American English: Your time is up!
Will American English fade away as American declines?
Unfortunately, three of the preeminent weaknesses displayed in these past declines have been religious excess, a declining energy and industrial base, and debt often linked to foreign and military overstretch. Politics in the United States -- and especially the evolution of the governing Republican coalition -- deserves much of the blame for the fatal convergence of these forces in America today.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/01/AR2006040100004.html
If the US does decline. I highly doubt it will be to the point that you are talking about. Even if all American actions toward recovery fail, it will still be one of the most developed nations in the world with technology and a level of wealth and education among its populace that puts it ahead of the larger percentage of the world demographicaly. So, to answer your question, no American English is far from extinction as is the US. I think a more important and sophisticated question would be: What will the role of English and Nationhood be in an increasingly global society?
Umm, do you suppose that if the US isn't a hegemonic power that Americans will stop speaking American English, that there will be a massive population exodus out of the US, or that the entire US entertainment industry will collapse? Because seriously that's just silly.
God forbid that America ever declines on the world stage! I mean - which country would take its place as a convenient punchbag for the rest of the world? WE in the UK believe there really are some Americans who are actually aware of the fact that there really IS a "rest of the world!
It's good for the soul of the rest of us, here in that same "rest of the world", to have something to bitch about or poke fun or to heap blame on at now and again, such as the current financial mess! ;-) Once upon a time it was Britain - now it's the turn of America,
God bless it, as their song requests! How could it ever "decline"? Many (mostly female and gay) Brits simply adore those Desparate Housewives!
Also, "the governing Republican coalition"?
Thank you Damian! Reminds me of when I was watching the Academy Awards a few years ago and a Brit won an award for something or other, and duing his acceptance speech he said "I'm from Britain, you remember us, we ran the world before you did". I noticed the silence from the audience but I thought it was funny.
Yeah, we know there's a rest of the world. Without them, who would we compare ourselves to when we proclaim ourselves to be "number 1" all the time? ;-) Today's hot shots are tomorrow's has beens....when we decline humanity will just say "Next!"
"Step right up, you're the next contestent on This Epoch's Superpower!"
(Applause sign lights up - theme music begins)
***a Brit won an award for something or other, and during his acceptance speech he said "I'm from Britain, you remember us, we ran the world before you did". I noticed the silence from the audience***
There you go......a classic illustration of the great Transatlantic Humour Divide! ;-) We say it...they gon't get it! That, apparently, is the experience of so many Brits telling a "funny" in America, whether as a comic, a resident expat or merely a visiting tourist over from the Sceptered Isle.
What passes as an inconsequential jokey pisstake in your average British pub (the unique focal point of so much of British social life) is regarded over there as either a blatant insult or the incomprehensible ramblings of some kind of unescorted imbecile out on day release. Apparently an example of one of the cultural differences between us.
It's little wonder, in that case, that so many Brits there appear to flock to their British Expat website to seek out each other for meet-ups in whatever locality they happen to be in order to do a bit of homespun socialising - in Britstyle Britspeak with more than just a few "funnies" thrown in! ;-)
I'm currently working in London for the forseeable future and I'm amazed to discover so many Americans living and working here. Some have been here long enough to "get" the humour thingy and can now give as good as they get it seems. And they surely know there's a big wide world outside of the USA - they're actually in it. We've known it all along.
I meant of course "Desperate Housewives" not "Desparate Housewives"! I've only just spotted my typo.
Desperate - separate - hmmmmm - isn't English brill! I love it to bits so much I speak it every single day - I'd never be without it.
It's been a glorious April day in London today - how very, very right Rupert Brooke was!
Perhaps the problem, Damian, isn't the style of humor- the "pisstake"- it's the grounds on which it's used. Americans love a good insult for the sake of being funny, but it's really only done amongst good friends and seems to be more common amongst blue collar workers. Never someone you haven't met before or a stuffy audience.
Hey Jimmy! Jimmy!!!!!!!!!!!!! JIMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ARE YOU ENGLISH?????????????????????????????????????????????????
This was the friendly banter the last time I visited a pub. The young lady could not walk in a straight line.
The was a certain amount of banter amongst the youngish men whose attention she was trying to attract. They left the pub around the same time as me, and as they set off down the street they attempted to destroy things.
Culture isn't it marvellous!
<<<Perhaps the problem, Damian, isn't the style of humor- the "pisstake"- it's the grounds on which it's used. Americans love a good insult for the sake of being funny, but it's really only done amongst good friends and seems to be more common amongst blue collar workers. Never someone you haven't met before or a stuffy audience. >>>>
Apparantly you'ver never heard of Don Rickles
Don Rickles on Dean Martin Roasts Reagan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ALHiadIsKo
Kippers
Regan or Ray-gun
"my brother died"
"The Governor is dumb"
and more jokes
a honk
dick!
too fast for you Dean!
a Governor with a clip-on bow tie
Whatever they call you - don't care