British v. American redux (part 17)

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#6403 - 09/13/00 07:24 AM Re: British v. American redux (part 17)
Bridget addict Registered: 06/27/00 Posts: 444 Loc: Sydney Australia	wsieber, wasn't it you who posted somewhere else about languages being like genepools and stray offshoots on isolated islands breeding weird and wonderful new words? I confess I was thinking of that and of Max's wonderful rant in this thread (Max, I agree with it all! Difference and variety!) rather than about Mencken himself. Didn't specify - sorry! And if Max / NZ English is to be considered a child of Br English and a sibling of Am English, from my knowledge of family dynamics, he might be an interested observer but I wouldn't guarantee he's neutral!
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#6404 - 09/13/00 08:52 AM Re: British v. American redux (part 17)
AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 6511 Loc: lower upstate New York	I tried doing a search for the post here which mentioned that these were apparently a deliberate attempt by Webster to differentiate American English from British English. I most recently read that bit of history in "The Art of Spelling," a new book by Marilyn Vos Savant (great name!!), who is an American "agony aunt" for science and language questions: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393049035/o/qid=968852067/sr=2-1/103-8370088-0647806 In Chapter 10 of his "Mother Tongue," - which I happen to have at hand - Bill Bryson also makes mention of Noah Webster's deliberate attempt to differentiate American from British spelling, though he's not as categorical as Marilyn is: "All Webster's work was informed by a passionate patriotism..."
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#6405 - 09/13/00 03:07 PM Re: British v. American redux (part 17)
Max Quordlepleen Carpal Tunnel Registered: 08/12/00 Posts: 3409	Thanks, Anna - I have always been struck by the wonderfully apt nature of Marilyn's surname, and I also enjoyed reading Bryson's "Notes from a small island." I think I searched for the wrong words in my hunt - looking for "Webster" in this board is like looking for "Chang" in a Hong Kong telephone directory!
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#6406 - 09/13/00 03:27 PM Re: Marilyn
AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 6511 Loc: lower upstate New York	...and thank you, Max, as I didn't until now know Marilyn was syndicated outside the US . Here we see her column in a weekly magazine insert in many local Sunday newspapers. Where do y'all read her?
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#6407 - 09/13/00 06:29 PM Re: Marilyn
Max Quordlepleen Carpal Tunnel Registered: 08/12/00 Posts: 3409	Where do y'all read her I have read a couple of her columns in an NZ paper that seems to get them sporadically, and I bought her book "Brain Power." Sadly, even reading her work didn't help this monkey bang out another Hamlet.
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#6408 - 09/14/00 07:17 AM Re: monkeys
AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 6511 Loc: lower upstate New York	Max, I think your problem lies in the relative difficulty of amassing 999,999 other monkeys and keyboards (who authored that quote, anyway?) ... and speaking of quotes, who was it who said "The US and Great Britain are two countries separated by a single language"? I'm thinking it was either Mencken or Churchill (in which case the country order would naturally be reversed).
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#6409 - 09/14/00 09:03 AM Re: monkeys
tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Registered: 04/03/00 Posts: 10463 Loc: this too shall pass	>separated by a single language George Bernard Shaw, borrowed by Churchill?
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#6410 - 09/14/00 06:33 PM Re: monkeys
Max Quordlepleen Carpal Tunnel Registered: 08/12/00 Posts: 3409	George Bernard Shaw, borrowed by Churchill? I don't know whether my least favourite egomaniac borrowed the quote, but it's definitely from Shaw.
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#6411 - 09/15/00 12:43 AM coming unthreaded
Bingley Carpal Tunnel Registered: 04/09/00 Posts: 3065 Loc: Jakarta	Am I the only who has trouble accessing past threads (i.e. those not on the first page of the list of threads) in flat mode? I can get the first page of the thread OK, but then when I click on the number 2, 3, or whatever or on show all, I could end up almost anywhere. Certainly not in the same thread anyway. Bingley _________________________ Bingley
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#6412 - 09/15/00 02:32 AM Re: coming unthreaded
jmh Pooh-Bah Registered: 03/22/00 Posts: 1981	Yep - I've noticed it too. With most of the older threads you can only see the first page in flat mode. When you click "show all" or any other page you end up somewhere else entirely - "Viruses/Virii?" - seems a popular place to end up - hope that its not significant!
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