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Alceste
Inscrit le: 27 May 2006 Messages: 196
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écrit le Sunday 11 Jun 06, 16:39 |
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Charles a écrit: | As far as flavour is concerned, the word is American English, but the writing is not (it is proper British English, though).
As a rule, words ending in -our according to British rules are written -or in American English.
Furthermore verbs ending in -ise or correspondings words ending in -isation (British) are written as -ize or -ization in the New World. | I found it interesting to make a Google test:
Number of results for:
flavour: 15,800,000
flavor: 57,900,000 (3.66 times more)
colour: 118,000,000
color: 830,000,000 (7.03 times more)
criticise: 4,840,000
criticize: 22,800,000 (4.71 times more)
So guess which forms will win it out ?
By the way, if you have to learn programming, you'd better adopt the US forms at once, because programming languages use American forms. Ex: color, Node.normalize...
May I point out an absurdity regarding HTML colo(u)r names: gray is always written 'gray' (Gray, DarkGray, DimGray, DarkSlateGray, etc)... except for LightGrey. |
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Mimo
Inscrit le: 04 Jun 2006 Messages: 16 Lieu: Limousin
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écrit le Sunday 11 Jun 06, 16:44 |
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My eldest son, aged 14, learns both at school : English and American forms for these words... even if it is well known that american forms are more common than the English ones...
Mimo |
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Jacques
Inscrit le: 25 Oct 2005 Messages: 6525 Lieu: Etats-Unis et France
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écrit le Monday 12 Jun 06, 3:25 |
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American English was believed to separate from British English after 1776 and after WWI, but now both languages are merging.
Is is always in favor of American English? Are there cases where British is winning?
If the British start re-using "fall" for "autumn", then older British is winning. |
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Charles Animateur
Inscrit le: 14 Nov 2004 Messages: 2522 Lieu: Düſſeldorf
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écrit le Tuesday 13 Jun 06, 13:31 |
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Another word that betrays the origin of the writer is centre / center .
The British centre is usually the heart of the town, whereas the American center is often a sports ground (as I have been led to understand). |
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guillaume
Inscrit le: 14 Dec 2005 Messages: 669 Lieu: Istanbul, natif du Québec
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écrit le Tuesday 13 Jun 06, 14:49 |
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In America center is much used with other words like shopping, sport, convention and exhibition. Those functions are mostly located outside the city, on large grounds, in order to accommodate more car without much traffic jam. The use of horizontal surface is very typical.
In Europe it is common to keep those activities in the center of the city, near the train station and other facilities, for much people don't rely on car.
As in Québec we have North-American habits, we have the same kind of meaning in French with “centre” as place for meeting, either in the center of the city or not (generally not). English Canadiens would use either center or centre, as a reminiscent of British spirit. Might be a good way to keep names bilingual... |
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Twister
Inscrit le: 04 May 2006 Messages: 67 Lieu: Pologne
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écrit le Friday 16 Jun 06, 11:43 |
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In my opinion the usage doesn't determine whether one form or the other should be learned. You should also take into consideration the register: American is more commonly used for the informal communicative purposes, whereas British English still retains this "sophistication" of the upper-class dialect. If you take a closer look at the language that film protagonists use, you will see that uneducated, informal, friendly, "cool" characters use the American slang (for instance, Shrek and his companion).
Personally, I had to learn both forms, but it was absolutely clear that a student of English Philology has to know them. Nevertheless, I do consequently use British spelling and pronunciation. |
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deadxkorps
Inscrit le: 13 Jun 2006 Messages: 168 Lieu: Paris
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écrit le Friday 16 Jun 06, 12:45 |
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But there's also the fact that American English speakers outnumber by far British English speakers... So as far as internet is concerned, it is obvious that one form will win over the other... Which I think has nothing to do with the "who should win" question...
Anyway, there's also the Toward / Towards. Towards is normally British but I've noticed that nowadays, even British speakers begin to write "toward".
I think American influence is so powerful, especially in the UK, that they eventually manage to impose *their* forms on the the others. Especially since British youngsters find it waaaaay cooler to speak the American way. (exemple : Saying "Fu*k you" instead of "Bugger off" etc etc) |
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Twister
Inscrit le: 04 May 2006 Messages: 67 Lieu: Pologne
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écrit le Saturday 17 Jun 06, 13:36 |
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I wouldn't be so sure. There is a marked tendency nowadays to preserve national identity and I'm observing, at least here, that the influence of the American slang is declining. Perhaps when you're an adolescent, you're more influential and strive for acceptance by all means, but then, people grow out of this. This "cool" language, which might seem so normal when you're fifteen, sounds rather silly and pretentious when you're older. Moreover, the lifestyle, which the Americans were supposed to represent, is also slowly stripped of those positive qualities.
