British English vs. American English Quizzes and Blog

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette. We were talking earlier about the book The Prodigal Tongue by Lynn Murphy.

As an American linguist who’s lived almost two decades in England, she’s a close observer of the differences between American English and British English.

And sometimes those differences are quite subtle, but they’re also really fascinating.

She tells the story, for example, of how for years people around her in England referred to her American twang.

And she thought that was weird because, if anything, her own way of speaking is rather smooth.

She describes it herself as mumbly, not twangy, like a plucked banjo string.

And she assumed that British people were stereotyping all Americans and lumping them together in this group that spoke English with a twang.

And it was years before she read one British writer alluding to a Scottish twang and another alluding to a German twang.

And then she realized, as she did some more research, that in Britain the word twang can mean the sound of a plucked string, but it can also simply mean a soft accent.

And she realized that she’d been feeling insulted all that time, but maybe people weren’t actually insulting her.

And I thought that was such a cool story, and it’s just one example of how you’re going to learn a whole lot about linguistics from this book.

It’s really like going to a pub with a friend who happens to be a linguist and is also really witty,

And can explain all this kind of stuff to you in a way that’s really accessible and fun.

Yeah, the twang thing reminds me of something that happens in the United States.

Linguists will often ask groups of people to take a map of the United States and circle where the bad English is and circle where the good English is.

And a lot of times if you ask them to come up with a description, people will say, oh, this is where they have a drawl or this is where they have a twang.

And it turns out Lynn was right in her American usage.

Twang is a kind of signal for rural or rustic or countryfied or bumpkin-esque.

And then a drawl is for slow or doesn’t sound educated or sounds like they’re not really listening to you.

So it’s really interesting to find these extra layers.

And I would agree with your summary of her book.

It is just like sitting down with a friend and having a talk about language over a pint.

A really smart and witty friend, right?

I need a few more of those.

Hey.

Well, I’ve got one.

Yeah.

And we should also mention her blog, which you and I both really enjoy.

It’s called Separated by a Common Language.

And I have to tell people that you’ve got to go to her book’s website, too.

It’s called theprodigaltongue.com, if only to try your hand at the quizzes there.

There’s one that’s called How American Is Your English and another one that is called How British Is Your English.

And I took the British one, and I have to confess, my British English was not all that good.

You’re a very American speaker.

I learned a lot.

That’s wonderful.

We’re not just talking about British versus American English today.

We’re talking about all aspects of language, whether it’s English or Spanish or something else.

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