Saturday, May 20, 2006

I Gotcher English Right Here

Does this mean we have to start saying nappies, bonnet, and brilliant instead of diapers, hood, and great?

I'm up with that -- I already say "lovely" all the time. But what are the replacements for:

San Francisco
bungalo
coup
motto
caravan
yogurt
goulash
tundra
Chautauqua
boomerang
chignon
freight
khaki
croissant
bete noir
aloha
mensch
Seattle
quid pro quo
sofa
zero
splice
skate
albatross (oh, I would hate to lose that lovely one)
mammoth
chintz
juggernaut
kismet
amuck
tea
skunk
taboo
tattoo
opera
terrorism
pyjamas

Can we no longer speak of the zeitgeist?

Must every El Camino Boulevard now be called The Highway Boulevard?

1 comment:

kate said...

Yuck! I saw yesterday's editorial on this in the NYT and it made me furious. I'm curious, has there been an increase in immigration to the US (legal and otherwise) over the last few years? (I know there has been an increase here in Spain, due in some part to the collapse of certain South American economies over the past several years) Or is it an increased visibilty as more immigrants assert themselves that is causing this backlash? Or is it just a function of the prevailing ideology of our current (yuck)administration? I'd really like to know where this is coming from...