america

[version]

whats the middle ground america/uk cultural artifact?

Hugh Laurie.

 

[luka]

how did this get to 4 pages i dont even understand it myself

 

[constant escape]

No pun intended eh?

Yeah another unintended one.

 

[version]

 

[constant escape]

Don't ever apologize to Luka he'll take it and run

I was trying to coax him into compliance, and into clarifying what the video was.

 

[luka]

GTA

 

[constant escape]

He tossed us the ball without knowing it was deflated the whole time.

"Luka, its deflated."

"You cunt!"

 

[constant escape]

Cheers Stan that's helpful but something tells me it's not that. I think it's the loss of the r. One became the other.

Yeah you're probably right. Have you heard of the History of English podcast? Great for the etymology nerds among us.

 

[catalog]

I'll check that out but I'm really just interested in arse to ass so if you find thst out let me know

 

[woops]

at a guess it [ass] originated in america and then got southern-english-accented at some stage when it got over here?

 

[IdleRich]

A lot of the time US English may be closer to old English than English-English which I believe may have changed more since they diverged.

 

[catalog]

but this is what i don't get. why does baldwin use 'arse'? I always thought ass was american and arse was english but at some point, arse was also american

 

[catalog]

it's not even that old, baldwin wrote another country in the 50s i think, might be worng

 

[IdleRich]

I have to admit it's not really my area of expertise.

 

[constant escape]

Didn't Baldwin spend a lot of time in Europe? Maybe its used by English speakers there, more than it is here.

 

[catalog]

yes that is possible you are right, and probably explains it. also its a very literary scene he's in wher ethey were all trying to be european.

 

[constant escape]

Yeah I remember one of his essays had him saying it was time to return home and continue "paying his dues". Might have been "Stranger in the Village" but I'm not sure.

 

[catalog]

i know a baldwin scholar so i will ask him next time i see him

 

[version]

He lived in Paris for a while. He mentions it in the Dick Cavett interview. He says moving to Paris freed him to be able to write because he wasn't scared for his life the way he was in America.

 

[constant escape]

Didn't know about Paris, but that seems to add up. He described the time he lived in some village at the feet of some Swiss mountains, or Swedish, not sure. But he said he was the only person of any marginally different skin complexion, and the children gazed at him with a sense of wonder that he described as being, at once, disarmingly innocent yet also pregnant with the kind of phobia he was more familiar with.