the real reason why Americans took the "u" out of British spellings

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27 фев 2024

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Комментарии : 292

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Public service announcement to all of my lovely British friends who are angry that America "changed the language": you're sort of proving the point as to why Webster did it. They didn't want you to be happy about it. ;)

@grahamstubbs4962 3 месяца назад

Added to which, if you've got a shedload of potential citizens rocking-up and none of them speak English, might as well make it easy to learn quickly.

@wessexdruid7598 3 месяца назад

Webster wanted to make the Republic less dependent on the Motherland. It was wholly political, *to create a different language.* So why do Americans get so upset when told they speak American, not English? Why do they deny it??

@valeriedavidson2785 3 месяца назад

Americans have not changed the language as far as Britain is concerned and they are on their own because the rest of the world learns English from England.

@ChristopherLester-gm1bj 3 месяца назад

The English pronunciation of the word is kuluh (where uh represents the non-rhotic lazy vowel, which lacks a letter in the Latin-oriented 26-letter alfabet), but the most common USA pronunciation is kuhlurgh (where urgh is a desperate attempt at the rhotic lazy vowel which lacks... etc.) And c (when not before e i y or h) has the same sound as k, so should be k (and c before e i y should be s, and before h should be 2 new letters - one for church etc., another for chaos, ache, monarch etc.) So the only letter that either spelling gets right is l... Engish spelling doesn't pretend to be phonetic (it almost was for pronunciation 4 centuries ago): but Webster claimed to be, then did a very incomplete job, including many mistakes.

@mirfjc 3 месяца назад

@@grahamstubbs4962 It doesn't make it any easier.

@Trebor74 3 месяца назад

They can't use a knife and fork,a manual car is too hard and the letter "U" is just impossible 🤣

@john_g_harris 3 месяца назад

I always assume that North American spelling was changed so they could spend the next 200 years complaining about other people spelling things differently. Loudly.

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Ha! A real possibility!

@sheerluckholmes7720 3 месяца назад

🤔...🤣

@michaelsherck5099 3 месяца назад

You broke the code!

@mirfjc 3 месяца назад

As someone born and raised in UK and lived now 33 years in US (also joint UK/US citizen), I can confirm you are 100% correct. Sole reason is to whine and complain. 🤣

@leaveempty5320 3 месяца назад

After all this time you would think the Americans would either change the name of the language they use or correct the spellings.

@lesley585 3 месяца назад

Love how everyone stakes a claim to 'english'. All languages are a product of historical influences, which are interesting but not relevant. The french speak french, the swedish speak swedish, etc. etc. The english speak english and the americans speak american. They just lack the courage to admit it.

@jeremybarker7577 3 месяца назад

Endeavour wasn't the only space shuttle named after a British ship. The first four operational shuttles (after the one only used for atmospheric flight tests - Enterprise) had two named after American ships - Columbia and Atlantis - and two after British ships - Challenger and Discovery. After Challenger was lost in the first shuttle disaster its replacement Endeavour was also named after a British ship.

@fus149hammer5 2 месяца назад

Really? I thought it was named after an Oxford detective 😂

@hairyairey Месяц назад

@@fus149hammer5 On which subject did you realise that the theme tune has morse in morse code in it?

@robert3987 3 месяца назад

It's interesting that the Endeavour shuttle was named after Captain James Cook's ship, who's one of the best navigators/cartographers to sail the world.

@mirfjc 3 месяца назад

And if you think about it, it goes deeply against the grain of what I think many outside think of the US (excessively nationalist, etc.) What is crazy is that both Endeavour and Discovery were named after Royal Navy ships. That's 40% of the shuttle fleet!

@RobinPalmerTV 3 месяца назад

More wonderful geekery and pedantry. I love this place.

@richardhargrave6082 3 месяца назад

If it was done just to annoy people, then they were more British than they like to think! The only time I'm, slightly, irritated is when its a company name here, that its spelt in American English, something like if there is a paint shop called London Color Center deserves to be burnt down!🤣🤣 We've all wondered why the spelling is different, you've saved many hours we can now spend down the pub by doing the research for us! Thanks🥂🥂🍺🍺

@raymonray5444 3 месяца назад

Go down to the white HoUse in the U.S.A. and they'll pull ya a pint there !

@lemdixon01 3 месяца назад

Centre is still spelt the French way here in the UK and not the US way center.

@tonys1636 3 месяца назад

Both spellings can be seen here, Ireland, imagine down to whomever ordered that particular road sign from the sign maker. My spellchecker, set to UK English/Irish, sometimes throws up the US or both UK and US.

@lemdixon01 3 месяца назад

@@tonys1636 maybe you can apply that principle to what side of the road you drive on... sometimes on the left and sometimes on the right 😆

@falaise6077 3 месяца назад

@@lemdixon01not quite right - trucks and buses switched to the right last year, but cars and motorcycles will not switch until the first of April this year

@brianbradley6744 3 месяца назад

As is metre, and cannot be confused with a measuring instrument (meter).

@rogerjenkinson7979 3 месяца назад

The Normans (French) enriched our language with theirs and we still do it today. 'W' is famously lampooned for saying that the French have no word for entrepreneur. Centre is spelled that way because that's what it means, in French, and now in English too. (I always cringe when y'all pronounce route as rout; a panicked retreat.) It should of course be root because it is The French word for road. I hate to think what a rout-march would look like.

