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English and British English

awadeee

awadeee

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jan 21, 2011
2,146
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Canada
A quick Google search returned nothing, so I figured I'd ask here...

What exactly is the difference between the "British English" and "English" languages found in Settings > General > International > Languages ?
 
I'm pretty sure English on the iPhone is American English (Color, Theater... etc) and British English (Colour, Theatre... etc)
 
God this makes me mad. English is from England! American English is a variation of our language. So actually it should be 'English' and 'American English'. Afterall, here in the UK, we have been using it since well before the discovery of the US of A!!!!!
 
Lemonade1975 said:
God this makes me mad. English is from England! American English is a variation of our language. So actually it should be 'English' and 'American English'. Afterall, here in the UK, we have been using it since well before the discovery of the US of A!!!!!
Click to expand...
I was thinking someone would say this.

To be fair, I'll call them British English and American English. It's bizarre that Apple doesn't.
 
Just remember all Americans don't speak Gehtto (I don't think that is spelled right, but whatever). All American english is just a variation of British english brought about cultural differences and other stuff. As stated above it's just things like pounds and dollars, and certain words.
 
Lemonade1975 said:
God this makes me mad. English is from England! American English is a variation of our language. So actually it should be 'English' and 'American English'. Afterall, here in the UK, we have been using it since well before the discovery of the US of A!!!!!
Click to expand...

You've never lived in the US have you? ;)
 
Lemonade1975 said:
God this makes me mad. English is from England! American English is a variation of our language. So actually it should be 'English' and 'American English'. Afterall, here in the UK, we have been using it since well before the discovery of the US of A!!!!!
Click to expand...

although the language is from england, the version spoken in america is closer to the original british english than british english is today...people in the UK departed more from how it was spoken in the 1700s than people in the US did. So all the english people professing that they speak the "more original" and "superior" version of the language are actually incorrect.

and also, Apple is an american company...if they were british, it would be the other way around
 
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dccorona said:
although the language is from england, the version spoken in america is closer to the original british english than british english is today...people in the UK departed more from how it was spoken in the 1700s than people in the US did. So all the english people professing that they speak the "more original" and "superior" version of the language are actually incorrect.

and also, Apple is an american company...if they were british, it would be the other way around
Click to expand...

I didn't know about this at all, but it's actually really great info. I can use it the next time in a debate. Do you know of any examples?
 
dccorona said:
although the language is from england, the version spoken in america is closer to the original british english than british english is today...people in the UK departed more from how it was spoken in the 1700s than people in the US did. So all the english people professing that they speak the "more original" and "superior" version of the language are actually incorrect.

and also, Apple is an american company...if they were british, it would be the other way around
Click to expand...

Source? That's an interesting tidbit.
 
adze / adz

aeroplane / airplane

aluminium / aluminum

annexe / annex

arse / ass

artefact / artifact

axe / ax

behove / behoove

bogeyman / boogeyman

brent / brant

carburettor / carburetor

cheque / check

chequer / checker

chilli / chili

cosy / cozy

coupé / coupe

cypher / cipher

doughnut / donut

draught / draft

eyrie / aerie

fillet / filet

furore / furor

gauntlet / gantlet

glycerine / glycerin

grey / gray

grotty / grody

haulier / hauler

kerb / curb

liquorice / licorice

mollusc / mollusk

mould / mold

moult / molt

moustache / mustache

mum / mom

naïvety / naïveté

neurone / neuron

omelette / omelet

phoney / phony

plough / plow

pyjamas / pajamas

pernickety / persnickety

quin / quint

rack / wrack

scallywag / scalawag

sceptic / skeptic

sledge / sled

speciality / specialty

storey / story

sulphur / sulfur

titbit / tidbit

tyre / tire

vice / vise

yoghurt / yogurt
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

I switched my languange to British English and everytime I finish a game that requires aggressive rubbing on the screen I get a prompt which says "May I please have a fag now?". Any ideas what that's about?
 
dccorona said:
although the language is from england, the version spoken in america is closer to the original british english than british english is today...people in the UK departed more from how it was spoken in the 1700s than people in the US did. So all the english people professing that they speak the "more original" and "superior" version of the language are actually incorrect.

and also, Apple is an american company...if they were british, it would be the other way around
Click to expand...

I don't believe you at all. Some link would help, but if not I doubt many people thinking straight will accept what is being presented here.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

Pbf,
Some of those comparisons are very true, aeroplane/airplane is very true .. Still I'm English and speak English and as far as I'm concerned every other country speaks variants of our language...American, Australia, etc etc
 
It's interesting storey/story, as I've always wrote it without the "e", and most people I know do the same.
 
rovex said:
I don't believe you at all. Some link would help, but if not I doubt many people thinking straight will accept what is being presented here.
Click to expand...

I think both of you are wrong. I did some research about this (on Wikipedia :p), and it basically says that the English spelling was not standardised until well after the USA was settled. The different spellings came about completely independently of each other. It wasn't like the Americans said, "screw you Brits, we're doing our own thing". It just happened that Noah Webster, who standardised (or standardized?) the American spelling, came up with a different set of rules, etc, than James Howell (?) who came up with the British English spelling (though, that was about 150 years earlier). Now, this is all true if one trusts Wikipedia.

Now, for those who think that setting your phone to "British English" as opposed to "English" will change your currency: that's not true either. That depends on the Region Format setting. Nor does it fix the dictionary. All it does is change the language of the interface.

For British English spelling within iOS, one must change their keyboard to the "English (UK)" layout.
 
rovex said:
It's interesting storey/story, as I've always wrote it without the "e", and most people I know do the same.
Click to expand...

Storey in this case is not a book, but in the context of building levels. In British, Australian, Canadian (I think), New Zealand English, one would write, "that is a 2 storey building", as opposed to "2 story".
 
hopejr said:
Storey in this case is not a book, but in the context of building levels. In British, Australian, Canadian (I think), New Zealand English, one would write, "that is a 2 storey building", as opposed to "2 story".
Click to expand...

Yes, I was slacking there.:eek: it's pretty early here.
 
Lemonade1975 said:
God this makes me mad. English is from England! American English is a variation of our language. So actually it should be 'English' and 'American English'. Afterall, here in the UK, we have been using it since well before the discovery of the US of A!!!!!
Click to expand...

Hahaha! It's the same with Español. I don't get why they don't change things so you say you speak Mexican, or Argentinian, or Cuban, or Spanish. There's almost enough differences to really argue that they're different languages. Hell, I don't understand half the shiznit Cubans say!

Far as I'm concerned, I speak Mexican and American. :D
 
It also provides a voice filter to help you pronounce words correctly.

e.g. Craig (Crayg) rather than Creg
Herb rather than Erb
Basil (Bazil) rather than Baysil

Good old Apple.
 
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