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English and British English

The default English, if you buy your iPhone in America, is the American English dictionary. American English and British English are actually very different in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. So there you go :) but if you wanna find out more about this, I suggest doing a quick google search on the differences between the two languages. Although they're not very different, they're still considered to be different languages.
 
infowarfare said:
Really? Did you not study your history? This is why I am so frustrated by some of these posts because people are just blindly posting crap they don't know anything about without taking the slightest bit of time to at least researching it a bit...

The simplest of facts (since it's all much too complicated to get into here):

1. The Statue Of Liberty was a gift to the U.S. from France, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and built in 1886, as a symbol of France's cooperation with the U.S. on the struggle for independence.

2. The sonnet entitled "The New Colossus" inscribed at the base of the statue was written by Jewish-American poet Emma Lazarus in 1883 and inscribed into the statue's base in 1903.

The most quoted piece of the sonnet being:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

I hope that clarifies things a bit. I apologize to all if I sounded insulting in previous posts.
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I did study history, but not in depth. They teach that the statue of liberty was a gift from the french, but don't go into much detail. Unless you take a very specific class, they don't even mention the sonnet you are talking about, so I was unaware that that was written by an american.
 
That's what happens...

When you get your butt kicked in a revolutionary war. To the winners go the right to do anything they want with your language. ;)
 
JACathcart said:
When you get your butt kicked in a revolutionary war. To the winners go the right to do anything they want with your language. ;)
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damn right

Britain failed not only in the revolutionary war but also war of 1814.

AMERICA speaks Real English.

Britain speaks a watered down form of English.
 
American v English

When I first heard of this site I couldn't find it and the reason being its misspelt! Rumour not Rumor!
Here in the UK brands like washing detergent have in the past used words like 'Brighter Colors', and the sales have plummeted as the it's misspelt according to our spelling so we avoid buying it as its an insult to our language. Other American product that use 'Crem' instead of 'Cream' also get bad sales so that's now being avoided. One other pet hate is the word 'Sublime' the American pronunciation is 'Subleem' and we dont have a word pronounced that way.
 
How on earth did the Americans get mixed up with the word 'Fanny'? Was it to slow down population growth? :D

For those that are not sure what a 'Fanny' actually is, turn the female around to face you and part her legs, and there you have it. :eek:
 
cambox said:
When I first heard of this site I couldn't find it and the reason being its misspelt! Rumour not Rumor!
Here in the UK brands like washing detergent have in the past used words like 'Brighter Colors', and the sales have plummeted as the it's misspelt according to our spelling so we avoid buying it as its an insult to our language. Other American product that use 'Crem' instead of 'Cream' also get bad sales so that's now being avoided. One other pet hate is the word 'Sublime' the American pronunciation is 'Subleem' and we dont have a word pronounced that way.
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I've never heard an American pronounce "sublime" in that way. I'm not saying that none do, but I haven't personally heard it.

Also, Americans aren't running into bakeries across the country asking for "American donuts" as a previous poster mentioned. I don't care if Chandler did say it on Friends once.
 
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!!!!!
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Ahhh you saved me time typing this out. :D
 
NutsNGum said:
It's not great info at all, it's complete garbage!

American English is no more a language of its own than Scottish or Irish English. Fundamentally it's just English with a few colloquialisms and grammatical miscarriages.
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Whit dae yeh meen us Scots dinnae hae oor ain language! Mon, roll on independence!


Cheers, Macjim.
 
Quote: Ct2k7, I took elocution lessons Quote
Oh right, can you rewire my house please.
 
Anyone still following this thread might be interested to know that the accent of the residents of Tangier island in the Chesapeake Bay is considered to be probably the closest thing that still exists to the accent of the original colonists - which would, of course, have been the British accent of the time.

You can hear it in this YouTube clip. To British ears you can hear very strong West Country influences.
 
Henry Ford said:
I've never heard an American pronounce "sublime" in that way. I'm not saying that none do, but I haven't personally heard it.

Also, Americans aren't running into bakeries across the country asking for "American donuts" as a previous poster mentioned. I don't care if Chandler did say it on Friends once.
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I was going to say the same thing - I've never heard anyone pronounce "sublime" in that way. I can see why one might prefer the products to spell things correctly, although I would never take it so personally as to believe it "an insult to our language".
 
infowarfare said:
panties in such a bunch
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surely you mean 'knickers in a twist' ;)

I think at the end of the day we all are speaking English but you will find English people speak English English, the Irish will speak Irish English, Austrailans will speak Astralian English and Americans will speak American English.

so what if a few words are different, at the end of the day an American can land in the UK after a long flight walk up to anyone and ask for directions to somewhere all without the need for a stupid translation dictionary, a hell of a damn sight easier than if you visit somewhere that doesn't speak English.

same if someone from the UK visits America, it also makes it easy for companies to release products (esp software like apps) without any need to 'translate' them to multiple languages, it's win win that us British and Americans speak the same language.
 
Just heard an American say the French word 'noire'. Wow, was i struck by how bad he pronounced it. A heavy emphasis on the beginning saying "no" and then "our" like one word seperated in two. :D
 
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rovex said:
Just heard an American say the French word 'noire'. Wow, was i struck by how bad he pronounced it. A heavy emphasis on the beginning saying "no" and then "our" like one word seperated in two. :D
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Talking about L.A. Noire? :D
 
The Californian said:
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?
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Some areas of the UK call a ciggerette a fag, Yorkshire call them a fag
 
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!!!!!
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Id be OK with that. Perhaps in the British iPhone it says just that?

I also like the accent. My father in law, Sister in law and Daughters boyfriend are all from England. My Wife doesnt have the accent though :(
She was raised in the USA.
 
naths said:
country speaks variants of our language...American, Australia, etc etc
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Australia speaking a variant of British english? That's ridiculous. We spell all words the same and our words have the same meaning as in the UK unlike America.

The only difference is some Aussie slang words which are actually officially in the dictionary mostly anyway.

Also since when was it your language.
 
vincenz said:
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?
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I have heard this also, I think it was in a Cultural Anthropology class I had in college about 35 years ago. That is a long time ago, but I also remember hearing that the accent in the Appalachia region is very close to the way English was spoken in England before 1700.

The more isolated the community is from influence of the rest of the world means less change from the original starting point.

But theories change over time and it has been over 35 years since I heard this.

I am American and married to a Brit. When he says he is going to do something in "anger", it's not what an American thinks. Many differences in how things are phrased.
 
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