@lemdixon01 3 месяца назад

Space shuttle Endeavour spelt the UK way reminds me of the Concorde super sonic passenger plane that was spelt the French way. I guess these words aren't too common for people to notice or if they do it makes it more fancy like spelling cafe as café.

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Didn't know that! Thanks for sharing!

@john_g_harris 3 месяца назад

I'm old enough to remember when cafe was always spelt with the accent. It stopped people pronouncing it like cay_f or caff.

@BrandonLeeBrown 3 месяца назад

@@john_g_harris Weekend used to be spelled with a hyphen, week-end. The stress is often placed differently between American and British pronunciation too.

@ajs41 3 месяца назад

@@GirlGoneLondonofficial It's interesting that some parts of the United States prefer to use the "theatre" spelling, especially in New York City and around that area. Although that's going off topic because the video is just about "ou" spellings.

@stephenlee5929 3 месяца назад

Hi, Concorde, was originally spelt as Concord on the British versions of the plane, but changed after about a year, there was a 'public' outcry in certain areas of the press.

@robertwatford7425 3 месяца назад

Didn't know about the naming of the Shuttle - I'm rather touched :-)

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Honestly I felt the same, haha! Respect between the two countries!

@martinbobfrank 3 месяца назад

What a nightmare it would be if every country that adopted the British English language decided to change the spellings to show their independence!

@ginnyvogel7754 2 месяца назад

Why a nightmare? We understand each other.

@martinbobfrank 2 месяца назад

@@ginnyvogel7754 Taking the history of the UK regarding spelling, written law, the first printing press and dictionary as a good indicator. Before 1600 (the printing press gets going), everyone in England wrote words as they said them; very few people could write anyway. Putting laws into print meant everyone agreeing on how each word was spelt. So, we British took the London way, and called it the Queens English or Standard English. Now, the Americans want us to go back to the pre-1600s when we British have already thought about it and fixed it once already!

@ginnyvogel7754 2 месяца назад

@@martinbobfrank Americans don't want British English to change. Or should I say, Standard English.

@raycornford283 3 месяца назад

Fascinating, Kaylyn and well done as always on your deep research. I have to quibble, though at the American use of the term "British English". There is no such thing - it is English, full stop (or period, if you prefer). Perhaps it would be easier for the US to call what they peak "American"?

@martinbobfrank 2 месяца назад

I seem to remember that America hasn't got an official language, as they're English, Scottish, Danish, German, Mexican and much more. So, they never had an official language set by their government. So, they haven't got an American language to write.

@hairyairey Месяц назад

Technically English isn't standardized. It has loanwords and calques throughout. And yes, standardized is acceptable British English too

@vijay-c 3 месяца назад

Didn't know that about the naming of the Endeavour, what a lovely honour! Never checked, but on the back of that I'd guess there's probably a bunch of US ships out there with a British u still in them, named after earlier British ships.

@tonys1636 3 месяца назад

There are still over a 1000 words and phrases invented by the Bard that are in use today and many more ridiculous ones that have dropped out of common parlance. He was a wordsmith in its fullest definition.

@Poliss95 3 месяца назад

J. Draper mentions only 800. I think they should bring back 'insultment'. 😁

@idristaylor5093 3 месяца назад

If you should wish to do a reaction video; Blackadder The Third, episode 2, "Ink and Incapability", which features Robbie Coltrane as Dr Samuel Johnson, might be a good pick.

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Great idea, thank you so much! Will look into it. :)

@richardhargrave6082 3 месяца назад

good shout, its brilliant

@timelordtardis 3 месяца назад

In which case I hope you will not object if I offer you my most enthusiastic contrafribularities. It is a common word down our way. 😁

@sheerluckholmes7720 3 месяца назад

Ta muchly !✌

@peterhewson3216 3 месяца назад

A perfect example of extramentalistic perfunctularity I feel @@timelordtardis

@urseliusurgel4365 3 месяца назад

A spelling system that changes plough to plow, but not cough to coff, or bough to bow seems a bit half-arsed.

@world_still_spins Месяц назад

Makes me think of the odd words wheel-burrough? wheel-barrow? wheel-barrel? Borrow-money.

@charlesunderwood6334 3 месяца назад

Of course Americans made words shorter- as a palaeontologist (paleontologist in US spelling) I am well aware. Of course that is different once you are obligated to say you have gotten burglarized (or obliged to say you got burgled in the UK).

@torfrida6663 3 месяца назад

The expression “obligated” really sets my teeth on edge. I agree with you here, thanks. 🇬🇧👍

@wessexdruid7598 3 месяца назад

@@torfrida6663 Oriented? Conversate?

@rogerjenkinson7979 3 месяца назад

I've just been burgled. Someone stole all my beans

@2eleven48 3 месяца назад

You've produced a non-sequitur positioning these two sentences together. Furthermore, any American, as we would, would use the past tense (I got, or was, burglarized for a past event at a fixed time). They would use the present perfect - I have gotten - if it were an event that had some continuation in the present with an unfixed time. Obligation and obliged make no sense in the construct of either sentence. It should be pointed out that there is a difference in meaning of the two words. You're trying to be snotty and clever, but have failed in the job (future continuous + infinitive followed by the present perfect, I might add).

