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Geek Culture / American spellings and pronounciations

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Evil Star
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Posted: 8th Feb 2007 22:25 Edited at: 10th Feb 2007 17:58
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Almost everyone knows that the British and Americans spell and pronouce things differently, I am quite interested in just how many differences there are, I'll start a list

Spellings
American-British
color-colour
favorite-favourite
honor-honour
enrollment-enrolment
analog-analogue
catalog-catalogue
dialog-dialogue
defense-defence
license-licence
aging-ageing
judgment-judgement
center-centre
meter-metre
theater-theatre
analyze-analyse
criticize-criticise
memorize-memorise
encylopedia-enlycopaedia
maneuver-manoeuvre
medieval-mediaeval
jewelry-jewellery
draft-draught
pajamas-pyjamas
plow-plough
counseling-counselling
equaling-equalling
modeling-modelling
quarreling-quarrelling
signaling-signalling
traveling-travelling
check-cheque


Pronounciations
American - British
Yo-gurt - Yog-urt
Le-sure - Les-ure
Mos-cow - Mos-co
Daata - Dayta
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Freddy 007
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Posted: 8th Feb 2007 22:28 Edited at: 8th Feb 2007 22:29
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Things that end on 'ise' in British end on 'ize' in American, I think.

Magnetize, magnetise, etc.

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BatVink
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Posted: 8th Feb 2007 22:30
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Quote: "argument-arguement"


It's argument in British



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Dave J
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 00:35 Edited at: 9th Feb 2007 00:41
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Aluminum-Aluminium

Pronounciation is the major difference there:
A-loom-er-noom or Aloo-min-yum

Also, Americans pronounce a lot of i's as 'eye' instead of like the 'i' in 'him'. For example, Semi is pronounced differently:
Sem-eye or Sem-ee
Simultaneously: S-eye-multaneously or Sim-ultaneously (as in him)
Iraq: Eye-raq or Ee-raq

There's another major pronounciation difference that really irks me but I can't recall it at the moment.


"Computers are useless, they can only give you answers."
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Jeku
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 03:53
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Are you sure about all of those? Canadians match the British with almost all the words, but I've never seen skillful and fulfill spelled like you said.

Also, don't the British spell tire tyre?

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dark coder
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 06:18
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I notice on stargate they say "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaata" when in actual fact it should be pronounced "Day-ta" surprised the star trek episodes didn't go on for 5 hrs while they all say his name.

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Phaelax
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 07:03
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Quote: "Also, Americans pronounce a lot of i's as 'eye' instead of like the 'i' in 'him'"


'eye' = long vowel sound
him = short vowel sound


Quote: "A-loom-er-noom "

And I'm not quite sure where the 'er' part is coming from, I've never heard anyone say it that way.


Quote: "Iraq: Eye-raq or Ee-raq"


I've only heard Iraq pronounced as eye-rack or eye-rock. Perhaps ee-rack from those southern folk.

Keep in mind, not all Americans talk like Texans.(or Bush)

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Lost in Thought
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 07:12
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Quote: "And I'm not quite sure where the 'er' part is coming from, I've never heard anyone say it that way."


Yep thats from us rednecks.

Quote: "I've only heard Iraq pronounced as eye-rack or eye-rock. Perhaps ee-rack from those southern folk."


Right again, this is from us as well.

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Mr Makealotofsmoke
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 08:23
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the usa spell wrong

Your signature has been erased by a mod because it's larger than 600x120....
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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 10:13
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Quote: "
I've only heard Iraq pronounced as eye-rack or eye-rock. Perhaps ee-rack from those southern folk."


I pronounce it E-rack (a is a long vowel sound as in 'car')

Quote: "Also, don't the British spell tire tyre?"


Yup, and we used to spell Jail as Gaol, until Americanisation started to kick in, actually, from that list above, they are becoming a part of British English, as the media is pretty much standardising it. Even I sometimes spell words like Skilful as skillful, but luckily spellchecker said know on that one, even the Firefox spell checker is telling me it's wrong right now And because of Zbrush and Dragonball Z, our 'Zed' is now becoming like the American 'zee'. It probably won't be too long until Americanisation will become standard English...

