‘Britishisms’ are creeping into American English faster than ever, thanks to Downton

FOR decades British people have complained about Americanisms creeping across the pond.

But it seems the trend is being reversed, with linguists arguing that British English is influencing US speakers. Words such as dodgy, bespoke, wonky and twee have popped up in the vocabularies of American speakers influenced, some say, by a desire to sound more sophisticated.

Ben Yagoda, a language expert who collects such examples on his blog, says he has even seen Americans using “mum” rather than “mom”. The phenomenon is particularly strong on the east coast, where New Yorkers talk of gastropubs and going on holiday.

Prof David Crystal, one of the foremost experts in linguistics, said the phenomenon was influenced by the success of British cultural exports, such as the ITV drama Downton Abbey.

“The reason is entirely to do with the cultural history of the world,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “American films, American television, Friends, The Simpsons, all of this means that British people are exposed to Americanisms in a way that doesn’t happen the other way around.

“But interestingly it has started to happen, with Downton Abbey and things like that, so now Americans are suddenly finding there are Britishisms that are really rather attractive – one does find localisms from another part of the world quite attractive.”

British culture is seen in a positive light by Americans, he said, a process begun by Charles Dickens, who was lionised when he visited the US in 1842.

Yet many distinctively American words are often found even earlier in British English, he said, citing the example of gotten, incorrectly termed an Americanism. British websites and the language used on social media by UK bloggers and tweeters, plus the global broadcasts of royal weddings, were also having an influence, he added.