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The English Language.

Talking of words in the English language, in schools now they use the words Sulfur, sulfuric acid, in my day it was Sulphur but it was changed in 1971 by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry,although in USA it had always been spelt as Sulfur
To change Sulphuric, is truly annoying after the fact! Nobody consulted with me, whether it was okay to change the spelling!

The word "tyre", is probably the one word that I stopped spelling as I always had, almost the day after I immigrated to Canada in 1974. However, I caught myself using the U.K. spelling, when I wrote the word on the board in class, just a couple of years ago.

There are many other instances, where I reluctantly have to adjust the grammar, punctuation and spelling to suit the targeted audience, which in my situation can often be destined for USA. So, words such as maximise, surprise and more, change to maximize, surprize etc.

Not only is it spelling, but there are numerous differentiations in uses of grammar and applying punctuation marks.
e.g. The following quotations for U.S.A and U.K. might read:

He said, "The written English language is so challenging to master." (USA)

He said, "The written English language is so challenging to master". (UK)

Typically, for quotations in USA, the period is before the quotation marks, while in UK, it is after.

I am pretty sure that I can "muck it up" myself, without too much help these days. I will readily confess to getting a little sloppy with age and the variations in use of the written word.

One technical forum that I have been a member of since the '90s, often has a couple of "Grammar Nazis" who regularly "strut their stuff". They might typically comment about how a particular post was formatted, with poor use of capitalisation, grammar and punctuation, run on sentences and more.

Without fail, such rants will frequently demonstrate shortcomings in ability of the responders, to get it right themselves, with glaring errors!

The end result, is that the original poster may decide to discontinue any participation, while there may have been some very useful information to share.

As such, it is often well worth looking beyond a few typos or grammatical errors.

So, I apologise in advance for any forthcoming errors of my own, as "juggling" the written English language to various audiences can result in a few errors.

The human brain is quite capable of some truly amazing reading capabilities.

 
I watched an episode of MASH last night. ( Mobile Army Surgical Hospital ) Very popular in the 70`s & still just as funny today. Colonel Blake accused someone of trying to gaslight him, so i guess the term gaslight has been around for some time.
Good spot! I lifted this from Wikipedia -as the psychological usage really takes off in 2010s and crosses the pond as they say: Hoberman, J (21 August 2019). "Why 'Gaslight' Hasn't Lost Its Glow". The New York Times. The verb “to gaslight,” voted by the American Dialect Society in 2016 as the word most useful/likely to succeed, and defined as “to psychologically manipulate a person into questioning their own sanity,”
 
Not only is it spelling, but there are numerous differentiations in uses of grammar and applying punctuation marks.
One day to day thing that regularly catches me over here is the interchange of full stop (point) and comma (virgule) in writing numbers.
£ 123,456.78
€ 123.456,78

The human brain is quite capable of some truly amazing reading capabilities.
And listening. My French accent would be charitably described as 'West Midlands'. This caused me some embarrassment until I realised how bad non native English could be and I would still understand it.

One of the fascinating things I find about language, English and others, is the untranslatable parts. That tends to define the country for me. Not the slang, or the idiom, there are generally equivalents, but expressions of e.g. emotion.

Andrew.
 
Some American usages are being adopted in the Midlands, birthed (as a verb) as in she birthed her baby. And gifted as in I was gifted a pair of socks. Both are used by my young adult children. The language processes here are very familiar so they may become the usual form. Hardly anyone says thrice, twice is being replaced by two times.

Some nations adopted wholesale spelling or alphabet reform. Turkey, Russia after the Revolution, the French Revolution, and more modestly German reduced umlauts and use of the strong s. ß
Spelling reform has been strongly resisted in the UK.
 
One day to day thing that regularly catches me over here is the interchange of full stop (point) and comma (virgule) in writing numbers.
£ 123,456.78
€ 123.456,78


And listening. My French accent would be charitably described as 'West Midlands'. This caused me some embarrassment until I realised how bad non native English could be and I would still understand it.

One of the fascinating things I find about language, English and others, is the untranslatable parts. That tends to define the country for me. Not the slang, or the idiom, there are generally equivalents, but expressions of e.g. emotion.

Andrew.
That is interesting, Andrew. Could you expand please? 'Expressions of e.g. emotion.'

 
That is interesting, Andrew. Could you expand please? 'Expressions of e.g. emotion.'

The obvious ones are ’Tutoyer‘, and the corresponding ‘Vouvoyer’, which literally translate as to use the tu or vous form of ‘you’ together with any necessary verb forms afterwards. This represents a concept not seen in English for example. Tu is used when addressing someone you know well, and often for children. Vous is formal. I would refer to Julie, my ‘femme’ (formal meaning woman but contextually wife) as tu, but always to you, or your wife as vous. When to change from vous to tu is fraught with dangers, as is the other way round for other peoples children. When the girl you fancy becomes your girlfriend, (you hope), then that would show an expression of romantic intent.

For something closer to raw emotion, try
j’ai chaud, versus je suis chaud. They both ‘translate’ to the same thing, but in this weather the first is OK, but the second may get you more than you bargained for.

Try Châtelaine. This literally means a woman who is in charge of a castle. The concept is translatable, but no direct word in English because it is generally not required.

Lastly, Insortable. This is how you would describe someone who you wouldnt bring with you to a public place because they are embarrassing to you. The English word ?

Andrew.
 
The obvious ones are ’Tutoyer‘, and the corresponding ‘Vouvoyer’, which literally translate as to use the tu or vous form of ‘you’ together with any necessary verb forms afterwards. This represents a concept not seen in English for example. Tu is used when addressing someone you know well, and often for children. Vous is formal. I would refer to Julie, my ‘femme’ (formal meaning woman but contextually wife) as tu, but always to you, or your wife as vous. When to change from vous to tu is fraught with dangers, as is the other way round for other peoples children. When the girl you fancy becomes your girlfriend, (you hope), then that would show an expression of romantic intent.