Quote: "the usa spell wrong"


Not really, it's just American English, which is different to British English, it's because Americans want to be all independent about it, but didn't have the energy to actually make their own language Well aside from the silly comment, I know it would be pointless for them to make up a new language before I get contradicted on a non-serious comment.

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Evil Star
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 10:45
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Thanks for the contributions guys, I've edited the first post
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indi
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 11:08
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Perhaps they prefer a more phonetic style to make it easier to guess the spelling of a word.
Its a travesty to the languages english spawns from IMHO.

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Jeff Miller
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 12:36
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1. Americans use both spellings of judgment/judgement depending on the context. The first in the sense of legal proceeding result, the second in the sense of reason.

2. The drift in spelling was intentional, and a compromise at that. There was once an effort to render spelling more phonetically consistent in even more radical ways. Even with the minor simpifications shown on the list at the top, English as used by all English speaking countries is still a bucket of worms when mapping sounds to letters. The example used when I was a boy was:

ghoti - this should logically be pronounced "fish".

gh as in enough
o as in women
ti as in nation
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Van B
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 13:31
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Nah, that's a goatee, like a beard . Thing is in Britain we have the influence of European languages too, for instance Van Gogh, that GH is pronounced CH, so it sounds more like Van Gock, Americans tend to pronounce it Van Go. It's like we either pronounce things perfectly, or bastardies it instead, like the word Enough - we broke that puppy down to enuff, sometimes nuff. Maybe we should just change all the words for their evolved basic forms, then there would be no English language barrier, and text documents would be much smaller .

The way I see it, in the future the English language will reform, either vague differences in spelling will be accepted, like using Color instead of Colour and vice versa - because more and more kids are sharpening their language skills through computers, and are far more likely to be exposed to these differences (looking at American websites for instance), before the internet there was only really books to sharpen these skills.

''Stick that in your text and scroll it!.''
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Venge
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 13:39
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I found a great quote about spelling evolution things...or something.

It was by Mark Twain i think, and it was more like a paragraph long...
aha here it is...



For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g
j" anomali wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud
hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.


Mark Twain, "A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling"
US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910)

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Benjamin
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 13:57
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Quote: "It probably won't be too long until Americanisation will become standard English..."

Which is rather a shame. Still, not so bad as long as common mistakes (replacing than with then) aren't adopted too.

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Flashing Blade
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 14:29 Edited at: 9th Feb 2007 14:30
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Quote: "Also, don't the British spell tire tyre?"


Nope, Americans spell tyre as tire.

It's like people who pronounce the car mafucturer Renault as ren-alt rather than ren-oh. Pronouncing it different is ok, but you got to accept you are pronouncing it wrong, saying that the French pronounce it wrong isn't ok.

Same goes for English - the English spell and pronounce English correctly.


The word "Gullible" cannot be found in any English Dictionary.
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Tinkergirl
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 14:55
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Oregano.

US = Oh-RAY-ganoh.
UK = Awri-GA-no.

Also, a lot of the changes were down to the dictionary produced by Mr Webster to become linguistically independant. Some didn't catch on.

Soup = Soop.
Tongue = Tung.

Etc.

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Peter H
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 18:02
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i'm in america, and i keep spelling color and honor as colour and honour lol... you guys are influencing me!

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David R
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 18:25
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It annoys me when the US skews the spelling and pronunciation of certain words. Specifically centre and Linux (Lin-ucks not Line-ucks)


"History shall be kind to me, for I intend to write it" - Winston Churchill
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Grog Grueslayer
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 19:52
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I'm American and I've always pronounced Linux as lin-ucks. I don't know anybody that pronounces it as line-ucks.

