This is a very interesting thread. I was talking about this subject in the pub tonight with friends. My boyfriend of five years is American, and so I'm very familiar with Anerican vocab and pronunciation differences. However the one thing that really does my head in -- quite literally -- is his use of 'bring'. It scrambles my brain circuitry when he says he's going somewhere and bringing the car with him. This different use of bring has been the cause of many small misunderstandings between us. I have never heard a British person use 'bring' in this way.
My boyfriend, BTW, is well-educated, from California and has lived here in Britain since the 80s.My mum is Irish and uses 'bring' in the Br way -- but was brought up by Nuns (grammarians?)
'Bring' is a Germanic modal verb, and from what I can remember from high school German, the Germans use the verb 'bringen' in the same way as in Br E; and nehmen or mitnehmen for 'take'. I'm seeing a pedantic German friend on Sunday and look forward to asking him!