English muffins = crumpets

[Lynne Murphy]

I should trust my instincts more often--or use dictionaries more often.  To
me, English muffins look more like crumpets than like UK muffins (I've
never actually eaten either).  But when I looked up 'crumpet' in the New
Oxford dictionary, it told me that 'crumpets' are made on a griddle.  I
assumed that English muffins were baked, but I've just looked up 'English
muffin' in AHD4 and--whaddyaknow--they're made on a griddle.

So, I was wrong (not for the first or last time) when I said that US
English muffins = UK muffins.

I've checked some on-line grocery stores to try to find you some pictures,
but no luck.  Perhaps Americans would call UK muffins 'biscuits' or
'rolls'--I'm not sure.  Just remember, that this is a country where
pancakes come already cooked in plastic wrap and are eaten cold, and where
a 'flapjack' is sort of like a granola bar, except it's made out of oats.
So anything's possible in how we differ in names of (and attitudes toward)
bready things.

Lynne

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