You're not the mother tongue. You're the Italian of the English family at best. The Mother Tongue is dead and buried. Be happy as the Elder Sister. But that aside, I enjoy British English, have no issue with "winberries", as long as it's clear what they are, and think the word "hoover" is as acceptable as "kleenex".
Wha...? And then the astonishing revelation: p.s. To the American readers I would say, read more books in British English and learn to love the language. We have over here in the UK we read all out comics and cowboy books in American English and enjoy American film, we appreciate the richness of American English and hope you well do so in regard to British English the mother tongue. Wow! It's a native speaker! XD!!!!
I think, given that we have made the world ever so much smaller with the advent of the internet that we, the speakers of the English Language across the globe, are going to run into the fact that language is always in flux. We have a richness of diversity in the English Language and I think that all of us, at one time or another, are going to feel protective of the particular brand that we speak and feel a small shiver of dread as we feel the encroachment of other brands of English impinging on our own. This is only natural and to be expected. I can remember as a nerdy little kid, long before the internet, when I was one of a handful of kids across the USA who would actually watch PBS and tune into British programs. I found the use of British English utterly glamorous and would pepper my own diction liberally with Briticisms only to find that this did not go over well with my peers. Language change is natural and healthy and speaks to the fact that the cultures which speak these languages are healthy and growing in their own ways. That we have somewhat different ways of speaking and even spelling is awesome and rich and delicious. (You heard right. Delicious!) Each and every should appreciate the diversity to which we have access. Edit~ Just because this happens to be a subject dear to my heart... This phenomenon happens in many other languages which have large speaking regions. Spanish has accents and dialects that verge on near unintelligibility one from the next.
As long as you're okay with getting sued for misuse of a trademark. "Hoover vacuum" "Kleenex tissue" Adjective trademark followed by a generic noun, and always capitalized. Some things trump keeping the language colorful, and trademark is one of them. As a writer I just consider correct usage to be the courteous thing to do, as well as the legal thing. I'm kind of surprised and disappointed that I'm the only one who's pointed this out here so far, but maybe I'm strange that way. *shrug*
Pet, I'm going to have to correct you on one point. Proto-Celtic is not the antecedent for Latin and Greek. Those languages have their own antecedents which are both sister antecedents to Proto-Celtic, all three of which can continue to trace back to Proto Indo-European. Although Proto Celtic and Italic (the antecedent for Latin) are quite closely related, they are distinct branches of the Indo European tree, both linguistically and geographically. The Greco-Armenic branch (the antecedent of the Greek languages) is a bit further afield.
Thanks Pet Wrybies, why do I suppose you are from Newcastle or Liverpool and not Peurto Rico? I don't know why Pet.
I think this should help throw some light on the issue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark It would appear this sort of thing is legal in the US, for example, but not everywhere.
No, I promise. I'm as Puerto Rican as they come. I'm just well traveled and well read. I have read Cunliffe's work, and it is most scholarly, but the term Hispano Celtic is a bit of a misnomer. It does not refer to the Latin or Spanish as part of the same language group as the Celtic Languages, but to the fact that the Iberian Peninsula was one of the last strongholds of the Celtic peoples and there were Celtic Languages spoken in that region up until modern times. The Hispano-Celtic languages. In fact, the Celtic influence is so strong in Iberia that Celtic word roots are the third most common word root source for Spanish. The second most common being Arabic, and the first being Latin. But both the Celtic and Arabic influence on Spanish are of later origin (the Arabic being the most recent.)* Spanish is, of course, a daughter language of Latin and thus a granddaughter of the Italic language. * The Moorish control of Spain for 700 years left a significant linguistic and cultural impact in the peoples of Spain. The word in modern Spanish for hopefully is ojala, which is nearly unchanged from the Arabic and means if Allah wishes. Spanish Words of Arabic Origin
