Time for a little grumpiness!

jts · **#21**

emeraldemon wrote:

I've heard that the UK has a much wider range of pronunciations and dialects than the US, in spite of having fewer people over a much smaller geographic area. Maybe something about the immigrant effect caused American pronunciation to grow relatively uniformly? ... I think between film & TV and the amount of travel people do these days, most city Americans sound pretty much the same.

In Britain, as in most moderately densely settled regions of the Earth, there was a time when if you walked 10 miles from your home they'd be speaking a different dialect, and if you walked 50 miles they'd be talking nonsense. Only one of those regions had its dialect christened "English", and only a handful of them sent emigrants to America in large enough numbers to allow the dialect to survive here.

I need to disagree about city Americans sounding the same. A rural accent will only pin you to within a state or two, but certain urban accents can help you guess a city, or even a neighborhood. What you're saying is only true for a fairly small class of urbanites and suburbanites.

TMark · **#22**

Mivo wrote:

kirkmc wrote:

I think Mark's "postage" is sort of clear, but "packing" is certainly not a word US English speakers are familiar with.

It should be painfully obvious to the average US English speaker what is meant by "postage" and "packing".

But perhaps Mark and John could take the stereotypical quality of the US American education system into account -- and draw a picture.

I have just ordered some DVDs from Amazon and what do I see on the checkout screen? The cost of the items and "Postage and packing"! Perhaps this is something that they only do in the UK and a US user can confirm they also do it in the States.

Best wishes.

kirkmc · **#23**

Amazon US says Shipping & Handling, the standard US phrase.

Time for a little grumpiness!

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