English muffins = glazed buns

[Sallie Lemons]

How does the English Muffin compare to scones and crumpets?

Lynne Murphy wrote:

> Like JW McKeogh, I found it a bit odd that glazed buns and English muffins
> had been equated.  A glazed bun is a sweet thing--buns are sweet in UK
> English--except for hamburger buns, which are a relatively recent borrowing
> from US.  US has this sense of 'bun' in 'hot crossed bun' or possibly
> 'cinnamon bun'--but I think you hear 'cinnamon roll' more there now.  (I
> have my students do semantic field analyses of breads and cakes, so I've
> had a lot of discussion on this in UK and South Africa.)
>
> As JWK notes, a UK muffin is comparable to the US 'English muffin'.  Here's
> the New Oxford's definition:
>
> [chiefly Brit] a flat circular spongy bread roll make from yeast dough and
> eaten split, toasted, and buttered.
>
> They also have a 'chiefly N Amer' definition that describes 'a small domed
> spongy cake...'.  My students, when asked to define 'muffin' give both
> definitions but note that the American sense has only come into UK English
> in recent years, with the importation of American muffins (the recipes at
> least, if not the actual baked goods).  You can now buy packaged blueberry
> and other muffins at coffee stands and supermarkets.
>
> Since Wal-Mart now owns one of the major supermarket chains here, we may
> see more importing of American food-concepts.
>
> Lynne
>
> --On Thursday, January 11, 2001 3:39 am -0500 Jeffrey William McKeough
> <jwm at URSOLARIS.SPDCC.COM> wrote:
>
> > Rudolph C Troike quotes Ed White:
> >>
> >> This reminds me of a similar conversation I had in England, at a
> >> pastry shop.  I asked what certain familiar looking items were
> >> called, to be informed that they were "glazed buns."  "Interesting,"
> >> I replied; in the US we call them "English muffins." "Really," came
> >> the cool reply, "How odd.  Since they REALLY ARE glazed buns."  --Ed
> >> White
> >
> > I ran this by an English friend, who said that what we call "English
> > muffins" in America are just called "muffins" in England.  (And in a
> > nice bit of symmetry, what we call "muffins" she says are called
> > "American muffins".)
> >
> > Her take was that the person in the pastry shop knew that "English
> > muffins" were muffins, and that the pastry in question REALLY WAS a
> > glazed bun, which is not a muffin, English or American.
> >
> > --
> > Jeffrey William McKeough
> > jwm at spdcc.com (or spdcc.net)
>
> M Lynne Murphy
> Lecturer in Linguistics
> School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
> University of Sussex
> Brighton BN1 9QH
> UK
>
> phone +44-(0)1273-678844
> fax   +44-(0)1273-671320