BigDavyG

I'd love to hear some kind of explanation as to why the differing pronounciations - just seems so bizarre

jen_andreson

Try these--worth a quick peek anyway.

http://www.anu.edu.au/andc/ozwords/June_98/2._aitch.htm

http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/as...-letter-h.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aitch

jen_andreson

About herbs/erbs I'll paste in what I wrote in this thread:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ighlight=herbs


Until the sixteenth century the word was usually spelled erb—the English got it from the French, who didn’t say the first letter either. Down to the nineteenth century, long after the h had been added under later French influence, that was also the way it was said. The seventeenth- and eighteenth-century American colonists took this state of affairs with them. During the nineteenth century, Britons began to say the first letter, as a result of what linguists call a spelling pronunciation.

So Americans kept the old pronunciation while British speakers changed it. A sneaky trick, but there it is.

It's the same with the 'ou' spelling such as color/colour: we revised the spelling after people left for the 'new world'. (which in turn is why some Yanks switch cutlery back-and-forth, knife in the righthand and then pick up the fork with the right. There was a shortage of costly silver knives when the newbies arrived and they had to cut and pass on the knife).

Interesting stuff.

jen_andreson

It's a mystery, and one of the hardest adjustments I had to make when we moved here. It's one that I easily forget, but try to do, as I do a lot of work for clients in which I have to include timelines. I googled it and didn't find much, other than an internet campaign for consistency, and a reference to some commission making this decision and then regretting it.

Just one of those things I guess...

Lord Lionheart

I think you mean 'guttural'............ oh the irony of being constantly corrected by Brummies

Moving?

...probably the wrong thread to continue this but I've heard that we changed the spelling, but then heard somewhere too that Twain and Webster had a lot to do with changes in spelling, including removing the u, l instead of ll, z instead of s etc.

cranners99

This is full of answers/reasons why http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format

By the way, here in Germany, aska local the time and they may well say "Halb neun" literally meaning "Half nine" though it will be 8:30 "Half before nine"

So glad we won the war...

TimFountain

Because the rest of the world writes it that way, and at least they have the sense to recognise that most people would screw it up if they required it in the US format. Personally I can't really see the difference, when you say a date, either 5th Dec or Dec 5th will work. When I write a date, I usually write it in full, such as "6th June 2006" so there is no confusion.

Titchski

I shall be trying to find a nice guttural, disgusting font face to let my "true Brummie" out on the forum. Or I'll just get a benny hat avatar

I've never had my accent referred to as guttural before to be honest, comical, yes and "thick brummie" yes, but never guttural

TruBrit

you misread my post, yes i realise the rest of the world quote it day mth year, the thread is about why the usa don't.

Lord Lionheart

ARRRGGGGGHHHHHH not another person with disgusting Midland guttural tones :scared:

Maz

I used to work with people from the Black Country, could barely understand them.

I just wish the US would change everything to dd/mm/yy but seeing how they're going ahead and screwing everyone else up by changing the dates when the clocks change, too, it's very much a sign (as if we didn't know before) that they don't give a flying **** what the rest of the world thinks. Sad, really.

Lord Lionheart

Neither can I and I'm from less than 20 miles away.......... but were their accents disgusting?

gsnichol

Yes, and when I say 'half ten' over here I'm always asked to clarify it I enjoy being asked if I have the time, then leaving the questioner more puzzled than before...

Related thing.. has anyone heard the use of 'fourth' instead of 'quarter' in the sense: "my fuel tank is three-fourths full, I won't need to fill up'? I've never before heard the fractions 1/4 and 3/4 expressed as fourths, always as quarters, but I hear 'fourths' all the time here.

angelman

yes i am trying to wean my wife off this.. its very annoying.. you say half in stead of one two'f or something like that so why not one quarter and 3 quarters.. is that too compplicated a concept for you to grasp (not really since she is a maths scholar).. now of course she just does it to piss me off gives her hours of satisfaction