American spelling of English words.

Trainers; sneakers
Aubergine; eggplant
Boot; trunk
Bonnet; hood
Lift; elevator
Pavement; sidewalk
Flat; apartment
Queue; line
Autumn; fall

etc etc etc

#murderingtheEnglishlanguage
 
jimharri said:
Trainers; sneakers
Aubergine; eggplant
Boot; trunk
Bonnet; hood
Lift; elevator
Pavement; sidewalk
Flat; apartment
Queue; line
Autumn; fall

etc etc etc

#murderingtheEnglishlanguage
Click to expand...

TBH mate, I wouldn't say aubergine if my life depended on it. Sounds too French to me.
Same goes for courgette.
 
TheRemainsOfTheDave said:
This isn't quite how it happened. The settlers probably had as much spelling capability as the rest of the folk they'd left behind, which in the 17th Century would have been hit and miss. Even Shakespeare spelt his name differently on various documents so I reckon a lot of words were guessed at phonetically by even intelligent people. It was Webster (I think) who tried to standardise the spelling in America, at the same time removing unecessary letters to attempt consistency. I mean, why is a U needed in colour?
Click to expand...

Many Americanisms are things that were common to both cultures in the seventeenth century, and then we diverged, not them.

For example, the 'fall' for 'autumn'. That was common usage, but we stopped using it and they continued. 'I guess' follows the same pattern; it fell into misuse over here.

I also think I should defend them on 'zee' not 'zed'. For ABC we say 'bee', 'see', 'dee' not 'bed' 'sed' 'ded' so why would we say 'zed'? That makes no sense.

It was Webster who tried to standardize and rationalize the language (I prefer the 'z' form). But like those who came after him (George Bernard Shaw for example) he was doomed to only partially succeed. There are twice as many words in the English language as French and three times as many words as in Spanish. That's because we don't have an equivalent to France's Academy Francaise or Spain's Royal Spanish Academy; there's no one protecting English, it's free to absorb loan words from the whole world. The English language reflects the English people's outward looking, tolerant and open approach to the world. English doesn't need academic gate keepers, let's leave that to the insecure French and the EU and the remainers...

(Sorry. I appear to have gone off on one here).
 
GortonBlue62 said:
Many Americanisms are things that were common to both cultures in the seventeenth century, and then we diverged, not them.

For example, the 'fall' for 'autumn'. That was common usage, but we stopped using it and they continued. 'I guess' follows the same pattern; it fell into misuse over here.

I also think I should defend them on 'zee' not 'zed'. For ABC we say 'bee', 'see', 'dee' not 'bed' 'sed' 'ded' so why would we say 'zed'? That makes no sense.

It was Webster who tried to standardize and rationalize the language (I prefer the 'z' form). But like those who came after him (George Bernard Shaw for example) he was doomed to only partially succeed. There are twice as many words in the English language as French and three times as many words as in Spanish. That's because we don't have an equivalent to France's Academy Francaise or Spain's Royal Spanish Academy; there's no one protecting English, it's free to absorb loan words from the whole world. The English language reflects the English people's outward looking, tolerant and open approach to the world. English doesn't need academic gate keepers, let's leave that to the insecure French and the EU and the remainers...

(Sorry. I appear to have gone off on one here).
Click to expand...
English really is almost two languages together, one derived from Latin through French and one from the Germanic languages via the Angles. The latter was the language of the land (or most of it) when the Normans landed and during the following centuries, the ruling classes tried to impose their language on the serfdom. It didn't work and they gave up but by that time both languages were interwoven and words were being used by all classes. Hence why there are so many words, quite often meaning the same thing (Mutton (Old English), Lamb (French) for example).

I find it fascinating.
 
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