For Racer Y...

y'all - Texan

yinz - Pittsburgh PA

I could list hundreds that will tell anyone outside of western PA that I'm from western PA.

pop - soda
sucker - lollipop
daun taun - down town
Pixburgh Stillers - Pittsburgh Steelers (American football team)
Hundreds of them

"Y'all"?

Bah! Everyone knows it's "youse", as in: "Oi, youse blokes - give us a hand un-boggin' me ute!" or "Youse are all bloody stupid - Holden beats Ford any day!"

sif! Ford rulz bro! Fully sik uleh!

Quote from JamesF1 :

I'm surpirsed no-one has pointed this out yet. It's 'developer' not 'develepor', Josh - correct that first post!

Thanks

Nope, you've still got it wrong. It's "developer" not "develeper." Fix it!

when i seen this thread title i thought i was in for a treat. instead when i read the first post i had awful flashbacks from the good old days of english lessons at school. (last year)

Only last year and you've forgotten everything already? It's "when I saw this thread" not "when i seen"

Josh, American English and your version of English are two different things.

I do not understand why one has to go out of his way to try and say one country's language is incorrect, while another's is the proper spelling :zombie:. They are two completely different dialects, though, thought of as being similar because they are called "English".

Not one is incorrect or correct, each country has their own way of spelling and saying things. For most of the words on your 'chart', both versions can be correct, most are not even words... so people clearly spell things wrong entirely, while some spell things correct to their own language.

As for your phrases at the bottom, those are common grammatical errors with thanks to people developing their own language over the internet. "Were / We're" is the most common one, and so many make this mistake because they put what is coming out of their mouths into words (phonetic), without any bother for using the right puncuation and/or usage.

I learnt pop off That 70s Show. That show has taught me many things about 70s American culture

Could work the other way Davo - imagine people thinking that Neighbours is an accurate reflection of Australian culture! Yikes illepall

Being that you say the American spelling is wrong? It's not when I am an American. Stop showing your facisist attitude and realize there are more than just Brit's on this forum.

So I would say your kerb is incorrect and curb would be, same goes with tire and tyre. I dont ridicule the way you spell or speak.

The functional mis spellings are related to lazy people who could care less what you think or how you spell it!

Pointless thread posted by a narrow minded individual!

My 2 cent's "cent's would be english for a penny"

Tick

Was he really saying one was right and the other was dead wrong? They're both correct

FYI (Tick & everybody) - don't ever use apostrophes when writing plurals (especially when chiding someone over their writing skills in a "correct English" discussion - kind of harms your argument ). They're used to indicate ownership: "Hank's giant bowl of yoghurt"; or the absence of a word or letter in a contraction or abbreviation: "Hank's (Hank is) wrong about everything but not always" or "Please don't hit me with that sardine! For heaven's sake, let's talk about this!"

Never ever ever ever ever (ever) use an apostrophe in a plural! Ever! It's plain wrong. It's not some rule that's variable over different nations or continents, it's a rock-solid rule of functional English, regardless of your particular national dialect or variation. It's also one of the most common mistakes inflicted on the language, by English and non-English speakers alike.

Apologies if anyone thinks I'm being condescending or patronising here, but I'm trying to be very clear about what I mean and I know a lot of members here have English as a second language. I'll happily help anyone who might want some English help btw. It's my only language and I'm pretty good at it

Quote from Tick :

Being that you say the American spelling is wrong? It's not when I am an American. Stop showing your facisist attitude and realize there are more than just Brit's on this forum.

You've just said you don't think it's wrong... but that's only because you're American. Nice little circular argument you've got yourself into, there. Josh says it's right because he's British, you say you're right because you're American. Oh, you might also want to check on your use of an apostrophe in "Brits" and learn to spell (and, maybe check the definition of) "fascist". Just a thought before entering a language/grammar discussion. (Edit for Hankstar: "Brit" is actually not strictly classified as an abbreviation, but rather as a slang term. As such, it does not have an apostrophe - it is also, by nature of being slang, not technically valid in written English.)

At the end of the day the language is "English", not "American". What this means is that we (the English) invented, developed and defined the language and, as such, what we define is the correct written version of English. You write an acceptable form of English, but not the definitive, 'correct' form.

By definition of it being a 'dialect' (for want of a better term), you can't be correct as a dialect is a "regional variation on a language". Oh, and a variation is something that "differs from the norm, or standard."

No matter how hard you try to say you're correct - you can never be. American English is a dialect or variation on the English language (now labelled merely as "British English", which does it a great disservice), which means that it is *not* the standard.

Is American English acceptable? In America, yes.
Is it strictly correct? No.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

Oh and Josh, this is also incorrect:

Quote :

license - licence
[License is the American spelling, licence is the English spelling.]

British English uses both licence (noun) and license (verb) (e.g. "a licensee has a licence, they are licensed by a Licensing Authority").

All languages are evolving day by day and English and US English are evolving in separate directions, much as one species of animal can evolve in different directions if different segments of the population are separated geographically or by other factors (see Darwin's On The Origin Of Species, 1849 ).

Regional variations in English don't bother me so much and are inevitable. There are words and phrases and idioms Down Here that simply don't occur anywhere else, even back in Britain where the majority of Australians take their genetic stock. What does crap me off is that so much software only has "US English" as the English language option! I resent some frickin' program assuming that the spellings of, for example, "colour" or "flavour" or "aluminium", which I've spent 25+ years using, are all bloody wrong!

One thing that reallly gets me is when people say "I could care less" when they're saying that they don't care for something. It's "I COULDN'T care less" people! Honestly, think about it.

You could always be a smart-arse and say "Well, I could care less - but I can't be bothered"

Quote from Hankstar :

Regional variations in English don't bother me so much and are inevitable. There are words and phrases and idioms Down Here that simply don't occur anywhere else, even back in Britain where the majority of Australians take their genetic stock. What does crap me off is that so much software only has "US English" as the English language option! I resent some frickin' program assuming that the spellings of, for example, "colour" or "flavour" or "aluminium", which I've spent 25+ years using, are all bloody wrong!

Oh, regional variations don't bother me - but this is the "Let's get anal" thread. I agree wholeheartedly with you on the software issue. I'm quite happy for "US English" to be the default on a US-developed program, but at least give the option for British English.

Quote from JamesF1 :

Oh and Josh, this is also incorrect:

British English uses both licence (noun) and license (verb) (e.g. "a licensee has a licence, they are licensed by a Licensing Authority").

You know I thought we used 'license' for something in this country, I just couldn't find it. Thanks for correcting me.

I fixed developer too... how embarrassing .

Josh

Quote from joshdifabio :

I have the platinum STCC license - I have the platinum STCC license

ahem ahem ahem...

Ah, I had completely different idea what this thread is about

Good info here, I started some time ago bit similar thread, where was some spelling information too. I'm not too good with my spelling indeed, I try my best to learn better, but over 15 years of making mistakes has put them deep. Thanks from this good thread