Relsqui comments on Open Thread, September, 2010-- part 2 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: NancyLebovitz 17 September 2010 01:44AM

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Comment author: Relsqui 25 September 2010 12:29:10AM 0 points [-]

I don't know whether this is one, but I expect that some such expressions have different "correct" forms on either side of the Atlantic.

Comment author: komponisto 25 September 2010 01:03:47AM *  0 points [-]

Yes, of course status levels are not the only source of linguistic variation; there's also geography, and other things also.

Note however that high-status language varies less by geography than low-status language.

Also, British English (at least "Southern British Standard") sounds higher status to me than American English in general, so I would find it surprising if an expression that struck my (American-English) ear as low status turned out to be a high-status British form. I would expect the reverse -- that is, something that sounds low-status to a British speaker being a high-status American expression -- to be more common.