[Cascade]

Where does the slang "anyways" come from?

My spell checker rejects it as a word but it seems to be in common usage especially among North Americans.

If it is supposed to be just a spelling variation it is the opposite of other North American adaptations of English in that it adds an extra unnecessary letter rather than removing a letter (or more) e.g. color compared with the English colour.

[finally17]

Cascade, on Apr 1 2008, 08:00 PM, said:

Where does the slang "anyways" come from?

My spell checker rejects it as a word but it seems to be in common usage especially among North Americans.

If it is supposed to be just a spelling variation it is the opposite of other North American adaptations of English in that it adds an extra unnecessary letter rather than removing a letter (or more) e.g. color compared with the English colour.

It's not just the opposite of the American English norm; it's a general although not strict rule that words get shorter but not longer.

As for where it comes from, just some quick googling indicates that it's been around for many centuries. Although it should be noted that free etymology information on-line isn't quality, here's a link that's got some interesting and relevant information:

anyways

[jillybean]

Thanks Aaron, I was thinking it was just a saying from the uncouth youth of today I am getting old.

[irdoz]

http://www.urbandict...hp?term=anyways - I like definition 4

[finally17]

irdoz, on Apr 1 2008, 09:00 PM, said:

http://www.urbandict...hp?term=anyways - I like definition 4

Now you remind me of something else. I don't know where you're from (AUS, I see from your BBO profile), but there is a whole host of terms that the British tend to think are "ghastly American expressions" that actually originated in the UK. Americans do not have the habit of saying these kinds of things about British (or perceived British) English, and I think it's a rather disgusting habit at that, made particularly more so by how often it's incorrect.

For some amusing reading on the subject, check out: Made in America by Bill Bryson. He discusses a bunch of terms that have their origin in the UK but Brits insist are low-class American English.

If you had clicked on what I first posted, you would realize that the term predates mass European settlement in the US by a couple of centuries. This is hardly a "ghastly American expression."

[irdoz]

lol chill - I have a brother doing his post-grad in Canada. He says 'anyways' and 'anywho' and 'aboot' quite often now. The reference reminded me of him - nothing else.

[barmar]

finally17, on Apr 1 2008, 10:19 PM, said:

Now you remind me of something else. I don't know where you're from (AUS, I see from your BBO profile), but there is a whole host of terms that the British tend to think are "ghastly American expressions" that actually originated in the UK.

It always sounds weird to me when I hear actors with proper British accents use words like "yeah". I first noticed this when Keira Knightly became popular and started appearing on talk shows. She looks so nice, and Americans typically perceive accents like hers as indicating upper-class, and then the words that come out of her mouth sound like they were written by someone from Brooklyn.

[sceptic]

Quote

but Brits insist are low-class American English.

I can't say I have ever heard anyone in the UK, describe something as low-class American, where did you get that snippet of fact from?

[mycroft]

I have - they're the same sort of people as the French who dismiss Jouale as "low-class Canadian French". And for the same reason - isolation for a couple of centuries.

Quebecois French is more "authentic" than the language they speak in Paris - because it got locked in the 17th century by General Wolfe et al. There are scholars who pore over the French spoken by the grandmothers out in the rural parishes because it helps them understand the drifting of the language as it has been spoken in France.

A lot of "low class American" expressions are exactly that - because strangely enough, a lot of Americans in the founding centuries, before the Great Unpleasantness in the 18th Century, were low class British. And it didn't pay to seem aristocratic in the Great Experiment afterward, so the high-born (well, high-born Northerners, at least) affected the voice of the people.

Add to that the fetish for proper orthography really rang into gear during the Victorian Era, and that it was based on "Real Scholarly languages (Latin and Greek) have spelling regularity and rules, English should be more like them, let's regularize it around Latin as a 'founding language' even though it really isn't", and you get Real Anglo-Saxon English West of the Pond, and Received Pronounciation (or low-class British :-) East.

[kenberg]

I just can't think of any ways to explain how this word came into existence. I would ban it from usage, but I can't think of any ways to enforce the ban. Anyways, I am open to any ways we could find to deal with this problem.
Anyways, it's better than arguing about balls. That's my opinion anyways.

[bid_em_up]

mycroft, on Apr 2 2008, 11:35 AM, said:

A lot of "low class American" expressions are exactly that - because strangely enough, a lot of Americans in the founding centuries, before the Great Unpleasantness in the 18th Century, were low class British. And it didn't pay to seem aristocratic in the Great Experiment afterward, so the high-born (well, high-born Northerners, at least) affected the voice of the people.

