Young Writers Society

My Dear Americans,

There is something I wish to direct your attentions to, and that something is the existence of British English. Although essentially the same as American English in all the important aspects (else one would cease to be English), there are several marked (but ultimately superficial) differences in typography, most noticeable of which involves spelling. Take "colour" and "favour", for instance: the presence of the "u" is deliberate, as are the "o" in "foetus" and the "a" in "encyclopaedia".

These so-called "extra letters" are not errors; they are in fact perfectly valid spellings. Please stop "correcting" them. It is mistakenly pedantic and ultimately futile considering that the rest of the world uses British English. Although, if one must be absolutely technical about it, the "ae" in "encyclopaedia" should be rendered "æ" with the "oe" in "foetus" similarly rendered as "œ". Alas, standard English keyboards do not come readily equipped with æsc and ethel keys, or ligature keys in general.

In any case, the fact of the matter is that, while Americans in general seem in favor of amputating letters willy-nilly, the British seem to have more of an appreciation for the history of our shared language and so retain the older, more historied spelling, just as Americans insist upon retaining the imperial system of measurement. Please keep that in mind before you go about "correcting" misspellings in an otherwise grammatically sound piece.

With Regards,



P. S. — Give up the imperial system. The British abandoned it years ago, and they invented it. Besides which, metric is far more sensible.

Oh my gosh, this is amazing!! This is what I've been looking for all my life, someone to just go out there and say it! And dude, seriously, we NEED to switch to metric. I try my best to convince people but not only am I one individual in an entire country, but I'm rather short for my age, which practically destoys my hope. Thank you so much for writing this because people must know this. And it all starts with one person, so thank you so much for stepping up and writing this. KEEP WRITING!!!

PFFT. We overthrew you once -- don't make us overthrow you again! Plus, we totally came up with the first dictionary... which means we standardized it first. The Brits, in this case, are the ones who went willy-nilly! Silly Brits.

And in order for us to accept metric... well... we would have to change football (YES, REAL FOOTBALL, NOT YOUR PANSY SOCCER) to go off the metric system. And that's not happening soon, lol! Just imagine all the football stadiums that would have to be changed! Though, in the scientific circles, we do use metric. What can I say? Slugs are gross.

Snoink, you assume I am British. It seems to be a rather common assumption. I do not know whether to be wounded or flattered.

In any case, you would stunt progress for the sake of a rugby rip-off? For shame! I am torn between admiration of your tenacity and exasperation at your foolishness.

P. S. — The misleadingly named "football" is pansier than rugby.

P. P. S. — You seem to be implying that the metric system is as gross as slugs. Surely that is just a case of poor wording.

Wounded, probably. But hey! Australia is awesome too! Just a bit strange!

And football is an American craze, lol. It's not just me... it's the nation. We're so awesome that we revolve our units around sports, lol. Bill Clinton actually signed something that made it official that metric units were to be used in the United States, but nobody listened to him.

Also, the slugs thing is a play on words. In the imperial system, there is a unit known as slugs. Look it up! But it's really convoluted. I used it once or twice for a couple physics problems -- hated it. I think, in the end, I converted all the weights to Newtons (because slugs is really a unit of weight-force as opposed to just mass-weight... uh huh) and did it that way. But another classmate absolutely adored slugs... he would actually convert the metric weights to slugs. But then again, he did shoot his neighbor's dog with the neighbor present (and then proceeded to complain how unfair it was for him to stay overnight in jail for that) so he's kind of crazy!

I feel I must point out that the 'older, historied' spelling is not actually older than the American spelling; before the American Revolution, there was very little standardization anyway. Some forty years after the Revolution, it happened that the men writing dictionaries in America went for simpler, slightly more phonetic spellings, while in England they preferred spellings that paid respect, as it were, to the French influence; hence all your unnecessary letters. That was when you got rid of all your z's, f'rinstance; earlier, it was common in England to spell words that even Americans now spell with an s with a z. Surprize, and so on.

However, I will fully support the suggestion that Americans stop correcting British spelling, just as soon as Brits stop laughing about my people's historic taste in presidents.

Dang it. Helpful got there before me.

I was just about to point out that 'z' was how it was in England itself before.

That said, I, living in a British-English-speaking country, tend to get bizarrely frustrated at Autocorrect. Force of habit and, I suspect, something of a self-righteous pompousness on (thinking I am) doing it the 'right' way (coughcough).

Oh yeah, and JINX to Helpful. (Again).

I must say, I'm American, and pretty much all I have to say in response is "Agreed."

-Coral-


P.S.
Football (American soccer) is 10x better than American football.

Hehe, this is great. In my opinion those letters which are in the British spelling and not the American spelling aren't 'extra letters', you can hear them when the words are pronounced properly

Australia is awesome too! Just a bit strange!

Yes Snoink, Australia is awesome, but, really? You think WE'RE strange??

And yay for football (soccer)!

