Lost in Translation--US vs UK English words

[OC Richard]

Oh yes the spelling! The evil that Noah Webster cast over US English!

Many attempts at spelling reform in English have been proposed and attempted over the last 400 years, but the only one that got widespread usage was Webster's.

Noah made a dictionary, and decided to change spellings to whatever he felt made most sense.

Some were large leaps:

gaol became jail
kerb became curb

but often it was simply reversing the last two letters:

centre became center
theatre became theater (though I often see both theatre and centre around here).

Then there was leaving out doubled letters

jewellery became jewelery
travelling became traveling

or lopping off the end as in

catalogue becoming catalog
programme becoming program.

Then there's leaving out the u so that:
colour became color
honour became honor

and many many more.

I personally dislike all of Webster's innovations and prefer the original spellings.

What's odd is that I've seen a combination of US and old spelling in things written in Canada and Australia.

[macwilkin]

Webster's motivation was not only personal, but political as well. Webster was trying to create a distinctly "American" language after the Revilution.

I don't care for his "reforms" either, and I prefer the old spelling of words such as honour, much to the chagrin of my colleagues!

T.

[Pleater]

Muffin the Mule?

I even remember the song/signature tune.

The mind boggles - but I don't think we'll go there to find out just what is rude about it.

In English we now have both metre - the length or musical timing and meter the device or instrument of measurement.

I just noticed another difference

English - rooftops US - housetops

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[sathor]

gaol became jail
kerb became curb

I just noticed the kerb one last night, a few pages off of reference to fishfingers, which I assume means fish sticks. I don't know why I see so many 'differences' while reading Martin Millar, but not in Jack Higgans.

[dfmacliam]

I have always heard the term rooftops in the States... Unless housetops is a Northern term, since I lived my time here, in the South.

[O'Callaghan]

I'm reading "Ruby and the Stone Age Diet" right now, and it has a few of those word differences. Busking does sound better than begging, and I seem to remember something about a garbage point or something similar, not completely sure what that is.

For it to be busking you have to perform, i.e. sing, dance and/or play an instrument.

[Lallans]

Jumping in late as usual, I haven't seen the following mentioned

UK USA

grass......................fink, informer

turf........................grass, lawn

Old Bill....................cops

way it's done...........inefficent or ineffective way it was done before

not the way it's done...... new and effective procedure

loud........................dramatic in colour

dramatic..................loud to the ear

On to Canadianisms: my brother claims to have devised a sentence that no Brit or American could ever fully understand, which is as follows:

"Could you please me pass me a serviette, I've gotten some poutine on my touque."

Any US or UK takers on that?

[piperdbh]

If you got fries with curds and gravy on your chef's hat, you need more than a napkin: you need a helmet!

How's that for some speedy translating?

[Lachlan09]

USA = Detroit
UK = Glasgow

[sathor]

USA = Detroit
UK = Glasgow

You underestimate the evils of Detroit. I miss Ann Arbor. But I never want to be any closer than Ferndale to Detroit.