Andrew Nelson and Shelley Chang on KTLA Morning Show

[Odin]

Oh, well why use British English? Its not the British Cube Association either. Any way sorry to any one I offended please excuse my ignorance.

 

[qqwref]

We just can't believe you'd never heard of British people spelling words differently.

Anyway, a lot of Europeans learn British English (instead of American) for some reason. I really have no idea why they still do since America has been more powerful than Britain for decades, but whatever, the point is that a lot of older Europeans will use the British forms when they write or type. And the person who writes the regulations is probably Ron, so that would explain that.

 

[shelley]

Well, they kind of did invent the language.

 

[Stefan]

Well, they kind of did invent the language.

LOL a lot (feel dizzy now, not kidding).

 

[qqwref]

Well, they kind of did invent the language.

If you're going that route, you might as well speak in Shakespearean-era English. Or Old English (Anglo-Saxon). Or Old Norse. Or Proto-Indo-European. Or...

My point of view is that we've improved it by removing extra letters from some words that didn't need them (colour? cheque? aeroplane? catalogue?). Whenever the American spelling still makes sense but is shorter, I think it is better. Sometimes the inventor of something doesn't end up being the one who brings it to its full potential, you know? I mean, Erno Rubik isn't any fast at speedcubing, which is why you don't see any top cubers using the exact method he uses. But I guess by your perspective we should...?

 

[AvGalen]

We just can't believe you'd never heard of British people spelling words differently.

Anyway, a lot of Europeans learn British English (instead of American) for some reason. I really have no idea why they still do since America has been more powerful than Britain for decades, but whatever, the point is that a lot of older Europeans will use the British forms when they write or type. And the person who writes the regulations is probably Ron, so that would explain that.

Do you really think hat America being more powerful is the reason?
What about this one: I can swim from my house to the UK (almost literally possible), but only Google Maps has once suggested that I drive to a dock in France, swim to a dock in New York and continue driving from there (yes, Google has a good sense of humor/humour. I am still wondering if I was supposed to tack the car with me while swimming)

Seriously, I can never remember which country uses which spelling and I don't care. It just means that when I mess up I have an excuse

 

[Dene]

Well, they kind of did invent the language.

If you're going that route, you might as well speak in Shakespearean-era English. Or Old English (Anglo-Saxon). Or Old Norse. Or Proto-Indo-European. Or...

My point of view is that we've improved it by removing extra letters from some words that didn't need them (colour? cheque? aeroplane? catalogue?). Whenever the American spelling still makes sense but is shorter, I think it is better. Sometimes the inventor of something doesn't end up being the one who brings it to its full potential, you know? I mean, Erno Rubik isn't any fast at speedcubing, which is why you don't see any top cubers using the exact method he uses. But I guess by your perspective we should...?

If you are going to change the spelling of a word, you may as well at least improve it.

 

[Stefan]

When writing my diploma thesis, I noticed I had written "neighbour", "color" and "behaviour". Inconsistent, obviously, and thus unacceptable. I had a very hard time deciding which way to go, because the "other" spelling of each word looked bad to me. In the end the American way won, though I don't remember why exactly. Probably "color" vetoed the British.

 

[qqwref]

Maybe someone should make a javascript program that will convert a text to all American English or to all British English. That would be cool.

 

[Sa967St]

My point of view is that we've improved it by removing extra letters from some words that didn't need them (colour? cheque? aeroplane? catalogue?). Whenever the American spelling still makes sense but is shorter, I think it is better.

....but what was wrong with those originial spellings (besides the fact that they could be shortened)? Taking off a few letters in a word could affect its pronouciation.

P.S. this thread is really going off topic

 

[Stefan]

That must of sucked going back and "fixing" every thing.

Please correct that sentence, this particular mistake hurts my eyes. And no, today we have computers to search and change words for us.

 

[Odin]

That must of sucked going back and "fixing" every thing.

Please correct that sentence, this particular mistake hurts my eyes. And no, today we have computers to search and change words for us.

Consider it fixed

 

[Stefan]

Gah, no need to delete the post. I hope you did see what was wrong? That could leave a really bad impression if you did that in school or job or so.

