A quick question on Britspeak

[ffutures]

Prompted by yet another story in which a British character refers to the USA as "The Colonies" without appearing to intend it as sarcasm or an insult.

[Poll #1468439]

Comments

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

That's precisely it. It's not a sarcastic or insulting term, merely a recognition of of a shared history. It's a term you can use amongst friends, not a term you would expect to see politicians use.

[w00hoo.livejournal.com]

Pretty much this. I'll use it as a friendly 'dig' occasionally when chatting to American friends (usually while also in America and with pretty serious anglophiles) but only where we all know it's just a bit of gentle fun.

It's been used around the table playing BtVS rpg sometimes, but generally again to highlight the fact that we don't actually know how to pretend to be Californian school kids in the late 90's, or to show a level of anachronism in general.