Discussion Forum

I thought whoever did this news story didn't know how to spell:

"London, England (CNN) -- British troops will get new camouflage uniforms for the first time in more than 40 years, based on computer modeling of Afghanistan's terrain, the Ministry of Defence announced Sunday...."

The article goes on to spell defense "defence" several times. Confused, I did some research and found that this is not considered a misspelling, and is in fact legitimately used by many different governing bodies throughout the world.

In the U.S., we spell it with an "s."

Anyone else surprised by this information?

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Quote: The San Francisco Onion
modeling of Afghanistan's terrain
Anyone else surprised by this information?

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Nope. That's how it is.


It's like licence/license; practice/practise, etc

Humor/humour
Armor/armour
Favorite/favourite

etc

And we'd spell it modelling.

SFO

Lots of differences between UK and US spelling, all of which are, as far as I know, correct.

(English version first)

Defence = Defense

Offence = Offense

Theatre = Theater

Cigarette = Cigaret

Marvellous = Marvelous

Odour = Odor

Colour = Color

Just a couple off the top of my head.

Regards

Skoob

although with practise and..ice I tend to use -ise as the verb form Americans might like to think of it with ize. I think there were rules at one time but now largely forgotten now grammar is rarely taught in schools. In fact one learns more about English grammar when one learns a foreign language.

Perhaps the same with license - one licenses a premices and the licensee shows the inspector the licence. Defense is irregular - defender rather than defensor. Some of this derives from the requirements of the language from which the words come, in this case latin and their changes through Norman French usage and later French usage in the Langue d'oc and langue d'oil. Complex. Lesson not quite finished!

Have you noticed that when animals are alive they are germanic and when dead french?

alive cow (kuh)
swine (schweine_
lamb (lamm)

dead


beef (boeuf)
pork (porc)
mutton (mouton)

sheep and pig have different origins.


interesting?

fuck off say you

OK
bye

This can get picked up depending whether your spell check is set to US or not.

English curses have to do with sex while French curses have to do with religion.

Is this to do with repression or obsession?

What's the point of the 'u' in words like humour, colour, honour, etc.?

You don't pronounce it, so what purpose does it serve? Why add a useless letter?

SFO

I think this joke says it all!

The Elevator

At long last, it's nice to see that I am that featured writer!

~IS~

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Quote: Madame Bitters

What's the point of the 'u' in words like humour, colour, honour, etc.?

You don't pronounce it, so what purpose does it serve? Why add a useless letter?

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that's because you would get Hmour! Is that some kind of American jeep?

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Quote: IN SEINE

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Quote: Madame Bitters

What's the point of the 'u' in words like humour, colour, honour, etc.?

You don't pronounce it, so what purpose does it serve? Why add a useless letter?

---

that's because you would get Hmour! Is that some kind of American jeep?

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yeah, that's the idea, IS! Just one little change- take the 2nd 'u' and put it where the first one was.

There, now humor has just one 'u'. Perfect!

2 'u's in a jeep - an Australians idea of bliss! He added sheepishly.

Of course, it might be a VEE DOUBLE-EWE



~IS~

It's been said the V W logo is witty.

Think about it.

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Quote: Lynton

Have you noticed that when animals are alive they are germanic and when dead french?

alive cow (kuh)
swine (schweine_
lamb (lamm)

dead


beef (boeuf)
pork (porc)
mutton (mouton)

sheep and pig have different origins.


interesting?

fuck off say you

OK
bye

---

Actually, I find that quite fascinating.

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Quote: Madame Bitters

What's the point of the 'u' in words like humour, colour, honour, etc.?

You don't pronounce it, so what purpose does it serve? Why add a useless letter?

---

Nobody added it, because spelling was not really standardised until Dr. Johnson wrote his dictionary. I don't know what his logic was. However the etymology comes from umor (latin) a plant juice or fluid of an animal or plant, through Norman French (humour) and Old French (humor). So we must again blame the french for introducing it to English like so many other words.

However talking of humour there is a great table in Fowlers English Usage which I can recommend to any writer.It concerns the following:

I'll summarize as shortly as I can. Fowler looks at related concepts and their subtle differences. He calls the words humouristic devices

Humour
Motive/aim Discovery
Province Human nature
Method/means Observation
Audience The sympathetic

He covers the same ground for:

SATIRE, SARCASM,INVECTIVE, IRONY, CYNICISM,SARDONIC and it is thus a great little aid for deciding on how you should approach a piece of writing in terms of audience. Wit for instance is aimed at an intelligent audience and will go over the head of people who haven't the cultural background to understand your allusions and word play.

For those articles on the spoof which ones get the most reads? What does that say about the audience? What does that say about the articles you should write if you want the reads?

