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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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 Posted - 11/01/2006 : 08:40:31
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quote:
Originally posted by Turrell
I favor Sellers' and I also favour 'favor' - is this a UK English thing (the extra possesive 's' not the superfluous 'u')?
Actually, Turrell - Sellers' means belonging to more than one seller. Technically, if you want to indicate something belonging to Peter Sellers, it takes an apostrophe and another s: Sellers's. Awkward but ... This is not a UK English thing; it is a possessive form. It's been manipulated by, among others, the advertising industry. So I blame EM!  [just kidding]
As for the u in words like favour, savour, behaviour ... the Americans only dropped it in the 19th century. It took me several years of living in the UK before I found it less than jarring to see those words written with a u!
Other common-but-separate spellings include tyre/tire for those things that roll your car. And kerb/curb for what you step onto from the gutter.
Then, of course, there are the different terms for the same thing:
you probably know that what Americans call the hood and trunk are referred to in the UK as the bonnet and boot.
I say it's all very quaint, but a shooting war it ain't! 
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Edited by - BaftaBaby on 11/01/2006 08:44:40 |
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Whippersnapper. 
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 11/01/2006 : 09:51:20
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quote:
Originally posted by 7Babe
quote:
Originally posted by Turrell
I favor Sellers' and I also favour 'favor' - is this a UK English thing (the extra possesive 's' not the superfluous 'u')?
Actually, Turrell - Sellers' means belonging to more than one seller.
It could also mean belonging to more than one Sellers.
Help, I'm turning into ...The Sal! 
As for the u in words like favour, savour, behaviour ... the Americans only dropped it in the 19th century. It took me several years of living in the UK before I found it less than jarring to see those words written with a u!
Let's not labour this point, eh?
Other common-but-separate spellings include tyre/tire for those things that roll your car. And kerb/curb for what you step onto from the gutter.
I say it's all very quaint, but a shooting war it ain't!
Would that be "qaint" in American?! 
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Demisemicenturian 
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 11/01/2006 : 11:10:54
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quote:
Originally posted by 7urrell
I also favour 'favor'
I know that some of the U.S. spelling reforms were based on variants that already existed, but they still strike me as astonishingly half-hearted. Why change words like this (which is pronounced as neither "favOUR" or "favOR" but more like "feyvuh") and leave so many more idiosyncratic spellings? |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 11/01/2006 : 11:43:10
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quote:
Originally posted by Whippersnapper
quote:
Originally posted by 7Babe
Actually, Turrell - Sellers' means belonging to more than one seller.
[size=3][blue]It could also mean belonging to more than one Sellers.
That would be Sellerses'.  |
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Whippersnapper.
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 11/01/2006 : 15:10:27
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quote:
Originally posted by Septonian
quote:
Originally posted by Whippersnapper
quote:
Originally posted by 7Babe
Actually, Turrell - Sellers' means belonging to more than one seller.
[size=3][blue]It could also mean belonging to more than one Sellers.
That would be Sellerses'.
I'm not buying Sellerses'. You made that up! 
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demonic
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 11/01/2006 : 22:04:07
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There are a number of people here who can't spell Willy.
And a few people here who can't spell Montmartre. |
Edited by - demonic on 11/04/2006 23:24:25 |
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turrell 
"Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh "
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Posted - 11/01/2006 : 22:09:41
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I've been out of English class for a long time but I guess its Sellers's because Sellers in this case is a singular word, however if it is plural possesive it sellers'.
As for the 'u' - I wasn't around in the 19th century but given that there is a choice, II go for the fewer letters and frankly "favor" leaves no doubt about (see that we sometimes leave the 'u' in for no reason) how it is spelled or what word it means.
You say kerb? Is that for the thing on the roadside as well as reduce or limit (as in Curb Your Enthusiasm - the best television comedy around)?
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 11/02/2006 : 08:43:07
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quote:
Originally posted by 7urrell
As for the 'u' - I wasn't around in the 19th century but given that there is a choice, II go for the fewer letters and frankly "favor" leaves no doubt about (see that we sometimes leave the 'u' in for no reason) how it is spelled or what word it means.
I don't really see how favor leaves no doubt but favour does leave doubt - I don't think doubt has anything to do with it, either over spelling or meaning. I hope that you use hav as well, which was promoted at the same time. For no reason? I think the way a word has traditionally been spelled is a better a reason than because a small number of individuals decided they were in charge of English. (Good on Pittsburgh.)
quote:
You say kerb? Is that for the thing on the roadside as well as reduce or limit (as in Curb Your Enthusiasm - the best television comedy around)?
Just the roadside thing. |
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turrell
"Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh "
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Posted - 11/02/2006 : 16:55:12
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| Sal - I didn't make the rules for spelling in this country - I try to abide by them - not very well - but mostly because I am a piss poor typist - I have large hands - they need to make proportionally larger keyboards for people over 6 feet tall or 2.7 meters or metres or however you'd say it. Which brings up the point why would you switch to the Metric System when you have traditionally used something else? I would clearly assert that the metric system is better than the Old English way of doing things, but it is somewhat analogous to spelling - its new and improved, yet some people or cultures prefer to stick with tradition - in the US its mostly because we are lazy and don't want to bother figuring out that 90 KM/h is roughly equivalent to 55 MPH, but suppose spelling is similiar - what ever you are brought up in is mor natural for you and obviously feels more comfortable. But clearly you can't tell me that favour is empirically superior to favor. Even though the metric system is more rooted in science (i.e water boils at 100 and freezes at 0 instead of something arbitrary). |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 11/02/2006 : 17:31:42
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| But also favor isn't superior to favour, so why change it? It's not that anyone has dictated how to spell favour in this country - all spellings have been established by consensus over time. This seems vastly preferable to the German system of having big conferences where they announce that some words will now be spelt with sss. If the U.S. system had developed naturally, it would be fine; the problem is that it was dictated by a few people and everyone else was happy to be told what to do by them. |
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Whippersnapper.
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 11/02/2006 : 18:31:13
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This may be a colourful subject, and whilst I admire your valour in all candour I feel we have savoured it long enogh, ploughing in the same furrow, so do me a favour and do not belabour the point any fourther before we start to harbour dobts about our sanity and turn to liquor.
After all, this could go on for hors and hors.
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turrell
"Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh "
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Posted - 11/02/2006 : 19:23:54
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| OK - Hence forth I will learn Latin and Sanscrit as these were perfectly good languages before we started mucking them up. |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 11/02/2006 : 21:49:24
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quote:
Originally posted by 7urrell
OK - Hence forth I will learn Latin and Sanscrit as these were perfectly good languages before we started mucking them up.
Forget those. Go for Aramaic. Far cooler and you never know when Mel might decided to make a sequel to his Passion movie.
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 11/03/2006 : 14:07:07
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quote:
Originally posted by 7urrell
OK - Hence forth I will learn Latin and Sanscrit as these were perfectly good languages before we started mucking them up.
I am all for natural development of languages; what I am against is people artificially imposing changes. Anyway, don't get in a strop - you started all this with your "superfluous u" jibe. |
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Whippersnapper.
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Topic |
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Reviews that are mixspelled.
