Being British

Americans growing up on Harry Potter,Doctor Who and Simon Cowell are slipping into Britishisms

Mitt Romney is not the bumbling toff hes made out to be,wrote Daniel Gross,an American journalist,in a Daily Beast article. The latest iPad is a lovely piece of kit, in the words of John Scalzi,an American science-fiction author,Whatever. The Chicago Bulls were mired in uncertainty less than a fortnight after their star player Derrick Rose went down with a knee injury,according to The Daily Herald,a suburban Chicago newspaper,last spring.

Crikey,Britishisms are everywhere. Call it Anglocreep. Call it annoying. Snippets of British vernacularcheers as a greeting,brilliant as an affirmative,loo as a bathroomthat were until recently as rare as steak and kidney pie on these shores are cropping up in the daily speech of Americans particularly,New Yorkers.

The next time an American mate asks you to ring her on her mobile about renting your flat during your holiday, its fair to ask,have we all become Madonna?

This star-spangled burst of Anglophonia has established itself as this linguistic phenomenon that shows no sign of abating, said Ben Yagoda,a professor of English at the University of Delaware. The 21st century chattering classeswhich in itself is a Britishismare the most significant perpetrators of this trend, he added.

Perhaps it is a reflection of a larger cultural shift. In an age of BBC livestreams and borderless websites,Americans absorb the Queens English through televised imports like Ramsays Kitchen Nightmares and Doctor Who,and take in newspapers like The Guardian.

Im getting sick of my investment banking clients saying cheers to me, said Euan Rellie,a socially prominent British-born finance executive in New York. Americans say cheers like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins,with too much enthusiasm. It must be delivered laconically.

Fashion people live to sound British,the same way they over-pronounce French and Italian words because of those countrys fashion weeks, said Peter Davis,the American-born editor of Scene,a New York society magazine. I have heard people who grew up far from London uttering that a runway collection was brilliant or just bril, he added.

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But borrowing from the Mother Tongue can be a slippery slope into absurdity,said David Coggins,a writer who lives in the West Village. You find yourself calling your friends lads, which is generally accepted, said Coggins,36. The next thing you know,youre calling them chaps, which they might loosely tolerate. And then you say tallyho and youre greeted with a blank stare.

The outburst of Brit-envy has not gone unnoticed in Britain. The Guardian,The Telegraph and the BBC website have all weighed in in recent weeks to poke fun at such linguistic shoplifting,as did the tabloid Sun,which included a Yank-baiting photo showing a stereotypical ugly American with a gold chain and a Hawaiian shirt,slurping a can of lager,otherwise known as beer.

But often something gets lost in the translation. For example,theres chat up, which she said,means flirting with intention to bed here,but is used in the U.S. to mean talk to.

But rarely did earlier cultural imports make a noticeable impact on the way we talked. The massively popular British Invasion bands of the 1960s were generally too busy aping American rockabilly and blues artists to act as the Johnny Appleseeds of British vernacular. That changed with the explosion in media,Internet and otherwise. Americans now live in a swirl of Ricky Gervais,Simon Cowell,Russell Brand and Adele,said John McWhorter from Columbia University. We have a generation of,essentially,adults who grew up on Harry Potter, he said,adding,The British accent is just in our ears.8221;

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Indeed,Fox Soccer satellite feeds of Premier League soccer games yes,football matches have given rise to a generation of American supporters who bleed Manchester United red or Chelsea blue.