@2eleven48 3 месяца назад

@@torfrida6663.....Please note: 'Obliged is used to indicate a feeling of being thankful or indebted to someone for a favor. 2. Obligated is used to refer to a duty or responsibility that someone is expected to fulfill.' Do try to compose your teeth in the future.

@dfxl6587 3 месяца назад

To all Americans - please pronounce Harris, Harry, Horse. Ok now please try to say Herb correctly, it is Herb with an H not Erb which sounds to British ears as if the speaker has a speech defect, just like it is not Arris, Arry or Orse. 😢 As my Father, a WW2 Royal Navy Vet who got to know the Yanks in the UK when not at sea, always told us as kids, the USA and the UK are separated by 4,000 miles of Ocean and a language. 😂

@re_patel 3 месяца назад

I was getting so vexed that Dr.House worked at 'Plainsboro' hospital, and not the correct spelling; Plainsborough, lol

@ChalcedonXXX 3 месяца назад

Johnson forgot to include Sausage.

@mattpotter8725 3 месяца назад

And discombobulation!!!

@ajs41 3 месяца назад

I live in Samuel Johnson's home town, Lichfield in Staffordshire. Although these days a lot of local people probably haven't even heard of him! Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles, also lived in the town, (which is officially a city because there's an ancient cathedral here).

@susanroberts2289 3 месяца назад

No one here bothers about how Americans spell or speak “American English”. We wish you well and we gently smile about your use of our language. However, please remember that the French speak French, the Danish speak Danish and the English speak English and so on. There is no British English except when Americans cannot bear the idea that it wasn’t spoken than them first.

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

I mean if you want to get technical, English also isn't entirely English - it started with language brought over by migration from Germany and Denmark to Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries. So.

@sheerluckholmes7720 3 месяца назад

@@GirlGoneLondonofficialnot so elementary dear GirlGoneWatson...how many English words do you think stem from Icelandic origin ? 🤫

@susanroberts2289 3 месяца назад

I totally agree with your comments. There’s no arguing with the fact that English as a language took thousands of years to evolve and I love that our invaders left us parts of their culture and language. It’s interesting to explore the French, Dutch, German or Icelandic, roots of our language here in England. However, when we share the same words or their roots I’ve NEVER thought that I should be saying that each of those nations’ people speak Gaul French or Jute German or Holland Dutch. It’s their language. I don’t consider that I have ownership of it.

@mattpotter8725 3 месяца назад

@@GirlGoneLondonofficial If you're being pedantic no language is from any nation and we should just call all European (and many Asian) languages Indo-European. All languages are living things and evolve over time and even though as you quite rightly say English has many influences from other languages every language is in this situation, apart from maybe language isolates. I think the original comment was said a bit tongue in cheek. Americans are allowed to change the language they use, in fact that's inevitable, American English will have its own influences just as our English does and so over time so change. I've found quite recently with some nephews of mine that they're picking up some American English words that we didn't use over here and so English here will change with influences from American English. That said I never used the word winningest!!! One other thing is that you talk about French influence and Latin influence but French is a romance language that evolved from Latin so both influences have the same root.

@LastEuropaKiss 3 месяца назад

@@GirlGoneLondonofficial Technically those people didn't speak English, or even Old English, they spoke Ingvaeonic languages which merged into Old English within England. It's kind of like saying German is a Scandinavian language because Proto-Germanic people brought their language from Scandinavia into Germany, or that Irish Gaelic is Austrian because Celts came from Austria, technically true, but also not true, as German was never spoken in Scandinavia, nor Gaelic in Austria. So the English language's origins aren't British, but English is entirely English.

@philllewellyn6464 Месяц назад

Even in computers you can get a difference in Language ( most computer words are now coined in America by IBM, Microsoft Apple etc). 45 years ago when I started in IT, the computer I worked on was English (ICL). They called storage devices 'Discs' rather than the American 'Disks' !

@donstratton6343 3 месяца назад

I never tyre of the differences and nor do I kerb my enthusiasm for keeping both alive.

@Pooky-Cat 2 месяца назад

Sea watt you did their 👍

@jca111 3 месяца назад

Spelt and spelled tend to be different as well. US tends to use spelled, UK : Spelt, although both can exist in UK English.

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Yes, I've always been fascinated by that!

@0utcastAussie 3 месяца назад

Passed & Past ?

@world_still_spins Месяц назад

@@0utcastAussie french pas.

@stephwaite 3 месяца назад

Ive followed you for awhile and always enjoyed you videos... I can't help feeling you seem somewhat happier, more relaxed these days or have I imagined it?

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Thank you for watching and commenting! You are right! I feel much happier, more settled, and relaxed in my life in the UK these days. :)

@primalengland 3 месяца назад

Keep it up, Kalyn. Just seen your post about comments. Mine is only a small channel, but some of the comments I get would upset someone with thinner skin. 😊 it’s all just fun, and you are doing a great job. Just don’t disappear again, or I’ll be forced to send the boys round.

