Whilst

[David A. Daniel]

A while ago, TZ and somebody - don't remember who - had a tiff about whether
Americans say whilst. TZ was saying they do not. I agreed (quietly - I
didn't write anything) at the time, thinking it mostly a Britism. Well,
immediately thereafter I started hearing whilst all over the place on
American TV shows. I thought: hmph. But then I thought: a lot of writers for
US TV are Brits and Canadians as are many actors in the US. So maybe there
was dialect leak going on, with American actors saying Brit/Canadian-written
lines, or Brit/Canadian actors saying whilst and not knowing they're not
supposed to. I was satisfied with that hypothesis until the other day I was
watching CNN and the interviewee, the District Attorney of some Podunk
county in Ohio, said whilst. So now I'm in a funk and don't know what to
think. Maybe he is another sleeper spy who missed the ESL class on
while/whilst and thus gave himself away, like when Tony Franciosa said
loo-tenant instead of leff-tenant and gave himself away as not being a Brit.
DAD

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