>Uh, it's Austen, at least on this side of the pond ;-) Just another American corruption?
>

That's my fault. Hopefully I finally remember her last name.

>I have to admit I have little patience for English whingeing about how the Yanks have bastardized their beautiful language. Like any other language -- other than Latin, I suppose -- the English language is a living, breathing thing, and was long before we got our grubby mitts on it. If you doubt me, go to your closest library with a well stocked archive of old newspapers and books. Limit it to publications in England so "American English" doesn't become a distraction. Find something from 50 years ago, 100 years ago, 200 years ago, 300 years ago. Do they use the same syntax and spelling? Of course not. The word "English" is in itself an oxymoron when applied to the language. The language came from German, Latin, Greek, Celtic, Baltic, Slavic, even Hindi. It's not like you guys sat around on the moors and invented it.

That's true, but still in my opinion the American "dialect" is a corrupted version of English. At least I really would love to have Austen's vocabulary and grammar (well, have all new words in my language as well). I do not want to say "I gotta go" <g>