@Jinty92 3 месяца назад

This was interesting. I'm Scottish and when I was in Primary 3-7 (age 6-10/11) I followed a reading scheme called SRA. It was an North American Reading Scheme. It was called Scholastic Reading but all the spellings were North American so when answering the questions we had to remember to change the or endings to our and center to centre, etc. It was an unusual thing for schools in Scotland to adopt. The tv show Endeavour which is the prequel to Inspector Morse is because Morse's father was obsessed with Captain James Cook and named him Endeavour. It took years for us as a public to learn what Morse's first name was.

@BrandonLeeBrown 3 месяца назад

When American spelling was developed, most people didn't know how to spell. Those that knew the sounds of letters would often spell things the way they sounded. The UK has an official language, while. the US does not have an official language. n the UK, American spelling can often be, "wrong", but in the US, without an official language, British spelling can't officially be wrong. I ran into this view when writing university exams. In Canada, English has an official status and Canada has its own version of the Oxford dictionary. It sounds American, while it looks British.

@ginnyvogel7754 2 месяца назад

An official language, in the country of immigrants, is considered mighty biased. For example, America has a lot of Spanish speakers who would take offense. That is just one language group out of many.

@BrandonLeeBrown 2 месяца назад

@@ginnyvogel7754 You mean like Canada? Most countries do have official languages, along with official spellings. The US doesn't even have an official dictionary.

@ginnyvogel7754 2 месяца назад

@@BrandonLeeBrown I think Canada has about 40 million people and consensus there seems pretty easy. The U.S. has about 340 million people scattered around 50 states and more. And about 70 million speak a language other than English. Herding us toward one official anything ain't gonna work well. And why would we want an official dictionary? We want choice. We want competition. We want diversity.

@brianbradley6744 3 месяца назад

Ok, but why change TYRE (as in car tyre) to TIRE (as in I'm tired out). The spelling served a function of indicating the word association. No UK vehicles are tired out unless very old?

@MegaDapperman 3 месяца назад

Two countries separated by a common language.

@wessexdruid7598 3 месяца назад

The point is, it's NOT a common language..

@jeremybarker7577 3 месяца назад

Spellings are not really a difficulty. The real differences (and difficulties) arise with the common meanings of certain words and with many idioms. One that caused a British colleague real embarrassment concerned a business meeting in the US where they asked for an urgent matter they wanted dealt with to be "tabled". The British meaning of that means "included in the agenda" while the American meaning is that it will be "left on the table - and consequently not discussed". As the meeting ended they asked why the matter hadn't been discussed at which point they were curtly told that it had been dealt with as requested - it was not until someone took them aside and explaned what "tabled" meant in the US that they realised why things had gone wrong.

@Poliss95 3 месяца назад

In The Canterville Ghost (1887), Oscar Wilde wrote: "We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language."

@mirfjc 3 месяца назад

@@wessexdruid7598 Oh, it really is. It's like we're trying VERY hard to make it not. But there are more intra-national differences in language usage in both the UK and the US than international differences between. The only differences that do exist are like Webster (who I continue to view as non-canonical 🤣) who went out of the way to invent tiny differences just for the sake of nationalism. In my life I've moved from Yorkshire to London and London to Los Angeles, and honestly, cultural and real linguistic usage differences in second move were no bigger than the first. And this silly separation into "British" English and American English also is super insulting to all the other native English dialects from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, Singapore and (don't shoot me) Ireland (though I totally know you are all supposed to speak Irish). There's one big crazy diverse global language that nobody owns and has lots of diversity.

@wessexdruid7598 3 месяца назад

@@mirfjc Webster set out to make it a US language - it was primarily about politics. I completely agree that 'English' is a global language that has huge diversity - _that means the US doesn't own it._ But they keep trying to dictate how it is used and spelled - both at an individual level (Americans really struggle with people doing things differently to what they are used to) and organisational - Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon, Netflix et al defining their usage of English on others.

@michaeljoyce9161 3 месяца назад

Anybody want to guess when English was made the official National language of the United States?

@schrodingerscat1863 3 месяца назад

The US has no official language, although there have been efforts to declare English as the official language, most notably in 1780, these never got ratified.

@matc6221 3 месяца назад

Not yet. But in all fairness I just learned that from another comment 😂

@williambailey344 3 месяца назад

Thank you kaylyn very interesting video I have always wondered why Americans or us spell the missing u out 😊

@johnbath616 3 месяца назад

I am enjoy these topics

@carolineskipper6976 3 месяца назад

I wasn't aware of all the exceptions to the or/our rules, so that was interesting.

@alanwhiplington5504 24 дня назад

Another way of thinking about it is that Webster showed his ingratitude to the French for their immense support during the American War of Independence by rejecting their spelling. It was also pretty pointless since French is the single largest contributor to the English language, providing almost 45% of our vocabulary.

@alangknowles 3 месяца назад

Webster had to change spellings to avoid copyright strikes.

@CRINOTH 3 месяца назад

It's not just that we in the UK have retained the letter 'u' in these spellings, but we have also generally retained it in the way in which we pronounce these words. If anything, we tend to put the emphasis on the 'u' and more or less render silent the 'o' which precedes it. In many of our regional accents, including mine, the last syllable of colour is an 'uh' sound rather than an 'or' sound. :)

@ethelmini 3 месяца назад

Have a like for your endeavors 😛 I knew about the Cook connection but never twigged the spelling

@adamclark6756 3 месяца назад

So this begs the question, having been here ten years, have you still stuck to the American spelling?

