Americanisms

Mrs C and I are going to a series of operas put on by the New York Met,
which are being beamed to us by satellite all the way to Nottingham’s
Broadway Cinema. So far, we’ve seen three phenomenal productions:
Don Giovanni, Rodelinda and Gounod’s Faust. We’ve booked in to see
“The Enchanted Island” and La Traviata.

In the intervals, we get to see back-stage and also see interviewed
the leading singers. During one such interval in Rodelinda, the singer,
Deborah Voigt, started talking about Handel’s Baroque style. What
sounded odd to me was her pronunciation of the word Baroque … as
Bar-roak, which we in the UK say as Bar-rock.

Occasionally I heard other Americanisms, such as the word “gotten”
instead of “got”. The word used to be used in the UK, and is still
used in the phrase: “ill-gotten gains”. I now find myself saying to
“gotten” to myself (but not to other people yet), as in the phrase:
“I’ve gotten used to it”.

Mrs C and I do watch a lot of TV drama that’s been imported from the
US … The Closer, The Mentalist, Mad Men, Dexter, In Treatment, The
L Word, Six Feet Under, just to name a few, so it’s not surprising
that we’ll be assimilating some of the US language used. I can’t say
the same as regards adopting Danish or Swedish words, giving the
amount of crime drama we’ve been watching from there … I can
remember a few names like Sarah Lund, Strange & Brix from
“The Killing”. The Danish and Swedish languages are all Greek to me.