If you haven't got a copy get one on your christmas list

Spelling is unimportant but these difference do lead us to ask why and the history o the language is an education in itself. At least I find it fascinating. We have words from Old Norse, Danish, Old German, Saxon, Norman French, Old French, Celtic and some others from more modern times such as Hindu (Bungalow) plus others we import from colonial variations of English. Depending on the era the word used popularly may change in its derivation

Sorry I'm going on!

and so to bed

Lynton,

You make some very good points.

Well done.

Hasta La Language,
Abel

The additional U was added to words like humour and armour in the 1700s, when it was fashionable to be French. Please note that this is the only time in history when that happened.

This also explains differences like theatre and theater, centre and center.

Thus when Sammy Johnson was putting together his dictionary, he chose the fad of the day, whereas Noah Webster in the states used the spellings as they'd always been.

Australia having been invaded after North America uses the franclacised versions of words.

I did say to Sammy when he was putting together his dictionary that he should liaise with Noah otherwise it would get complicated, but he told me to sod off.

The spelling differences don't explain why a solicitor in the UK can represent a solicitor in the States after they get caught, or why in football we use our feet in the UK, and in the USA they use their hands.

Ho hum.

English eh? Who'd speak it?

Iain

What I'm surprised about is the military realizing that the 40 year old camo might be a tad dated! Duh! Yeah, Afganistan terrain sure is a bit differant than say, Belfast urban fighting or the Falklands. I guess a Brit soldier decked out in NATO woodlands green might stand out a bit in mountanous monotone Afganistan with snow at higher elevations.
Ever wonder why vets are pissed off when they come back home?

I thought Blackadder burnt Sammy's Dictionary and he had to rewrite it and that was the reason the spelling went up the shoot.

I didn't know it was fashionable to be French in 1755 because I thought we still had some arguments with them and our King was after all a Kraut. I do know that during the period he wrote his dictionary it certainly wasn't fashinable to be a Scot.

I thought by then the French used the spelling Humeur for Mood and Humour for funnyness so it seems strange we didn't adopt a difference there.

We were very sympathetic to the French aristocracy during the revolution 30 years later. What an odd relationship we have with them (my wife would agree)

Another interesting thing about french is that in Medieval times the languages in southern Europe were describe by Dante as si (mainly italy), oc and oil(france). All of these terms are words meaning yes. Oil comes from the north of France which had much input from celtic from which comes aye used by the Scots. The latinisation of french is shown by the use of si as an emphatic yes.

If we consider modern english, upwards of 1000 words in common use are the same as the french word for whatever they refer to and about the same number are similar (eg Sympathetic/sympatique) but have different meanings.


If you half fill your mouth with peanuts and speak english and say "what are you doing" it comes out like the equivalent phrase in swedish (Vad gör du). Geordie fishermen can understand danish fishermen and the Scots the Norwegians.


Who said the english were no good at foreign languages?

I fink dis ere fred shows one fing those fucking yanks have bastardised (in Yank bastardized) our fucking lingo mate, like!

JO dribbling in his nappies

Dan Brown bastardised everything when he wrote 'Angels And Demons'

The worst, most idiotic, contrived chunk of crap I ever read.

Apart from me on the Spoof.

Regards

Skoob.

We'd all write crap if they threw a hefty advance at us
as it is we write crap for nothing

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Quote: Lynton

We'd all write crap if they threw a hefty advance at us
as it is we write crap for nothing

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Jawohl Mijnheer!!!

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Quote: Lynton

We'd all write crap if they threw a hefty advance at us
as it is we write crap for nothing

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So true Lynton.

But it's an outlet.

And it's fun.

Or you wouldn't be here. Come on...you wouldn't, would you?

I love it.

But that's just me.

Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2010.

Kindest Regards

Skoob.

Of course not. And I'm glad because when you have to do it for money there is no joy if it's something like copy writing. Or a prospectus for funeral parlour where they don't want you to be funny. Poor old Dan brown $300 000 advance three years to write it 6 months left, half the money spent and still only white paper.


Merry Christmas to you too skoob and try to keep upright or stay horizontal (it's safer).

We should have a carol singing evening
Good King Wenceslas Pigged out
On the feast of Stephen

Next two lines skoob? then you nominate someone for the next two

Of course not. And I'm glad because when you have to do it for money there is no joy if it's something like copy writing. Or a prospectus for funeral parlour where they don't want you to be funny. Poor old Dan brown $300 000 advance three years to write it 6 months left, half the money spent and still only white paper.


Merry Christmas to you too skoob and try to keep upright or stay horizontal (it's safer).

We should have a carol singing evening
Good King Wenceslas Pigged out
On the feast of Stephen

Next two lines skoob? then you nominate someone for the next two

Must be the snow!