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

A good question! I still stick with American spellings!

@jamesbeeching6138 3 месяца назад

@@GirlGoneLondonofficial....Did you get marked down for "incorrect" spelling when you did your Masters etc??😊😊😊😊

@101steel4 3 месяца назад

@@jamesbeeching6138when my cousin first moved to the US, his son got marked down in a spelling test at his new school. All his answers were correct in English 😂😂

@billspence1799 3 месяца назад

A friend brought her kids home from Alabama to Scotland when on of the said we learned a new word today _ mere. How is that spelled? MIRROR. Enough.

@jillybrooke29 3 месяца назад

I went to Honor Oak School and I wondered about the spelling. I thought it was from Tudor times (Elizabeth I sat under the Oak of Honor to rest on her way to Kent) so no one changed it

@terryhayward7905 3 месяца назад

Spelling is not the real problem pronunciation is, for instance Solder, in America is sodder, buoy, pronounced Boy in the UK and booee in the US (and makes no sense). mirror, pronounced as it is spelt in the UK, and meer in the US. There are many many more.

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Definitely some really interesting ones there! I've come across the solder vs sodder one before and was very confused.

@elijahsmall5873 3 месяца назад

Mirror isn’t pronounced how it’s spelled in the UK.

@continental_drift 3 месяца назад

@@GirlGoneLondonofficial US pronunciation of solder is closer to the French "souder" meaning solder..

@terryhayward7905 3 месяца назад

@@GirlGoneLondonofficial Another one that I hear from Some Americans, not all, is nucular or nukiller for nuclear.

@idlewild13l 3 месяца назад

I love love love your top, where did you get it?

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Thank you! A store called American Eagle in the US. :)

@mikecoulson9709 3 месяца назад

In Australia labour is spelt with a U unless referring to Australian Labor Party

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Oh that's interesting!

@valeriedavidson2785 2 месяца назад

@@GirlGoneLondonofficial Australians learn proper Oxford English same as New Zealand, Europ, Africa and as far as I know, most of the countries in the world.

@jorgegarcia-wy2gd 2 месяца назад

Interesting. Could you make a vid about the different spellings of words ending in "-tre" (UK) and "-ter" (USA)? Such as centre/center,theatre/theater,metre/meter...

@jeremybarker7577 3 месяца назад

Many years ago I read the log book from a Royal Navy ship written in the late 19th century. It consistently used the "American" spellings for "honor" and "color" (that I can remember with certainty) and may have used what were (from a British viewpoint) non-standard spellings for other words too.

@davidjones332 3 месяца назад

From what I've seen of naval memoirs, reports and signals, literacy wasn't afforded a very high priority at Osborne or Dartmouth. Naval officers began their careers at twelve of fourteen and by the time they'd learnt the function of a hundred different ropes and sails, celestial navigation, gunnery and seamanship, there doesn't seem to have been much time for spelling and grammar.

@jamesbeeching6138 3 месяца назад

Good video GGL!! Many contrafibulations on making this issue simple...Basically Webster wrote/formalised American English.....

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

I'm just waiting for the comment section to have a meltdown about it all. ;) Thanks for watching!

@susiepeters67 3 месяца назад

Simplified rather than formalised

@misolgit69 3 месяца назад

so if Webster took the pruning shears to English language (spelling) who was it who decided to mess with the weights and measures ?

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

a great question and topic for another video!

@robertburroughs8856 3 месяца назад

Looks so my pleasing to the eye with the u in it.

@cogent28 3 месяца назад

How do you rationalise (-ize) the extinction of the verb forms of words like 'license' and ' practise' in American English, yet the retention of the word'license' as a noun? There's a quirk for you! Thanks for your postings, they're interesting for pedants like me!

@normanfairbrass7275 3 месяца назад

Honor Oak named after the Honor Oak tree on nearby One Tree Hill. Queen Elizabeth 1 is suposed to have rested under it.

@falaise6077 3 месяца назад

Can you do theatre v theater? Branson, Missouri has lots of them spelt both ways!

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Definitely on my list! I'll make a note of it!

@BrandonLeeBrown 3 месяца назад

In America some places use theatre and cinema in their business names to be fashionable or for style. In general, American English uses theater to refer to a physical location and theatre for the industry. American English also uses cinema for stylized business names, but cinema in American English generally refers to the industry, and not the physical location where motion picture films are shown.

@Equiluxe1 3 месяца назад

Have you heard about the Russian learning english, he got off the tube and saw a sign reading " Pygmalion pronounced success" so he shot himself. Old joke and for those who do not know Pygmalion was a west end play that eventually was turned into the film, My fair lady.

@Whiteshirtloosetie Месяц назад

I think language and spelling an interesting subject. To me the "U" makes total sense. Color without a 'U' or lack of a second letter 'L' changes the rules of the way it sounds so 'in my opinion' without it Color should be pronounced as "Coalor". The spelling Colour the 'U' changes the sound of the whole word as it is actually pronounced. Just to add can understand why there are different spellings when reading different old English things including maps from the 17th Century how people think a place sounds. I've even seen Facebook officially get things wrong when not understanding local dialects.

