TopShelf TG Fiction in the BigCloset!
There have been a couple stories that I have been reading where the author uses the word "brought" where I would use the word "bought" (as in the past tense version of "buy").
In the immediate case, the author is from the UK, so I am not sure if this is a proper use of the word or not.
Can someone shed light on this for me?
Thanks!
Stephanie
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Comments
Typos
I think this was just a simple typo that could not be revealed by a spell or grammar check. :) Portia
Portia
I agree
But, being American, I did not want to make a comment on this until I knew if it was just a usage difference between the US and UK. I will see what others say before I message the author.
Stephanie
I love foreign English
Yes, isn't it lovely! Some of our Authors are from the Isles, and they write so charmingly! There is one who writes using Elizabethan English once in a while and it just makes my heart palpate. Gush Gush!
Maid Gwendolyn
No doubt
There's no doubt about this - bought and brought have similar usage in the UK and US, and it's an easy mistake to make.
It's when American men confess to wearing suspenders that always raises a titter in the UK, as here we don't usually confess our cross-dressing habits.
Word use in UK English
Hello Stephanie,
Yes, bought is the correct spelling, however, I have a relative who says brought when she really means bought! I would imagine that she's not alone in getting it wrong! ;)
Regards,
Dave.
Brought
I am surprised that nobody has brought up the point that brought is the past tense of the verb to bring (which one of my childhood friends insisted was brung until corrected in an English class.
Oh yes, and Gwen, dear, in the UK we don't speak foreign English for goodness sake. It's OUR language, we invented it. I suppose if I wanted to be insulting I could say that most Americans speak mangled English and suggest that you should really rename your version of our beautiful language “Americanâ€.
Gabi
(feeling stroppy)
Gabi.
Giggle, someone finally caught it!
My statement was intended to cause a ripple of giggling, and you are the only one who caught it.
It is my understanding that until about 1200, the English spoke French; not the one they use now, but an old French; which was of course not actually French but I can't think of what they called it but then the English didn't go to English directly either but spoke this extremely charming Elizabethan "English". Gee, did I say that before? So, did they call it Elizabethan when they spoke it? WEll, I suppose the Elizabethans knew they were Elizabethans didn't they? Because, well, it would be awful to not know what to call yourselves, I mean like, Oh, I don;t know ... Maybe I'm confused?
Gwendolyn
French...
Mostly the Norman nobility and their toadies, who eventually saw the light. In the meanwhile, the English went on speaking as they always did, although a few posh terms for ordinary items did manage to sneak in by the back door, like "pork" for "pig," "venison" for "deer," and "beef" for "cow," all marking the difference between the poor farmers and tenants who butchered the animals and the "viands" served up at table to their "betters." I personally would have spit in every dish, and I sincerely hope the English did back then.
Puddin'
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Spitting in the dish
A Police friend of mine once told me that he could not eat at the local Taco Bell in uniform because the workers there would spit in his food.
I shudder to think that in 69' when I got out of the Army, I thought about being a Cop because I'd had experience as an MP there. The work I did was about exactly like what a City Cop would do. I thank God every day that I did not have to sit at a 50 Cal mounted on a Jeep in Vietnam. I also feel like a fraud at times because I did not see Combat.
The state Police would not take me because at 5'7" I was far too little for them.
Gwendolyn
Elizabethantwo
RAMI
So does that mean that the residents of the United Kingdom of Great Britan (England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland (lets get the name right)speak Elizabethantwo. I mean the current Elizabeth has been the "Monarch of the Sea" (oops wrong association), I mean Monarch of the Realm since 1952, when her father George VI died. So do they recognize themselves as Lizitwos.
So Robin Hood wooed Maid Marion (did she write stories like Maid Joy)in French. Did Liz Taylor spoke French when she flirted with Ivanhoe?
RAMI
RAMI
As a Scot…
…I feel I should point out that our present Queen is actually the first Queen Elizabeth to reign the United Kingdom. The act of union did not take place until the Reign of King James VI (of Scotland) or James I of England. So as far as nationalistic Scots are concerned our present Queen is really Queen Elizabeth I. The language of Scotland is Gaelic (pronounced a bit like “garlickâ€â€”the Irish pronounce their Gaelic like “gaylickâ€) but there was a dialect of English spoken in the Lowlands that is known as Lallans.
