Non Americans: Does seeing American English bother you?

[UberNoodle]

by starting with "American english" even from here its wrong and highly unneducated.
Theres no such thing!
America its the whole continent, not just the US.
Same to refering the USA as "America" or its ppl "Americans" which technically they are, but not in the sense they refer to.

What would you have us call ourselves? United Statians? American is the only identifier we have that both makes a little sense and doesn't sound ridiculous

My friend even "United statians" its wrong since every union of city states are called United States, just like half the cuntries in the globe are named;
"United States of (insert country name here)"

Maybe "Capitalistians" or ... err.... sorry, i dont wanted to troll, but its how i think.

Actually, America is a fully accepted synonym for the USA, as it is an abbreviation. The 'A' in 'USA' IS in fact 'America'.

When referring to the continents, the plural 'Americas' is most often used. In the singular and by itself, America is almost always used to refer to the USA. When paired with modifiers such as North, South or Central, it refers to those geographic regions of the continental landmass known as 'the Americas'.

The adjective, 'American', similarly when used alone, is almost always in reference to the USA. And let's not forget that citizens of the USA themselves, use the words 'America' and 'American' in these ways to refer to themselves. Even American presidents use these terms!

I find it hilarious that you are treating words as static things unable to change, serve multiple contexts or be corrupted. They mean only what they are most widely accepted to mean in a community/population, and for an individual, there can be even more subjectivity in meaning. You are just splitting hairs. Words only have meaning through context, and when the context is right, so is the meaning.

You are most certainly splitting hairs.

 

[Pat8u]

The I have to tell them its the Americans that swapped it for god knows what reason.

It dates back to the Revolution. Because the States were originally English colonies they were essentially displaced Englishmen when the war ended. So over the intervening years between the end of the Revolution and the War of 1812, Americans changed spellings and small things to separate themselves from the British and give themselves a unique nationality.

It's actually a pretty interesting piece of history if that interests you.

I understand why they did it but it doesn't excuse the fact that it is stupid. I mean realise/realize...WHY?!?!!? If Australia becomes a republic I doubt that will happen. Even words like armour/armor...They realise that armor should be pronounced ar-mor. Considering English is the formation of several languages (German, Latin, French, Italian etc) and amore (Pronounce A-Mor-E (Italian)) is the closest resemblance to armor therefore armor is just wrong.

I REALISE that most of the English language is made up of inconsistencies and breaks its own rules (i before e except after c) but the Americans didn't have to make it worse.

Do you realise how tortuous it is living in Aus and being confused over how a word is spelt (I JUST HAD TO CHECK THAT I HAD SPELT RIGHT!!!!)? I have to use spell checker on computers just to make sure I'm not using American spelling, it doesn't help that spell checkers are by default set to American. I've lost marks for my Psych Essays because of it.

It is just really petty in my opinion. Changing things like that just doesn't make sense.


I'm sorry, but it was a petty move by the Americans and really doesn't help anyone at all. They just made the English language worse than it was.

what would we call australia if that happenned the republic of australia? cause that name is awesome

 

[maninahat]

a) Just because something was inspired by something else doesn't mean that they didn't invent it. It's like saying that Ford didn't invent the first car, because he was somewhat influenced by the design of a carriage, that just doesn't hold up. If the English, who invented English, accept something from another country that influences their language, then it becomes, 'real English'. Rome wasn't built in a day, and even though the building designs were somewhat influenced by towns and cities in the middle east, I would still credit the Romans for building their city.

The analogy would be more accurate of language if the Romans physically lifted buildings out of foreign cities and deposited them within the city walls. That isn't "inventing" a city, so much as appropriating one. British wasn't just "inspired" by other cultures words, they took words wholesale. Hell, we didn't even have a word for the colour orange until Henry VIII. Before then, we just called it red-yellow, and it wasn't until some courtier introduced the foreign word "orange" to the King that it caught on. Etymology of words is a fascinating subject which I could talk about all day. The short of it is that there are surprisingly few words that are purely invented in the UK. Even "British" words like "meme", as coined by Englishman Richard Dawkins, weren't invented by us. Dawkins simply shortened down a pre existing greek term that meant the same thing.

b)That's very interesting but just because you change the rules for something you invent doesn't mean you didn't invent it, it just gives sympathy to those who don't want to keep up with, 'real English', invented by the English.

