I love words.
Here’s the difference between the Oxford ‘British English’ Dictionary entry for the word antithetical* and Oxford’s ‘US English’ entry (arrowed):
Oxford British & World English
Oxford American English
Quirky!
Of course, when I think about it, a word like ‘syllabification‘ simply had to exist — but I’d not encountered it. (Perhaps I’ve led a sheltered life.)
– P
* a word I used, unselfconsciously and without definition, in a post last night about the irrepressible urge to ‘share’ (i.e. break) confidences: Sharing secrets? Isn’t that kinda antithetical?
American English is the better English, I think.
The English language is a phonetic language and a word should sound like its spelling.
“Aluminum” is one such word that my American friends loved to hear me say when I first moved there 25 years ago. I was saying it wrong, of course, and while it amused my friends, I became quite self-conscious of my differences in speech and accent.
Americans teach their English classes using a method called Phonetics. Something I’d never even heard of before, but it works. Most Americans I know, with or without college, speak well, write well, and spell well.
Peter, you and I attended the same primary school. I don’t remember doing a lot of actual “school” work there, but rather more finger painting and clay work than anything else, Oh, and smoking up in the woods beside the school building (if you were cool).
Man, you’ve been away too long if you call the bush (scrub, really) beside our old school a ‘wood’!
On your more substantial point, I tend to agree that the simplification of spelling, for instance, that the Americans have brought English is an improvement.
Much of the rest of their usage, though, I tend to see as just mannered, akin to a dialect.
Like you, I’ve been a Kiwi in the States and had people just ask me to talk, “say something, anything” so they could enjoy the difference of my accent.
Variety is the spice of life.
– P
You’re right. It was no more than scrub. But to a 10 year old, it had the hiding potential of a mighty oaken forest.
Yes, I went back there a few years ago (my mum and one of my divine sisters-in-law still live in the area) and had that whole, ‘Wow, I remember this as so much bigger! thing … including that area. We had tracks and tunnels and clearings/meeting spots in the scrub … to us it was impenetrable, just as you say.
– P
Yes, a regular Mirkwood. I was back there in January. I was trying to find a gas station to refill the rental car. I still remembered the streets but somehow ended up in Miramar. On my return, I bumped into the school but I was too frustrated take time there to look and reminisce. What did surprise me though, was how close the school was/is to the airport.