Young British children are more likely than their big siblings to adopt American phrases, a new survey of teachers in the U.K. has found.
More than 50% of the teachers at elementary level schools who were surveyed said they had heard their students use the words “trash” or “garbage,” rather than the more typical British terms “rubbish” or “waste.”
The word “candy,” rather than “sweets,” was cited as the second-most imported word, as reported by 40% of the teachers surveyed.
The survey, conducted by Teacher Tapp for The Times of London, involved more than 10,000 educators, and the findings suggest the shift to Americanisms is particularly prevalent among younger children. The survey found that teachers of high school aged children reported fewer examples of such U.S. vocabulary slipping into their pupils’ speech.
The terms “apartment,” rather than “flat,” “diaper” instead of “nappy” and “movie theater” instead of “cinema” are some of the other swaps reported by teachers.
A linguist interviewed by The Times, however, sought to reassured concerned parents that trends in children’s language change quickly and frequently. Professor Lynne Murphy, who teaches British and American English at the University of Sussex, told the newspaper that academics tend to rely on trends in adult language for that reason.
“We adults don’t talk like we did when we were four, or eight or 12, and neither will today’s children,” Murphy added.
She also noted that while U.S. vocabulary may be imported to Britain via online media, the same thing can happen in the other direction. In 2019, CBS News reported that some parents had noticed their children developing British accents after watching the “Peppa Pig,” the British children’s program with a remarkable worldwide reach.
Speaking to The Times, some British parents gave anecdotal evidence, saying they had noticed their kids using Americanisms — and tried to intervene.
Stacie Swift, a mother of three in Cambridgeshire, said: “I’ve had to correct my children, who are 10 and eight years old, as they slip into Americanisms.”
“Every now and then they slip into conversation. It’s usually because they have been watching American YouTube videos or cartoons,” she added.
Frank Young blamed the “fragmentation” of childrens’ TV programs in the U.K. for his nine-year-old son’s occasional lapses into U.S. parlance.
“Young children are more likely to hear American accents and the words that go with it through streaming services well beyond the BBC,” he told The Times.
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