Railroad vs Railway?

Not at all. However there would be some sense in us all using the same English language!

Gee, a yank who'se not arrogant - congra_T_ulations!

That would be a very silly act, wouldn't it!

Well, it was between you and them - you made the statement that they would have to change first!

Not at all - I entered into this discussion with a _response_.

Regards, Greg.P.

Greg Procter spake thus:

OK, Greg, fair enough; so which version are we going to use: "colour"? Nope, I still plan on using "color".

See the problem? Actually, it really isn't one: you say "colour", I say "color", let's call the whole thing off, right? There ain't going to be one language; you've heard that comment about how we're two peoples separated by a common language, right?

See, we're not all so bad once you get to know us.

Now our goddamned *rulers* (Preemptive Warfare & Torture, Inc.) are another story ...

I am reminded of the conversation between two automotive engineers, one from Morris Garage and one from Ford. The Ford engineer said that the word should be "windshield", and not "windscreen", because after all, Americans invented the car. The MG engineer said that that might be true, but the English invented the language.

So separate! We called it colour before you lot mis-spelled it. Anyway, why change it?

Hell, I know that - mostly you're very nice people individually. :-)

I think this might be the start of a long and happy agreement!

Benz (Germany) invented the car. Well "built the first successful ... Morris and his mechanics knew that, which suggests the above discussion was a US invention.

Let's face it, there are some stupid names applied to car parts in both languages:

- Hood: The hood goes over the occupant's heads, not over the engine.

- Bonnet: that definitely goes over one's head.

- Trunk: I fitted one of those to my 1932 Ford B4, brass handles, strapping and all. It looked pretty and could be lifted off and carried indoors.

- Boot: So called because that's where most luggage went on a stage coach. Fender: The last thing you'd want to use them for on a modern car (any time since about 1914) is fending! Mudguard: Well, that's what they were for. Gas: liquid fuel extracted from petroleum. Gas: Gaseous fuel. Petrol: Huhh? Petrol: Liquid fuel extrated from petroleum.

Regards, Greg.P.

. . . and also sold their souls, or such as might be confused with souls, to Lucas, The Prince of Darkness.

Greg Procter spake thus:

There I've got to agree with you, arrogance-wise, since we (Merkins), as the current holders of the "World's Only Superpower" title, seem to assume that we can and should order the entire world to our liking.

Fortunately, that title is about to be taken from us and given to the Chinese.

"video guy -

In that case, the American was WRONG!

-- Cheers

Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway

Well, yeah, but the English language was a bastard mish-mosh from Angles, Saxons, Norse and French with bits of Latin and Greek too, probably, and maybe even the odd Celtic languages bit: borrowed from all over the place, although _unlike_ Visual BASIC, it has been made to work fairly well.

Rennbahn == race course.

David Nebenzahl wrote: [...]

From Wikipedia:

In the English-speaking world, the spellings (and associated pronunciations) aluminium and aluminum are both in common use in scientific and nonscientific contexts. In the United States, the spelling aluminium is largely unknown, and the spelling aluminum predominates. Elsewhere in the English-speaking world the spelling aluminium predominates, and the spelling aluminum is largely unknown. However, in Canada both spellings are common, due to the multiple influences on the language of its proximity to the United States, its British colonial past and the large number of native French speakers. ......................

NB that my own first encounter with the element's name was in German: Aluminium. When I first saw "aluminum" (about 1954), I thought it was a spelling error.

If you want to know more about the spelling, look it up. Google "aluminium" to get the Wikipedia hit. I noted that the -ium spelling was preferred in the USA for most of the 1800s. Interesting.

It's interesting to me (as a former teacher) how much people rely on what they learned in grade school when it comes to "correct" English.... :-)

HTH

The spelling "color" was current in England long before any of them were, er, directed to emigrate to the Oz.

As a matter of fact, most so-called American spellings are merely older English spellings. (Noah Webster had a lot to do with solidifying them as US spellings, but that's another story.) Many of the more recent "correct" English spellings were invented by semi-educated schoolmasters in the 1700s and 1800s, BTW. Eg, "debt", which was spelled without the 'b' from Middle English on. (Middle English is the result of creolising late Old English with Norman French. Late Old English is a creole of Anglo-Saxon with Norse and Danish. People back then spelled/spelt as they spoke.)

Steve Caple wrote: [...]

LOL!

Or as we Merkins say, race _track_ Whooo whoooo! Chugga chugga chugga

I have no hopes that the Chinese will be less arrogant!

OTOH New Zealand has had the longest positive unbroken relationship with modern China of any Western nation.

Regards, Greg.P. NZ

Back then, spellings weren't set and dictionaries didn't exist.

Spelling became a problem with the introduction of printing (imported by William Caxton from the Netherlands, BTW.) Caxton wrote a preface to one of his products (a reprint of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales IIRC) in which he discussed the problem of printing a book that would be read by people who spoke different dialects of English. He discusses, with examples, which spellings, and even which words, caused him problems. The example I recall is "egges" vs "eyren" (The latter uses the so-called "r-plural) still seen in ModE children and brethren.) Chaucer himself used different words to suit his scansion and rhyme schemes: "swete" in one place, "soote" in another, for example. It's plain from his writings, and those of his contemporaries, that the English had no trouble with a variety of different dialects, all of which happily co-existed and mixed in London, which then as now attracted people from all over the kingdom.

Notions of "correct" English are always bound up with notions of class or worse. Fugeddabahdit.

BTW, the first dictionaries date from before printing: they were cribs for Latin scholars, that is word lists matching Latin and English words. Very useful, as it later turned out, for elucidating the history of English words. In any case, English dictionaries have not (unlike those of other languages) set themselves up as arbiters of correctness.

HTH

Steve Caple spake thus:

You mean, like a track with the Flying Scotsman on it, eh?