All very complicated.
Gabi
BTW Robin Hood was an out and out thug.
Gabi.
Hey ...
... as someone born in Nottinghamshire I resent that accusation. Next thing you'll be claiming Sherlock Holmes didn't actually live at 221b Baker Street. He's as real as Robin Hood and King Arthur ... just as real ;)
Geoff
King Arthur, didn't he ...
... invent self-rising flour?
What I like about English Engish is how they slur the words over time. I mean Worcestershire of sauce fame should properly be Wor-ches-ter-shi-re
instead it's something close to Wors-te-sure. Mind you similar things happen here in the States but usually as contractions, IE Wauwatosa becoming 'tosa on many businesses.
After we’ve been around for a few hundred more years then our language will experience as much *creep* as Great Britain’s.
As to our state capitol becoming Mad City as opposed to Madison, what can I say but Mad City fits.
John in Wauwatosa
P.S. The highest point in Madison is the top of the bronze statue of *Forward* ontop of our capitol’s dome. She’s a fairly saucy young woman for the early 20th century and atop her head she wears a badger, its ass being the very highest point of all.
John in Wauwatosa
Wooster, Oh
There's a town named Wooster in Ohio. It was probably founded by a spelling-revisionist from Worcester, either the original one or the one in Massachusetts. However, all the R's that flee Britain and New England settle in the Ohio Valley, and the locals pronounce it something like WOr-shter.
No need to wait
The creep in the tongues is now well established.
I have often wished for subtitles in American films.
Though a poor linguist, I would probably prefer to sit through a French film without subtitles than some of hollywood's latest.
Times gone by an actor was a person who understood how to speak and be heard, but in much of the recent crop of films it seems the men are so damn macho that they just crackle words through gritted teeth and certainly wouldn't dain to do anything as unmasculine as actually express themselves properly.
So I turn the volume up...
and up...
and then there's a bang and a scream and an orchestra hit and the whole street jumps in their beds as I frantically thumb the remote.
Please, the languages are drifting.. cam we have English subtitles available for US films.
XX
AD
The first Elizabeth gave her name to an age...
...and we've had Georgian and Edwardian architecture since, but Victoria was possibly the last truly important monarch in that sense.
Both the first Elizabeth and Victoria had the good luck to remain on the throne for a good long time, and the further good luck to be associated with remarkably happy times, considering all in all. For a long time after Elizabeth's death, her long reign was looked back upon as a kind of "golden age" in which the arts and prosperity of England flourished, and notables such as Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and adventurers like Sir Francis Drake made names for themselves that we still remember today. And then there were the defeat of the Spanish Armada for Elizabeth and the establishment of the British Raj for Victoria, both responsible for great swellings of public pride.
Even the Edwardian period was only a decade or so, and was mostly a "dumbing down" of the Victorian architectural vocabulary, and the Regency, although it gave rise to a famous genre of women's romance novel, didn't even have a name associated with it, as the "madness of King George" was embarrassing for almost everyone.
I'm pretty sure we're over all that now, or hope so.
Puddin'
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
All English speakers should get along.
RAMI
I read about all these petty family squables we are having amomgst the English speakers of the world. Well we should get along, because even with our slight differences, we speak and write in the best langauge in the world. We need to stand in unity against those barbarians that speak other languages who treat ours with distain.
:-)
RAMI
RAMI
Snort
Heh. Yeah, let's throw them all out. Only barbarians who speak English may treat it with distain. *chuckles*
Jo-Anne
Separated by a common tongue....
We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.
~ Oscar Wilde
Tread the ground gingerly - there're some obvious & some not so obvious areas of miscommunication:
(US)elevator -(UK) lift
(US)trunk - (UK) boot
(US)*anny (children's word:rear end/back bottom)-(UK)*anny, a very rude reference to a woman's front bottom, approximately equal to *unt in Am Eng
(US)to babble - (UK)to waffle
Add to the list?
YW
The English language is nobody's special property. It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself. ~Derek Walcott
He conquers who endures. ~ Persius
Language Fasination
I've developed this odd fascination with coloquial and strange words. I don't know any Arabic nasty words ... maybe they don't use them; as if! LOL
I'm working on teen speak right now; like totally dude!
Easy to find...
