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Subject:Re: International English From:Tim Altom <taltom -at- IQUEST -dot- NET> Date:Fri, 29 Mar 1996 06:49:00 EST
At 10:32 AM 3/29/96 +0200, you wrote:
>It seems that telephone terminology is particularly difficult.
>Some years ago I was talking to a visiting Fulbrighter here in Cyprus. She
>was waiting to to get a phone installed, and after some days I remarked to
>another American: "I wonder if X is on the phone now" and got a baffled
>look. In Britspeak (=myspeak) "on the phone" can mean to be actually
>speaking now, or to have a line/number installed, according to context.
>Apparently not im Amspeak.
>Of course there are other differences between UK and US english - perhaps
>the hoariest is to "knock up", which in the UK means to wake someone up in
>the morning!
>If anyone wants to send some more, I'll compile a list in my copious free
>time and distribute it (privately) to interested parties.
Feel free, of course, but you may have been anticipated. Margaret E. Moore
wrote "Understanding British English," 1989, ISBN 0-08-065119-4, Citadel Press.
