Mark Berkowitz

From another topic: “I think american english is known as such to to distinguish the different spelling. Colour/color, the use of s and z etc. Prehaps we should call is microsoft english.” “Evolution of American English Almost from the time that the first Englishman set foot upon American soil, our language began to evolve. A continuous process throughout the centuries, “Americanisms” have been created or changed from other English terms to produce a language that differs from our forefathers, signifying our uniqueness and independence. By 1790 when the United States took its first census, there were four million Americans, 90% of whom were descendants of English colonists. This, of course, left no question that our official native language would be “English,” but it would not be the same as that spoken in Great Britain. By 1720, the English colonists began to notice that their language was quite different from that spoken in their Motherland. How did that come to be? The reasons are numerous, the most obvious being the sheer distance from England. Over the years, many words were borrowed from the Native Americans, as well as other immigrants from France, Germany, Spain, and other countries. Other words that became obsolete across the pond, continued to be utilized in the colonies. In other cases, words simply had to be created in order to explain the unfamiliar landscape, weather, animals, plants, and living conditions that these early pioneers encountered. The first “official” reference to the “American dialect” was made in 1756 by Samuel Johnson a year after he published his Dictionary of the English Language. Johnson’s coinage of the term “American dialect” was not meant to simply explain the differences, but rather, was intended as an insult. Years earlier, however; as early as 1735, the English were calling our language “barbarous,” and referred to our “Americanisms” as barbarisms. The English sneering at our language continued for more than a century after the Revolutionary War, as they laughed and condemned as unnecessary, hundreds of American terms and phrases. However, to our newly independent Americans, they were proud of their “new” American language, wearing it, as yet, another badge of independence. In 1789, Noah Webster wrote in his Dissertations on the English Language: “The reasons for American English being different than English English are simple: As an independent nation, our honor requires us to have a system of our own, in language as well as government.” Our leaders, including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Rush, agreed — it was not only good politics, it was sensible.” https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ah-americanenglish/ Note: I have to somewhat disagree with the quoted source on the following, since some words (such as reckon) are still in use by the English people that I know and chat with in England. “Early examples of words that had become obsolete in England that continued to be used in the United States were: allow, guess, reckon, meaning to think. bureau, meaning a chest of drawers. fall, meaning “autumn” gotten, where “got” was being used as the past participle of “get.” Wilt”

Back on topic... My wife really misses Baliwag Liempo and when we went looking for the proper pork to use, we were completely dazed and confused at the Supermarket (HEB, for those who know of it). The person stocking the meats couldn't help but notice our confusion, and he came over to assist us. He said: "Hi folks, what are you looking for?" I said: "I need the type of pork to cook what is known as Liempo in the Philippines." He said: "like the type of pork that some people put into Lumpia and other Filipino foods?" I said: "Yes!" He showed me "Pork Bellies." Here's the result:

My Rowena only does that when she's speaking to her family with 'Kampangan'... I've been told that is just the normal way that they speak in Pampanga... for some reason, when she speaks to her Batangas friends, she speaks in a normal conversational tone

Is it just me?... or is this thread starting to sound very similar to our 'Tipping in the Philippines' debates

Yes, she only mentions it when it comes to buying just one thing, such as sanitary napkins

Thanks for your explanation . I currently live in Texas, and maybe it's just me and where I live (San Antonio), but I don't hear any "drawl" from anyone over here. For what it's worth, I was born in the Northern US, and I have lived in many US States (as well as other countries), but I haven't heard a drawl in Texas in recent years. However, I do remember hearing it in the Texas of the 1970's (when I traveled through Texas as a visitor).

At one time, I moderated a global forum with a different purpose than our Expat Forum, and several English members had traveled to the Southern US. These forum members claimed to have no problems at all with understanding English in the Southern US, and were amazed that some of the Southern US words were identical to the ones that are used in England, such as 'reckon' and 'yonder.' Can you please give examples of what types of things would be problematic for foreigners to understand in the Southern US?

