16-11-2015, 09:32 PM
It is easy to overlook the fact that the early settlers of the American continent lived in virtual isolation from their European descendants for around 400 years.
True, others followed therm but, over time, as the local population bred and increased in number, the newcomers would have distinctly been in the minority when they arrived.
I recall hearing Bill Bryson on Radio 4 some years ago discussing the differences between US and UK English where he pointed out that many words that we think of as specifically American, such as faucet were, in fact, in common everyday use in England at the time of the Pilgrim Fathers and other early settlers.
They took their language with them and, from that time on, the development of language on both sides of the Atlantic followed different paths for 400 years, so that words that fell out of favour here stayed in continuous use over there.
It was only with the developments of the gramophone and wireless that the majority of either population found out what their transatlantic cousins sounded like after 400 years of independent development.
I'm sure that Spanish and Portuguese suffered in the same way
True, others followed therm but, over time, as the local population bred and increased in number, the newcomers would have distinctly been in the minority when they arrived.
I recall hearing Bill Bryson on Radio 4 some years ago discussing the differences between US and UK English where he pointed out that many words that we think of as specifically American, such as faucet were, in fact, in common everyday use in England at the time of the Pilgrim Fathers and other early settlers.
They took their language with them and, from that time on, the development of language on both sides of the Atlantic followed different paths for 400 years, so that words that fell out of favour here stayed in continuous use over there.
It was only with the developments of the gramophone and wireless that the majority of either population found out what their transatlantic cousins sounded like after 400 years of independent development.
I'm sure that Spanish and Portuguese suffered in the same way
