American English vs British English!

[Val]

I started to study the English language again.
In a short period of time, at least I believe, you will be able to understand my threads and replies better than today.
Yeah, yeah, yeah ... my English will be horrible as always, I know. But I'm trying to improve it just a little. So shup up!
But the main point of the class today was the differences between English language talked in these places.

I think there are a little differences basicaly in some words as:

colour and color
pants and trousers
soccer and football
potato chips and crisps
vacation and holiday
zip code and postal code
and so on...

and in the car forum, we have technical words as:

windshield and windscreen (this was interesting because CaseyM had a doubt posted in the car forum about how to clean the mist in the windshield of her car in cold days and to explain how to do that, I needed to look up this word in my dictionary because I only know the britsh word - windscreen - that means the same thing)

gas and petrol
blinker and indicator
air filter and engine filter
highway and motorway
hood (car) and bonnet
license plate and number plate
motor home and caravan
parking lot and car park
and so on ...

This is exactly the same thing with the Portuguese language from here Brazil and Portugal. The language is the same Portuguese and we can understand ourselves the natives from Portugal and Brazil. See my friend Charles here in the forums? He's from portugal and we chat a lot in portuguese.

So, do you have any preference?

[Blackmask]

In most cases here we have British English. We put the letter "u" in words and use "s" rather than "z". The only exception from those lists is soccer and football. Here we use soccer for the round ball world game. Football could mean Aussie rules or rugby, most likely league, depending on the state.

Some of the words are used interchangeably. Windscreen and windshield for example, you could hear either here.

I should point out that the use of British English here only applies to writing. The spoken language is Australianised which means many letters and syllables are silent.

[MSFixR]

Languages that are spoken by a group of people tend to evolve into characteristic forms and incorporate words from other languages as well as new words created to describe new situations or objects. Hence the version of English spoken and written in the United States has evolved into what it is today; likewise for the version spoken in Australia. Indeed, read Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in the original middle English if you can. You will find it quite different from the English spoken today in Britian. What follows is part of the Knight's Tale in Middle English and in modern English:

859 Whilom, as olde stories tellen us,
Once, as old histories tell us,
860 Ther was a duc that highte Theseus;
There was a duke who was called Theseus;
861 Of Atthenes he was lord and governour,
He was lord and governor of Athens,
862 And in his tyme swich a conquerour
And in his time such a conqueror
863 That gretter was ther noon under the sonne.
That there was no one greater under the sun.
864 Ful many a riche contree hadde he wonne;
Very many a powerful country had he won;
865 What with his wysdom and his chivalrie,
What with his wisdom and his chivalry,
866 He conquered al the regne of Femenye,
He conquered all the land of the Amazons,
867 That whilom was ycleped Scithia,
That once was called Scithia,
868 And weddede the queene Ypolita,
And wedded the queen Ypolita,
869 And broghte hire hoom with hym in his contree
And brought her home with him into his country
870 With muchel glorie and greet solempnytee,
With much glory and great ceremony,
871 And eek hir yonge suster Emelye.
And also her young sister Emelye.
872 And thus with victorie and with melodye
And thus with victory and with festivity
873 Lete I this noble duc to Atthenes ryde,
I leave this noble duke riding to Athens,
874 And al his hoost in armes hym bisyde.
And all his host in arms beside him.
875 And certes, if it nere to long to heere,
And certainly, if it were not too long to hear,
876 I wolde have toold yow fully the manere
I would have told you fully the manner
877 How wonnen was the regne of Femenye
How the reign of Femenye was won
878 By Theseus and by his chivalrye;
By Theseus and by his chivalry;
879 And of the grete bataille for the nones
And of the great battle at that time
880 Bitwixen Atthenes and Amazones;
Between Athenians and Amazons;
881 And how asseged was Ypolita,
And how Ypolita was besieged,
882 The faire, hardy queene of Scithia;
The fair, bold queen of Scithia;
883 And of the feste that was at hir weddynge,
And of the festivity that was at their wedding,
884 And of the tempest at hir hoom-comynge;
And of the storm at her home-coming;
885 But al that thyng I moot as now forbere.
But all that matter I must now forgo.
886 I have, God woot, a large feeld to ere,
I have, God knows, a large field to till,
887 And wayke been the oxen in my plough.
And the oxen in my plow are weak.
888 The remenant of the tale is long ynough.
The remnant of the tale is long enough.
889 I wol nat letten eek noon of this route;
Also I will not hinder any one of this company;
890 Lat every felawe telle his tale aboute,
Let every fellow tell his tale in turn,
891 And lat se now who shal the soper wynne;
And let's see now who shall win the supper;
892 And ther I lefte, I wol ayeyn bigynne.
And where I left off, I will again begin.

With a little work, one can read and understand what is written.

[Jocasta]

I suppose for someone who speaks a corrupted version of English, that might need a little work.

There is no British English, just English and corrupted versions on it. But it's not just spelling and alternative words that vary but pronunciation, such as how you say a word like schedule will indicate which side of the Atlantic you were born.

