What Writers Argue About (funny)

[Zero Angel]

I was only joking, and the joke wouldn't have been as funny if I'd put in historical periods and suchlike as well. Also I've never considered "period" to be slang for menstruation, just a word for it that's fairly normal.

Full stop is the British word for the punctuation mark Americans call a period. I believe it's also the root of the telegraph word STOP used at the end of sentences because morse code doesn't have punctation.

I was also joking. I did think it was a euphemism/slang however. It's supposed to be, "menstruation period", so just calling it a period is an alteration to the official, which I think counts as slang?

I figured it was British. Yins get all the cool words.

 

[Chilari]

Yins get all the cool words.

No, we get all the correct words. Your American words are all unEnglish. And badly spelled! So there! *sticks out tongue*

(In case you didn't know, I occasionally refer to the English language as "English English from England".)

 

[Steerpike]

I don't know. I found an article a few years ago by some linguists who claimed to look at the English language historically and said American English was more pure than that used in Britain. Don't know how true it is, but I nevertheless used it to tease my Brit friends.

 

[teacup]

but I nevertheless used it to tease my Brit friends.

Hey, you're in enough trouble from the Boston Tea Party already.

 

[Steerpike]

Hey, you're in enough trouble from the Boston Tea Party already.

That was settled when we sent the limeys packing.

 

[Reaver]

Easy folks! We're the only true alliance left in the world today. Ironic when you think about it, but I for one am thankful for our British friends.

 

[Zero Angel]

No, we get all the correct words. Your American words are all unEnglish. And badly spelled! So there! *sticks out tongue*

(In case you didn't know, I occasionally refer to the English language as "English English from England".)

haha, that's a good way to refer to it.

I prefer the added u in colour and honour and such, but I confess to a strong distaste for using s instead of z in realize and the like, and I cannot abide by maths instead of math. At first I thought it was just a silent s added, but yins actually pronounce it!

 

[Ireth]

I cannot abide by maths instead of math. At first I thought it was just a silent s added, but yins actually pronounce it!

But... look at the full word: mathematics. It's plural, therefore technically maths is correct. Though, IMO, math is fine too.

 

[Chilari]

Yeah, it's not just one math, we do lots of calculations. Thus it's maths. It's like, you need more than one fent to make a barrier between your garden and your neighbour's - a fence.

 

[CupofJoe]

I don't know. I found an article a few years ago by some linguists who claimed to look at the English language historically and said American English was more pure than that used in Britain. Don't know how true it is, but I nevertheless used it to tease my Brit friends.

I heard pretty much the same thing. Current American English is based mostly 17C English English [and that is why Americans have "fall" and "creek" etc.], where as English English was "corrupted" [the word I remember from the article] by 18C French when the nobility fled to London society to escape the revolution and brought their fancy words with them [and the use of the "u" which was apparently not that common before...] Then the British just carried on stealing words they liked every time they expanded the empire.
All this mingling has given me a very rich language to play with and for that I am grateful.

 

[teacup]

Just wait til I'm emperor of the world, Steerpike. All shall be limey.

 

[Aidan of the tavern]

To be honest I read "2 stops after period" and thought what on earth does that mean?
I'm very much a two-spaces-after-full-stop person, it just sets the spaces between sentences apart from the spaces between letters, so I just find it easier to read.

 

[Zero Angel]

Yeah, it's not just one math, we do lots of calculations. Thus it's maths. It's like, you need more than one fent to make a barrier between your garden and your neighbour's - a fence.

I understand the desire for the s, but it still sounds funny after the th.

Fent is not really a single fencepost, is it?

 

[GeekDavid]

Fent is not really a single fencepost, is it?

That must be one of them British English things.

 

[Chilari]

Fent is not really a single fencepost, is it?

No. Just messing with you. It's a joke a few of my friends have. If something doesn't make sense, it doesn't make even one single cent; a fence is plural for fent and there are few other things too in the same vein.