...just do a search for Arabic dirty words. Every language has "dirty" words, if only to give people something to say when they hit their thumbs with hammers.
Puddin'
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
I was ridng in a taxi in Cairo, Egypt
and the driver was yelling out his window, what sounded like "Kowit" at other drivers. I asked him what it meant and he laughed and said it meant "Fuc# you".
It is the only Arabic word I know!
Mr. Ram
"That" word has been in England…
…a long time. The word you coyly wrote as *unt goes back many centuries in UK. The original word was cunny and there was even an old folk song (sixteenth century or earlier) called “My Mistress's Cunnyâ€. I doubt that even punk rockers ever waxed as lyrical.
Gabi
Gabi.
Jokes
There's an horrendous double/treble pun in Chaucer based on the fact that "count" and "hunt" both sound like that word, especially in Chaucerian English. "Queen" is another English word derived from the same root word which was something like "quenya". Yes, I know. Even Tolkien apparently had a dirty mind. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Actually, not quite....
"Queen" comes through the Anglo-Saxons, still present in Danish and other Scandinavian laguages as "kvin," which means not merely "woman," but a woman of respect. A Queen was originally a King's Honoured Woman.
==============
Proto-Indo-European Roots
Root/Stem: *gwen-
Meanings: a woman, a wife
Related to: Greek guné (a woman, a wife) - from *guná - now seen in gynaecology
Common Celtic *ben- (a woman), gen. sg. *bnás (of a woman) >
Old Irish ben, Irish Gaelic bean, Scottish Gaelic bean, Manx ben, Cornish benen, Welsh benyw
Common Anatolian *gwana (a woman) > also seen in celtic gwyn, white, a reference to the generally paler skin of women in much the same way that fair shares the meaning of both pretty and light-skinned.
Luwian wanatti
Avestan g@ná (a woman);
Persian & Tadjik zan
Sanskrit janis, gná (a woman, a goddess), Singhalese gani;
Kashmiri zanana
Phrygian bon-ekos (a wife) - a suffix added
Armenian kin (a woman, a wife), gin
Tocharian A s'än (a woman), Tocharian B s'ana
Common Germanic *kwen- (woman) >
Gothic qino (a woman), qéns (a queen), Old English cwén (woman, wife, queen), Old High German cwán, Old Norse kwaen;
English queen, Scottish queyn (a queen), Swedish kvinna (a woman), Icelandic kona, kvennmaor, Faroese kona, Danish kvinde, Dutch kween (old cow), Frisian kwyn
Common Baltic *gen- (a woman) >
Old Prussian voc. sg. genno (woman!), *gená (a wife, a woman), Sudovian *genâ (a woman, a wife)
Common Slavic *z'ena (a woman) >
Notes: The stem must be rather archaic - the original meaning was not just "a woman", but "an honoured woman", which witnesses that it was born in ancient matriarchate times. Germanic meaning "queen" and Sanskrit "goddess" make this more than just a version.
The gender is in most cases feminine, which is natural; however, Old English is neuter. In majority of languages this noun was of a-stems.
==============
Cunt, on the other hand, is mysterious.
Here's a nice discussion of the problem...
http://www.polysyllabic.com/?q=node/77
Puddin'
----------------
P.S. I don't suggest that anyone ever claim to any woman named "Gwen," "Gwendolyn," or "Jennifer" that their name means "cunt," as it's not only untrue but unkind. The names are portmanteaus of both "Respected Woman" and "Fair."
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
I'm completely agast now, Gad!
I guess I have been put in my place now. Funny thing is that my birth name was Gwinn, and I could never convince anyone that it was anything but a girl's name. Of course, when they insisted I was filled with guilty pleasure over it. :)
Gwendolyn
Shakespeare, too
In Twelfth Night Malvolio receives a letter written in his mistresses hand which he describes thus (from memory, so I paraphrase)
"These be her Cs an' her Us an' her Ts and thus she makes her great Ps" Bawdy stuff for the groundlings in the theatre.
It was Geoffrey Chaucer who saved English as a language or so I recall being told at school. Until then, the educated classes used French, Latin or Greek.
Geoff
Engrish
I was a product of both Brit and American schools so was frequently wrong in one or both.
