Re: OT: Two countries separated by a common language
From: | Joe Fatula <fatula3@...> |
Date: | Friday, May 16, 2003, 6:04 |
From: "Joe" <joe@...>
Subject: Re: Two countries separated by a common language
> > Excuse me for replying to myself, but I just thought of another
> > Britishism that took me unawares: "biscuits". The Hitchhiker's
> > Guide series scene in which Arthur gets into a biscuit battle with
> > someone in the airport struck me as very odd. Biscuits in a bag from
> > a vending machine?? Having grown up in Georgia, I knew exactly
> > what biscuits are, and they don't come from vending machines.
> > They're yummy doughy breakfast breads, similar to scones, but softer
> > and served hot, with butter or gravy, or perhaps a sausage patty.
> > Yum. :)
> >
> > -Mark
>
> Biscuits are an Englishism? I suppose you guys would call them 'cookies'.
> Or something like that...
They are when referring to the flat, sweet things. As Mark mentioned, in
America they're a more bread-like thing that people eat down South,
particularly. Us Yankees don't have much use for the things.
Joe (the other one)
---
And before anyone mentions that the "us" should be a "we", English (at least
my dialect) is going through a shift where anything with a more vocative
sense uses the accusative form, not the nominative. Same goes for the
prepositional usage.
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