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Re: [OT] British vs. American English



2011/10/2 Stephen Powell <zlinuxman@wowway.com>:
> On Sun, 02 Oct 2011 11:08:11 -0400 (EDT), consul tores wrote:
>> 2011/10/2 Stephen Powell <zlinuxman@wowway.com>:
>>> On Sun, 02 Oct 2011 06:20:57 -0400 (EDT), Nuno Magalhães wrote:
>>>> i still get quirky about color instead of colour or centre vs center
>>>> (which is which btw?).
>>>
>>> ...
>>> center is the American spelling and centre is the British spelling
>>> ...
>>
>> Nop, it seems incorrect:
>>
>> The center of the earth.
>> The Bachellors centre.
>
> The names of businesses are an exception.  The name of
> a business will often use a British, or even an archaic spelling
> in order to create an effect.  For example, there is a business
> called "The Vitamin Shoppe".  Shoppe is an archaic British spelling
> for shop.  In ordinary prose, the word is always spelled "shop".
> But in the name of a business, they may deliberately use an old
> spelling to create an effect.  Maybe they want you to believe that
> their business has been around for a very long time.  Or maybe
> they want you to associate their business with the old-fashioned
> personal touch of a sole proprietorship from long ago.  It's a
> marketing thing.  Sometimes, they deliberately misspell things
> in the name of a business.  A well-known example is "Toys R Us".
> (Actually, the right way to spell it is with a backwards "R", but
> I don't have such a key on my keyboard.)  It is a store which
> specializes in selling toys for children, and children are known
> for incorrect spelling.  That's part of the effect that they
> are trying to create.  "Center" may be spelled "centre" in the
> name of a business, to create a marketing effect, but in ordinary
> prose, it is always spelled "center".
>
> The only other exception that I know of is Bible quotations.
> When quoting verses from the "Authorized Version" of the Bible,
> commonly known as the "King James Version", the words are spelled
> exactly the same as they appear in print in the Bible.  The AV
> is, after all, an English book, and the spellings are the standard
> English spellings from 1769, which is when the book was last
> revised.
>
> --
>  .''`.     Stephen Powell

OK, thanks for the informatios, see you "latre".; )


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