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From: tan@ihlpg.UUCP (Bill Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: "Presently" ?= "Now"
Message-ID: <2580@ihlpg.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 18-Oct-86 22:28:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlpg.2580
Posted: Sat Oct 18 22:28:11 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Oct-86 06:12:27 EDT
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Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
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> [Colin Plumb]
> ONE thing the yankees haven't managed to impress on us is their  fanatic
> desire to abbreviate the language. I really do wonder how they got banks,
> those bastions of continuity, (sight exaggeration confessed) to  offer
> "drive-thru check cashing".  And _must_ they purge haf the vowels from
> the language?  It's a royal pain to restore "colour", "honour", "arbour",
> etc. (see keywords line in header) to a spelling-checker's dictionary.
> Are there any Brits (or Scots,  Welsh, or Irish) out there who've felt
> this American linguistic imperialism? How do you get your spelling
> dictionaries? I wouldn't mind hearing a few other flames about my
> pet peeve.
-----
Colin, "color", "honor", "arbor", "labor", etc. come originally from
the Latin words "color", honor", "arbor", and "labor".  Our spelling
predates yours by more than a millenium.   How about a counter-flame
against cultural snobbery, one of my pet peeves.
	A story that illustrates British [yes I know that you are Canadian]
linguistic snobbery is told by Alistair Cooke (I think - I'm not 100% sure
I remember the source) is of a play performed in London where the part of
Napoleon Buonaparte was played by an American actor.  Most critics lambasted
the play, saying how ludicrous it was to have Napoleon speaking with an
American accent.  It was not until a week later that a single letter appeared
in the newspaper pointing out that it was no more ludicrous than Napoleon
speaking with a British accent, since Napoleon actually spoke French!
-- 
Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL  ihnp4!ihlpg!tan