# American/English : language difference. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 31, 2002, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458 "2002-08-31T17:23:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CaptainGeordie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@CaptainGeordie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptainGeordie)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/1 "2002-08-31T17:23:26Z")
In England, the word “ass” is used to describe a type of donkey or mule, and in fact, is not commonly used. The word “arse”, a colloqiual vulgarism is used to describe a certain part of the anatomy. Why, how, and when did the term “ass” become common in America to describe that part of the anatomy?; and why not arse". Do the Americans have any other descriptions for that part of the body - which we normally sit on, and from which politicans normaly talk out of! ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/2 "2002-08-31T17:28:51Z")
Sure… rear, bottom, butt … I guess that because American English is derived not only from British English but also from French, Spanish, and other Latin languages, there will be many differences between Americna English words and their British counterparts. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/3 "2002-08-31T17:56:33Z")
The usual names for the two dialects are American English and British English, not American and English. The standard terminology is Dialect Language. One speaks of Mexican Spanish and Castilian Spanish, not Mexican and Spanish, for instance. There are two words here which come from different sources. The first is the word spelled “arse” in British English and “ass” in American English and meaning “rear end.” This is pronouced in British English with a broader /a/ sound (and a bit of an /r/ sound in there too). In American English it’s a different /a/ sound. In fact, it’s the same sound as in the other word “ass,” meaning an animal, which is pronounced with the other /a/ sound in both dialects. So the two words sound alike in American English but not in British English. This is probably why the spellings of the two words merged in American English also. As I said, these two words come from a different etymological source, and only in American English did the spelling and pronunciation of the word “arse” change to the spelling and pronunciation of the word “ass.” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/4 "2002-08-31T19:02:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CaptainGeordie \* > \*\* Do the Americans have any other descriptions for that part of the body - which we normally sit on, and from which politicans normaly talk out of! \*\* Well, in the U.S. “fanny” is just a cutesy word for “butt” - quite different from the meaning in the U.K., I think! There you don’t want to refer to a “fanny pack,” say. ---
**Author:** ![CaptainGeordie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@CaptainGeordie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptainGeordie)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/5 "2002-08-31T20:20:38Z")
Colibri, - yes, the word ‘fanny’ does have a different meaning, in the UK , although I don’t think it’s as widely used as the alternative word- ‘twat’; both of which relate to a portion of the female anatomy. Now, where does ‘fanny’ come from? ---
**Author:** ![CaptainGeordie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@CaptainGeordie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptainGeordie)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/6 "2002-08-31T20:27:36Z")
Actually, I forgot to mention that the word ‘fanny’ is also current in a popular expression in the UK ; ‘Sweet Fanny Adams’, which in its’ usual context, is taken to mean ‘nothing or ‘I don’t know’; for example, if someone asked me what I had to drink at lunch time, I might reply " Sweet Fanny Adams’ or, 'Sweet F.A.", meaning that I’d had nothing to drink. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/7 "2002-08-31T21:06:13Z")
In the old Halloween song about Anne Boleyn–“With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm,” this line, spoken by the hypothetical Henry VIII, appears: _For how the sweet san fairy-ann do I know who you are With your head tucked underneath your arm?!_ Even within England there are criticial differences. According to Mario Pei, in _Talking Your Way around the World,_ in Yorkshire they use “till” where the rest of the English-speaking world uses “while.” This, Pei added, caused a disaster when a Yorkshire foreman told his Southern English helper not to build a fire under a boiler “till” it was empty! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/8 "2002-08-31T22:07:05Z")
“Tucas” is a common synonym (from Jewish), but you won’t find it in your standard dictionary. ---
**Author:** ![Dragonblink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Dragonblink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragonblink)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/9 "2002-08-31T22:56:48Z")
So, umm, what _does_ one call a fanny-pack in the UK? I’m guessing they have a less anatomical name for it … ---
**Author:** ![Thylacine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thylacine/32/1143_2.png) [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/10 "2002-09-01T00:01:02Z")
Here in Australia we call them bum-bags, but everyone seems to wear them on their fronts so fanny-pack would make more sense. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/11 "2002-09-01T01:52:08Z")
Well if you wear them in front, then “fanny” is not appropriate. How about groin-bag? ---
**Author:** ![Thylacine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thylacine/32/1143_2.png) [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/12 "2002-09-01T02:09:22Z")
um **ratatoskK** , as in England here fanny does indeed refer to the front, on a woman anyway. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/13 "2002-09-01T02:21:43Z")
Location “with the dodos”, take a look at [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) fan·ny Pronunciation Key (fn) n. Slang pl. fan·nies The buttocks. fanny n : the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on [syn: buttocks, arse, butt, backside, bum, buns, can, fundament, hindquarters, hind end, keister, posterior, prat, rear, rear end, rump, stern, seat, tail, tail end, tooshie, tush, bottom, behind, derriere, ass] but·tock Pronunciation Key (btk) n. 1. 1. Either of the two rounded prominences on the human torso that are posterior to the hips and formed by the gluteal muscles and underlying structures. 2. The analogous part of the body on certain mammals. 2. buttocks The rear pelvic area of the human body. ---
**Author:** ![Thylacine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thylacine/32/1143_2.png) [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/14 "2002-09-01T02:57:54Z")
Gee, I could of sworn my initial message mentioned _here in Australia_, hmm I can see it even now, what an amazing imagination I have. [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) is not a reputable source for Australian word usage funnily enough. from the [Macquarie Book of Slang](http://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/p/dictionary/slang-f.html) fanny noun 1. the vagina or vulva; the female genitals. 2. Chiefly US: the buttocks; the arse. [19thC British slang, a use of the female name Fanny; perhaps influenced by the famous erotic novel Fanny Hill (i.e. John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure 1749)] you are using the US usage as in 2, I use usage 1. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/15 "2002-09-01T03:02:57Z")
dan: Just because Amercian English has a number of loan words from other languages doesn’t mean that that particular dialect is derived from those languages. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/16 "2002-09-01T03:06:12Z")
No, but the words are… right? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/17 "2002-09-01T05:57:34Z")
Yes, American English does have a number of words derived from other languages, but so does British English. The difference in the dialects is not caused mostly by the borrowing of words from other languages. It’s caused mostly by the internal changes in the dialects over the past several hundred years. In particular, the difference between the pronunciation and spelling of “arse” and “ass” has nothing to do with borrowing from other languages. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/18 "2002-09-01T16:35:28Z")
I’m not saying the entire dialect is derived from langugages that have “loaned” words to that dialect. I’m saying that because American English is comprised of so many words from so many different languages that it’s only natural Americans have different words and pronunciations for things from the British. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/19 "2002-09-01T18:41:15Z")
British English has borrowed nearly as many words from other languages as American English. (In fact, it may be about the same amount. It would take me a while to check.) The point is that this borrowing from other languages is not the main difference between the vocabulary and pronunciation of American and British English. The main difference is that there have been internal changes in the past several hundred years in both dialects. These internal differences were not caused by borrowing. Indeed, some of the differences between American and British English are because American Englishhas, in some cases, kept older vocabulary, pronunciations, and grammar than has changed in British English. American English is no more or less likely to have changed in any particular item than British English is. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2002, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458/20 "2002-09-02T01:16:31Z")
Maybe so, dan; however, you said that American English was _derived_ from those other languages. Point of fact: It’s not. It does, however, borrow a lot of words from other lingos. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-english-language-difference/126458.md?page=2)