How do Americans feel about UK spelling?

[MacEachaidh]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It does, but not that meaning of the word. It's the same meaning as in "sodomy", of course.

Aaaaggh, now I've got that song from "Hair" stuck in my head.
Bugger !!
( )

[GraceKrispy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It does, but not that meaning of the word. It's the same meaning as in "sodomy", of course.

AH! I never knew that!

This thread is now sodding full of sod....

[Tom Wood]

I didn't read the whole thread, but to answer the OP, it depends. I kinda like colour and similar minor differences. But lorry for truck is a bump in the reading.

[mjhudston]

but you use truck, cos we use that here in the UK.

[crich70]

I didn't either. I thought it was just another way that people tell others to 'get lost'. Guess you learn something new every day around here.

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

AH! I never knew that!

This thread is now sodding full of sod....

[crich70]

You may be right MacEachaidh. Course everyone hears accents in their own way I think. When I think of Australian accent I think more of Paul Hogan or Steve Irwin. To my ears Mr. Crowe's accent doesn't sound the same. I don't know why as I know all three are Australian.

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

G'day crich,
When you say he "doesn't have much of an accent" ... do you mean that to you he sounds like he has an American accent? (I'm smiling because, of course, that's an accent too!)

But I can't agree with you. I think in movies like "Gladiator" and "Robin Hood" he very clearly retains his Aussie accent. Maybe not as strong as, say, Hugh Jackman in "Australia", but that was bunged on anyway - still, Crowe's accent is fairly pervasive.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mjhudston

but you use truck, cos we use that here in the UK.

But wouldn't you agree that we regard "truck" as an "Americanism"? "Lorry" is definitely the British word.

[CaraM]

UK spelling doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I've learned a lot from reading English authors. Write your own version of English. We'll get it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by crich70

I didn't either. I thought it was just another way that people tell others to 'get lost'. Guess you learn something new every day around here.

I've just looked it up in the dictionary. The word "sod" as in "sod off" derives from an early 19th century abbreviation of "sodomite". So now we know!

[crich70]

Yep I guess we do. It's interesting how the meaning of words changes over time. I have a book about writing about medieval times titled "The Writer's guide to everyday life in the middle ages" (for fantasy writing) and among words it lists in a section on vocabulary are stew and coffyn. In modern terms they of course refer to a meat dish and funeral gear, but not so long ago a stew was a brothel and coffyn was the pastry round a pie. lol. quite a change in meanings.

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've just looked it up in the dictionary. The word "sod" as in "sod off" derives from an early 19th century abbreviation of "sodomite". So now we know!

[Fbone]

In this thread we went from "trunk", "pacifier", and "program" differences to the origin of "sod" and sodomite.

Who needs reality tv?

[Freeshadow]

@fbone when you think about it, it 's actually an indication of rising of the discussions leven and not the other way round. the hardest words to track down are the informal and/or vulgar ones.

choose any 2 languages at will and translate a passage which contains the mentioned and you ll find it the most hard part of the task.

[MacEachaidh]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've just looked it up in the dictionary. The word "sod" as in "sod off" derives from an early 19th century abbreviation of "sodomite". So now we know!

I think "sod off!" is pretty much a UK-specific expression, no? Here in OZ we used to use "bugger off!" (which of course is pretty much the same thing) and "rack off!" (which is probably an English-language corruption of "rachaibh!" ["get away!"] from both Irish and Scottish Gaelic).

Both phrases have crumbled, of course, under the onslaught of the more pedestrian "f-bomb", as the USians call it.

[crich70]

And even the name for such words has changed meaning over time. Vulgar used to mean common as in the Vulgate Bible which if memory serves was written in German rather than Latin as Bibles were up til that time. It just meant that the Bible was written in the language of the common man rather than that of the priests and scholars (who were the only ones still using latin at the time). Another such term is Barbarian. Now days we think of someone as being uncivilized if they are called a Barbarian but at the time the term was coined (by the Romans) it simply meant that the person wasn't a Roman citizen. And of course English (British and American) is a melting pot of languages really. Words from many different countries have been added in over the years.

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

@fbone when you think about it, it 's actually an indication of rising of the discussions leven and not the other way round. the hardest words to track down are the informal and/or vulgar ones.

choose any 2 languages at will and translate a passage which contains the mentioned and you ll find it the most hard part of the task.

[HarryT]

"barbarian" is a fun word. It's actually Greek, and means someone who isn't a Greek because, to a Greek ear, they sounded as though they were saying "baa baa" rather than speaking a "proper" language.

The Vulgate bible is written in Latin. The name stems from "versio vulgata" - "commonly used version"; it was written around 400 AD when Latin was the common language.