<p>Welcome to episode 77 of Lexis in which Raj &amp; Dan talk to Lynne Murphy, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex about a flurry of recent news stories about children’s adoption of American vocabulary (and even accents). We discuss:</p><ul><li><p>What these stories are about and whether we can even tell if this &#39;Americanisation&#39; is happening</p></li><li><p>The main themes in them and their precursors in previous panics about ‘Americanisation’ </p></li><li><p>The discourses within and behind these stories</p></li><li><p>What motivates them and how to approach them critically </p></li><li><p>How British English is also making its way into American English</p></li></ul><p>Lynne is author of ‘<a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-prodigal-tongue-the-love-hate-relationship-between-british-and-american-english-lynne-murphy/1874cbc968fd1d54?aid=4868&ean=9781786074973&listref=books-for-a-level-english-language&next=t⁠" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">The Prodigal Tongue: the Love–Hate Relationship between British and American English</a>’ , and the <a href="https://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Separated by a Common Language blog</a>. </p><p>You can also find her on Bluesky and other social media platforms under the name Lynneguist. </p><p>Bluesky here: <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/lynneguist.bsky.social"><u>https://bsky.app/profile/lynneguist.bsky.social</u></a> </p><p>The stories we discuss are here:</p><p>The Times and Sunday Times feature itself: <a href="http://archive.today/9UM7W"><u>http://archive.today/9UM7W</u></a> </p><p>‘<strong>Trash-talking children are sounding like Americans, say teachers</strong></p><p>Garbage, candy and apartment are Americanisms that are growing more popular among younger pupils’</p><p>Kristina Murkett’s op-ed for The Telegraph, </p><p>‘<strong>The Americanisation of British English reveals this dark thing about our society</strong></p><p>Many parents are happy to allow their children consume videos made by companies that have no obligation to care for them’</p><p><a href="http://archive.today/cZ4kF"><u>http://archive.today/cZ4kF</u></a> </p><p>The Telegraph article links to this absolute stinker of a piece by Simon Heffer from 2024 too, ‘<strong>Americanisms are poisoning our language</strong>’</p><p><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/americanism-english-language-simon-heffer/"><u>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/americanism-english-language-simon-heffer/</u></a>   </p><p>A more sensible take from Charlotte Crips in The Independent, ‘<strong>Mom, can we take the elevator?’ Why I’m fine with my daughter speaking Americanese</strong>’</p><p><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/americanism-english-children-b2857680.html"><u>https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/americanism-english-children-b2857680.html</u></a> </p><p>But some quite mixed responses to that piece from their readers: <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/americanisms-english-language-british-b2859043.html"><u>https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/americanisms-english-language-british-b2859043.html</u></a> </p><p>We mention Ben Yagoda’s book, Gobsmacked <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/gobsmacked-the-british-invasion-of-american-english-ben-yagoda/7669284?ean=9780691262291&next=t"><u>https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/gobsmacked-the-british-invasion-of-american-english-ben-yagoda/7669284?ean=9780691262291&amp;next=t</u></a>  and the Guardian featured an extract from it here: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/sep/26/other-british-invasion-how-uk-language-conquered-the-us"><u>https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/sep/26/other-british-invasion-how-uk-language-conquered-the-us</u></a> </p><p>A new one (possibly the worst of the lot) was published in The Spectator between recording the episode and publishing it. You can read the archived version here: <a href="https://archive.ph/2025.11.24-063603/https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-to-save-the-kings-english/"><u>https://archive.ph/2025.11.24-063603/https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-to-save-the-kings-english/</u></a> </p><p>And we’ve been here before, obviously…</p><p>Matthew Engel: </p><p>‘<strong>Say no to the get-go! Americanisms swamping English, so wake up and smell the coffee</strong>’ (here, along with some teacher resources and student responses that Jacky and I put together years ago and the actual article: <a href="https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-ALEVEL-ENG-HUB-SPR19-PAPER2-BOOKLET.PDF"><u>https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-ALEVEL-ENG-HUB-SPR19-PAPER2-BOOKLET.PDF</u></a> ) </p><p>Mark Liberman’s response to Engel on Language Log in 2011: <a href="https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3290"><u>https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3290</u></a> </p><p><strong>Lexis is on Bluesky: </strong><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social"><strong>https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social</strong></a><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Contributors</strong></p><p><em>Lisa Casey</em> </p><p>blog: <a href="https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/"><u>https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/</u></a> &amp; Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/LanguageDebates"><u>Language Debates (@LanguageDebates)</u></a></p><p><em>Dan Clayton</em> </p><p>blog: <a href="http://englishlangsfx.blogspot.com/"><u>EngLangBlog</u></a> &amp; Bluesky: <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social"><u>https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social</u></a> </p><p><em>Jacky Glancey</em> </p><p>Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/JackyGlancey"><u>https://twitter.com/JackyGlancey</u></a></p><p><em>Raj Rana</em></p><p><em>Matthew Butler </em></p><p>Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/MatthewbutlerCA"><u>https://twitter.com/MatthewbutlerCA</u></a> </p><p>Music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys </p><p>Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: <a href="https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys"><u>https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys</u></a> </p>