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Old 10-24-2010, 08:56 PM   #331
Rhynedahll
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I like UK spelling fine and have been guilty of it myself from time to time.

It seems to me that its simply another part of the global common language that English has become.

I would think it would trip up only the most inexperienced readers.
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Old 10-25-2010, 01:56 PM   #332
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Originally Posted by Rhynedahll View Post
I like UK spelling fine and have been guilty of it myself from time to time.

It seems to me that its simply another part of the global common language that English has become.

I would think it would trip up only the most inexperienced readers.
You should not feel guilty about using UK English spelling, because it's the obey proper way of spelling after all.
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Old 10-26-2010, 10:54 AM   #333
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Lee Child is a Brit who writes as an American. I guess he has the benefit of a professional copy editor to catch the translation errors. However howlers still creep through such as 'paraffin' for 'kerosene.' I assume the copy editor just didn't know what paraffin was, so left it.

(Come to that, would an American know a 'howler' as an elementary schoolboy mistake?)

As a Brit I would want my work checked by an American before publishing.

What's that phrase about 'two peoples separated by a common language'?!
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Old 10-26-2010, 11:52 AM   #334
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However howlers still creep through such as 'paraffin' for 'kerosene.' I assume the copy editor just didn't know what paraffin was, so left it.
Well, that's a new one to me. Is kerosene called "paraffin" in the UK? (It's mostly got me puzzled because kerosene and paraffin - real paraffin - aren't the same thing at all.)

Here in OZ we use those two terms the same way as in the US, so I wonder if the UK's use of paraffin for kerosene is a more recent development?
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Old 10-26-2010, 11:59 AM   #335
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Well, that's a new one to me. Is kerosene called "paraffin" in the UK? (It's mostly got me puzzled because kerosene and paraffin - real paraffin - aren't the same thing at all.)

Here in OZ we use those two terms the same way as in the US, so I wonder if the UK's use of paraffin for kerosene is a more recent development?
Yes, kerosene is called paraffin in the UK, and has been since at least the time of the first world war, and probably earlier. Not to be confused with paraffin wax, which is something entirely different.
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Old 10-26-2010, 12:08 PM   #336
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I wonder how that came about? Chemically, they're nothing alike (paraffin wax is just a solid form of paraffin, also called paraffin oil) - paraffin is edible, and kerosene distinctly not. Not two things you'd want to confuse !
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Old 10-26-2010, 12:12 PM   #337
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I wonder how that came about? Chemically, they're nothing alike (paraffin wax is just a solid form of paraffin, also called paraffin oil) - paraffin is edible, and kerosene distinctly not. Not two things you'd want to confuse !
"Kerosene" was originally a trademarked brand name. Perhaps paraffin might have been the original "generic" name, and kerosene the brand name of the trademark holder? That's a pure guess, though!
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Old 10-27-2010, 05:33 PM   #338
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If you say "paraffin" in the US, you mean the wax. I know it's edible, because when I was a kid there was a candy with sugary liquid inside a paraffin tube. I thought I knew Brit-speak, but paraffin for kerosene is a new one on me.
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Old 10-27-2010, 05:59 PM   #339
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There were two brands of paraffin in the UK in the Sixties: Aladdin Pink Paraffin and Esso Blue. They were delivered in Morris vans. I don't know if the colouring meant anything. Anyone British over 50 will remember the intensely annoying TV commercial for Esso Blue, blue blue ... blue, blue, blue... Esso blue. Blue, blue, blue (repeat ad nauseam).

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Old 11-02-2010, 07:17 PM   #340
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I find it bloody favourable. Didn't hurt Bridget Jones's Diary, did it?
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Old 11-06-2010, 12:09 AM   #341
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When I was an engineer, I always found it humorous (humourous?) that the US and the UK not only spelled, but also PRONOUNCED aluminum (aluminium) differently...
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Old 11-06-2010, 12:37 AM   #342
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That happens a lot with trademark items. Two that come to mind are Xerox and Roller blades. Both refer to brand names of the items they represent (photo copiers and inline skates) but a lot of people think that that is what the item is called not realizing that while all xerox's are photo copiers not all photo copiers are Xerox's.

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"Kerosene" was originally a trademarked brand name. Perhaps paraffin might have been the original "generic" name, and kerosene the brand name of the trademark holder? That's a pure guess, though!
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Old 11-06-2010, 01:25 AM   #343
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When I was an engineer, I always found it humorous (humourous?) that the US and the UK not only spelled, but also PRONOUNCED aluminum (aluminium) differently...
Quite amusing to read the history of that one, too - in a 'wow, these guys needed LIVES!' sort of way.
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Old 11-07-2010, 03:30 PM   #344
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That happens a lot with trademark items. Two that come to mind are Xerox and Roller blades. Both refer to brand names of the items they represent (photo copiers and inline skates) but a lot of people think that that is what the item is called not realizing that while all xerox's are photo copiers not all photo copiers are Xerox's.
I don't think we ever called a Xerox a Xerox, it's always been a photocopier to me.
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Old 11-07-2010, 11:32 PM   #345
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Quite amusing to read the history of that one, too - in a 'wow, these guys needed LIVES!' sort of way.
And for some reason, I hear in my head Bullwinkle J Moose pronouncing the UK version...
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