I'm also troubled by the term "American English," but I never coined the term. English should just be known as English... but unfortunately this type of terminology has been used with other languages as well. For example, in Canada, the French that is spoken (mostly in Quebec) is called "Canadian French" instead of simply being known as "French." The same thing goes on with the "Portuguese" language that is spoken in Brazil, which is identified as "Brazilian Portuguese." Since I don't really agree with the term "American English," I would hate to see the language further fractionalized by coining additional terms, such as "East Coast American English," "West Coast American English," etc. Hopefully, all languages will entually be known with a singular name. I haven't really seen this happen in the Philippines yet, but that's just my opinion. As far as the UK, I can understand most (but not all) of what the Brits are saying, thanks to TV (and films), but quite honestly, there are areas of the UK where I would never understand one word of what was being said... since I've watched many Brit TV shows (or should I call them programmes?)... just joking.... and I believe that some of the regional dialects are unintelligible to most Americans (at least to me) without subtitles (and there were none).

Mostly slang words and idiomatic speech will vary from Country to Country in the English speaking world, especially when comparing the English that is spoken in the Philippines to the English that is spoken in native English speaking countries. As far as the Philippines, my Americicanized slang and English idioms were not always understood. Yesterday, I was able to converse with a Fil-American who knows all of the slang and idioms, regardless of whether or not they are univerally accepted and used throughout the English speaking world. Sorry if my use of the term 'American English' is confusing. As far as accents and pronunciations within the US, the differences have been minimalized over the years, thanks to Televison in a large part. I've lived in 12 different US States in different regions of the US and I find it very hard to notice too many differences in accent and pronunciations nowadays (as compared to how things were 50 or 60 years ago). JMHO.

Yesterday, my wife and I ate Lechon at a Fil-American friends's house, and it was just as good (or even better) than the Lechon back in the Philippines. We had an enjoyable time since the friend has been living in the US for over 15 years and is fully fluent in American English* as well as remaining fluent in Tagalog and Kapampangan, which made our conversation very easy for all of us there, especially since my wife is new to American English. * So, for example if my wife didn’t know the slang word or understand the idiom, our friend was able to explain what I was saying in Tagalog (and Kampangan) very quickly, as opposed to me taking a longer time to explain, which was nice for a change, and enabled all of us to have a very deep and nice conversation about everything going on in our lives with adjusting to life in the US.

Is it called Filipino?... Taglish?... or Code-Switching? Are these just different labels for the very same thing? My wife calls the version of Tagalog, which is spoken primarily in the Batangas province, “Deep Tagalog.” When she moved to Batangas from Pampanga in the 1990’s, she learned that the Tagalog in the Batangas province was much different than the Tagalog that was spoken back in her hometown in Pampanga. Online, some Filipinos describe ‘Filipino’ as being the Tagalog language when it adopts loanwords from Spanish, English and other native languages. Formal Tagalog (or deep Tagalog) rarely uses loanwords, and when it does, the loanwords are spelled and slightly pronounced differently. There is a also a claim that Tagalog is pure, while Filipino is much more open and inclusive, while other Filipinos will claim that Filipino is an offensive term to them, since they are also Filipinos but they speak other local languages, and their languages are just as Filipino as Tagalog. A similar mixture of the Cebuano language with English could easily be called Cebuanish or code-switching or something else, but let’s get back to my original question regarding the Tagalog-based language. I find it very hard to know if the mixture of Tagalog words with other languages (primarily English) should be labelled as code-switching, Taglish, or Filipino. Are these the very same thing with different names?... or are there fundamental differences? What do you think?

“Although the percentage of cash transactions has been reduced over the years, the processes for handling cash have largely remained the same,” said Greg Buzek, president of IHL Group, in a release. “Most often, retailers task the most expensive employees in the store to count and transport cash, which means these employees are not available for other, more profitable customer-facing transactions.” https://www.electran.org/publication/transactiontrends/cash-handling-expenses-can-top-15-percent-and-500-labor-hours-as-inefficiencies-permeate/

My wife is already missing the Sari Sari store, even though it's a only three minute drive to the nearest supermarket.