From: Scott Chase (osteopilus@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue 26 Apr 2005 - 23:14:24 GMT
--- Kate Distin <memes@distin.co.uk> wrote:
> Chris Taylor wrote:
> > I'd suggest that the persistence of many cultural
> thingies in the US is
> > as a result of the slower pace of cultural
> evolution for the exact same
> > reasons that genetic evolution occurs more slowly
> (on average) in large
> > interbreeding populations. Inertia essentially;
> cf. the persistence of
> > words like 'gotten', which have died out in
> British English -- a much
> > smaller population in which stochastic effects are
> more pronounced and
> > change more straightforward.
>
> This is a really interesting explanation for this
> sort of example. Does
> it hold beyond particular words like "gotten"? I
> know there are lots
> more like this, which we in the UK think of as US
> imports but actually
> originated over here. But is this a principle that
> can be extended over
> "bigger" meme pools like the US? I'd be interested
> to hear more about it.
>
Spoken like true Brits :-) Has your former colony
Jamaica had any linguistic impact on the British
Isles? If you were to actually visit different places
in the US you will notice some serious linguistic
diversity (OK I'm speaking from the "armchair"). The
Yankees in "wicked awesome" Beantown and the Big Apple
speak differently than those with the chronic
Minneapolis cold twang in the Midwest. The South, of
course has its variations. Maybe there are some
serious commonalities we shaare on this side of the
pond that separates us from you blokes over their, but
I bloody well know that Hispanic and African-American
cultures have had serious linguistic impacts on at
least some regional pockets and more recent
generations of the US.
Have Indians and Pakistanis had any impact on British
spoken word? Indians must at least had some impact on
British cuisine as they have on Jamaican cuisine
(ie-curry).
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