 

[Odin]

No I didn’t see what was wrong with it but it offended you so I deleted it.

 

[Stefan]

See http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/couldof.html and reread "That must of sucked going back".

Wasn't offended, that was just my way to point out a possibly unrealized bad habit so you can notice and ditch it. Much of my trash talk is actually intended to help people, the way I do it is just both entertaining to me (and some others) and a challenge to the recipient (to see it for what I mean it to be). I'm considering to change my style, though, to appear less condescending.

 

[AvGalen]

[WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY offtopic]
I don't know of any language that makes complete sense (not even programming languages)

For example: Doesn't beautiful mean full of beauty?
Or maybe my favo(u)rite: Having an "off day" isn't the same as a "day off"
[/WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY offtopic]

(and I am one of the people that like the way Stefan communicates, but I can understand it isn't appreciated by others, and often misunderstood by those that don't know him)

 

[Bob]

See http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/couldof.html and reread "That must of sucked going back".

Wasn't offended, that was just my way to point out a possibly unrealized bad habit so you can notice and ditch it. Much of my trash talk is actually intended to help people, the way I do it is just both entertaining to me (and some others) and a challenge to the recipient (to see it for what I mean it to be). I'm considering to change my style, though, to appear less condescending.

If this happens, I will have to appear MUCH more condescending, so as to compensate for the difference.

 

[qqwref]

[WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY offtopic]
I don't know of any language that makes complete sense (not even programming languages)

For example: Doesn't beautiful mean full of beauty?
Or maybe my favo(u)rite: Having an "off day" isn't the same as a "day off"
[/WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY offtopic]

(and I am one of the people that like the way Stefan communicates, but I can understand it isn't appreciated by others, and often misunderstood by those that don't know him)

Er, if that's how you define making complete sense, then of course not. Languages shorten things in order to save space and time for the users (without affecting understanding). That's why we have irregular verbs... I guess for you any language with irregular verbs makes no sense? Same thing about beautiful, perhaps it was written as beauty-full for a while, but it was shortened because people didn't like writing that. The off day/day off thing makes perfect sense to me, because I already expect the placement of words to affect meaning since it always does. For example "Stefan criticized Arnaud" and "Arnaud criticized Stefan" are two entirely different things. So what you're looking for is kind of silly

The 'beautiful' thing is sort of like the J perm, (R U2 R' U' R U' R') (R U' L' U R' U' L). Expecting someone to execute it without the cancellation would be silly, because it's just more efficient and shorter if you combine it.

 

[AvGalen]

[WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY offtopic]
I don't know of any language that makes complete sense (not even programming languages)

For example: Doesn't beautiful mean full of beauty?
Or maybe my favo(u)rite: Having an "off day" isn't the same as a "day off"
[/WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY offtopic]

(and I am one of the people that like the way Stefan communicates, but I can understand it isn't appreciated by others, and often misunderstood by those that don't know him)

Er, if that's how you define making complete sense, then of course not. Languages shorten things in order to save space and time for the users (without affecting understanding). That's why we have irregular verbs... I guess for you any language with irregular verbs makes no sense? Same thing about beautiful, perhaps it was written as beauty-full for a while, but it was shortened because people didn't like writing that. The off day/day off thing makes perfect sense to me, because I already expect the placement of words to affect meaning since it always does. For example "Stefan criticized Arnaud" and "Arnaud criticized Stefan" are two entirely different things. So what you're looking for is kind of silly

The 'beautiful' thing is sort of like the J perm, (R U2 R' U' R U' R') (R U' L' U R' U' L). Expecting someone to execute it without the cancellation would be silly, because it's just more efficient and shorter if you combine it.

You completely missed my point Michael. Why does full of beauty have full spelled with 2 l's? Why does beautyful have ful spelled with 1 l?

 

[Ellis]

You completely missed my point Michael. Why does full of beauty have full spelled with 2 l's? Why does beautyful have ful spelled with 1 l?

If what you're getting at is the reason "full" is not spelled "ful", then I agree with you. Shortening something that is already unnecessarily long makes sense, but making something unnecessarily long in the first place doesn't.