ArticulateOverlord wrote:My Dear Americans,

There is something I wish to direct your attentions to, and that something is the existence of British English. Although essentially the same as American English in all the important aspects (else one would cease to be English), there are several marked (but ultimately superficial) differences in typography, most noticeable of which involves spelling. Take "colour" and "favour", for instance: the presence of the "u" is deliberate, as are the "o" in "foetus" and the "a" in "encyclopaedia".

These so-called "extra letters" are not errors; they are in fact perfectly valid spellings. Please stop "correcting" them. It is mistakenly pedantic and ultimately futile considering that the rest of the world uses British English. Although, if one must be absolutely technical about it, the "ae" in "encyclopaedia" should be rendered "æ" with the "oe" in "foetus" similarly rendered as "œ". Alas, standard English keyboards do not come readily equipped with æsc and ethel keys, or ligature keys in general.

In any case, the fact of the matter is that, while Americans in general seem in favor of amputating letters willy-nilly, the British seem to have more of an appreciation for the history of our shared language and so retain the older, more historied spelling, just as Americans insist upon retaining the imperial system of measurement. Please keep that in mind before you go about "correcting" misspellings in an otherwise grammatically sound piece.

With Regards,



P. S. — Give up the imperial system. The British abandoned it years ago, and they invented it. Besides which, metric is far more sensible.

Well now son wee goin' jus' have a talkin now. Y'see comin here wit cher fancy spellings and writ rules, well das jus' not how it goin' be, sooon.

I's goin' make it clear fer cha, nice clear like. USA! USA! USA! Dem's only three letters goin' next ta each otha.


In other comparison, I agree entirely. The language used in this country is maddening and ridiculous in its nature: it only serves functions set to measure or analyze ideas. Inherently the meaning of the language is non-existent when you break down the manner in which Americans actually speak.

http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures ... nd+Europe/

No place is better. We all have our flaws. And I'm not being mean about it. Credit goes to the creator.

Haha I love this so much!

In regards to switching to the metric system, it probably wouldn't work. In America, we have a great deal of people of people, all of whom are very dependent on the system we have now. It would cost a lot of money, too.

Every single football field, as well as tracks and swimming pools, (and we have a ton) like Snoink pointed out, would have to be redone. All of the signs on our highways (the ones that say how far a certain city or state is an such) would have to be removed and replaced. Most food packaging in grocery stores that offer very specific amounts (like pints of ice cream and milk gallons) would have to be reshaped. All of our scales which we use to way ourselves would be discarded and new ones would have to be created and brought into the country. Speedometers in cars would have to change, and gas stations would have to re-figure their pricing.

I suppose it could work, but it would take many, many years and a lot of money for everything to fully settle in.

As for spelling, I agree with you, but it's unfair to make assumptions. While many know differences like color/colour, it's impossible to know every difference. For instance, I did not know that the British spelled fetal with an o until reading this article. What if I saw that in someone's piece, and didn't know they were British? Even if I did, I might not be able to guess that it was a spelling difference.

Just my thoughts.

Elinor Brynn wrote: Every single football field, as well as tracks and swimming pools, (and we have a ton) like Snoink pointed out, would have to be redone. All of the signs on our highways (the ones that say how far a certain city or state is an such) would have to be removed and replaced. Most food packaging in grocery stores that offer very specific amounts (like pints of ice cream and milk gallons) would have to be reshaped. All of our scales which we use to way ourselves would be discarded and new ones would have to be created and brought into the country. Speedometers in cars would have to change, and gas stations would have to re-figure their pricing.

I suppose it could work, but it would take many, many years and a lot of money for everything to fully settle in.

Anything in the US will always be expensive because we're a large country. That's not the point; what is is getting people to back decisions to create and enforce widespread change. We've done this many times, but resistance in this country is annoyingly strong despite when reality shows we would be better off with something else.

Would that be the same for adopting more of British English again? No, I highly doubt it. Linguistics is a two way street, but very chaotic and limited in what actually occurs.

Elinor Brynn wrote:As for spelling, I agree with you, but it's unfair to make assumptions. While many know differences like color/colour, it's impossible to know every difference. For instance, I did not know that the British spelled fetal with an o until reading this article. What if I saw that in someone's piece, and didn't know they were British? Even if I did, I might not be able to guess that it was a spelling difference.

Most reliable online dictionaries note differences in British and American spellings and usage. As for knowing whether or not someone is British, it is irrelevant; most of the world is taught British English and therefore uses British English. If a piece is grammatically sound aside from certain consistent "misspellings", then the odds are in favor of those "misspellings" not being misspellings at all. It is always a good idea to look up a word that is spelt oddly before correcting it; it may be a misspelling, or it may not be.

To Helpful and Navita:

I am well aware of the history of the spellings on both sides of the pond, but including it and making it humorous at the same time? Well, I lacked the energy and inspiration for it. It is nice to see others out there who know their language history, however.

To my dear Snoink:

As awesome as it would be to be Australian, I am, unfortunately, not.

And I was not aware of slugs being a unit. They sound nightmarish.

Concerning the metric and other jibes:

It seems some of you are taking it a touch too seriously. This piece was meant to be a humorous epistle rather than a satire. If the tone came across as otherwise, suggestions on how to add to the frivolity would be appreciated.