Charlie is out of step. The English have a long history of giving the Frenchies a bit of stick.

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 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!

 

Magnarc wrote:

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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!

 

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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

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.