Quote Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie View Post
Language is a moving feast and changes constantly. Grammar, nouns, verbs, phrases and meanings are all subject to change. Misspellings can become the standard version (and as to what spellings became the standard version in the first place is another story altogether). Some Americanisms (such as 'gotten') may grate with us are old English words we have since dispensed with. Grammatical rules we learned at school were often the results of academics trying to shoe-horn Latinisms on our Germanic language (which is heavily laced with vocabulary inherited from our Norman conquerors, of course). Plurals used to be expressed in different ways in different parts of the country, depending on linguistic influences in the regions concerned.
Change is the norm regarding language. Best roll with it and see it as part of the same continuum that spawned the English Language in the first place.

Consider where each of the words you just used came from: mostly German and partly French.
Interesting point, but I'm referring mainly to the phrases associated with American-English being used more frequently in British English rather than the origin of words or languages that have been encouraged by academics or even forcibly through colonialism.

Ultimately, my view on the use of the phrases that have crept in over recent years e.g. "Can I get a..." is that there is an air of pretence given by the user in a similar way that the 'yuppies' had.

I've also noticed that there's a often an inexplicable change in the user's diction to a pseudo-American accent when these phrases are being used, e.g. "you know what I mean, right!?"