On the contrary, the most common complaint you get from language snobs is how foreigners don't pronounce or spell words the same as they do. These complaints might make sense if these arbiters of language obeyed those same rules. In the United Kindom, no two counties pronounce words exactly the same, so who really can I credit as being the correct, official speaker of English which we should all standardise to? Even the Queen's English is occasionally abused by the Queen, who has something of an Essex accent at times.

c) Good for the Americans, another reason why one would understand that they don't want to keep up with, 'real English', but that doesn't disprove my point.

Your point was that there was a "real English", and I contest that. Even if there was, The British today have not been consistent with the "real English" that existed 200 or 400 years ago, so they have no right to complain when someone else appears to be speaking a "different english".

d)Arrogance is an exaggerated sense of ones importance or abilities. If a British person walked around continuously talking about how they speak 'real English', just to annoy people then I can see how that would be douchy, but at the end of the day it's still true, (and I'm not British).

But it isn't true at all. If we didn't come up with most of the words, if we regularly change those words, if we change the pronounciation, or grammar, or spelling, than we can't really claim there is a perfect English, nor can we pretend to speak it, and nor should enforce it.

 

[UberNoodle]

i want to know which is the most commonly used pronounciation for the letter z is it zed or zee?

also every programming thing I have used always uses color instead colour which annoys the fuck out of me

Zee is American and most common there. 'Zed' is the closest to the letter's etymological roots ('zeta').

"zed: c.1400, from M.Fr. 'zede', from L.L. 'zeta', from Gk. 'zeta', from Heb. zayin, letter name, lit. "weapon;" so called in allusion to the shape of this letter in ancient Hebrew. U.S. pronunciation zee is first attested 1670s. Other dialectal names for the letter are izzard, ezod, uzzard, and zod." (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=zed)

 

[JackyG]

Not when I see it, for example I can understand why the franchise "Medal of Honor" would use the american spelling. in fact it would look weird if it didn't. but I spell it honour in all other cases. Because that is the correct English spelling for me.

if it annoys you, just click "add to dictionary" and pretend you're teaching them proper English ;p

 

[thylasos]

*big old snip*

The idea of linguistic purity, or 'correctness' of one's language is such a preposterously recent idea, based upon the false premise of an original base-line "english", as to be entirely laughable.

Our language, as with all others subjected to the vagaries of being used in everyday speech over any period of time, is mongrel and always has been.

I dare say the ancient anglo-saxons would be disgusted what us frenchified-latinised unenglish mongrels have done with their aenglisc. Except they wouldn't be able to agree how to spell it, due to the lack of a unified spelling system and the presence of vast regional variations EVEN THEN.

In turn, their cousins in Saxony would be very surprised at the turn their language had taken.

We can take that line of thought back to Proto-Indo-European.

The idea of a standard written language is a matter of convenience, such a thing has never existed in speech, and never has there been the wherewithal or popular desire to unite the english-speaking world under one spelling-system.

It's much simpler to just accept regional variation. Otherwise you start to sound a bit like the Academie Francaise, a laughing-stock of irrelevance in a vibrant and evolving french-speaking world incorporating elements of other languages, as has always happened, for various reasons, whilst maintaining an easily comprehensible written standard, with variations small enough as to be mutually comprehensible.

Also, the modern motor-car is widely recognised to have been invented by Karl Benz.

 

[maninahat]

I've said it once and I'll say it again, just because you modify what you invent, it doesn't take away the fact that you invented it.
Also Ford's cars contained various things he didn't invent, though I still believe he invented the car, even though he was inspired by, and even took things from others.

But my argument was that they didn't really invent anything. They simply inherited a bunch of words from other places, and added very little. I don't think that Ford's car is comparable to the English language, in the sense that a) he didn't invent the car (he invented "mass production") and b) Ford was endeavouring to design and construct cars, whereas no one in England was striving to manufacture a language. Esperanto is a manufactured language. English isn't. It is the result of a long, organic process.

The point of this topic was to ask whether it was okay for American english to spell things differently. English people do not have an automatic and exclusive ownership to the English language.

 

[robert01]

Naw it doesn't bother me. Only when people feel the need to point out and 'correct' me for spelling something 'wrong' when in my country it is correct.

 

[Iklwa]

I do find it a little annoying, but not as much as I find the way Americans pronounce some words. I'm an Australian, and I'm sick and tired of hearing yanks pronounce the 'u'. It's a-stralia, not aw-stralia. I do find the red line very annoying. I know what I'm saying, goddamnit!