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Peter H
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 19:56
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maybe he was saying that it should be pronounced line-ucks

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David R
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 20:11
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Nah, it is supposed to be Lin-ucks not Line-ucks. An overwhelming majority of Americans pronounce it in the latter form


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Big Man
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 20:25
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did you know that Americans actually spell and say aluminium wrong as back when aluminium was first introduced to America the crate/ship or whatever had aluminum written on the side which was a typo and ever since then that's how they have said and spelt it no lie's

BM

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Peter H
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 20:28
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Quote: "Nah, it is supposed to be Lin-ucks not Line-ucks. An overwhelming majority of Americans pronounce it in the latter form"

weird... i've never heard it pronounced line-ucks... maybe i just hang out with nerds or something

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Dazzag
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 20:39 Edited at: 9th Feb 2007 20:42
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Last time we had this discussion on this board we looked into it and found that english was supposed to be made easier and more logical. Unfortuantly whatsisface kinda got bored after 100 or so words and didn't carry on. Probably the main reason why 99.99% is spelt the same.

Last time I also mentioned that Aluminium always sounds way cool when americans say it. Like something out of a 30's Flash Gordon episode. Aluminium in the UK is something we make tins out of. Aluminium in the US makes ray guns and intergalactic drives Never heard that crate story though. I thought it was just one of those things that no one knew what came first (think we looked this up too, although am pretty sure got bored and just wikid it) but pretty much the rest of the world says it the same as us. Apparently.

Oh, and don't forget cheque.

Heh, yeah, "Eyerack" (Iraq) always sounds funny. All I've ever heard in the UK is... hmmm... hard to pronounce written down.... erm, the "I" is like the "I" in sick. Raq is still "Rack"

Don't forget Moscow too.

Cheers

Ps. Oh, and I think most UK people would say "Line-ucks" if they read it without knowing what it was. But everyone I know in IT and from college (early 90's) always called it "Lin-ucks" mainly because we all know it was meant to be called that by the makers. Bit like everyone in IT knows that a colour command in a programming language is pretty much always spelt Color. Regardless of where it was written (DB comes from the UK for instance). Apart from this one language written in welsh when I was a kid...

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Grog Grueslayer
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 20:39
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Quote: "did you know that Americans actually spell and say aluminium wrong as back when aluminium was first introduced to America the crate/ship or whatever had aluminum written on the side which was a typo and ever since then that's how they have said and spelt it no lie's"


I wouldn't doubt it. Since my Mom loves A Christmas Story I've seen it so many times I can't read "fragile" right anymore. I know it's "fragile" but in my mind I hear "frageeeelliiii".

http://www.reelwavs.com/movies/sounds/christmas_story/fragile.wav

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Dazzag
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 20:43 Edited at: 9th Feb 2007 20:46
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Talking of ships and meanings of words, everyone knows the origins of s**t right?

Actually according to wiki I'm talking crap Very well believed (these days) crap, but still totally bogus.

Cheers

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Jeff Miller
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 20:48 Edited at: 9th Feb 2007 20:48
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It's apparent that not only are there differences between English and American spellings, there are also some American misconceptions as to how British might spell certain words and vice versa. That provides a theory as the to the mispelling (under everyone's rules) of "plane" in the MAKE PLAIN dbp command. Noting that the programmer adopted the American spelling of "color", presumably to make the program more comfortable in the perceived larger geographical market, I think he might have mistakenly assumed that Americans would spell "plane" as "plain" in this context. To my knowledge, neither TGC nor the programmer has ever "fessed up" to the spelling error, so I suppose there is no official explanation.
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Dazzag
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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 21:13 Edited at: 9th Feb 2007 21:13
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If I remember rightly either PLAIN or PLANE could be used in DBC. Never tried in DBP. Seem to remember a very old discussion about this here a few years ago. Personally I don't think it's anything to do with the US. I think it's just someone spelling incorrectly and then making the correct version. Probably didn't remove the original for backwards compatibility.