[MSFixR]

Differences in dialect can be extreme. Can a person from Yorkshire understand what a person from Liverpool is saying without concentration? Likewise the Boston Irish English and the New Orleans Cajon English are to each other a foreign language.

[aloha]

I can understand the american english better than the british english. sorry no offence to the british people here, but I don´t understand the accent, it´s a really strong accent

[Samson The Cat]

This is exactly the same thing with the Portuguese language from here Brazil and Portugal.

My father once had a work collegue from Portugal who agreed to that. He phrased it more drastic though when claiming that the "Brazilians' mumbling" should not be called Portuguese at all.

Languages develop and change. The differences between Cape Dutch and real Dutch are even greater than those between AE and BE. Another example is classical Latin vs. vulgar Latin:

albus or blancus: white
bellum or guerra: war
cogitare or pensare: to think
cruor or sanguis: blood
domus or casa: house
emere or comparare: to buy
equus or caballus: horse
esse or estere: to be
feles or cattus: cat
ferre or portare: to carry
hortus or gardinus: garden
ignis or focus: fire
ludere or iocare: to play
magnus or grandis: big
mensa or tabula: table
omnis or totus: all
os or bucca: mouth
pulcher or bellus: beautiful
scire or sapere: to know
sidus or stella: star

This Off Topic content was presented to you by Samson The Cat and WikiPedia.

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Back to English

So, do you have any preference?

Actually British English. But I write more words from AE. I can't claim what I write is American English though. It's Fanhost English which is even worse in neglecting rules of grammar. Please point out grammatical mistakes, especially wrong punctuation. About commas my English teacher would used to say "If you are in doubt, leave it out". There is much more punctuation in the German language and I think it improves the readability of text. English needs more commas, especially since the language doesn't separate between the object cases (genitive, dative, accusative), which means you have to pump up sentences with countles "of the"s when you want to describe something. I find it's hard to describe things in English.

You know like Java isn't suited for programming operating systems and Assembler isn't the best choice for programmes that mainly use Windows GUI elements and don't need to be performance-optimized, English is probably not the best language to explain stuff. However, it seems ideal for giving short answers and for smalltalk.

Originally Posted by MSFixR

Middle English and in modern English:

859 Whilom, as olde stories tellen us,
Once, as old histories tell us,
...

With a little work, one can read and understand what is written.

Yes.
Once in school we had a text in old high German. It was hard to read and took a while to figure out the meaning, but it was possible.

[Jocasta]

Can a person from Yorkshire understand what a person from Liverpool is saying without concentration?

I think the extremes have diminished over the decades; certainly before the railways when few people travelled across the Pennines they would have have difficulty, less so now. Now a lot of Americanisms have crept in and some English people use the American pronunciation
of schedule, for instance.

[MSFixR]

Originally Posted by Samson The Cat

It's Fanhost English which is even worse in neglecting rules of grammar.

Not to mention spelling, punctuation and sentence fragments like this one.

We had to read the Canterbury Tales in Middle English when we were in high school. It did beat reading Ceasar's Gallic Wars in Latin, however.

[Samson The Cat]

Originally Posted by MSFixR

Not to mention spelling, punctuation and sentence fragments like this one.

This is exactly what I was referring to.

[charlespt]

Since I'm Portuguese the language I prefer is my own but from these 2 types of English my favorite is the American

[R@H]

VACATION....what a horrible horrible word..... it's called HOLIDAY, in my class in holland we have to talk english 24/7....so all the dutch kids in my class are always sayin vacation...and have this horrible american dutch accent....i just wanna slap them around

When I was living in Ireland, I could understand the Irish quite well and that was up north not like people from Dublin. I think the cockney accent is understandable, I worked with a guy from Wigan..somewhere near Liverpool I supose... and hes understandable, just funny how they put the word me infront of every word. Ive met people from Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Brighton, Birmingham and London and I could understand all of em..its just a dialect ..

[edawg99]

I don't really like British accent's especially on girls.

[Jocasta]

British accents vary so much, it's like saying you don't like European accents... which is probably true too, in your case.

[Plastic Flute]

A North Jersey accent is different from a South Jersey accent.I prob sound more like a New Yorker

[Val]

Originally Posted by charlespt

Since I'm Portuguese the language I prefer is my own

But we have two votes for the portuguese option in the poll. And the other vote was not from me.

Originally Posted by charlespt

but from these 2 types of English my favorite is the American

Do you know why?
Because for us is taught American English firstly and after, when the course is running, they explain the differences between the languages and pronunciation. Normal situation.

[R@H]

I aaaaiim from americaaaaa, i dislike american accent..!!!

Especially having american guests in the hotel....american mentality....tut tut

[eliza'snumber1fan]

British accents vary so much, it's like saying you don't like European accents... which is probably true too, in your case.

Thats correct kate, I can go 10 miles in all directions and the accent changes.