We recently bought a Garmin GPS for the car and used it on a long trip. It has a selection of languages and accents for the turn by turn driving prompts so I thought it would be amusing to use the British English prompts and selected the woman's voice. What threw us off for awhile was the term "Slip Road" I guess meaning onramp or offramp from the freeway? At first we were looking literally for the roadsign for "Slip Rd" which never materialized. The voice used makes me think of Julie Andrews and I keep waiting for her to say something like "If you simply must continue to ignor my directions I will stop offering my help, thank you and good day!"
More translations
The following site has some rather amusing English to American translations:
http://septicscompanion.com/index.html
Pleione
Blindingly Brill Site
P:
I just love this sort of thing and have taken to sprinkling some of the more understandable terms from Arabic and English into my stories. In trying to help me with getting more reader acceptance for my work on this site, another Author said that sometimes people don't like reading foreign sounding stories.
This is comical because I was born in San Diego, and raised in O ra gun. Though with me Mummy being from Oklahoma, ah kin lapse into a fairly wise respectable southern drawl, y'all. :) Ah surely do like to play with words Suh.
Gwendolyn
Okie drawl
Though with me Mummy being from Oklahoma, ah kin lapse into a fairly wise respectable southern drawl, y'all. :)
Being an Okie myself (I'm not, actually, but I'll explain momentarily.), I can attest to the fact the the drawl used in Oklahoma is not a "Southern" drawl, at all. It may sound like that to a DY, but put one of us next to a true Southerner from say, Georgia, and you'd hear the difference right away.
As to the "Okie" bit. The "Okies" were the people who gave up and moved to California during the Dust Bowel days (Damn John Steinbeck!). (According to Will Rogers, it raised the IQ of both states.) Some years back one of our governors (Dewey Bartlett) tried to reclaim the term as a badge of pride: OKIE - Oklahoma, Key to Industry and Education. I still have the certificate I was awarded somewhere around here. However, native-born and bred residents of Oklahoma commonly call ourselves "Oklahomans".
They know they can survive
Okies
My Grand Parents left Oklahoma during the Dust bowl years and became fruit migrants before the war. Small world.
Gwendolyn
The one that really puzzles me ...
... is the American use of the word 'momentarily'. To me that is an action which lasts a short time (ie a moment) eg an electrical switch which, when operated, closes and then immediately opens.
I find it quite disturbing when I'm told a airliner will be landing momentarily which, to me, implies we'll be doing a touch and go; not something I really need after a long flight.
Then I learn that someone has been burglerized rather than merely burgled or that transportation is needed rather than simply transport.
How do Americans distinguish between gas (abbreviation for gasoline) and gas (a substance like, say, oxygen). It must be doubly difficult if you have a car engine running on gas (LPG - liquid petroleum gas) :)
Geoff
Bilbo Burgled - He did not burgularize.
RAMI
Bilbo Burgled - He did not burgularize. Sounds less crude and more of the true gentle hobbit that he was.
Tollkin would not have read as well in Amerenglish. Are Elfish and Dwarvish dialects of English? DO they have a common root?
Now what language did Smeagul speak?
RAMI
RAMI
Momentary - momentarily
Geoff - here is what one of my dictionaries says":
Momentary
1. very brief: lasting for a very short time
2. constant: present or happening at every moment
3. with short life: living or continuing for only a relatively short time
Momentarily
1. briefly: for a brief period of time
2. progressively: with every passing moment
3. very soon: within a very short period of time
I think the two bolded definitions are the ones most commonly used here in the US. I would not use any but definitions 1 & 3 for momentarily, myself.
That fits an airliner which will be landing momentarily, ( and probably eventually coming to a full stop before taking off again. )
As to touch and goes, they would be momentary landings, though I never thought of them that way in the many hundreds of them I have experienced.
As to transport / transportation:
the first dictionary I looked at says:
transportation - the commercial enterprise of transporting goods and materials
transport - something that serves as a
In another dictionary the same first definition is used for both:
to carry somebody or something from one place to another, usually in a vehicle
EXCEPT, that transport slips the word 'transportation' in front of the definition.
And transportation adds: 'The , such as car, truck, train, etc.'
Go figure!!!!
It’s not given to anyone to have no regrets; only to decide, through the choices we make, which regrets we’ll have,
David Weber – In Fury Born
Holly
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
Gas vs Gas
I would say that gas (abbreviation for gasoline) is the default meaning, with context determining when the second case is meant.
