Just read that the current resident of Buck house has had the name of their latest submarine changed. It was to be named HMS Agincourt after the battle in which Henry V gave the French a hiding but, he has changed it to HMS Achilles so as not to upset them.It would have been the sixth vessel to have this name.
Is there no end to this crap?????
dorian said
09:07 AM Jan 29, 2025
Maybe Charlie thought that naming a British naval vessel after a French place name was stupid?
Instead of contemplating your own naval (haha), imagine how you would feel if the French had a warship named Hastings? Or what about a Japanese warship named Pearl Harbor?
-- Edited by dorian on Wednesday 29th of January 2025 09:59:22 AM
peter67 said
10:30 AM Jan 29, 2025
Charlie is out of step. The English have a long history of giving the Frenchies a bit of stick.
dorian said
10:43 AM Jan 29, 2025
peter67 wrote:
Charlie is out of step. The English have a long history of giving the Frenchies a bit of stick.
I think it's mostly the other way around. The Norman invasion of England has no counterpart in France.
Magnarc said
10:46 AM Jan 29, 2025
Dorian wrote;
Instead of contemplating your own naval (haha), imagine how you would feel if the French had a warship named Hastings? Or what about a Japanese warship named Pearl Harbor?
I have no problems with what happened at Hastings in 1066, since the Poms have kicked the French backsides many times since then.
Regards the reference to Pearl Harbour, (note the correct English spelling) I am not aware that the French played any part in that therefore, the comparison would seem to be superfluous.
PS. Love your work Dorian, mostly!!!
dorian said
11:00 AM Jan 29, 2025
Magnarc wrote:
Regards the reference to Pearl Harbour, (note the correct English spelling) ...
The correct spelling is "Harbor". The Americans kicked the British out of NA about 250 years ago.
Edit:
I just realised the irony. "Harbour" is probably a French spelling introduced by the Normans, just like many of the other "-our" words.
-- Edited by dorian on Wednesday 29th of January 2025 11:16:22 AM
Magnarc said
01:47 PM Jan 29, 2025
The Americans adopted the English language because the poms gave it to them, the least they could do would be to not bastardise it. Interesting to note that they did not adopt Cherokee, Sioux,Cree or Apache et al.
Don't you just love a bit of badinage Dorian? Just teasing old chap!
Aussie1 said
01:52 PM Jan 29, 2025
Magnarc wrote:
The Americans adopted the English language because the poms gave it to them, the least they could do would be to not bastardise it. Interesting to note that they did not adopt Cherokee, Sioux,Cree or Apache et al.
Don't you just love a bit of badinage Dorian? Just teasing old chap!
And thank goodness the Pom's gave us their language here as well (which us Aussies have improved greatly with our sense of humour) and not one of the many local "tribes" ones
dorian said
03:18 PM Jan 29, 2025
Magnarc wrote:
The Americans adopted the English language because the poms gave it to them, the least they could do would be to not bastardise it. Interesting to note that they did not adopt Cherokee, Sioux,Cree or Apache et al.
Don't you just love a bit of badinage Dorian? Just teasing old chap!
I have often wondered about the history of spelling. I think it was discussed in some other thread, but at the time when the Pilgrims arrived in NA, there were two spellings in use in Britain. The Pilgrims adopted the simplified phonetic spelling while the English standardised on the more complicated version. Therefore, the American spelling is not actually an American creation, and it makes a lot more sense, at least to me. Essentially it was the French who buggered up the English language.
In A Companion to the American Revolution (2008), John Algeo notes: "it is often assumed that characteristically American spellings were invented by Noah Webster. He was very influential in popularizing certain spellings in the United States, but he did not originate them. Rather [...] he chose already existing options such as center, color and check for the simplicity, analogy or etymology".[3]William Shakespeare's first folios, for example, used spellings such as center and color as much as centre and colour.[4][5] Webster did attempt to introduce some reformed spellings, as did the Simplified Spelling Board in the early 20th century, but most were not adopted. In Britain, the influence of those who preferred the Norman (or Anglo-French) spellings of words proved to be decisive.
As for "badinage", I confess I had to look that up.
-- Edited by dorian on Wednesday 29th of January 2025 03:23:22 PM
Are We Lost said
03:32 PM Jan 29, 2025
In this Live Science article the different spellings are explained as primarily from the Websters dictionary creator.
"Webster picked his preferred forms ....... he wanted American spelling to be distinct from, and (in his opinion) superior to, British spelling."
