties with everyone, but in Vienna I had more difficulties to understand the people - and they had also difficulties to understand me, so I spoke English for most of the time. These differences both in the accent and vocabular led me to think to compare the varieties of German with the brazilian and european varieties of Portuguese; although both are undisputedly the same language, the accents are different enough to cause some misunderstandings, as well as some words. But, obviously, as I don't live neither in Germany nor in Austria, it may be only a superficial impression.
In the swiss cities I noted the people speaks Hochdeutsch or English with foreigners and a weird dialect when they talk amongst themselves.
About British and American: I learned in the school both standards (British for most time), and I noticed some different words, some words are spelled differently, and the pronounce varies. At work we must use the English language with some regularity, and many people who studied in USA have difficulties to understand the britons. I can understand generally without problems both the "Queen's English" and the "CNN English", but I don't understand, for example, the English as spoken in Scotland.
There may be the odd slang word, there may be a different accent but it is exactly the same language, If American English is a different language then I ask you to 'translate' your sentence from English to 'American English', I would like to see the difference.
I don't think anyone is claiming it's a different language, just a different dialect.
Well... I'm only a student of German and the only variety I have some degree of proficiency is the Hochdeutsch. Last week I travelled to München, Zurich, Lucerne and Vienna. In München I could speak German without difficulties with everyone, but in Vienna I had more difficulties to understand the people - and they had also difficulties to understand me, so I spoke English for most of the time. These differences both in the accent and vocabular led me to think to compare the varieties of German with the brazilian and european varieties of Portuguese; although both are undisputedly the same language, the accents are different enough to cause some misunderstandings, as well as some words. But, obviously, as I don't live neither in Germany nor in Austria, it may be only a superficial impression.
In the swiss cities I noted the people speaks Hochdeutsch or English with foreigners and a weird dialect when they talk amongst themselves.
Say Fabio - you might be interested to read this article about the dialects of German spoken here in Texas:
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And it shows in the language.