I was surprised when I found
I was surprised when I found out that such a simple word as 'gas' has a relatively recent origin.
Oxford English Dictionary says:
One account I read said that Helmont actually named it 'chaos', but because of his accent, English speakers thought he said 'gas' and the name stuck.
Pleione
Propane?
Hi, Geoff
If you are looking for LPG in the states you would ask for propane, but the container would have LPG on it, so one could just call it LPG and get what they were looking for. But except in physics class or on a science program, substances will be specified, only gasoline and methane as a utility are called just 'gas'. Since Butane is also an LPG, I'm not sure how one distinguish the two in commerce, especially in the UK where the distinction seems less common.
But like everything else, context really solves the problem without it even being noticed. You call methane 'gas' too when it is piped into your house, and don't confuse that with propane, right? (BTW there are many more methane vehicles, urban buses and taxis mostly, than propane ones in the states.)
Also, "I'll be at your house momentarily," clearly means "I'm a block away calling from my cell"; "I'll be at her house momentarily and then I'll be at the hospital" (her housekeeping is that bad.), could be for a short time at any point in the future. (I like to say 'I'll be there anon,' but many people haven't read enough Shakespeare!)
And battalions or large industrial items require transport. Most of the time that word is a verb, and we smaller units usually find transportation, but not always.
American usage
Americans have clung to the original meaning of some words merely to irritate their British counterparts. :) Momentarily is one case, Americans use it in both senses but the British have narrowed it to a single meaning. Formerly, it was used in both sense on both sides of the pond.
In American, transport as a noun is a concrete object like a bus or a van, and transportation is an act. Many Americans are sloppy about this distinction but it is real.
If an American has a car that runs on LPG we just say it runs on LPG, not gas but I understand your confusion; I feel the same when I read about Brits putting slabs of paraffin in their camp lanterns. :)
Burglarize is an invention of broadcast news people who think burgle is too funny of a word to be said aloud on the airwaves. With no unitary authority like the BBC to prevent it, I'm afraid this word just has too much currency to be stamped out, ugly as it is. You got us on that one. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Not all differences.
Babble is equally current in English English. There is a subtle difference between it and waffle I think in that the former means to chatter on in an inconsequential way, whereas to waffle means to talk in a way that avoids the issue.
Fanny is nowhere near so rude a word as cunt. The former is current amongst quite, at least outwardly, respectable ladies whereas tha latter certainly isn't.
Whilst on the difference in car parts, at the other end of the vehicle you have a hood whilst we shelter our engines under bonnets. (Rear engined cars excepted of course.)
Hugs,
Bonnets and Hoods
The interesting thing is that, in the USA, the iconic "bonnet" is a type of hood, but typically worn only by women:
Bonnet: http://www.blockaderunner.com/images/bonnet01.jpg
Hood: http://tinyurl.com/cwam6t
In the UK, on the other hand, bonnets come in all genders:
http://tinyurl.com/cgcybr
Perhaps it wasn't a plot to corrupt the language that fitted American automobiles and cookers with "hoods," but a disinclination on the part of frustrated cowboys and action heroes to have their powerful motors "dolled up" in girly finery.
Puddin'
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
My tuppence worth on US spellings
In the wikipedia article on Noah Webster it says:
"His most important improvement, he claimed, was to rescue "our native tongue" from "the clamour[3] of pedantry" that surrounded English grammar and pronunciation. He complained that the English language had been corrupted by the British aristocracy, which set its own standard for proper spelling and pronunciation."
In this I rather thing he was ignorant. The complexity of English spellings is a link to the past, and has philological integrity. By looking at a word properly spelt in English it's possible to guess pretty accurately, without needing to be a scholar, whether the word came from Latin, Anglo-Saxon, or French roots, and of course, there are also words in there from Greek and Celtic languages and then less accurately transliterated words from oriental tongues too. I think Webster butchered the laguage and dumbed it down, and added a layer of difficulty in seeing those linguistic roots. I confess I absolutely loathe US spellings and the imperialism of Microsoft in particular, which has spread it all so widely.
You will laugh...
... but my distaste for US spellings was heightened when once, many years ago, I dabbled with programming. I had a version of the C programming language, a sort of beginner's version, and being the sort to like to grab a problems and tangle with it, rather than sit and learn methodical fragments, I tried to hack the demo programme to make it do something else.
