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HAS the last surviving bastion of the world outside the US fallen? Has the US succeeded in making the ultimate cultural conquest? Have the non-Americans fallen a prey to brainwashing in respect of the one aspect of the American way of life, which they had all these years been valiantly resisting? Has, in short, the world collapsed all around us?

Let me explain, in my own exasperatingly ponderous way. We all know how the US acts the contumacious contrarian with regard to practices followed by all other decent, civilised nations from ancient days. Every English-speaking country keeps left while driving, but the US must do the opposite.

In the use of the English language too, Americans have a compulsive addiction to `z' in the place of `s' in verbs, and, on the pretext of going phonetic, omit the all-important and vital `u' in words such as labour, ardour and harbour, and thrust `s' in the place of `c' in nouns (defense, pretense) and `k' in the place of `ch' wherever possible. Of course, they meticulously throw out the extra `l' in most words with a double `l'.

They have not been stopping at that. They build all these nasty deviations into their word-processors. With the result, you never have peace of mind when you type your stuff — the software unsparingly and irritatingly underlines in red ink all the words and phrases with whose forced requirements of American spelling you have not complied.

As if these onslaughts are not enough, the Americans, despite priding themselves on belonging to the new world, have been stubbornly clinging to old-world terms for measuring quantities and distance while the rest of the world has gone decimal long ago. As you get down the ramp of the plane at the first point of entry into the US, arcane, if not archaic, words such as mile, gallon, inch and pound assail your ears, leaving you in jitters. While boasting of their penchant for making long words in Victorian English shorter (gas for petrol, specs. for specifications, congrats. for congratulations, OK for all right), they, in fact, do not hesitate to go in the opposite direction when it comes to certain words which are shorter in their Anglo-Saxon version. For instance, a lift is an elevator, a car is an automobile and a mere driver (of a railway engine) is an engineer.

In the face of these egregious lapses, the world should be pardoned for not knowing whether to laugh or cry when currency notes are described as bills and bills as checks (for cheques)!

No single medium has been more responsible for the cultural havoc wrought by American spelling, pronunciation and usages, than the American films. Actually, they were instrumental in exporting not only American English, but also American products and drinks by giving them world-wide exposure.Although, in varying degrees, the world had been putting up a brave fight against these impositions, one citadel after another had been falling. The last ditch fight was against succumbing to the practice of putting the numeral of the month before that of the date. After the terrorist attack of September 11, even this last shred of self-respect is gone and there has been a wholesale rout towards the US practice. RIP.

B. S. Raghavan

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