Attention Americans

[eldargal]

http://media.tumblr.com/b22bb35de657f2847489f4a85d515400/tumblr_inline_mw67c1AEN91r7uqmt.png
LEARN FROM THIS!:p

[Mr Mystery]

Also, 'damn' is most definitely not a swear word.

[DarkLink]

We just like trolling other nations. 'Hey, guess what, you spelt color wrong. What sort of idiot puts a u in color?'

[Psychosplodge]

Ones using actual English :p

[Kyban]

We couldn't even change to the metric system, don't ask us to make sense! :p

[Mr Mystery]

It's never pleasant when one's child is just so ungrateful.

[Nabterayl]

Actually, curious - do you guys say "Nineteen[th of] December, twenty-thirteen" in actual speech? Or do you say, "December nineteenth, twenty-thirteen" and then write it 19-12-2013?


It's never pleasant when one's child is just so ungrateful.
You're just too old to understand ;)

[eldargal]

I would say 'Nineteenth of December'. If I could ever remember the date that is.

[Psychosplodge]

Actually, curious - do you guys say "Nineteen[th of] December, twenty-thirteen" in actual speech? Or do you say, "December nineteenth, twenty-thirteen" and then write it 19-12-2013?





or 19th of the 12 of the 13th


We couldn't even change to the metric system, don't ask us to make sense! :p

We only half did it, and thats only down to the political elite. It used to run in parallel. But you couldn't even manage imperial correctly :rolleyes:

[Kyban]

It's most common to hear "December nineteenth, twenty-thirteen" here, I wonder which one influenced which, how we write it or how we say it.

[DarkLink]

Don't you guys mean 'forsooth, in the year of our Lord 2013, of the 12th month and the 19th day..." or something.

[Mr Mystery]

Oh, and also....

NOTHING IS EVER TWO TIMES CONCENTRATED.

I and the English language will accept the preferred option of 'double concentrated' or at a push 'twice concentrated'

But 'two times concentrated' is right out.

[YorkNecromancer]

Don't you guys mean 'forsooth, in the year of our Lord 2013, of the 12th month and the 19th day..." or something.

Only when talking to Colonials; got to rake in those tourist dollars. Otherwise we're fairly informal.

As for pronunciation, I've only ever gone "<date> of the <month>, <year>". Saying it the American way just sounds... defiled somehow. Like when in films, they call it "YO-gert", not "YOG-ert" (yoghurt), or "VAYse", rather than "VARse" (vase).

Still, as a Southerner in the North, I get called up for having a "BAR-th" rather than a "BAH-th" (bath).

People get funny about the 'right' pronunciation, all sure that 'theirs' is the right one, so rarely aware that in fact, they are ALL the right one, because language is a fluid medium of communication, and the 'right' one depends entirely upon the audience/purpose.

Say "BAH-th" down South, people think you an ill-educated Northern monkey. Say "BAR-th" oop North, get stabbed. :)

[Psychosplodge]

More or less accurate. Though the southerners would wonder why the **** you're talking to them.
Changing the spellings though, bad colonials. Bad! NO! BAD!

[Deadlift]

I just want to say " I couldn't care less" not "I could care less" because the former conveys the meaning so much better :p

[Wildeybeast]

http://youtu.be/om7O0MFkmpw

That should clarify a few things.

[DWest]

I must say, as an American with aspirations as an author, this site is very corrupting. I read BoLS for a little bit, then I go back to my writing and suddenly I have the angry squiggles under words like "pressurised" and "colour" and I go "what the bloody hell? What's wrong with that?!"

[Wildeybeast]

Hurray, it's working! One more step towards bringing you recalcitrant puritans back into the fold.

[Psychosplodge]

Don't you mean educating, or correcting?

[YorkNecromancer]

I must say, as an American with aspirations as an author, this site is very corrupting. I read BoLS for a little bit, then I go back to my writing and suddenly I have the angry squiggles under words like "pressurised" and "colour" and I go "what the bloody hell? What's wrong with that?!"

American spellings are motivated by a ruggedly individualistic desire for pragmatism.

English spellings are motivated by centuries of history, warfare, and shared world culture.

The internet brings all our writings together, and as our cultures, values, and outlook mix, we are all finally allowed to spell however we like. If you are starting to spell like us, that's a beautiful thing. If not, that's beautiful too.

Words are magic however they may look look on the page. Language is an art form, and should be played with, the words and letters danced through, not entombed in a museum to be curated like a dead thing.

[lobster-overlord]

What I think is fun is that as a part of my degree, I did a little linguistics work, and what we deem as our rural area of colonial america (the Appalachian region) Speaks english closer to old english than anyone else in the world.

And we consider them BACKWARDS!

:-)

john m.

[YorkNecromancer]

You're right; there's all sorts of places in the US where the people have almost pure UK accents (Northern and Southern), but because they're weird and out of the way, they're never represented on TV.

I remember watching a documentary on language, and they had a fishing town in the South East US where the people spoke with a pure UK Yorkshire accent and always had.

There's no such thing as 'the' American or 'the' British accent; just ones that are represented more or less commonly in media; the ones we usually see. Then people regard 'usual' as 'normal', when of course, there's no such thing as a 'normal' accent. I always giggle when I hear someone claim "But I don't have an accent!"

Yes you do. Everyone does, and yours will sound funny to someone.

I still love the idea that the film 'Trainspotting' was going to be subtitled for the American market because they worried the Scottish accents might be too thick to be understood.

[Mr Mystery]

You're right; there's all sorts of places in the US where the people have almost pure UK accents (Northern and Southern), but because they're weird and out of the way, they're never represented on TV.

I remember watching a documentary on language, and they had a fishing town in the South East US where the people spoke with a pure UK Yorkshire accent and always had.

There's no such thing as 'the' American or 'the' British accent; just ones that are represented more or less commonly in media; the ones we usually see. Then people regard 'usual' as 'normal', when of course, there's no such thing as a 'normal' accent. I always giggle when I hear someone claim "But I don't have an accent!"

Yes you do. Everyone does, and yours will sound funny to someone.

I still love the idea that the film 'Trainspotting' was going to be subtitled for the American market because they worried the Scottish accents might be too thick to be understood.

Wonder what they'd make of Taggart!

[Psychosplodge]

I still remember them subtitling people from Barnsley on ABC news (I think) that they showed in the early hours on BBC24 during the floods of '07.
Sounded clear enough to me

[Wolfshade]

I don't know, Brian is one our IT guys and every so often I require him to be translated for me, he is very black country.

[Wildeybeast]

English spellings are motivated by centuries of history, warfare, and shared world culture.


And a desire to make sure the peasantry can't learn to read or write.