Now see, I never knew that. We can learn from each other everybody!

Also, from one American to another...I physically twitched when you called us "Amies". From my wide variety of foreign friends I have been called American, Unionist, Colonist (jokingly), and United. All of these are just fine with me. Never Amie, though. /shiver

Also, I was extremely confused as a child on the subject of "center" and "centre". I was told the first one, but saw the other in my parents' car's middle seat all the time.

 

[Kargathia]

I love variation and genuine dialect, so.... not really.

Proud non-user of FF spellchecker(I don't need training wheels), so that doesn't bother me with inane rectifications either.

 

[NinjaZat]

To be honest american way of spelling is indeed dumbed down, americans were founded by people from all over europe migrating into a new continent and even though the english language dominated it was dumbed down so all the people who moved there with different native tongues would learn it easier.

I can't complain about american spelling since i generally don't like americans as a people

 

[Creator002]

Unless I'm being told I'm wrong, I ding really care. Seeing "color" and similar words is a little jarring (especially on my Gameboy "Color"), but I can overlook it.
Thankfully, the iPhone comes with a British English setting, so I don't have to be thrown off so much, though I usually have it in German anyway.

It annoys me when Americans say Melbourne, because they pronouce it really weirdly. It's not "MEL-born" it's "mel-burn".

Ah, yes. This annoys the Hell out of me too. Usually, most Americans will remember how to pronounce it once told though.

 

[DragonFae]

Australia is pronounced "Aw-streyl-ya" not "ah-streyl-ya".

As an Aussie you should know this, or would you call yourself an "ahssie"?

No, we call ourselves ozzies, not ahssies. And we seriously do not pronounce the 'w'. We say the word as 'ah-stray-lee-ah'.

 

[DragonFae]

Gah, double post.

 

[Castian Blake]

by starting with "American english" even from here its wrong and highly unneducated.
Theres no such thing!
America its the whole continent, not just the US.
Same to refering the USA as "America" or its ppl "Americans" which technically they are, but not in the sense they refer to.

What would you have us call ourselves? United Statians? American is the only identifier we have that both makes a little sense and doesn't sound ridiculous

My friend even "United statians" its wrong since every union of city states are called United States, just like half the cuntries in the globe are named;
"United States of (insert country name here)"

Maybe "Capitalistians" or ... err.... sorry, i dont wanted to troll, but its how i think.

Actually, America is a fully accepted synonym for the USA, as it is an abbreviation. The 'A' in 'USA' IS in fact 'America'.

When referring to the continents, the plural 'Americas' is most often used. In the singular and by itself, America is almost always used to refer to the USA. When paired with modifiers such as North, South or Central, it refers to those geographic regions of the continental landmass known as 'the Americas'.

The adjective, 'American', similarly when used alone, is almost always in reference to the USA. And let's not forget that citizens of the USA themselves, use the words 'America' and 'American' in these ways to refer to themselves. Even American presidents use these terms!

I find it hilarious that you are treating words as static things unable to change, serve multiple contexts or be corrupted. They mean only what they are most widely accepted to mean in a community/population, and for an individual, there can be even more subjectivity in meaning. You are just splitting hairs. Words only have meaning through context, and when the context is right, so is the meaning.

You are most certainly splitting hairs.

Im happy for the quotng you give me!
so, let's start by this;
WHEN its paired with north,central and south, together these are American regions, not the "Americas", the Americas were used by foreign conquistadores.
The WHOLE continents name its America, thus everyone living are Americans, northAmericans refer to Canadians,USA's,Mexicans,and other island nations.
America as an adjetive its the whole, but the USA does NOT use it as it is but as an acronym, which its well accepted, yes as you said, but still wrong.
The fact your ppl, famous and even the president say it that way just shows how depth its this issue, how wrong and baddly used the acronym USA is.

"American United States of Mexico" its its official name,same with the rest of American countries except, of course USA.
"serve multiple contexts or be corrupted" i didin't,USA culture did, its my whole point.

"I find it hilarious that you are treating words as static things unable to change"
im treating words as they are,what they really mean, words will always mean the same.
the word "cool" its refered to as cold, AND to a nice thing, which one is wrong? even if the last its widely used its still WRONG.
Ppl outside the culture group that uses "cool" wrongly, uses "cool" by ts REAL meaning.


