How do Americans feel about UK spelling?

[crich70]

You still see some such things like that even today I think. Here in the U.S. for example depending on where you are one person might call soft drinks 'soda' and another might call them 'pop'. Of course the language is always changing I guess and with the net to help change probably happens faster than ever before. Don't recall where I read the actual story but it could have been an online version of the story by Mr. Caxton.

Originally Posted by HarryT

It was a story related by William Caxton in the preface of a book printed in 1490. He tells how a ship sailed from London bound for the Netherlands, but was forced to put into shore in Kent (on the south coast on England) because there was no wind. A merchant from the ship went ashore, and went to a local house, and asked to buy some eggs. The woman in the house didn't understand him, and thought that he was French. Luckily, another person who was with him, understood the local dialect and asked for "eyren", which was understood. Caxton goes on to complain that this makes like very difficult, because what is a printer to do when English varies so much from one part of England to another. Should he print "eggs" or "eyren"?

[dworth]

You do still get variations in the names of things in Britain. Take, for example, the humble breadcake. The sort of thing you might slice in half to make sandwich. These are variously known as breadcakes, teacakes, batches, cobs, oven bottoms, muffins and so on, in fact just about everywhere in the country has a different name for them, even neighbouring towns call them something different to one another. This can make it confusing in sandwich shops.

English in Britain has become more homogenised, due to faster communications and the mass media but differences do exist. Many from the rest of the country often complain that those from the area around London are poorer at understanding the other accents and dialects than everyone else and southerners often claim that they 'don't have an accent' (sorry 'Doanavan ack-sent' as it sounds to my ears when they say it.) This is largely due to the media being chiefly based there, so 'standard English' is seen as the one from the Home Counties.

That said, broad Glaswegian (Glasgow) and Geordie (Newcastle) have been known to baffle me at times, the latter being closer to Norse.

[crich70]

And sometimes a word can have two different, but similar meanings depending on what country you are in. Biscuits vs cookies for example. I understand that what I call a cookie here in the U.S. is a biscuit in the U.K. So even though the word is spelled the same it has a different meaning. Over here biscuits are something eaten with dinner while cookies are a treat eaten for a snack.

Originally Posted by dworth

You do still get variations in the names of things in Britain. Take, for example, the humble breadcake. The sort of thing you might slice in half to make sandwich. These are variously known as breadcakes, teacakes, batches, cobs, oven bottoms, muffins and so on, in fact just about everywhere in the country has a different name for them, even neighbouring towns call them something different to one another. This can make it confusing in sandwich shops.

English in Britain has become more homogenised, due to faster communications and the mass media but differences do exist. Many from the rest of the country often complain that those from the area around London are poorer at understanding the other accents and dialects than everyone else and southerners often claim that they 'don't have an accent' (sorry 'Doanavan ack-sent' as it sounds to my ears when they say it.) This is largely due to the media being chiefly based there, so 'standard English' is seen as the one from the Home Counties.

That said, broad Glaswegian (Glasgow) and Geordie (Newcastle) have been known to baffle me at times, the latter being closer to Norse.

[MacEachaidh]

Originally Posted by crich70

And sometimes a word can have two different, but similar meanings depending on what country you are in.

It can be a challenge. One tiny example of my own: in high school, I was an exchange student to the US, and my very first day at school there, in my very first class (physics), I asked the girl sitting in front of me in my unfortunately-loud voice if she had a rubber I could borrow. I wanted to correct an error in the graph I'd just drawn; I wasn't to know that the American word for what I was asking for was "eraser".

The story spread like wildfire round the school - it was a kinder, more innocent time than today - and it took me a long time to live it down. Even months later some people would still only half believe that I was genuine in my ignorance. And then I made it worse.

I was giving a talk about Australia - then, a fabled country beyond the "Here be dragons!" line on the map, to most Americans' minds - to a meeting of The Daughters of the American Revolution. When it was opened up to questions from the group, the very first lady who spoke to me fixed me with a steely eye and said, "I'm wise to you. You're the one who spoke dirty to my grand-daughter!" I stammered some attempt at an explanation, but unfortunately said it had made me feel like a twit, which at the time in Australian English meant a bit foolish and without common sense. I'm sure you can guess what they thought I was saying.

[crich70]

And sometimes if a person has a speech impediment they can say one thing and others think they've said something else too. I had that problem myself. When I was little I'd say "fork" and on at least one occasion my paternal grandmother had to ask my mom if I'd said what she thought I'd said. Of course I hadn't but the two words were similar enough that she thought I had said something I aught not to. English is among the most complex (if not the most) complex language there is with all the 'borrowed' words there are in it and of course with some words the pronounciation depends on the context as well. Like 'wound' vs. 'wound' for example. One refers to an injury and the other refers to an action, i.e. he wound the clock. Or wind vs wind. One refers to air flow and the other to winding a clock. Or the words that sound the same but have different spellings i.e. to, too, and two, etc.

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

It can be a challenge. One tiny example of my own: in high school, I was an exchange student to the US, and my very first day at school there, in my very first class (physics), I asked the girl sitting in front of me in my unfortunately-loud voice if she had a rubber I could borrow. I wanted to correct an error in the graph I'd just drawn; I wasn't to know that the American word for what I was asking for was "eraser".

The story spread like wildfire round the school - it was a kinder, more innocent time than today - and it took me a long time to live it down. Even months later some people would still only half believe that I was genuine in my ignorance. And then I made it worse.

