In my humble opinion, though I am not an expert on English at all, I think that, to a certain extent, AmE has influenced many Brits' speech. Wait, I will go even further saying that Americanisms have swamped English, so let's wake up and smell the coffee.
Many a time I could hear the English use phrases typical of language users living across the pond, most often of which were: 'movie', or when asking for something: 'Can I get...', when talking to someone "touch base', or even 'shopping cart' instead of telling 'trolley' (isn't it like a train?, an American could ask in return), and several more phrases. This is because a lot of Brits watch American films and very often they just copy the patterns of speech.
Here, I have found interesting articles, which seems to support my thesis:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282449/Americanisms-swamping-English-wake-smell-coffee.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14201796
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19670686
'British English is a fountain of beautiful words that we don’t normally use in America. Some are hilarious, some are rude and some are… interesting', one says.
English is one Both the USA and the UK are melting pots. I was gobsmacked when going 40 km away from my sister's place I could run into people speaking different twangs! This is awesome! Oops...This is fab! :-). I once picked up the phrase: 'I can't be mithered". This sounded so strange!,
My brother-in-law says to me that if I say one more time that I'm
touching base with him, he won't be responsible for his actions, haha!
Oops...I'm talking in torrents today...Sorry! :-)
edytowany przez grudziu: 04 maj 2013