YES i know its widely used and accepted,like the cigar. But still Wrong.
Oh and by the way, America its NOT a synonim of the USA, its a Continent's Name.
The USA its an acronym, and i don't understad why, a certain country's name.

 

[UberNoodle]

by starting with "American english" even from here its wrong and highly unneducated.
Theres no such thing!
America its the whole continent, not just the US.
Same to refering the USA as "America" or its ppl "Americans" which technically they are, but not in the sense they refer to.

What would you have us call ourselves? United Statians? American is the only identifier we have that both makes a little sense and doesn't sound ridiculous

My friend even "United statians" its wrong since every union of city states are called United States, just like half the cuntries in the globe are named;
"United States of (insert country name here)"

Maybe "Capitalistians" or ... err.... sorry, i dont wanted to troll, but its how i think.

Actually, America is a fully accepted synonym for the USA, as it is an abbreviation. The 'A' in 'USA' IS in fact 'America'.

When referring to the continents, the plural 'Americas' is most often used. In the singular and by itself, America is almost always used to refer to the USA. When paired with modifiers such as North, South or Central, it refers to those geographic regions of the continental landmass known as 'the Americas'.

The adjective, 'American', similarly when used alone, is almost always in reference to the USA. And let's not forget that citizens of the USA themselves, use the words 'America' and 'American' in these ways to refer to themselves. Even American presidents use these terms!

I find it hilarious that you are treating words as static things unable to change, serve multiple contexts or be corrupted. They mean only what they are most widely accepted to mean in a community/population, and for an individual, there can be even more subjectivity in meaning. You are just splitting hairs. Words only have meaning through context, and when the context is right, so is the meaning.

You are most certainly splitting hairs.

Im happy for the quotng you give me!
so, let's start by this;
WHEN its paired with north,central and south, together these are American regions, not the "Americas", the Americas were used by foreign conquistadores.
The WHOLE continents name its America, thus everyone living are Americans, northAmericans refer to Canadians,USA's,Mexicans,and other island nations.
America as an adjetive its the whole, but the USA does NOT use it as it is but as an acronym, which its well accepted, yes as you said, but still wrong.
The fact your ppl, famous and even the president say it that way just shows how depth its this issue, how wrong and baddly used the acronym USA is.

"American United States of Mexico" its its official name,same with the rest of American countries except, of course USA.
"serve multiple contexts or be corrupted" i didin't,USA culture did, its my whole point.

"I find it hilarious that you are treating words as static things unable to change"
im treating words as they are,what they really mean, words will always mean the same.
the word "cool" its refered to as cold, AND to a nice thing, which one is wrong? even if the last its widely used its still WRONG.
Ppl outside the culture group that uses "cool" wrongly, uses "cool" by ts REAL meaning.


YES i know its widely used and accepted,like the cigar. But still Wrong.
Oh and by the way, America its NOT a synonim of the USA, its a Continent's Name.
The USA its an acronym, and i don't understad why, a certain country's name.

Sorry, thanks for the reply, but my post was correct.

'The Americas' is not just something that 'just the Conquistadors said'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americas

Please tell me where I was wrong on this. I wasn't.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_america
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_america

"im treating words as they are,what they really mean, words will always mean the same.
the word "cool" its refered to as cold, AND to a nice thing, which one is wrong? even if the last its widely used its still WRONG."

This, however, is wrong. Words mean whatever people agree for them to mean. You are also disregarding the entirely correct aspect of idiom in English. Thus the word 'America' and 'American' can be used in various ways, depending on context. All words have the potential to change meaning and nuance in a living language, therefore clinging onto immature concepts like 'right and wrong' is pointless.

So, in conclusion (again), the Americas (or alternatively America), North, Central and South, are geographical terms which mean specific things in that context. However, this thread and most discussions like it, are NOT in that context, and are instead in a colloquial context.

So, while 'the United States' is the formal name of the country, 'the US', 'the States' and 'America' are ALL 100% acceptable, widely used and 'correct', colloquial synonyms. This is not debatable, sorry, regardless if you consider any of them to be 'wrong'.




Also, as for 'wrong' English, here's a great example. Next time you put on an apron, make sure you call it a 'napron', because that, according to your stance, is the 'right' form of the word. Shifting the 'n' is the product of a corruption.

Or here's another example: next time you say that something is 'miniature', make sure you are in fact talking about finely detailed line-work, written in ink made from the red mineral, minium. Gives new meaning, or should I say, 'right' meaning to 'miniature poodle'.