On Saturday, 18 May 2019 00:44:33 UTC+1, Rob 'Commander' Pike wrote: > > jail is a clear improvement over the ludicrous gaol... >
I hadn't actually realised that GAOL vs JAIL was a British vs. US English distinction. I thought 'Gaol' was just an archaic spelling of 'Jail', as I've only ever come across it in C19th and earlier literature. Even over this side of the pond, 'Jail' is used pretty exclusively. Although we mostly call it 'Prison' :-) > ...with similar favorable positions taken on draft/draught etc.. > ...Australia is closer to Britain but sticks with jail and tire... > I don't see why the American reforms are necessarily "Favo[u]rable". In a lot of cases, the US spelling actually causes conflict with an existing English word, where in British English there is no ambiguity. You've mentioned two already. TIRE/TYRE and DRAFT/DRAFT. Just think how much potential for confusion is avoided by retaining the British English spellings in the following: 1: My car was tired so I had it retyred. 2: A sudden draught blew away my draft Programme is just something that came out of the blue, from Scotland I > believe, replacing the older program again relatively recently PROGRAM[ME] is another interesting one. As we [sort of!] have both versions in British English. Likewise with DISC/DISK On television we have PROGRAMMES. At the opera or a football [not Soccer!] match, you might buy a PROGRAMME but it's generally considered the norm to run a PROGRAM on a computer. In the same vein, you might admire the DISC of the moon or buy the tax DISC for your car or play your music on a compact DISC. But you'll have a DISK drive in your computer. [Though thankfully the abolition of the Tax Disc, the obsolescence of the DC and the advent of the SSD is gradually removing this discrepancy] On Saturday, 18 May 2019 03:32:42 UTC+1, K.S. Bhaskar wrote: > > And let's not forget Indian English - between the countries in the Indian > Sub-continent (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh)... > As far as I'm aware the Indian sub-continent officially retains the British English spellings. I think you're referring more to regional differences in dialect there. That's a whole other can of worms! Even within the tiny British Isles, there are huge differences in dialects of English spoken in different regions. I think people in the US who've never visited the British Isles and are only used to hearing that slightly artificial and bland-sounding, carefully enunciated "British Accent" that most actors from this part of the world seem to adopt when starring in US made television and films would probably be shocked to find themselves suddenly dumped in the middle of Belfast, Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham, Dublin, London's East End, etc and trying to follow a conversation amongst the locals. Another thing that I hadn't realised, until I read that article I linked to on Noah Webster was that the existing reforms in US spelling were actually a much-watered down version of what he had originally intended. This probably explains why they're an odd mixture of [he grudgingly admitted] logical changes, such transposing the RE to ER on the end of CENTRE with illogical ones such as retaining the C at the beginning, rather than replacing it with an S. Apparently, if Noah had got his way, it would have been SENTER but he watered down his suggested reforms in the face of public ridicule. Thus leaving you Americans with a job only half-done. Which, I suppose, in a way, is why from a British English point of view the differences in American English can often seem a bit random and arbitrary. Tune in same time next week when the topic for discussion will be "Why is the American date format so illogical?" Although I suspect that, on a mailing list comprised of coders, that one will be less controversial. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "golang-nuts" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to golang-nuts+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/golang-nuts/6d791421-5a25-4a28-a643-7761abac5c27%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
