Americanization

[LeMichaels]

Chikara: I apologize. I did not read your comment as a joke, but rather a friendly “heads up” as to the correct spelling. And you are correct, the British English way of spelling will use an “S” and the American English way will more often use a “Z”. A quote from the dictionary I use states “Also, especially British, Americanise.”

I wonder if the difference in spelling is the effect of so many other cultures influencing America. Considering America was basically founded by the British, you’d think we would use more of the same terms and spellings. Some people almost seem to forget that America is the way it is now because of the major influences from the British, French, Spanish, Italian, and German. (Not trying to blame my country’s pitfalls on anyone )

[Oracle]

Whenever I go the US people guess I'm either from England or "Europe" (?!) - guess you need an accent as over-the-top as the Crocodile Hunter's to be correctly identified as Australian

Chikara: -ise still seems much more common than -ize as far as I can see, but you do see both in the media. I think the average Australian would still use 's' if they have to spell something themselves though (hopefully).

[two_heads_talking]

LeMichaels wrote:
. Some people almost seem to forget that America is the way it is now because of the major influences from the British, French, Spanish, Italian, and German. (Not trying to blame my country’s pitfalls on anyone )

well if it was only those countries then our melting pot seems a bit thing. You can blame America on every country out there. because at one time or another immigrants made their way here from their homelands to have a better future for their families.

Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, North America and to lesser extents Antartica and the Arctic have all had an influence on The US (yes the US is part of North America, but there is much more to North America than just the US). It's one of the reasons the country is so diverse and also one of the reasons that so many different dialects exist today.

anyways..

[spin13]

guitarplayer7694 wrote:
How much has japan been Americanized?

Dear Mr. 7694,

I would like to sincerely apologize that not a single one of our esteemed forum members has been able to satisfactorily answer your question. In addition to finally providing you with the information you so have requested, you are entitled to one (1) free ice cream cone at any one of our convenient branch locations. I would like to thank you for posting at The Japanese Page and hope you come again.

Japan has been 0.6 Americanized.

Sincerely,
The Cognoscenti

[two_heads_talking]

and while spin is apologizing for the rest of us, he fails to answer your question satifactorily as well.

now isn't that just good customer service or what? lol

[katafei]

I think he was being very eloquent.


@Spin: priceless

[coco]

spin13 wrote:
Dear Mr. 7694,
…(略)…
Japan has been 0.6 Americanized.

Sincerely,
The Cognoscenti

お見事!

[Kagemaru]

My two cents worth being;

Japan first absorbs whichever American or foreign influence they please, then Japanise it.

[chikara]

two_heads_talking wrote:
I mentioned Britain English as British to not include the Australian English as from what I can tell they were distinct and seperate.. Chikara are you of the impression that they are nearly identical? (of course accent and dialect aside)...

There are some differences in the written forms but the differences are fairly minor. Australia has only been independent from Britain for just over 100 years and our head of state is still the Queen of England. Non-British immigration was also very limited until post WWII so there hasn't been the "outside" influences to change the language here in the same way "American English" has been influenced.

two_heads_talking wrote:
I think the "STrine" you speak of chikara is similar (vaguely anways) to Cockney rhyming slang..

It certainly contains elements of Cockney rhyming slang. As the original European settlement in Australia was as a British penal colony in 1788 (after Britain lost 13 of its North American colonies) the seeds of Australian English were largely sown by poor unfortunates from London mixed with people of a similar social level from Ireland, all of which was occupied by the British at the time.

spin13 wrote:
... Japan has been 0.6 Americanized.

[SinoSamurai]

later the whole world will be Chinaized....................

[AJBryant]

Well, if you ever saw the series Firefly, you'll see that whole galaxy was greatly Americanized *and* Sinified.


Tony

[Wakannai]

/sniff

Firefly. We'll miss you.

[chikara]

AJBryant wrote:
Well, if you ever saw the series Firefly, you'll see that whole galaxy was greatly Americanized *and* Sinified. ...

I saw one sci-fi show where one space traveller observed that at that current time it was Spring time back on earth

[AJBryant]

Well, we all know that only northern hemisphere weather counts. I mean, you antipodean types even have water flushing the wrong way.


Tony

[chikara]

lol