My guess is COLOR comes from the fact that the original popular programming languages in english were mainly american. I would imagine every other language that came afterwards just copied the originals to keep the standard, plus most of them again would be american (there are 5-6 times as many americans as uk people, plus the countries like India wouldn't be writting computer languages at the time I guess). I think DBC just copied the languages that the writers had always used. Which basically used COLOR. Interestingly didn't Lee do a lot in AMOS (Amiga version of STOS) which if I remember rightly was European (French?). Bet it still used COLOR though. Can't actually remember in STOS. Have the manual here though..... Hah! It's actually Colour. Sheesh, there goes my argument... Damn, didn't remember that one, and I used STOS to bits...

Cheers

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Evil Star
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 09:11
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Quote: "you guys are influencing me!"


Are we now?

Anyway I've updated the list
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Moondog
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 09:36
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one thing thats always bugged me, since I'm so sophisticated , is i've yet to meet a person who can pronounce schedule correctly...

it's pronounced: shej-ool...but americans pronounce it: sched-ule...which i think sounds weird...maybe it's just me.

MOONDOG
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Dazzag
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 12:10
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Erm, no we mainly pronouce it Schedule too, not shejool.... Damn. There is another one that always makes me laugh when americans say it but totally forgot what it is. Last time was on one of the new episodes of Stargate (either the bounty hunters one or the one where Daniel is turned into a Prior). Will remember later.

How do you say water? Or garage? Or bath? Or tooth? Always good ones. Although not really anything to do with the US as we have many different ways of saying them. My favourite is wat-er. Heh

Cheers

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Dazzag
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 12:11
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Oh, don't forget the "database" one for the list. We always say dayta rather than daata. Same goes for "data" obviously. Good old dayta from Next Gen.

Cheers

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Benjamin
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 12:28
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Quote: "Erm, no we mainly pronouce it Schedule too, not shejool.... Damn."

As far as I know the C being pronounced is mainly an American thing.

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indi
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 12:51
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the linux "debarkle" stems from the correct pronunciation accent of linus (lie-nuss) torvalds name and charlie browns character, linus.
I say Lie-nucks, but i used to say lin-icks. akin to (unix) you-nicks.
I used to say aye-suss, but now since ive heard the advertisements in sepo accents, I say a-zuss.

I think at the end of the day we all understand each other, at the end of the day spade is still a plain

I can see you all have played knifey spooney before as well

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Dazzag
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 13:11
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Quote: "As far as I know the C being pronounced is mainly an American thing."
Not that I've noticed. This may be one of those words that is different in the UK.

How do you say Audi?

Cheers

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Dazzag
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 13:17
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"mediaeval"? Eh? First I've seen it spelt like that. A quick wiki suggests it is sometimes spelt this way, but I can't ever remember seeing that spelling before. Maybe in de olde books perhaps?

Quote: "encylycopaedia"
Eh? Encyclopaedia perhaps.

Cheers

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Wiggett
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 13:25
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here in Australia, centre means the middle of something, center means a place. (ie. Eb games is locaed in the centre of the shopping center)

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Benjamin
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 13:28 Edited at: 10th Feb 2007 13:51
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Quote: "Not that I've noticed. This may be one of those words that is different in the UK."

I don't know, I'm pretty certain about this, here and here even say the same.

Quote: "How do you say Audi?"

owdee, just like any other British person.

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Dazzag
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 15:35 Edited at: 10th Feb 2007 15:37
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Dunno, I've heard schedule spoken both ways quite a lot by british people. Doesn't even seem to be an area thing either, just random. I get to hear people say it quite a lot in meetings over the years (when playing w**k words bingo; Google it, it's a top IT meeting game).

Not awwdi then that I've heard by quite a few british people? Hmmm. Doesn't sound right when I read that. Basically there is Owwdee (as in Owww! my foot), and Ordee (as in, look at that kitten, awwww!!!).

Cheers

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Benjamin
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 15:39
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Quote: "Not awwdi then that I've heard by quite a few british people?"

