It's official. Americans speak better English than the British

[Kazilin]

And right back to the start:

Quoting proud american James from 10:24, 4th Mar 2007
...This means from a linguistic standpoint, American English is actually more accurate then British. ...

I'm American, but dare I point out the flaw that completely invalidates any point you attempted to make:

than***

(If anyone else noted that before, I apologise - I couldn't be bothered reading all the posts.)

[hr]

"It loved to happen."
- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus

[exnihilo]

Not really got the hang of discussion, have you?

[novium]

BECAUSE WE SPELL IT DIFFERENTLY!
Aluminum! Aluminum! It was originally aluminum, but then the name was later changed in order to make it match all the other -ium ending ones

Quoting angel_kohaku from 22:02, 4th Mar 2007
Yeah but Americans still can't pronounce "aluminium" properly.

I don't care what the reasoning is: Do you pronounce caesium as "caesum"? Nobellium as "Nobellum"? No. Every other element gets the "-ium", so why is aluminium any different?

[hr]

I may be a pretty sad case but I don't write jokes in base 13

[hr]

tamen ira procul absit, cum qua nihil recte fieri, nihil considerate potest.

[novium]

My impression was that the original post was something of a joke, in best sinner pedantic fashion.

Quoting exnihilo from 22:31, 4th Mar 2007
Oh, Lordy.

1) Angel / Kitty, Aluminium / Aluminum, one L in each instance. And there is another element which follows the -um ending common in America, and that is Platinum. Want that to be Platinium?

2) Dr Alex, higher population, larger number of lower class people. Well, happen so. But are you contesting a higher raw number or a higher percentage? Your first point about distinct dialects was a good one, your socio-economic one was lame.

3) Unreg, Americans may well speak better English, but your post would tend to suggest they lack a grasp of basic written English. "As a linguistics major" you really should try harder: Ok? Anyways? It's simplest components? Humans brains? Tsk, tsk, for shame.

[hr]

tamen ira procul absit, cum qua nihil recte fieri, nihil considerate potest.

[novium]

My impression was that the original post was something of a joke, in best sinner pedantic fashion.


Secondly, I note with interest that now that the shoe is on the other foot, there are many protests about how silly it is to say one version is superior to the other. Comments of that type are in the minority, IIRC, on threads that argue that american english is inferior.

Quoting exnihilo from 22:31, 4th Mar 2007
Oh, Lordy.

1) Angel / Kitty, Aluminium / Aluminum, one L in each instance. And there is another element which follows the -um ending common in America, and that is Platinum. Want that to be Platinium?

2) Dr Alex, higher population, larger number of lower class people. Well, happen so. But are you contesting a higher raw number or a higher percentage? Your first point about distinct dialects was a good one, your socio-economic one was lame.

3) Unreg, Americans may well speak better English, but your post would tend to suggest they lack a grasp of basic written English. "As a linguistics major" you really should try harder: Ok? Anyways? It's simplest components? Humans brains? Tsk, tsk, for shame.

[hr]

tamen ira procul absit, cum qua nihil recte fieri, nihil considerate potest.

[rob 'f*ck off' wine boy]

Quoting novium from 11:26, 5th Mar 2007
My impression was that the original post was something of a joke, in best sinner pedantic fashion.

Undoubtedly a joke. Even the unreg users name has been designed to evoke indignant wrath from the nationalists and the merely patriotic.

BUT HE'S STILL WRONG

[oddly familiar]

http://www.conservapedia.com/Feudalism

"In the feudalism system everyone wins but some win more than others."

[hr]

saru mo ki kara ochiru

[OhhMy]

Perhaps all this could be solved by calling 'American English' 'American', and leaving it at that? What we speak is different but saying one is better than the other is equivallent to saying that a Yorkshire accent is better than a Fife accent. its only good for starting fights between people. Differences should be celebrated and the presence of a difference between any two cultures, languages etc. does not mean that one HAS to be better than another.

Quoting oddly familiar from 12:07, 5th Mar 2007
http://www.conservapedia.com/Feudalism

"In the feudalism system everyone wins but some win more than others."

[hr]

saru mo ki kara ochiru

[Das Feuer liebt mich]

Americans actually beat the English not the British!

Quoting proud american James from 10:24, 4th Mar 2007
Ok while I hate to go the nerd route on this one, I'm going to anyways as a linguistics major. Humans brains tend to simplify language into it's simplest components. The "ou" sound and the "o" sound in British english are allaphones of the same phoneme. However in American English they are not. The funny thing is that the morphology of the words did not change in England, but it did in the US. This means from a linguistic standpoint, American English is actually more accurate then British. Although British English is phoneticly easier compared to it's morphology.

Therefore, Americans beat the British (once again) at their own game in speaking English better.

[hr]

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind.

[Gubbins]

Quoting ohhmy from 16:00, 5th Mar 2007
Perhaps all this could be solved by calling 'American English' 'American', and leaving it at that?

Seconded.

[hr]

...but then again, that is only my opinion.