The Linguistic War Between The US and UK is Very Silly
It’s time to get this off my chest…
“In Britain, we call it ‘autumn’ from the Latin ‘autumnus’ meaning ‘season of harvest.’ Americans call it ‘fall’ because the ‘leaves fall down,’” is an oddly common sneer on the Internet. People who have never given a thought to etymology before can’t resist the urge to dig into this as long as they can get one over on the Americans.
Even Americans will sometimes pass these little facts around with a self-deprecating touch of humor. They sigh and internalize the belief that UK English is somehow objectively superior.
As a language teacher from the US who studied abroad in the UK and spent several years teaching abroad, I want to dispel some misconceptions about English.
And, let’s look at the origin of “fall” as a seasonal reference. It’s from an Old Germanic root, referencing the concept of descent and decay. It came into the English language first in England, fell out of favor there, but became more common in the US. So is a Latin-based word somehow “smarter” than a Germanic one? A German person may disagree.
This is no doubt influenced by the Roman conquest of Britain and later the British upper class largely coming from France during the Norman conquest. Other waves of change certainly influence this as well…
