Re: [OT Why GB English is different] Re: Mozilla firefox en-gb
William Ballard <40521.nospam@comcast.net> said on Wed, 26 May 2004 10:47:35 -0700:
> On Wed, May 26, 2004 at 06:36:48PM +0100, Oliver Elphick wrote:
> > "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
>
> That's poetical language. Plus, it's half the time of the way back.
>
> Do they teach you that saying "two hundred thirty seven" is wrong? Do
> they actively explicitly encourage you to say the and?
Well, I gues they discourage it by only teaching the other way.
> There are many, many, many cultural things that can't be explained.
>
> Our teachers put it in the same category as saying "um," "like", "you
> know"... the sign of a lazy mind that has to pause for minute to think
> what it's going to say next.
As you found out, the way Americans say it was only changed half way
back to when your "fathers" set up the country, ie., it was you that
changed the language - everyone else uses the "and" in numbers. *I*
put it down to Americans being lazy, not us being lazy for pausing a
sentence - it is simply how we and everyone else who speaks non-
Americanized language, have always spoken. Along the same lines as why
did fscking Webster change the dictionary to make words "simpler"?
Because he thought Americans were too dumn and/or lazy on average to
understand how to spell the slightly more complicated words. Maybe he
thought they weren't capable of adding an "and" in numbers as well?
--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
VBScript is designed to be a secure programming environment. It
lacks various commands that can be potentially damaging if used in
a malicious manner. This added security is critical in enterprise
solutions. -- support.microsoft.com
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