Thread: Americanisms are ****ing me off

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

there is/was a theory going around that the measuring system used in USA is the only one that fits evenly mathematically/harmonically into the light speed/time continuum calculations used in space travel and universal measurement.

metric measurements never fit evenly or harmonically into those calculations

do the other spacerace contenders use imperial measurement?

Just something I read a few years ago.....if it has merit then that may be why they keep their system in place.

Den

Remember when the Mars lander crashed at high speed (into Mars) because some programmer entered the number of feet in the place of metres?


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I have to say that American spelling is preferable to English spelling. The Americans actually sat down and thought about how words should be spelt both for simplicity and phonetics. The English spelling carries over historical derivatives.
Unfortunately due the size of the American/Canadian english speaking populations and the exposure to their Movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines etc. their style of language is overpowering the rest of us, we aren't isolated any more and regional differences in language are difficult to develop and maintain.

I do wish they were sort out the weights and measurements system though.

Originally Posted by Geedublya

I have to say that American spelling is preferable to English spelling. The Americans actually sat down and thought about how words should be spelt both for simplicity and phonetics. The English spelling carries over historical derivatives.
Unfortunately due the size of the American/Canadian english speaking populations and the exposure to their Movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines etc. their style of language is overpowering the rest of us, we aren't isolated any more and regional differences in language are difficult to develop and maintain.

I do wish they were sort out the weights and measurements system though.

Unfortunately, as soon as you start talking phonetic pronunciation and English spelling, you run into the problem that English pronunciation varies widely across the world of English speakers. To take just one obvious difference - how would you spell "aluminium"? Using the American or rest of world spelling? If you decide to spell English according to phonetics, rather than the historical way, you will soon have hundreds of different languages that are mutually incomprehensible in the written form as well as the spoken form.

Fortunately, this will not happen, as English has no central authority, and the spelling will simply evolve gradually as it has ever since the introduction of printing stabilised it. Regional spelling differences remain sufficiently small that they remain mutually understandable.

While Americanisms in words and usage, as well as pronunciation are likely to have an increased influence on Australian English, I suspect that the influence on spelling is far less than most think, simply because a few common words are tending towards American spelling. One example of specific Australian spelling is that we have retained the -ise ending in many words, even where the English have largely conformed to the American -ize over the last fifty or sixty years.

John

One argument for retaining our archaic way of spelling some words is that the spelling can offer a clue to the meaning.

Once you know that word starting with "aqua-" have something to do with water, even if you had never seen the word before, you could work out that an aqualung has something to do with breathing in water and that aquatic creatures live in water. It wouldn't work if the spelling was changed to "akwatic".

Similarly, you could work out that anachronism, chronic, chronicle, chronology, chronometer and synchronize all have to do with time once you recognise the Greek "chronos" in those words.

Conversely, knowing the meaning can help with the spelling.

Recognising the roots of words is one of the ways of learning to spell words. We need our archaic spellings for that to be possible.

Why copy them? I prefer Auslish to Yanklish. We should go our own way.

Also with words like Dollar, if you spell it how it sounds, in American English, it would be spelt this way, daalerrh

Baz.

if using these examples how do you get an "oan" phonetic froom a colour ending with "oon" ?

Originally Posted by trog

if using these examples how do you get an "oan" phonetic froom a colour ending with "oon" ?

What do you mean? Me, I was happy watching the moan rise last night, even though a hoan came speeding past, and startled me, so I dropped the spoan I was stirring my tea with. Soan found it though. Lucky it was on a maroan carpet.

Yep, bugs me that one. Just like the addition of an extra 'r' in the word data.