@grahamstubbs4962 3 месяца назад

Well, that's the 'nited states for you... 😀

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Haha, love that!

@0cgw 3 месяца назад

In UK English, we have the spellings "honour" but "honorary", and "rigour" but "rigorous". The "u" is dropped in some derivative words.

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

A great example of where it differs!

@davidjames4915 3 месяца назад

The funniest part of all this is that the French spelling actually makes more sense *in English* than either competing native English spelling, e.g. we could have "flaveur" for flavour/flavor since "eur" is a better representation of the pronunciation of that part of the word than "or" or "our" (just think of how you pronounce those as words...).

@maudeboggins9834 3 месяца назад

Gosh you have really done your homework. But my son told me that the "u" was omitted due to printing back in the day. Each letter cost money so omitting the "u" saved costs in the US

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Interesting! I didn't come across that in my research, but an interesting theory!

@bobclarke1815 3 месяца назад

The word that annoys me the most is "BOUY". In the USA its pronounced BOO EE in the UK its pronounced BOY.

@loc4725 3 месяца назад

What grates with me is how Americans, and some Europeans who have apparently learned the American pronunciation pronounce some words and even person's names. So for example 'Vitamin' is made up of two Latin words ('Vit' + 'Amin') and, being Latin it has a formalised pronunciation (it doesn't change and has a fixed International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) equivalent). And "vie-tamin" _isn't_ it. Similarly J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame has gone on record saying she has had arguments with Americans over how you pronounce "Rowling". Apparently the fact that it's her name and that she probably therefore knows how it's pronounced often doesn't carry any weight in such arguments... And don't get me started on people who claim they they can converse in Iraqi Arabic but who simultaneously cannot pronounce it with any degree of accuracy.

@0utcastAussie 3 месяца назад

My Surname is Hovell so I can sympathise with her. Clue... There's two "L"'s not one. So yes they are pronouncing the Hume & Hovell highway wrong. Hey Ho.. They call me Shovel at work but I tell them that's my wife. (Her name is Susan)

@BnaaUK 3 месяца назад

What is the name of your other channel? I have been looking but unable to find it.

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

It's called All-American Atlas. :)

@richardlucas5234 3 месяца назад

All languages change over time. As to English spelling: you spelt as you felt. Shakespeare spelt HIS name four different ways.

@farrier2708 3 месяца назад

My favourite (with a "U") trans-pond word is "program". We Brit's spell it "Programme" but the US have provided with a new word all together. A programme, still defines a TV transmission or a work plan. A program, on the other hand, is specific to computer software. Nice one USA! You have given the Kings English a word that is not an acronym. 😎👍

@merrygoblin 3 месяца назад

Also, arguably, disc (something round - like a compact disc) and disk (a computer disk - floppy disk, hard disk, etc.).

@davidjames4915 3 месяца назад

In Canada we have made a similar differentiation. While it's not universal, the farm implement tends to be spelled "plough" but the blade used to clear snow from the road is usually "plow", i.e. "snow plow" or indeed "snowplow".

@jpatpat9360 Месяц назад

I love real (UK) English - it's quirky, expressive, idiomatic and has wonderful literature - I'm South African BTW, old school. For every rule there's an exception, and only native speakers can really get it right, so its quite snobby in a way. As an older person I often get demented with irritation that people can't spell anymore, incl the younger native Brits. I wonder if social media and modern schooling will result in English becoming a hotchpotch bastard language in the future

@lancepenman5471 3 месяца назад

changing spelling was not just down to rejection if British rule but also a dislike of Johnson who had oposed the revolution when many British liberal polititiona suported it. Johnson was a liflong campaigner against slavery in the British colonies and when the Americans revolted in the name of "liberty" he denounced them as hypocrits while still owning slaves. When he published stating this Americans burnt his books as and early example of their belieif in the first amendment.

@robharris8844U 2 месяца назад

As a Brit I do not agree with the " u" being dropped colour, humour, look better and sound better. However one change I agreed to many years ago is "Jail" as opposed to olde English " Gaol" for a prison that Webster should be locked up in! 😂

@lawrencenoctor2703 3 месяца назад

I thought it had to do with the coming of telegraph. It was cheeper to omit needless letters.

@merrygoblin 3 месяца назад

I may be wrong, but I thought they charged per word, rather than by letter STOP

@what-uc 3 месяца назад

I didn't know until I checked just now, but neighbo(u)r is germanic! A better example would be labo(u)r and laborious

@insoft_uk 3 месяца назад

In the world of programming American English is preferred like Color as a programmer I’ve always spelt Colour as Color , and Randomize with a Z, even tho I’m British as being brought up with computers in the 80s I’ve become accustomed to American English than British English

@fus149hammer5 2 месяца назад

I would give my opinion on why the americans use different spellings for english words but I'm too much of a gentleman to do so.😂

@cogent28 3 месяца назад

ANOTHER THING: Why do Americans alway use constructions like 'If I would have known of the circumstances' instead of simply. 'If I had known of the circumstances...'. Oh and why do they say 'so-and-so was laying on the bed'. What was he laying? Eggs? And we brits always used to speak of A 'SHEDULE', not a 'SKEDULE'. It's prevalent now in the UK, so I shouldn't complain so much.

@MrGBH 3 месяца назад

As an amateur writer, I use these differences to imply accents

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Very interesting!

