bob@acornrc.UUCP (Bob Weissman) (11/18/86)
Has anyone ever enumerated all the differences between American English
and British English?
Has anyone ever written a program to translate text files between the two?
--
-- Bob Weissman Acorn Research Centre, Palo Alto, CA
...!{decwrl | ames | oliveb}!acornrc!bobdgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady) (11/18/86)
In article <200@acornrc.UUCP> bob@acornrc.UUCP (Bob Weissman) writes: >Has anyone ever enumerated all the differences between American English >and British English? While I have others, I like Norman Moss's British/American Language Dictionary published by Passport Books. It's a two-way dictionary totalling 174 pages and merits cover-to-cover reading as well as reference use. He works in a number of very funny stories about misunderstandings that arise from differences in usage. All dictionaries of this ilk (or those I've seen, anyway) offer definitions that are superfluous. That is, they take care to translate a British usage into an American one even when that British usage is quite current in the US. One should therefore take care not to assume that, say, an American usage that shows up in such a dictionary is going to sound alien to a Briton, especially considering how much American television he or she is likely to have seen. Such dictionaries also tend to gloss over differences in grammar, such as the British practice of using plural verbs with nouns referring to institutions ("British Rail regret any inconvenience..."), and in subtleties of usage, such as the British practice of saying that so-and-so lives "in" rather than "on" a given street (which comes from a difference in the precise meaning of street). I am writing from an American perspective, of course, so non-American readers can make the appropriate adjustments... Finally, Moss takes the trouble to translate a common hand gesture. The American augmented fist, with the middle finger extended, shows up in Britain as a sort of V-for-victory sign, back of the hand toward the target and delivered in a sort of upward thrusting motion. Near the end of the last Mad Max film someone makes this gesture (the American form) and I recall wondering if they had shot two versions, an American gesture and a Commonwealth gesture. (Which reminds me that, of course, American English and British English are far from being the only dialects. Australian is a font of glorious useful if frequently unprintable words, and Indian English offers us that magnificent antonym for postpone, "prepone.") -- D Gary Grady (919) 286-4296 USENET: {seismo,decvax,ihnp4,akgua,etc.}!mcnc!ecsvax!dgary BITNET: dgary@ecsvax.bitnet
bob@its63b.ed.ac.uk (ERCF08 Bob Gray) (11/19/86)
In article <200@acornrc.UUCP> bob@acornrc.UUCP (Bob Weissman) writes: >Has anyone ever enumerated all the differences between American English >and British English? Don't make the mistake of assuming that we all speak the same english language here. There are differences between English english, Scottish english, and others. Not as many as between "standard" english and American english, but still enough so that I have to be careful speaking to someone from the other end of the country, to make sure they understand what I am meaning. >-- >-- Bob Weissman Acorn Research Centre, Palo Alto, CA > ...!{decwrl | ames | oliveb}!acornrc!bob Bob Gray. ERCC.
len@geac.UUCP (Leonard Vanek) (11/19/86)
In article <200@acornrc.UUCP> bob@acornrc.UUCP (Bob Weissman) writes: >Has anyone ever enumerated all the differences between American English >and British English? Yes. The Unix "spell" command can handle either British or American spellings, but not both at the same time. My problem is that Canadian spelling seems to adopt rules from both countries, so that "defence", "colour" and "centre" are spelled the British way, but "connection" is spelled the American way. I once ran a document I was working on through spell using both dictionaries. I expected that the American dictionary would object to many words, but that the British dictionary would not complain. To my surprise I discovered that I had used no "-our" words, just one "-re" word, and "defence", but the British spelling check went crazy over all the words I used with "-ction" endings. I never realized that the accepted British spelling uses "-xion". --------------------------------------------------------------------- Leonard Vanek phone (416) 475-0525 Geac Computers International 350 Steelcase Rd. West Markham Ontario L3R 1B3 Canada UUCP ... {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid} !utzoo!yetti!geac!len
bandy@lll-crg.aRpA (Andrew Scott Beals) (11/20/86)
Well, the spelling differences between are of little problem to myself.
However, the meanings and the proper translation of the
colloquialisms are what I've been wanting a dictionary for - I'm
trying use a British-English dictionary to do translations into
Esperanto and I'm afraid all my favorite Americanisms didn't quite
make it into the dictionary (like "retire", as in ending your career
late in life to enter a life of leisure). Of course, it could be
the fault of my dictionary, or maybe my brain isn't working
correctly...
Looking through the Macquarie Dictionary, I find that it tells of
USAisms, UKisms, and even NZisms...
andy
--
Andrew Scott Beals (member of HASA - A and S divisions)
bandy@lll-crg.arpa {ihnp4,seismo,ll-xn,ptsfa,pyramid}!lll-crg!bandy
LLNL, P.O. Box 808, Mailstop L-419, Livermore CA 94550 (415) 423-1948
Primates who don't have tails should keep cats who don't have tails.msb@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader) (11/20/86)
> The Unix "spell" command can handle either British or > American spellings, but not both at the same time. But the BUGS entry of the man section says, "British spelling was done by an American." > ... all the words I used with > "-ction" endings. I never realized that the accepted British > spelling uses "-xion". Actually, both are used. I get a railway magazine from Britain that talks about "connections" all the time. It also talks about "ageing" equipment, and this is a spelling I hadn't noticed before; can someone from Britain say whether "aging" is also seen there? Mark Brader, Toronto, Canada The travelling speciality cheque centre draughtsman manoeuvred the coloured aluminium phial onto the anaemic gaoler's jewellery disc, hiccoughing at his baulking dependant's sulphurous programme of tyre byelaw offences shewn in connexion with ploughing modernised kerbs.
campbell@maynard.UUCP (11/22/86)
Amusing British/American anecdote:
In American, a "rubber" is a condom. In British, a "rubber" is what
Americans call an "eraser" -- a piece of rubber used to remove pencil
marks from paper.
Well, of course a British friend of mine, in an American classroom and
needing to erase something, raised his hand and asked "Does anyone
here have a rubber?" -- then wondered why everyone fell off their
chairs laughing.
My favorite Anglicism: the shop that repairs body damage to a car
after an accident, in America blandly known as a "body shop", in Britain
is called "the panel beaters". So much more descriptive!
--
Larry Campbell MCI: LCAMPBELL The Boston Software Works, Inc.
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