I've noticed two changes that have occurred in spoken British English over the past twenty years or so. My guess is that they have both come from over the Atlantic, but what interests me is that they seem to go in different directions.
The first is that people now say at the coffee kiosk "Can I get a cappuccino?" whereas we always used to say something like "Could I have a cappuccino?" (Actually, it would have been "could I have a coffee?" but you know what I mean). To my ears, "can I get...?" sounds a little strange - I would feel like answering ("you can if you like, but I can sell you one if you prefer").
The second change is that my kids would say ("I don't have a dog") whereas I would say ("I haven't got a dog") See what I mean? In one case we have gone from "have" to "get" while in the other we have gone from "get" to "have". Curious, huh?
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