We'll see, what will happen. |
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Gaillimh
Inscrit le: 12 Nov 2005 Messages: 366 Lieu: Aberdeen (Ecosse)
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écrit le Friday 30 Jun 06, 12:46 |
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I would add some further differences:
defence/ defense
offence/ offense
programmes/programs
and those:
theater/theatre
center/centre
and those concerning vocabulary:
pavement/sidewalk
railroad/railway
wheat/corn
shop/store
films/movies
...
Of course, more and more typically American spellings or American loans are used in the UK. This should be related to the expanding use of the Internet (as a csq, American and English youngsters can write to one another). As far as Phonetics is concerned, I really think that the increasing in pronunciation loan AND also loan words is chiefly due to the expansion of TV programmes.
Most English films come not from Britain but from America. The cartoons children watch on TV are American ones, with American accents. That explains why a 5-year-old boy may say /i:ther/ insted of /aithe/ (either) for instance. |
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Pascalitsa
Inscrit le: 27 Jun 2006 Messages: 20 Lieu: Grèce
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écrit le Thursday 13 Jul 06, 3:23 |
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Gaillimh a écrit: | I would add some further differences:
and those concerning vocabulary:
pavement/sidewalk
railroad/railway
wheat/corn
shop/store
films/movies |
I would also add:
chemist/pharmacy
boot/trunk
lorry/truck
motorway/freeway, highway
queue/line
... |
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Jacques
Inscrit le: 25 Oct 2005 Messages: 6525 Lieu: Etats-Unis et France
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écrit le Saturday 20 Jan 07, 6:51 |
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Pascalitsa a écrit: |
motorway/freeway, highway... |
Dans l'est des E.U , pour autoroute, on dit highway, mais certaine autoroutes particulières sont nomées i]parkway [/i]ou turnpike.
Par exemple : New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, Palisades Parkway.
Blague:
Il ne faut pas confondre driveway et parkway.
You drive on the parkway, but you park on the driveway.
Le driveway est le chemin privé carrossable d'une maison particulière, quelque soit sa longueur; on y parque souvent les voitures. |
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Poisson rouge
Inscrit le: 08 Sep 2006 Messages: 93 Lieu: Hansestadt Hamburg (Allemagne)
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écrit le Monday 22 Jan 07, 14:46 |
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I do agree with you Twister, I don't think American English is "invading" UK. There is an influence, through films, music, etc, but I personnaly don't think British English is going to disappear. As you said it's ok when you're 15, but if you are a student for example, you just don't speak like that (and can't, as it certainly wouldn't be accepted in essays). We Brits are proud of our language, and there has always been a "war" between British and American "way of life", and I think language is part of it: language defines a national identity! And the Brits wouldn't want to sound American... |
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Plasticine
Inscrit le: 29 Aug 2007 Messages: 11 Lieu: France, Var
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écrit le Sunday 02 Sep 07, 19:45 |
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In english it's said afterward while in American engish it's said afterwards. (not such a difference)
But there are many grammatical differences between english and American english like to take (breakfast, shower, ect...) and to have (breakfast, shower, ect...) |
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nick27
Inscrit le: 17 Jan 2007 Messages: 27 Lieu: Namur (Belgique)
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écrit le Sunday 02 Sep 07, 20:02 |
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There're plenty of differences like these. Even the structures of the sentences tend to be different depending on where you are. For instance :
the Americans say « You seem to be very tired » where the British would say « You seem very tired ». This is not a big difference and I acknowledge some Britons might say « You seem to be very tired ,» too but if you go look up on Google you'll see the American way of saying it is much more used than the British one
By the way « if you go look up ... » is an americanism, too (if you go and look up ) |
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BlindPew
Inscrit le: 31 Jul 2007 Messages: 25 Lieu: Folkestone - Angleterre
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écrit le Monday 03 Sep 07, 2:43 |
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Mimo a écrit: | it is well known that american forms are more common than the English ones... |
Not here in England Mimo
Surprised nobody has mentioned one of the other main spelling differences in British and American English:
Brit: light, tonight. Amer: lite, tonite.
As someone has said elsewhere, some American usages are creeping into British English, mostly amongst the young trying to be "cool" - something mercifully that they tend to grow out of. But there are some subtle changes towards American usage that are not confined to the young, probably due to the amount of American television that we watch.
An interesting one is in the negative response to questions involving the verb "to have". In British usage the negative answer to the question "Have you got the time?" is "No, I haven't."; in American English it is "No, I don't." Twenty years ago you would never have heard a British person use the American "No, I don't" in this situation; now you hear it all the time.
Also, ten years ago, if a British person made a silly mistake, they would say "Whoops!". Now we say "D'oh!" - Bloody Simpsons (ok, that one wasn't too serious, sorry.) |
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