@leightonolsson4846 3 месяца назад

I will defend our use in the UK of unnecessary double consonants (talking about dem Ls etc - it just scans better) in words to my bitter, bitter end. Also why, in US jewelry instead of JEWELLERY. Jewelry sounds like the spelling someone semi-literate would use....😋

@glynnwright1699 3 месяца назад

Pre 1755, spelling in English documents is all over the place. I often wondered why it became much more standardised. I went to a 'Grammar School' that was founded in 1487, so this has left me wondering who, or what, defined Grammar in general, and the spelling in particular, for the first 300 years before Johnson? Did the universities impose some sort of regulation for 'correct' English?

@john_g_harris 3 месяца назад

Back then the academic language was Latin, so the spelling of English words didn't matter.

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

That is an interesting thought! I feel like it must have been a little bit of a free-for-all, certainly seemed that way in my research, but possibly down to each individual institution, as you say!

@glynnwright1699 3 месяца назад

@_harris ChatGPT agrees with you. "The curriculum in these schools was heavily influenced by classical education, and Latin was seen as essential for education and intellectual development. Students would study Latin literature, philosophy, and rhetoric, and the emphasis was on reading, writing, and speaking Latin fluently. English grammar, as a formal subject of study, did not receive significant attention in schools until later periods. The Renaissance and the Reformation played a role in increasing the focus on vernacular languages, including English. As time progressed, the curriculum in grammar schools evolved to incorporate English language and literature alongside Latin. By the 19th century, the curriculum in grammar schools became more balanced, and English grammar and literature gained prominence alongside classical languages. The shift towards including English in the curriculum was part of a broader movement towards providing a more practical and inclusive education that reflected the changing needs of society." So, you might reasonably assume that any 'unofficial' rules in English would use a Latin template. So Webster was more 'English' in his process than Johnson! :)

@glynnwright1699 3 месяца назад

@neLondonofficial This is quite fascinating, I just chatted with some of my scientist friends and family. They pointed out that the lack of formal spelling and grammar in vernacular languages prior to the renaissance meant that they were unsuitable for expressing ideas and communicating concepts in mathematics and Natural Philosophy. So Newton wrote Principia Mathematica in Latin and Linnaeus used Latin for his classification system.

@lucyj8204 3 месяца назад

Also note that although GLAMOUR has a U, GLAMOROUS only has one.

@philipellis7039 3 месяца назад

Sorry, not on topic but this morning on my Facebook feed there was something about Americans not using the phrase Fancy Dress in the way that Brits do. This was a new one on me and wasn’t really sure it was true? Anyway, going to listen to some (American rock band) Living Colour now…

@mirfjc 3 месяца назад

Great video again! Do you now also end up feeling like the divisions are all pretty silly? For me, seeing different spellings and pronunciations ends up just being "cool, that's really interesting difference" and I also notice that differences don't usually actually break on national borders. I grew up with soft drinks as pop (1980's Yorkshire) but apparently so did friends I later met from parts of the mid-west. I grew up going to the shopping centre, but with my parent's putting the car in a John F. Kennedy pronounced car-park. While most US accents are rhotic, some are not, and there is both across the UK. After lots of frustration in early days in the US with somehow being English but viewed as not quite speaking it right (wait, that's violates definition, right?!) (I was in a meeting once with a few guys from non-English speaking countries, plus one American and an Israeli colleague commented that the American was the only native English speaking in the room 🤣 "Well, I actually consider myself to be..." 🤣). I think there was also come concern that I ought to have taken the Test of English as a Foreign Language before enrolling in the US grad school 🤦. Anyway, my feelings now are just that we miss a lot by have rigid nationalist positions on English. I'd much rather the dictionary companies get together and abandon nationalism and make available a range of acceptable options. Surely the most important common denominator or English is freedom!, right? Give us options and let us choose! I now rather like center and theater as spellings, but I also think color looks ugly and diminished. But no English speaker of any shade does not understand what a shopping centre is, or what the color purple refers to, or what a lack of honour means. We don't need to be nanny-stated on tiny spelling issues. We're just being asses when we choke on these things. Let's get the nationalist BS out of English and live in a bigger, more fun, diverse world!

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Oh yes I think it's silly to argue over the differences because as you say, they change over time anyway and the more time you spend in other countries or in other English speaking countries that do things differently, the more you just see things as interesting rather than something to fight over!

@aaronhunyady 3 месяца назад

America is so powerful, it went back in time to change the spelling of color in latin.

@clmjohn 2 месяца назад

That’s one of the reasons Americans drive on the right instead of the left they did it to get away from anything from the British way .

@ShaneH42 3 месяца назад

Well now I know, great explanation! I assume the same reason is behind the American preference for “z” with words otherwise spelt with an “s”, but why do Americans say “zee” and Brits “zed”? That could perhaps be another video 😊

@rogerjenkinson7979 3 месяца назад

@@marydavis5234Dee is a man's name in Britain

@0cgw 3 месяца назад

My understanding that "zee" arose from an American song in the 19th century used to teach children the alphabet. To get the song to scan the authors renamed the last letter of the alphabet (it would be an extremely effective way to introduce a new name for the letter to entire population). The letter "zed" comes from Greek zeta (only y and z come to the Latin alphabet from Greek, the other letters come from Etruscan). Also, I would not be surprised if the great vowel shift had a role in the pronunciation along the way. Personally I use OED spellings. These have had a preference for -ize- forms rather than -ise- when the root of the word is Latin/Greek, the -ise- form coming to us via the French. However, we do have words like practise, advise, analyse that should not be spelt with a zed.