For something closer to raw emotion, try
j’ai chaud, versus je suis chaud. They both ‘translate’ to the same thing, but in this weather the first is OK, but the second may get you more than you bargained for.

Try Châtelaine. This literally means a woman who is in charge of a castle. The concept is translatable, but no direct word in English because it is generally not required.

Lastly, Insortable. This is how you would describe someone who you wouldnt bring with you to a public place because they are embarrassing to you. The English word ?

Andrew.
Thanks Andrew. German has Du/Sie which has a similar politeness / intimacy function and Early Modern English had Thou/You which Shakespeare makes much play of.
 
Some American usages are being adopted in the Midlands, birthed (as a verb) as in she birthed her baby. And gifted as in I was gifted a pair of socks. Both are used by my young adult children. The language processes here are very familiar so they may become the usual form. Hardly anyone says thrice, twice is being replaced by two times.

Some nations adopted wholesale spelling or alphabet reform. Turkey, Russia after the Revolution, the French Revolution, and more modestly German reduced umlauts and use of the strong s. ß
Spelling reform has been strongly resisted in the UK.
H’m those terms are not widely used in the US that I have heard. Regifting has become a often used word meaning to give a gift as a gift that was given to you. Birthing is used to describe the process or event.
 
H’m those terms are not widely used in the US that I have heard. Regifting has become a often used word meaning to give a gift as a gift that was given to you. Birthing is used to describe the process or event.
That's enlightening Richard. The origins of words and phrases can be difficult to trace and I've not done anything to research this. Both are used widely in the media here. We do have International English as opposed to British English and there's the possibility that some younger Americans in say California have started a trend which has been picked up. Or equally it is certainly possible that these words began to be used in a new way in London and the South East and are sweeping the country. Many young people do speak with an Essex/London accent, though they don't originate from there. It has a name 'Estuary English.' But thank you, I'll see what I can dig up. Language does change continually and sometimes these changes are internal, rather than from some external influence. Young people are the innovators in language. But a lazy assumption of mine to assume these were of American origin, my bad (as I never say!)
 
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H’m those terms are not widely used in the US that I have heard.
The origins of words and phrases can be difficult to trace
Richard, Derek. There is one word that I would love to see incorporated into English, simply because it sounds good.
Cromulent.
This can be traced to the February 18, 1996 episode of The Simpsons as part of a challenge to introduce a couple of new words. I like it because it almost self defining, as in
"Cromulent is a perfectly cromulent word".
It is apparently used enough 'over there' that Merriam-Webster are tracking it for future inclusion.

On the birthing and (re)gifting track, one word I cannot come to terms with is 'embiggen', to make bigger. It fits in terms of its construction, but just stands out as not quite right somehow.

my bad (as I never say!)
:imp: :)

Andrew.
 
When I arrived in Canada I found the difference in use of words to be quite annoying. As far as I was concerned, English was English and everything else was wrong. I guess that sort of attitude is what leads to a stereotypical view of people from the UK. However, things quickly became normal and acceptance was achieved. I have noticed a couple of things that are said in the UK, that I feel are more correctly said on this side of the pond. The term "pressurize" when referring to being pushed to do something is called being "pressured" over here. Also, the term "orientated" is "oriented" here. Doing a complete 180... Thoughts?
Dave A
 
I would have said Pressured was the more normal word in the uk, and orientated would to me seem to be more business speak than normal English.
 
That's enlightening Richard. The origins of words and phrases can be difficult to trace and I've not done anything to research this. Both are used widely in the media here. We do have International English as opposed to British English and there's the possibility that some younger Americans in say California have started a trend which has been picked up. Or equally it is certainly possible that these words began to be used in a new way in London and the South East and are sweeping the country. Many young people do speak with an Essex/London accent, though they don't originate from there. It has a name 'Estuary English.' But thank you, I'll see what I can dig up. Language does change continually and sometimes these changes are internal, rather than from some external influence. Young people are the innovators in language. But a lazy assumption of mine to assume these were of American origin, my bad (as I never say!)
Derek, I’m not sure about California anymore. Many people are leaving there in droves!
On a more serious note the US (and Canada) are so very large geographically that cultures are quite different, driven in part by ethnicity which has continued to change. For many the line of demarcation was the Mason Dixon Line, north and south. That has changed significantly with many northerners (like us) moving south and to Texas.
 
Derek, I’m not sure about California anymore. Many people are leaving there in droves!
On a more serious note the US (and Canada) are so very large geographically that cultures are quite different, driven in part by ethnicity which has continued to change. For many the line of demarcation was the Mason Dixon Line, north and south. That has changed significantly with many northerners (like us) moving south and to Texas.
Richard, I think that birthed and gifted may have originated in African-American Vernacular English, but I don't have access to the data sets I used before I retired. There is some variation in the UK of course outwith being used in Scotland and some Scots speakers in England. Meaning outside of course. Derek
 
I would have said Pressured was the more normal word in the uk, and orientated would to me seem to be more business speak than normal English.
I only hear Pressurized & Orientated when I'm watching the BBC, Mike, it really jumps out at me!
Dave A
 
0ne of the uses of words that I dislike these days is the impact branding has had on the names of organisations. Banks/Insurance Companies continue to anonymise themselves. The FA Cup has had so many brand names it has been rendered meaningless to me. Trade Unions don’t identify the trades they represent eg Unison, Unite. Meaningless, rootless companies on the tv/internet who will bring cars to my door.
 
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