Purest English Spoken In United States

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31585, 24 January 1968, Page 18

Purest English Spoken In United States

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) SAN FRANCISCO. January 22. English spoken in the United States is purer than English spoken in Britain, according to Dr William de Funiak, a San Francisco lawyer. Dr de Funiak reached this conclusion after publishing a 3300-word American-British dictionary of the English language intended to help the traveller from one country understand the language spoken in the other. “Where differences in pre-sent-day usage exist as between Americans and British, it usually develops that the American usage is following the custom prevalent in England or Scotland 200 or more years ago,” he says. “We have the somewhat amazing situation that it is the Americans who are the traditionalists and the British who have frequently abandoned the old terms and grammatical usages to follow Euro pean practices.” As an example, he says that Ben Jonson used the Americanism “get lost” in the sixteenth century. Dr de Funiak believes that the present situation results from the fact that for centuries the United States had no contact with the outside world. He also believes that the American way of writing the date —month, day, year—was the original English way until Britain changed the method by placing the day in front of the month to be in line with general European practice.

Dr de Funiak, a 56-year-old Kentucky colonel, conceived the dictionary about seven years ago while visiting London with his wife.

They had ordered coffee and a sweet roll, but no-one could understand the order until an American living in Britain intervened and advised them to ask for a bun. The confusion increased when they leased an apartment. Mrs De Funiak had trouble finding a hardware store until she realised that what she wanted was an ironmonger’s shop. Mr De Funiak had trouble making long-distance (trunk) calls to friends in Britain. The operators kept asking him if he was through. He repeatedly replied no, until he realised that they were

asking whether he had his connection and not whether he had finished. To save fellow Americans from such snags, and to help Britons in the United States, he compiled the dictionary which sells for just under SUSS. From it American men will learn not to ask for suspenders instead of braces in British shops, and American women will know what they want are suspenders and not garters. Britons in America will find they need vests and pants not waistcoats and trousers.

Transport appears to have a vocabulary of its own. Cars can be automobiles which are placed in car parks and not

parking lots. The visitor asks the hotel for its tariff instead of its rates and pushes the button in the lift (elevator). On leaving the visitor pays the bill instead of checking-out, handing over a cheque instead of a check. Most British or American words can be translated into their equivalent on the other side of the Atlantic, but some have defeated Mr De Funiak, who spent several years in Britain teaching or doing legal research in London and Edinburgh. Among theiif are trifle, toad-in-the-hole, free house, early closing day and green belt, which have no equivalent in the United States.