I was giving a talk about Australia - then, a fabled country beyond the "Here be dragons!" line on the map, to most Americans' minds - to a meeting of The Daughters of the American Revolution. When it was opened up to questions from the group, the very first lady who spoke to me fixed me with a steely eye and said, "I'm wise to you. You're the one who spoke dirty to my grand-daughter!" I stammered some attempt at an explanation, but unfortunately said it had made me feel like a twit, which at the time in Australian English meant a bit foolish and without common sense. I'm sure you can guess what they thought I was saying.

[DMB]

Originally Posted by crich70

And sometimes a word can have two different, but similar meanings depending on what country you are in. Biscuits vs cookies for example. I understand that what I call a cookie here in the U.S. is a biscuit in the U.K. So even though the word is spelled the same it has a different meaning. Over here biscuits are something eaten with dinner while cookies are a treat eaten for a snack.

When I've been given "biscuits" in America, they have been similar to what we call "scones" (pronounced SKONNS). But scones are typically a teatime treat, eaten with jam and, if you're lucky, clotted cream. When I was young and we didn't have a fridge, scones were always made with sour milk.

"Biscuit" comes from French and means "twice cooked".

[DMB]

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

It can be a challenge. One tiny example of my own: in high school, I was an exchange student to the US, and my very first day at school there, in my very first class (physics), I asked the girl sitting in front of me in my unfortunately-loud voice if she had a rubber I could borrow. I wanted to correct an error in the graph I'd just drawn; I wasn't to know that the American word for what I was asking for was "eraser".

The story spread like wildfire round the school - it was a kinder, more innocent time than today - and it took me a long time to live it down. Even months later some people would still only half believe that I was genuine in my ignorance. And then I made it worse.

I was giving a talk about Australia - then, a fabled country beyond the "Here be dragons!" line on the map, to most Americans' minds - to a meeting of The Daughters of the American Revolution. When it was opened up to questions from the group, the very first lady who spoke to me fixed me with a steely eye and said, "I'm wise to you. You're the one who spoke dirty to my grand-daughter!" I stammered some attempt at an explanation, but unfortunately said it had made me feel like a twit, which at the time in Australian English meant a bit foolish and without common sense. I'm sure you can guess what they thought I was saying.

The borrowing a rubber thing seemed to happen to a few people. Then there is the thing about knocking people up in the morning (= knocking on the door to awaken them in British speech and getting them pregnant in American). And then there is the "fag" thing.

• Do you know Lord Fuzzbuzz?
• Yes. He was my fag at Eton.
• My! You British are frank!

[dworth]

The gentleman in the middle photo would be the subject of some hilarity were he to come to the UK.

http://thebendergroup.net/home.php?navVal=0&optVal=0

[patrickt]

I'm an American and U.K. spelling doesn't concern me. When my son was in junior high he told me his English teacher had told him the spelling, grammar, and structure weren't important. All that mattered was what he had to say. After pointing out that at his age he had nothing to say I went to see if the English teacher was actually taking that position. She was.

So, for me, British versus U.S. spelling is the least of the problems. I just read a book where balled was used when bawled was needed. Compliment for complement. All they way through the book the author seemed to intuitively pick the wrong word and on a few occasions simply went with a phonetic spelling.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by Luke King

Yes, but I wonder how common it has been for Americans to see variant spellings before the advent of ebooks. I would imagine, as the US is such a large market, that print books have always appeared in American English regardless of where they were written.

I'd like to know whether this is true or not.

The use of American terms - trunk for boot, pacifier for dummy, fall for autumn, would obviously be silly in a novel set in Australia.

I wonder how long it will be before the Englishes merge into one standard. I suppose that's inevitable. As a child I was taught to spell program, programme, but the Australian English has now dropped the older spelling.

The most recent thing, which is annoying me, is the appearance of the word "anyways" instead of "anyway".

I think divergence of language is far more likely than convergence. American English is moving faster and faster away from what had been thought of Standard American English to. . . it won't exactly be "Spanglish", but it will not be exactly conventional English either. Local geographic and cultural differences will always win in the end.

As for me, the only time language differences get in the way of my enjoyment of a book is when the author makes Americans the same as Brits only louder and cruder. The Benny Hill version of unthinking cultural stereotypes.

[crich70]

Makes you wonder how either author or publisher remains in business if it's that badly written a book.

Originally Posted by patrickt

I'm an American and U.K. spelling doesn't concern me. When my son was in junior high he told me his English teacher had told him the spelling, grammar, and structure weren't important. All that mattered was what he had to say. After pointing out that at his age he had nothing to say I went to see if the English teacher was actually taking that position. She was.

So, for me, British versus U.S. spelling is the least of the problems. I just read a book where balled was used when bawled was needed. Compliment for complement. All they way through the book the author seemed to intuitively pick the wrong word and on a few occasions simply went with a phonetic spelling.

[NickSpalding]

Originally Posted by dworth

The gentleman in the middle photo would be the subject of some hilarity were he to come to the UK.

http://thebendergroup.net/home.php?navVal=0&optVal=0

That's...that's the funniest thing I've ever seen.

[NickSpalding]

Originally Posted by dworth

The gentleman in the middle photo would be the subject of some hilarity were he to come to the UK.

http://thebendergroup.net/home.php?navVal=0&optVal=0

Seriously. Funniest. Thing. Ever.

[M. R. Mathias]

When I went to ye old shoppe to use the loo, I found the space I chose was not a toilet. Instead it was "to let," which is not quite the same. Not only was the "i" out of place, I was as well.

[neilmarr]

If you're really interested, there's a simple breakdown and explanation of spelling origins in US and UK standard here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America...ng_differences
Cheers. Neil