Since the other thread hit 100 posts I thought I would start another one.
How can 2 countries that share the same language and pretty much the same spelling have a word that is spelled almost the same with one adding a extra letter and that means the same yet pronounced so very differently?
Case in point: Aluminum and Aluminium. Or is it the fact that Americans just have to be perversely inclined to disagree or to do the opposite of what is expected or desired?
Or is it the fact that Americans just have to be perversely inclined to disagree or to do the opposite of what is expected or desired?
Look at the bigger picture. The USA is still a very young country compared to most, so that puts them squarely at the beginning of the "rebellious teens". Hopefully they'll eventually grow more mature as a nation. Which isn't a given as historically some nations expire without ever maturing.
How can 2 countries that share the same language and pretty much the same spelling have a word that is spelled almost the same with one adding a extra letter and that means the same yet pronounced so very differently?
Because while they have similar origins, they are not the same word.
https://www.gabrian.com/aluminum-or-aluminium/
Sir Humphry Davy, a Cornish chemist and inventor, performed three unsuccessful attempts to isolate this unique element through electrolysis. He had so far been successful isolating potassium, sodium, calcium, strontium, barium, magnesium, and boron for the first time using this process. He was set on doing the same for this new metal.
In a publication made in 1808, he stated that, had he been successful in isolating the metallic substance he was after, he would have proposed the name Alumium for this elusive element. Apparently unconvinced by this first name, he used the word Aluminum in a book published four years later when mentioning that "…Aluminum has not been obtained in a perfectly free state."
Nevertheless, other British chemists decided to adopt the name Aluminium. They thought it had a more classical sound and was in line with the ending of the other elements isolated by Davy. This confusion began the debate on the ending of the word that continues to our day.
In this case, aluminum is actually slightly older than aluminium.
English was a perverse language long before the colonies were involved. Many words were spelled differently in different regions and even in the same regions over generations. Family names were spelled differently in different generations and it wasn't necessarily an evolving process. Take the last name of a relative of mine who came to the new world in the 1700's. The name Payne or Paine and even Pain was used on both sides of the pond as the generations passed. I think a lot of it is that English speaking people are just poor spellers and write more by how words sound and thus are often not consistent. My grammar school teachers used to say that this inconsistency is what motivated Noah Webster to try to simplify words into a more consistent sound which was often a difficult task as even English speakers from the home country spoke differently based upon where they were from and more importantly what class they came from.
Family names were spelled differently in different generations and it wasn't necessarily an evolving process.
We have 3 different spelling in my family tree.
As for the word Aluminum the first time I heard how the brits pronounce it I wondered what the hell he was talking about.
As for the word Aluminum the first time I heard how the brits pronounce it I wondered what the hell he was talking about.
As for the word Graham the first time I heard how the Amis pronounce it I wondered what the hell he was talking about. It's completely crackers.
even English speakers from the home country spoke differently based upon where they were from
Yeah, if Webster had asked someone from Oregon what that running water on their farm was called, a creek would be spelled crick.
It isn't that they were "poor spellers," they were illiterate. When they presented themselves to religious or government officials, the official had to guess at the spelling.
Since surnames didn't start to be recorded in England until the 16th a lot of variation is understandable.
Aluminum
Calling it Aluminum is Sodum!
If it weren't for Noah Webster's omissions, Americans would be calling it Aluminium too.
AJ
Sodum
So Dumb? Or Sodium?
"Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin natrium) and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable isotope is 23Na. The free metal does not occur in nature, and must be prepared from compounds."
"Aluminium (aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals; about one-third that of steel. It has a great affinity towards oxygen, forming a protective layer of oxide on the surface when exposed to air. Aluminium visually resembles silver, both in its color and in its great ability to reflect light. It is soft, nonmagnetic and ductile. It has one stable isotope: 27Al, which is highly abundant, making aluminium the twelfth-most common element in the universe. The radioactivity of 26Al is used in radiometric dating.
Chemically, aluminium is a post-transition metal in the boron group; as is common for the group, aluminium forms compounds primarily in the +3 oxidation state. The aluminium cation Al3+ is small and highly charged; as such, it is polarizing, and bonds aluminium forms tend towards covalency. The strong affinity towards oxygen leads to aluminium's common association with oxygen in nature in the form of oxides; for this reason, aluminium is found on Earth primarily in rocks in the crust, where it is the third-most abundant element, after oxygen and silicon, rather than in the mantle, and virtually never as the free metal. It is obtained industrially by mining bauxite, a sedimentary rock rich in aluminium minerals.
The discovery of aluminium was announced in 1825 by Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted. The first industrial production of aluminium was initiated by French chemist Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville in 1856. Aluminium became much more available to the public with the Hall–Héroult process developed independently by French engineer Paul Héroult and American engineer Charles Martin Hall in 1886, and the mass production of aluminium led to its extensive use in industry and everyday life. In World Wars I and II, aluminium was a crucial strategic resource for aviation. In 1954, aluminium became the most produced non-ferrous metal, surpassing copper. In the 21st century, most aluminium was consumed in transportation, engineering, construction, and packaging in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan.
Despite its prevalence in the environment, no living organism is known to use aluminium salts for metabolism, but aluminium is well tolerated by plants and animals. Because of the abundance of these salts, the potential for a biological role for them is of interest, and studies continue."
aluminium is well tolerated by plants and animals
I think that is still under advisement - some studies have found links between Aluminium and dementia-like symptoms.
See also Camelford.
AJ
Aluminum and Aluminium.
Just to add more confusion there is also Alumina.
Aluminium oxide (or Aluminium(III) oxide) Al₂O₃ is commonly called alumina and used to produce aluminium.
HM.
Here's a question. When ending a sentence with a quote do you put the period before or behind the back quote symbol? And what about the quote you use has a period at the end of it and also is the end of the sentence?
When ending a sentence with a quote do you put the period before or behind the back quote symbol? And what about the quote you use has a period at the end of it and also is the end of the sentence?
In Am English, the period goes before the ending quote. I believe Br English puts it outside.
Only one period.
In Am English, the period goes before the ending quote. I believe Br English puts it outside.
The American version is driving me nuts, because in my native language (German) the period goes outside and in school they taught British English. Using American spelling like color, honor, ... was not tolerated.
I never understood why I had to learn British English while living under American occupation.
HM.
I never understood why I had to learn British English while living under American occupation.
In 1945, in the aftermath of the Second World War and Hitler's quest for world domination, the Allied powers faced the momentous task of dealing with the 'Problem of Germany' and what to do with the defeated nation in the centre of Europe. Aiming to learn from the failures of the victors' policy following World War One and its inability to prevent Germany from pursuing an expansionist path once more 20 years later, British policymakers turned to the 're-education' and 'democratisation' of the German people during the Second World War as a potential solution for this problem. The British believed that, to permanently quash the possibility of a future German threat, more than harsh demilitarisation and denazification of the country was needed. These wholly negative approaches were not enough to permit Germany to re-enter the European community as a trustworthy member state. Germany had to learn from her past mistakes and genuinely develop a positive appreciation of democracy, as well as the importance of peaceful co-operation with fellow European nations.
Here's 2 questions. Is America the only country that uses cursive in handwriting and do they still teach it in school?
I myself can't even remember how to use it except for my name.
Is America the only country that uses cursive in handwriting and do they still teach it in school?