What are your pet peeves re English usage?

Actually, in some parts of the USA -- the state of Maine, specifically, also some Bostonians -- do tend to say tomaato. Also vaaze, not vayze.

But, except in the song, did anyone ever actually say 'potaahto'?

How do accents develop? Presumably Americans and English sounded more or less the same in 1770. After that, divergence.
It sounds to me that some Irish has been incorporated into the way Americans speak. But I don't know. I'll ask Jenny next time I see her.

Amusingly, when we as children played war games, particularly when there was a good film in town, we did it in (what we fondly imagined were) American accents- and called each other "Joe". The power of Hollywood.

You can understand places developing their own accents, being cut off from one another, but it's amazing how different things are through time too - if you listen to the accents in British films of the 50s, you can trace huge changes, can't you? My kids' generation pronounce 'oo' as something like 'eu', specially the girls, I remember being completely flummoxed by a teenage girl asking if I had any 'beuts' to borrow.

Isolation, of course, has a lot to do with both the development of new accents and the retention of old ways of speaking. I recall reading somewhere that the accent of the people still living 19th century kind of lives in the Ozark Mountains of the USA South -- the ones we fondly call 'hillbillies' -- is probably a lot closer to the English of Shakespeare's day than anything spoken in the UK today. We may find their pronunciation quaint or even atrocious, but it apparently hasn't changed much since their ancestors settled in that area. Being cut off from any significant communication with the world outside, their manner of speaking suffered no major changes, no acceptance of loan words, no following the latest fashions in speech patterns.

I remember reading that, MA. Astounding that the hillbilly accent which we consider uncultured would turn out to be "Shakespearean," but maybe not so surprising. Anyway, I'm learning to relish the differences we have. It is what makes us interesting.

Having just seen the modern day Canterbury Tales Wife of Bath last week (which was probably last year's BBC production), I went looking for the original. Found it... in the original middle English. Eee-yikes. Between the strange words and odd spellings I realized that I should get over my old bad self & pet peeve re. bad spelling.

(I don't much care for "re." either.)

HA, does that make me "Shakespearean"?

But the strange thing about it is, where I find that other peoples dialects are strange, I find mine just perfect........lmao

A trip to South dakato rendered the hometown folks speechless..lol, i'd meet people and say, "Mornin" and they would absolutely look at me like I was crazy. Each person, I would have to repeat myself and add "Good" to it.

I never say "Good morning." Sounds too much like a weather forecast or, at the very least, voicing an unwarranted opinion. "Morning," is accurate; "Good morning" is presumtuous.

being a teenager in germany, we found 'guten morgen' presumptious and replaced it with 'moin, moin' - works just as well in (canadian) english. haven't had to adjust my greeting - if i ever manage to get out more than a growl in the morning! hbg

Gosh.
I suppose it came from a greeting "I bid you good morning", or something akin to that.
Round these parts, people use "Good morning!" or " 'Morning!" interchangeably. When they can ba bothered, that is. But I think it's nice to exchange a greeting in the morning.

Mornin' McTag!

Mornin', all.

Morning.

The word in English that drives me crazy is apprehension. It can mean "understanding" as in
"She has a solid grasp, a secure apprehension of the facts."

or it can mean, likewise, 'an arrest',

"His apprehension was secured by three officers and a dog."

or, maddingly, it can mean 'dread or foreboding'.

What?

"She was having some apprehensions about removing her robe for the art students."

or worse ''She was having some MIS-apprehensions about removing her robe for the art students."

So the sentence "I can comprehend your apprehension about your brother's misapprehensions about his apprehension, but what I fail to have full apprehension of is why you have brought it up before this roomful of art students." is perfectly understandable unless you don't apprehend my meaning.

Joe (I have a prehensile mind) Nation

Thanks McTag, And Mornin' to ya......

Its not being presumptous to say, "Good Morning" to someone. Its showing that you have good manners. If people had a few more manners about themselves.....it would make the world a nicer place to live.

And down south, we show our manners..........

Joe (it's always good to hear from you and your thoughtful posts) Nation, you are quite correct. Apprehend can be used in a variety of meanings.

Two are related, it seems to me: to catch=understand, and to catch hold of=capture.
I'm not sure where the third meaning=dread comes from.

Peeve: "apprise" and "appraise" can be mixed up, and I've done it myself.
But it's simpler to use "inform" or just "tell" for the former. Usually its misuse comes from over-complication
"I was apprised of the situation"="I knew about it"

Simpler is usually better.

People also mix up 'comprise' and 'consist (of)' a lot. It's estate agent speak 'The ground floor comprises of three spacious reception rooms with snakepit to rear'

As for "apprehend", the third meaning (that of dread) does sort of incorporate the sense that something has got hold of one. Merry (is my reach exceeding my grasp?) Andrew.

If published works can be used as evidence, comprise is changing usage, not that this is any good thing. Mr.P is a demon for not wanting it used interchangeably with compose and adding that ubiquitous "of." He prefers/demands it be a synonym for include and has a joy dance whenever he finds it used correctly in the newspaper sans the preposition.

I don't care so much, but I just wanted to show off my new avatar.

And I love that new avatar!

Thanks, Mac. It is a reflection of last evening.