@sheerluckholmes7720 3 месяца назад

Hello neighbours, I've run out of aluminium foil 😧

@Brummy46 3 месяца назад

Try public and publick, even Johnson couldn’t make his mind up

@thepostapocalyptictrio4762 Месяц назад

This is all kind of funny considering Samuel Johnson’s dislike of Americans.

@stephenlee5929 3 месяца назад

Hi Kalyn, So the Americans took the 'U 'out of their 'British' spelling? Where should it have been? Maybe after the 2nd 'i'? 😁

@matc6221 3 месяца назад

Thanks GGL, very interesting! At this minute I can only come up with 'rout' not that the 'u' is missing from the American obviously, but more the fact that Brits pronounced it 'root'. Its probably from French?? (wild guess). But hey, this is an infinite subject 😉👍👍👍👍👍

@CherylVogler 3 месяца назад

I think Americans can pronounce it both ways. I would say 'root' 66, but "I took an alternate 'rout' today".

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Definitely interesting on the "route" front - I also say it both ways as an American depending on the context, similar to Cheryl!

@matc6221 3 месяца назад

@@CherylVogler 'Root' 66, yes of course!

@andyf4292 3 месяца назад

laziness? and they could somehow arrange to be horrible to someone

@ronkelley5348 3 месяца назад

The other factor is that spellings tend to reflect how words were pronounced. Spelling got 'locked' with the invention of printing. In words like 'night the 'gh' was pronounced so it was nearer to the German 'nicht'. Similarly with the 'k' in words like knight and knife. Pronunciation changes over time but because of printing we've retained the original spellings even where they no longer make much sense and don't align with modern pronunciation. The C18th and C19th saw grammarians forcing English to align with classical models from Ancient Greek and Latin, which is a nonsense since they are inflected languages and English isn't. This leads to nonsense like the 'rule' about split infinitives - because you can't do that in Latin. It's also why words like 'debt' have a 'b' in them that is not pronounced... So, you kind of understand where Webster was coming from, but it's a pointless exercise...

@RylanceStreet 3 месяца назад

I think most Brits are familiar with the US/British differences, like ..or/..our, ..ize/..ise, ..er/..re. But I found it really confusing when I worked in Canada for a while that they use the US spelling for some words and the British spelling for others!

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Oh man, that must be difficult!

@john_smith1471 3 месяца назад

I wonder what Americans think if they see the Britannic spellings: coeliac/diarrhoea/paediatrician/manoeuvre/

@john43397 3 месяца назад

Honor Oak correctly spelled after the correctly spelled word Honorific or honorific's, the Titles that The English language gives to certain people with letters after their names BSC PHD MD and Honor Oak Is to Honor The Queen's Oak combined with possibly a mistake on the first early map and the spelling stuck. Honouring Kings and Queen's oaks after Oak Trees where Kings and Queens once sat or picnicked meet or even knighted people or whatever is a long historical English Tradition. Spelling and pronunciation has always been changing here and over there in America, also bear in mind that uneducated people of which there were many more in ancient times would spell a word as it sounded to them, not knowing the perceived correct way of spelling a particular word.

@BBKing1977 3 месяца назад

"If you're new here, my name as Kalyn..." Ok, but what's your name if I'm NOT new here?

@mattpotter8725 3 месяца назад

🤣🤣🤣 very good!!!

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

hahaha, in that case it's Sarah

@BBKing1977 3 месяца назад

@@GirlGoneLondonofficial Got it... thanks Sarah! 🤪

@AutoReport1 3 месяца назад

They didn't take it out, the British added it. For many words the OED states the spelling varies in Britain according individual publishers' style guides.

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

you could also look at it that way, yeah!

@wessexdruid7598 3 месяца назад

Noah Webster deliberately tried to simplify it. Many of his new spellings were just not accepted, e.g. 'wimmin', 'soop', 'dawter' and many more.

@geemo4284 3 месяца назад

So the British didn’t add anything, they just decided to drop some spellings, instead of having more than one.

@felixalbion 3 месяца назад

America has murdered the English language both in spelling and pronunciation

@michaelmccarthy6464 3 месяца назад

why do say u as o and take the t out of words like picture

@Temeraire101 2 месяца назад

How about spell it like most say it ‘Culor’?

@swampy319 3 месяца назад

Theres a book about johnston belived called the dictionary people

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

Will have to look it up!

@jollyroger5147 3 месяца назад

the American Constitution is written in British English! lol

@chriswalker8132 3 месяца назад

Is this the same for the americans overuse of 'Z' instead of 'S' like utilize, specialize etc?

@GirlGoneLondonofficial 3 месяца назад

I think I'll do an entire video on this difference as well to see if we can find a reason!

@timbridges4246 3 месяца назад

"ize" remains the preferred OED spelling for many words, we just don't use them 😂. There's an episode of Inspector Morse where he clears a suspect based on this observation.