Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Inconsistencies

English is a strange language, whether it's British or American English. I once possessed a list of all the quirks in English, like:

Why is it one mouse, two mice
Why is it one louse, two lice
Why is it one house, but not two hice?


The point was raised by Yasmin and a few other (British) bloggers about the differences between American and British spellings. In the USA, you tend to reduce the 'ou' in (e.g.) colour to 'o' as in color. Another disparity is turning the 's' in organisation to 'z' (organization). To be honest, this is something that I tend to ignore. I note it, but don't take issue with it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those types of things don't bother me, but I find that sometimes I actually use the British spelling, and that confuses the person reading what I've written.  They think I've misspelled the word.
Lori

Anonymous said...

My Mom's name is Nelle and people here in the US when reading it, always pronounce it, 'Nellie' much to her chagrin.  No one knows phonics anymore.  It seems that people have forgotten first grade letter sounds.  Words like 'shoppe' and 'colour' are pronounced the same though.  Strangeness.


Nelishia

Anonymous said...

I don't make an issue with it either!  Maybe because we are used to it, and it is uniquely ours!

Krissy :)
http://journals.aol.com/fisherkristina/SometimesIThink

Anonymous said...

On the writing site where I'm a member, I get corrected by American writers all the time, because we use British spelling.  I've learned to adapt so I know what to expect spellingwise based on where people originate.

Anonymous said...

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