That reminds me....

A girl from the South and a girl from the North were seated side by side on a plane. The girl from the South, being friendly and all, said, "So, where ya'll from?"

The Northern girl said, "From a place where they know better than to use a preposition at the end of a sentence."

The girl from the South sat quietly for a few moments and then replied, "So, where ya'll from, bitch?"

[paulg]

Cascade, on Apr 2 2008, 01:00 AM, said:

Where does the slang "anyways" come from?

My spell checker rejects it as a word but it seems to be in common usage especially among North Americans.

If it is supposed to be just a spelling variation it is the opposite of other North American adaptations of English in that it adds an extra unnecessary letter rather than removing a letter (or more) e.g. color compared with the English colour.

Drop a line to Lynne at separated by a common language, I'm sure she'd be interested and able to help.

Paul

[Cascade]

kenberg, on Apr 3 2008, 07:18 AM, said:

I just can't think of any ways to explain how this word came into existence. I would ban it from usage, but I can't think of any ways to enforce the ban. Anyways, I am open to any ways we could find to deal with this problem.
Anyways, it's better than arguing about balls. That's my opinion anyways.

Firing squad should work.

[finally17]

sceptic, on Apr 2 2008, 03:56 AM, said:

Quote

but Brits insist are low-class American English.

I can't say I have ever heard anyone in the UK, describe something as low-class American, where did you get that snippet of fact from?

It happens very often on the British show "QI: Quite Interesting" for instance. It's still a great show, I wish we had something like it in the US, but this is there nonetheless.

Did you read the referenced urbandictionary entry? It's there. Read some more, you'll find comments like that all over the place. I'll grant that in this case it's crude kids, but they get the idea that expressions older than they are are "Americanisms" from somewhere.

Check out the book I mentioned. This is an American reporting these claims, but I believe he gives references.

And I have had people say such things talking to me.

[finally17]

Cascade, on Apr 2 2008, 02:35 PM, said:

kenberg, on Apr 3 2008, 07:18 AM, said:

I just can't think of any ways to explain how this word came into existence.  I would ban it from usage, but I can't think of any ways to enforce the ban. Anyways, I am open to any ways we could find to deal with this problem.
Anyways, it's better than arguing about balls. That's my opinion anyways.

Firing squad should work.

I thought we were agreed that execution is not a deterrent!

[finally17]

mycroft, on Apr 2 2008, 11:35 AM, said:

Add to that the fetish for proper orthography really rang into gear during the Victorian Era, and that it was based on "Real Scholarly languages (Latin and Greek) have spelling regularity and rules, English should be more like them, let's regularize it around Latin as a 'founding language' even though it really isn't", and you get Real Anglo-Saxon English West of the Pond, and Received Pronounciation (or low-class British :-) East.

I don't know about the British "fetish for orthography," but the American fetish for standardized spelling, and differentiated from British spellings, precedes Victoria. It was basically single-handedly pushed for and enacted by Noah Webster, for whom our most famous dictionary is still named. He is solely responsible for why we removed the u from words like colour, which Cascade first referenced, and why we transposed the 're' in words like theatre, believing these changes reduced complexity.

[barmar]

I think the obsession with the Latin origins may have had more of an effect on grammar than orthography. For instance, the rule against splitting infinitives is mainly based on the fact that infinitives in Latin (and romance languages) are single words. Since it isn't even possible to split them in Latin, it's improper to do so in English.

But would the opening of Star Trek sound as majestic if Kirk had to say "boldy to go where no man has gone before"? (As an aside, I just realized that this speech is in iambic pentameter.)

[Cascade]

finally17, on Apr 3 2008, 08:51 AM, said:

Cascade, on Apr 2 2008, 02:35 PM, said:

kenberg, on Apr 3 2008, 07:18 AM, said:

I just can't think of any ways to explain how this word came into existence.  I would ban it from usage, but I can't think of any ways to enforce the ban. Anyways, I am open to any ways we could find to deal with this problem.
Anyways, it's better than arguing about balls. That's my opinion anyways.

Firing squad should work.

I thought we were agreed that execution is not a deterrent!

That has got to be false.

It deters at least one.

[Walddk]

Anyway(s), I am curious to know how "should have" has become "should of" among some North Americans. I have seen that repeatedly at BBO tables. "I shld of played a spade ....". Is that merely colloquial/slang, predominantly by younger people?

Roland