Why do americans write their date the other way round?

Rupert, you got your wires crossed. I said to "J" to lay off "you". Some people... Can't get the staff these days.

Simon,

Then, say it to J directly not in the forum. Otherwise, your purpose might be considered to show it not only to J but also to others since the tone of your message is very malicious and scheming.

I give up. I thought it was very clear. What I meant is that our opinions here don't require the rigour of academia.... Blimey.

How can I ask J directly? This forum is our only means of communication.

If you want to e-mail me, you can, but don't come on to me like that lech Richard.

No thanks. Nothing personal but I prefer to have "e-pals" I've actually met. Call me old fashioned...

Same here, never know who you might be talking to. I might be in one of Her Majesty's Hostelries as we speak.

Simon,

My sincere apologies. I misunderstood. I was reading two email messages and writing an article at a time during the time I was running a simulation. I'm not quite multi-task orientated. My lame excuse. But, thank god, the simulation result was good.

Simon,

You can ask J directly. No reason to hesitate, as far as I can see.

The Royal Court?? Its what the people say that counts! English was used for some time as J says in the 1400's maybe even before that, they were definitely not french, if not English they were latin. All of Europe writes the date like in Britain or France or Denmark etc etc. I just want to know though why the americans had to be different and put it in no order at all, at least in Japan and Korea it is still written in a logical order!

Perhaps it is a Websterian invention to differentiate American form British. That is the only actual explanation I can think of at the moment.

A thought about the American prescription for writing dates that comes to mind is that in the military, the date is written in the standard way. 12 Jun 02 or 12.06.02 on all my article 15's, leave forms and other documents, for example. But then again, we also use the twenty-four hour clock...so; anyone know how that came about?

According to Sybill "All of Europe writes the date like in Britain or France or Denmark etc etc." This is what I too would have guessed. I would have also concluded from this that in South America and Africa European influence would have determined that the same rule is followed. This is the case in Australia and New Zealand.

However, Rupert, you claim that "In many other languages, the American way is also quite common." Is Sybill wrong about Europe or are you taking about non-European languages? Which other languages are you refering to? Please give us some examples. I don't know of anybody besides English-speaking North Americans who write the date as month/day/year.

On US passports and (according to Iggy) in the US military the date is written in the standard (day/month/year) way. It is the same on official Canadian documents. It is only logical to write the date in either an ascending or a descending order. I don't think we needed the French to tell us this.

It seems that the day/month/year style is the official style even in North America but the American public still sticks to their muddled order. Do you really think that the Royal Court had that much influence on how the English public not only wrote but said the date?

I'm not flat out saying that your theory is bollocks, Rupert, but there was an English language and there were dates before the Norman conquest. I'd have guessed that the date would have been spoken as day, month then year for centuries in English, well before the French came to power.

It seems to me that the month/day/year ordering is very much an American invention and it could indeed have been done, maybe by Webster, to differentiate Americans from the British like J suggested. I could be wrong but I very much doubt that it was the more original English style which was somehow wiped out by the Norman Royal Court.

Okay, now I'm the one with my dates muddled up. We're talking about the eighteenth century not the Normans. I'm knocking the Americans for the way they write dates and at the same time I'm getting my centuries mixed up. But still eighteenth century Royal Court, Normans, Germans, whoever, I don't think we needed them to tell us to write the date in a logical order. Using a style such as "the third day of December in the year two thousand and two" seems to be the most basic, logical and direct way of refering to a date in English. My guess is that something like this was the original style which has been trimmed down, throwing out a word or two here and there. My guess is that it was later, and mainly in North America, that the day and month got inverted. Now I feel like a moron.

Ahhh you feel like one Jim but we still view you as a normal person! I like your posts!