It's COLOR and ARMOR!

Actually I wasn't busting on you. I wasn't sure if I was remembering how to spell it right.

And you didn't bring this up in all the time I've been around, huh?

PK's got a man-crush

Yes, yes, I do, but not the one you're thinking of.

So you were one of the lunch ladies at my old high-school? (Oh, the jokes we made at having to install NIC cards in their computers. Because really, why WOULD they need internet? )

Noway unique to the Spanish language.

Seriously.

Wow... now I know... vaccum tube = valve. Well at least this will allow me to hang on to my "essentially a font of useless information" title at work.

As a native speaker of Spanish (and near native of English), I can tell you that the differences between European Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Central American Spanish, and South American Spanish is greater than that between European, American, and Australian English.

Try this on for size, Spaniards use a verb tense that doesn't even *exist* in Mexican Spanish. South American and European Spanish each have a unique *pronoun* with its own set of conjugations that Mexican Spanish does not have, well at least the Spaniard one does, not so sure about the South American (Mexican Spanish has no unique pronoun of its own).

Some of my characters

Of course, it's wikipedia, so take it with a pinch of salt - for example, the wold "balmy" in British English does NOT mean "insane" - for that we use "barmy" which is basically pronounced the same, but is a completely different word.

So British people are part Japanese too?

Some of my characters

lol, barmy brings back memories of Planescape (the second best D&D setting evah!).

Lots of fun places in Michigan like that. Mainly in the UP, or in the tip of the mitt.

You know, a large portion of the English language has its roots in French.

Hey now! Don't be raggin on us Southerners.

<.<

>.>

But if you want to, my dad still says he's cuttin off the light (which is doubly weird when he says to cut on the light) and it's comin up a cloud...

Yeah, being an American living in England and having traveled through a good portion of the UK, I still give the nod to my American Indian ancestors for unpronounceable place names.

And really, is it that big of a deal that we spell or pronounce things differently? Or are some people just looking for ways to keep these forums "Us vs. Them"?

Y'know what seems to have fallen out of favor (with the exception of Paula Deen) - Y'all. I dont hear that as much as I used to.

Y'all don't say y'all?

What the holy heck is wrong with y'all?

Actually, I say "y'all" all the time (I'm a South Carolinian, originally); it's just much more prevalent in my speech than in my writing.

And a large portion doesn't.

If I've got it sort of right then:

Back in Britain we had a language going before we were brought a load of words by linguistically helpful Romans, vikings and germanic tribes. This influx of new words/syntax gave us the confidence to race off plundering the globe grabbing new words from whoever we could subjugate. Helped us develop quite a rich old tongue. We weren't really nasty imperialists - we just love getting new words.

Yes - the British Empire was merely a result of us wanting quirky words to fuel modern generations appetite for Call My Bluff and Countdown.

We also had the habit of being quite welcoming to groups persecuted in the rest of Europe (we've always been part of Europe that likes to pretend it isn't - so annoying the mainland by taking in refugees always appealed). This managed to sporadically add a good mix of new linguistic input.

Never too sure where the various bits of Greek came from though... although we often manage to mix it with some latin in a single word just to put our own unique stamp on it.

Of course, it helped that we never had an academy like French has - so English still manages to evolve quite freely.



IIRC (from a dodgy memory):
US English tends to use a lot of English words that were common in England when the various waves of settlers left Europe for the new world... British English subsequently moved on and the US kept using the old words.

This accounts for differences such as drapes/curtains, faucet/tap, fall/autumn and gray/grey - all of these 'Americanisms' were in common use in England at various points and so aren't Americanisms.

And then there were various Americans who seemed to want to almost adopt an Academy-type approach, and seemed to almost change many words spellings to adopt a missing conformity or to distinguish US English from British English.

US English also managed to evolve, and with it's melting pot attitude has managed to adopt and adapt elements of other languages/cultures much as Britain had historically (and still does).

It's just a shame that Hollywood and US TV is now such big business in the Western world that English seems to be converging to some Fox-approved, homogenous state with much of the rich variety being lost.

Of course, they probably said that in Shakespeares day...

I blame it on geological drift. Eventually Virginia is going to be wedged right in between North Dakota and Rhode Island.

My heart sank the day my company no longer considered Va part of the south, but instead... the... mid-atlantic (despite its accuracy)

This is why I fondly think of English as the ******* language of the world. I suppose that's what we get for not having a governing body for the language.

And if we're converging on American English as the dominant variation, I think it will take a long time. Former British colonies, like India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and the like, tend to favor British English. I think all America has is Japan, South America, and the Philippines. Maybe China.

Also, as the the whole pronunciation issue, it is my understanding that the word 'avocado' is taken from a severely bastardized Aztec word, whose original definition was testicle.

I haven't really interpreted this thread as having any animosity to it. It's more like shaking our heads in bemusement at how people can speak essentially the same language yet eventually one will say, "Wait, what'd you say?" Happens within the same country even: people from Minnesota and Georgia are liable to boggle at the other, and I'm led to believe people from the south of England have differences from the north.

Fans of language (such as myself) usually find such discussions very interesting. Same reason I've occasionally bought the imported (UK) version of magazines like Stuff, or gone looking for overseas commercials on YouTube.

Btw, I say "y'all" a lot more than I have a reason to type it. Oh, the southern dialect, how much has been written. Consider the following sentence: "Dang gnats 'bout to tote me off!" "My goodness, how aggressive these pesky little black flies are today!"

With a Hey nonny nonny?

You mean NICs. Adding card to the end of that acronym is just as redundant as all of the following:

PIN number (Personal Identification Number)
ATM machine (Automated Teller Machine)
LCD display (Liquid Crystal Display)
NIC card (Network Interface Card)


Please retrieve your membership materials from the front desk of the Department of Redundancy Department, from the front desk.

Originally Posted by Back Alley Brawler Did you just use "casual gamer" and "purpled-out warshade" in the same sentence?