That's an interesting point actually, if the word was British then it would probably be said like that. But since it's German, it's not.

Quote: "Dunno, I've heard schedule spoken both ways quite a lot by british people. Doesn't even seem to be an area thing either, just random."

Bleh. Pesky Americanisms.

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 18:00
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This is the problem with the English language, we decided to have a range of how to pronounce and spell different things, instead of sticking to a rule, well essentially that's because English has been thrown pretty much around the world picking up words, mostly of Latin and Germanic origins, but since English colonisation, there have been others.

How the hell American's change their ways, I don't know, perhaps they decided after not wanting to be ruled by the British they'd go and be original or something and then make British actors bad guys in Hollywood movies

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Evil Star
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 18:12 Edited at: 10th Feb 2007 18:13
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Thanks again guys, maybe there is a website somewhere with ALL the differences, but here will do for now, oh and I edited the first post
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Benjamin
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 18:17 Edited at: 10th Feb 2007 18:18
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Quote: "This is the problem with the English language, we decided to have a range of how to pronounce and spell different things, instead of sticking to a rule"

Do you actually know any other languages? English does have rules to some extent, like other languages, although also like other languages it has a lot of influences. It is important to remember that no language (apart from constructed languages) is totally built on top of rules.

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David R
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 18:21
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A language which doesn't change is a dead one. So I'm personally glad that English fluctuates so wildly.


"History shall be kind to me, for I intend to write it" - Winston Churchill
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Evil Star
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 18:23 Edited at: 10th Feb 2007 18:35
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Ben, I know some French, and a few phases in German, Greek and Spanish. Yes they all have their own loose rules, but German is just adding words to other words until you have an inpronoucable mess with lots of accents most confusing


Quote: "A language that doesn't change is a dead one"


Obviously, otherwise you would have no new product names. I don't see why they still teach Latin, ok it's the base of all european languages but that doesn't really help,you wouldn't go to passport contol and sy "Parlez-vous le latin?" Or "Usted habla a latín?" Or "Sprechen Sie Latein?" would you? You would say "Vous parlez anglais?","Usted habla inglés" or "Sprechen Sie Englisch"

They may as well just teach us all european languages!
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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 18:28 Edited at: 10th Feb 2007 18:28
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Quote: "English does have rules to some extent, like other languages, although also like other languages it has a lot of influences. It is important to remember that no language (apart from constructed languages) is totally built on top of rules."


True, what I mean for words like Sweat and Eat, they are pronounced differently, Swet and Eet, sweat actually has a short vowel sound although using two vowels, if we stuck to a particular rule there, Sweat would be probably swet if we kept the pronunciation. In learning parts of other languages, I see that a rule is applicable in more contexts, like the way ei and ie are pronounced in a word, 'die' and 'Seit' for example in German. And yes, that is because the English language has been thrown around a little bit, because we've either been invaded by or colonised other countries and even words have letters that aren't used in pronunciation, some to identify it's origin like doubt or debt or others just become part of it's change from Old English, like Knight.(Knicht)

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Benjamin
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 18:37 Edited at: 10th Feb 2007 18:43
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Quote: "A language which doesn't change is a dead one."

Actually by definition a dead language is one with no native speakers.

Quote: "True, what I mean for words like Sweat and Eat, they are pronounced differently, Swet and Eet, sweat actually has a short vowel sound although using two vowels,"

My point is that they probably have different roots, hence the rules won't be the same. Besides, rules aren't always that simple, when certain sounds are preceded by certain letters, they may change.

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Evil Star
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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 18:46
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Quote: "Actually by definition a dead language is one with no native speakers"


Well good for you, it's still dead if it doesn't change

And by that definition Ben, latin is not dead becuse it is taught to Itlian school children, where did the Romans come from (the main latin speaking people)? ITALY! Therfore it has handful of native speakers and by your defintion is not dead, OK it's lying in hospital with a heart moniter bleeping away beside it but it's not gone yet!
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