I read elsewhere that the legal profession was also pushing for differences, as that required numerous contracts to be rewritten. Similarly, the 110 volt standard voltage gave a huge boost to the growth of American manufacturing.
Greg 1 said
04:47 PM Jan 30, 2025
Leaving aside the Norman invasion, I think the Poms have gone over the channel and given the French a hiding more times than the other way around.
I think the only time the French got a foothold on English soil was the Norman invasion if I remember rightly.
In fact it almost became the National sport there for a few centuries and the English held very large areas of France under their control for a lot of years.
The penchant for getting stuck in to the French really only finished at Waterloo and Trafalga.
Since then France and England have managed to control their differences and have been on the same side.
Plain Truth said
07:14 PM Jan 30, 2025
Our alphabet comes from ancient Hebrew,which had 22 constants .
Everyone assumes it comes from the Greek words "Alpha" and "Beta" which is the Roman Latin alphabet.
Just read that the current resident of Buck house has had the name of their latest submarine changed. It was to be named HMS Agincourt after the battle in which Henry V gave the French a hiding but, he has changed it to HMS Achilles so as not to upset them.It would have been the sixth vessel to have this name.
Is there no end to this crap?????
Maybe Charlie thought that naming a British naval vessel after a French place name was stupid?
Instead of contemplating your own naval (haha), imagine how you would feel if the French had a warship named Hastings? Or what about a Japanese warship named Pearl Harbor?
-- Edited by dorian on Wednesday 29th of January 2025 09:59:22 AM
I think it's mostly the other way around. The Norman invasion of England has no counterpart in France.
Dorian wrote;
Instead of contemplating your own naval (haha), imagine how you would feel if the French had a warship named Hastings? Or what about a Japanese warship named Pearl Harbor?
I have no problems with what happened at Hastings in 1066, since the Poms have kicked the French backsides many times since then.
Regards the reference to Pearl Harbour, (note the correct English spelling) I am not aware that the French played any part in that therefore, the comparison would seem to be superfluous.
PS. Love your work Dorian, mostly!!!
The correct spelling is "Harbor". The Americans kicked the British out of NA about 250 years ago.
Edit:
I just realised the irony. "Harbour" is probably a French spelling introduced by the Normans, just like many of the other "-our" words.
-- Edited by dorian on Wednesday 29th of January 2025 11:16:22 AM
The Americans adopted the English language because the poms gave it to them, the least they could do would be to not bastardise it. Interesting to note that they did not adopt Cherokee, Sioux,Cree or Apache et al.
Don't you just love a bit of badinage Dorian?
Just teasing old chap!
And thank goodness the Pom's gave us their language here as well (which us Aussies have improved greatly with our sense of humour) and not one of the many local "tribes" ones
I have often wondered about the history of spelling. I think it was discussed in some other thread, but at the time when the Pilgrims arrived in NA, there were two spellings in use in Britain. The Pilgrims adopted the simplified phonetic spelling while the English standardised on the more complicated version. Therefore, the American spelling is not actually an American creation, and it makes a lot more sense, at least to me. Essentially it was the French who buggered up the English language.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences
In A Companion to the American Revolution (2008), John Algeo notes: "it is often assumed that characteristically American spellings were invented by Noah Webster. He was very influential in popularizing certain spellings in the United States, but he did not originate them. Rather [...] he chose already existing options such as center, color and check for the simplicity, analogy or etymology".[3] William Shakespeare's first folios, for example, used spellings such as center and color as much as centre and colour.[4][5] Webster did attempt to introduce some reformed spellings, as did the Simplified Spelling Board in the early 20th century, but most were not adopted. In Britain, the influence of those who preferred the Norman (or Anglo-French) spellings of words proved to be decisive.
As for "badinage", I confess I had to look that up.
-- Edited by dorian on Wednesday 29th of January 2025 03:23:22 PM
In this Live Science article the different spellings are explained as primarily from the Websters dictionary creator.
"Webster picked his preferred forms ....... he wanted American spelling to be distinct from, and (in his opinion) superior to, British spelling."
I read elsewhere that the legal profession was also pushing for differences, as that required numerous contracts to be rewritten. Similarly, the 110 volt standard voltage gave a huge boost to the growth of American manufacturing.
Our alphabet comes from ancient Hebrew,which had 22 constants .
Everyone assumes it comes from the Greek words "Alpha" and "Beta" which is the Roman Latin alphabet.
But it came from way back.