It didn't work.
It took me a-a-a-ages - well too long for my taste - to find the problem. Because, you see, I hadn't actually made a mistake. The programme didn't run because I had spelt "colour" correctly.
Grrrrrr.
XX
AD
Like all spelling reformers...
...Webster was both an ignoramus and a conservative. He rescued, for example, American English from confusing British spelling reforms, such as the -ise/-ize controversy, motivated at the time primarily by a fawning British admiration of all things French, which pretty much puts the shoe on the other foot when he's tarred with the broad brush of "reform." Until recently, the prestigious Oxford English Dictionary was equally contemptuous of the "ignorant -ise," although they're reluctantly following fashion these days.
He was primarily a patriot, and was partly motivated by the daunting task of spreading literacy through a frontier community of people without the benefit of Latin, much less Greek or French, and thought that simpler spelling might further that necessary task.
He utterly failed, of course, in his quixotic efforts to create a standard "American" accent, but broadcast television, the invention of a Scot, a UK national then living in London, may eventually succeed even in that.
Puddin'
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Intolerant of perfection
I have to say that I really enjoy reading stories written by authors from other countries. I love the way that Authors from the Isles think. I see a real difference in the way that Middle Eastern friends think, and I must shamefully admit that I often fail to get it completely with Japanese thought processes. My heart just goes all a twitter when some big strong sword bearing man speaks Elizabethian to me. OH, Gasp, Swoon ... take me into your strong arms, let me smell you, and then you can do naughty things to me. :) giggle.
To me, reading things by those from different cultures is a bit like drinking water sometimes, and wine, or tea, or whiskey, or coffee. It just adds to the spice of life.
So, to those who think that the American English is far superior, you need to travel and see other cultures. Americans do not have the corner on it. This said by an American Veteran.
Many Blessings
Gwendolyn
As to spelt ...
It is both a pronunciation and a spelling difference.
British Spelling......US spelling ( much of the US, that is )
Spelt.................spelled
smelt.................smelled and a few, mostly in the eastern US, smelt, but to me on the Pacific coast, smelt is only a fish
But then there are:
burnt.................burned OR burnt
knelt.................knelt
As one who edits in about 5 or 6 variants of 'English As She Is Spoke' in different parts of the world, I have to say there are a lot of inconsistencies, but they are not all just American vs. British English.
I find at least three different variants of English in Wales, London/the rest of the southern part of the island and Scotland. not counting the subtle and not so subtle accents. I find at least 2 variants in Canada, one almost like 'Standard American' which itself has variants and accents, and one more like British English Then there are Australian English and New Zealand English, which are more similar to British English, but with phrasing and pronunciation differences with it and with themselves.
I do agree that the comment made earlier, that the pronunciation is becoming more standardized, due to television, but I believe that phrasing and spelling will hold out a lot longer, as nobody will wish to capitulate.
.
It’s not given to anyone to have no regrets; only to decide, through the choices we make, which regrets we’ll have,
David Weber – In Fury Born
Holly
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
>> I believe that phrasing
>> I believe that phrasing and spelling will hold out a lot longer, as nobody will wish to capitulate.
Actually, in some situations, the capitulation has already happened.
Many learned journals in the sciences have standardised on American English spellings these days, especially in the names of substances such as "Sulfur" (sulphur) as you now must in the 2009 'O' & 'A' level exams. This makes indexing and searches in scientific literature simpler, and is an international standard.
Some advocate, at least for international use, that en-uk-oed (yes, there's a computer standard) be used, which is essentially UK spellings but the older UK spelling "-ize" used everywhere except for a limited number of recent introductions from French, like "surprise," which is the typical US spelling as well.
Puddin'
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
AD's Computer Programming Travails
"It took me a-a-a-ages - well too long for my taste - to find the problem. Because, you see, I hadn't actually made a mistake. The programme didn't run because I had spelt "colour" correctly."
Alice,
Your experience is proof that the remark "To err is human. To really foul things up, use a computer." is true. Macro Shite could/should have included a "pragma" for Oxford, as opposed to Webster, spellings.
As a Yank, my attitude is that both Oxford and Webster are correct. IMO, we in the world wide English using community need (with little fuss or fanfare) to deal with such matters well.
G/R