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>>I guess with so many immigrants to N. America (well just look at the roll-call on the UT), it's no wonder the languge got corrupted. I hear the Irish rolling Rs in American accents, the Scottish vowels, German influences, etc., etc.

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

Yes, I thought that myself, and even had the "e" in there, but I thought "no, she's the fan - she's probably got it right".

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>I have to admit I have little patience for English whingeing about how the Yanks have bastardized their beautiful language.

Who's whingeing? OK maybe "corrupted" was the wrong word but it wasn't meant to be disparaging. Some Americanisms I really like, such as taking a noun-verb combination and making it a verb, like "brown-bagging". Some I don't like, like "24-7" (which all the hoi poloi use in the UK now, even tautologically, like "I'm with him constantly, 24-7")

>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,

Sure e.g. "today" 40 years ago was "to-day". Doesn't bother me - spelling - they're just different. Sometimes the American is even more pure than English, e.g. (Am) "I appreciate your coming" - vs - (Eng) "I appreciate you coming"

>100 years ago, 200 years ago, 300 years ago. Do they use the same syntax and spelli>ng? 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.

You missed out Romany, Dutch, French (perhaps most importantly).