Do you believe that the divide between US and UK English is artificial? I was very surprised when in a university course (in Australia) I was told that using US spelling would lose me marks. Nobody really knew why that was necessary. We read US publications every day and don't even notice the difference. Why the need to "enforce" use of UK spelling? It should be optional, people should be able to use whatever one comes into their head first and let the language develop naturally. Is it out of some kind of "pride"? I can't really imagine why anyone would care about whether you write "ise" or "ize", but there are some freaky people out there, I guess. Either should be accepted everywhere, and if one is preferred by the people then so be it.
Enforcing the artificial US/UK English divide
thats how it is here. using US spelling is frowned upon and we're taught UK spelling for most words. i would think its just a history thing, i mean people feel a connection with their country and if their country has a way of doing certains theyll feel compelled to do the same.
i prefer UK spelling.. but you know i think because we use a combo of both its more fitting to say i use Canadian spelling
i prefer UK spelling.. but you know i think because we use a combo of both its more fitting to say i use Canadian spelling
What you are speaking of is orthography, and the main concern with this is more just maintaining a consistent orthographic system (even though one could easily argue that there is little to no internal consistency to maintain in the first place).
As for North American English and English English themselves and any divide between the two, what must be emphasized is that the distance between the nearest varieties in the two groups is much closer than the distance between the furthest varieties in either group. The distance between General American and Received Pronunciation is pretty small, all things considered, and is smaller than that between, say, more extreme Upper Midwestern and Coastal Southern dialects in the US and much smaller than that between many rural dialects in the UK.
As for North American English and English English themselves and any divide between the two, what must be emphasized is that the distance between the nearest varieties in the two groups is much closer than the distance between the furthest varieties in either group. The distance between General American and Received Pronunciation is pretty small, all things considered, and is smaller than that between, say, more extreme Upper Midwestern and Coastal Southern dialects in the US and much smaller than that between many rural dialects in the UK.
Yes, I meant the two standard orthographies, not accents or dialects. It just seems there are certain sectors who are trying their utmost to maintain the ise/ize distinction, even though there is no point really.
As for maintaining consistency, that doesn't really apply in the university case, because we read papers written from people all over the world and see ize and ise used so much that they both seem 100% normal.
As for maintaining consistency, that doesn't really apply in the university case, because we read papers written from people all over the world and see ize and ise used so much that they both seem 100% normal.
See here:
http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&lang=de&searchLoc=0&cmpType=relaxed§Hdr=on&spellToler=on&chinese=both&pinyin=diacritic&search=realize&relink=on
Obviously, according to dict.leo.org, BE allows -ise and -ize.
Travis:
<<What you are speaking of is orthography, and the main concern with this is more just maintaining a consistent orthographic system (even though one could easily argue that there is little to no internal consistency to maintain in the first place).>>
They want to maintain a traditional orthographic system, I think.
http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&lang=de&searchLoc=0&cmpType=relaxed§Hdr=on&spellToler=on&chinese=both&pinyin=diacritic&search=realize&relink=on
Obviously, according to dict.leo.org, BE allows -ise and -ize.
Travis:
<<What you are speaking of is orthography, and the main concern with this is more just maintaining a consistent orthographic system (even though one could easily argue that there is little to no internal consistency to maintain in the first place).>>
They want to maintain a traditional orthographic system, I think.
I read that Australia is even more gung ho about the -ise spellings than Britain and Ireland.
Do they cross off the -ize spellings in 19th century British literature with a red pen, and write in -ise? And delete the "." after Mr. Dr. vs. et caetera? And change all those nasty, old fashioned double quotation marks, to the new, hip, single quotation marks, just so they can differentiate themselves from those nasty, older authors and the Americans?
It seems they just want a reason to be able to say "hey, we're not Americans! Look, we write "ise" instead of "ize"!!!!! We're so unique"!
>><<What you are speaking of is orthography, and the main concern with this is more just maintaining a consistent orthographic system (even though one could easily argue that there is little to no internal consistency to maintain in the first place).>>
They want to maintain a traditional orthographic system, I think.<<
If that were truly the case in and of itself, they would have stuck with "-ize" in the very many cases where it is *retained* in American English orthography rather than systematically replacing it with "-ise" in more recent decades.
They want to maintain a traditional orthographic system, I think.<<
If that were truly the case in and of itself, they would have stuck with "-ize" in the very many cases where it is *retained* in American English orthography rather than systematically replacing it with "-ise" in more recent decades.
Australia actually has it's own 'Australian Standard English' which is like 90% similar to English English but with a few Americanisms, actually. Like which side of the road you drive on it's just about enforcing some kind of national standard to make things run more smoothly.
BE v AE
Vive la difference! Ne'er the twain shall meet! Two very different cultures divided by a mighty ocean thousands of kilometres wide...and a (not absolute) common Language. ;-)
The United Kingdom and the United States of America in general vary in so many ways, including culturally and psychologically......immediately identifiable by those people living in each other's respective countries for any length of time by all accounts. Language interpretion is just one of the issues involved here it seems.
Personally I quite like this notion as I really feel that, all said and done, and from personal observation to some degree, the British and the Americans really do differ quite widely from each other in many ways, and not just in the way they speak this "common" Language of ours.
Winston Churchill, the great historical British Prime Minister, strongly maintained that there was very little, if any, difference between the two peoples, but he would say that, wouldn't he - his mother was Jenny Jerome - an American. Many would disagree with him, probably on both sides of that ocean separating us.
Vive la difference! Ne'er the twain shall meet! Two very different cultures divided by a mighty ocean thousands of kilometres wide...and a (not absolute) common Language. ;-)
The United Kingdom and the United States of America in general vary in so many ways, including culturally and psychologically......immediately identifiable by those people living in each other's respective countries for any length of time by all accounts. Language interpretion is just one of the issues involved here it seems.
Personally I quite like this notion as I really feel that, all said and done, and from personal observation to some degree, the British and the Americans really do differ quite widely from each other in many ways, and not just in the way they speak this "common" Language of ours.
Winston Churchill, the great historical British Prime Minister, strongly maintained that there was very little, if any, difference between the two peoples, but he would say that, wouldn't he - his mother was Jenny Jerome - an American. Many would disagree with him, probably on both sides of that ocean separating us.
<<The United Kingdom and the United States of America in general vary in so many ways, including culturally and psychologically..>>
True. But not linguistically.
True. But not linguistically.
<< True. But not linguistically. >>
Did you eat already?
No, I left my gelo in the trunk, in the car parked on the sidewalk, not far from the freeway. You know, by the movie theater... been there ever since I graduated from high school, Sophomore's...
Have you eaten yet?
No, I left my jelly in the boot, in the car parked on the pavement, not far from the motorway. You know, by the cinema... been there ever since I finished secondary school, year 11...
Did you eat already?
No, I left my gelo in the trunk, in the car parked on the sidewalk, not far from the freeway. You know, by the movie theater... been there ever since I graduated from high school, Sophomore's...
Have you eaten yet?
No, I left my jelly in the boot, in the car parked on the pavement, not far from the motorway. You know, by the cinema... been there ever since I finished secondary school, year 11...