Questions for our British friends

[philll_77]

Originally Posted by haroldeye

Moonraker - The Americans use the original English spellings, we only put the 'u' into words in the 19th Century.

The original name was "alumium", after the mineral Alum, that the metal was extracted from. The "n" was added to make it sound more metallic. "I" came in later.
It pains me to say it, but the US aluminum is more correct than the UK aluminium. Or should I say "less wrong than".

[vinceprince]

ough in English is always a tricky one.

8 ways of pronouncing it in one sentence:
"A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of
Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."

http://www.englishwithlee.com/ough-pronunciation/

[denisovich321]

Originally Posted by haroldeye

Moonraker - The Americans use the original English spellings, we only put the 'u' into words in the 19th Century.

To add to this, there was a trend in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for writers to alter the spelling of words derived from Latin and Greek in order to reflect their origins. For instance, the word 'debt', once spelled variously as 'det', 'dette' or 'dett', was changed by scholars to 'debt' as it reflected the Latin root 'debitum'. Similarly, 'flem' (or 'fleme') found itself changed to 'phlegm', in order to Greek-ify the word. The effect of this was to needlessly complicate spelling in many cases. This also led to many words inadvertently becoming shibboleths which educated elites could use to identify each other.

[@llatse@]

This thread has become worse than my old Double Langauge Studies at school on a Monday Morning.......I can feel the ghost of Mr Hutchinson's blackboard rubber whistling past my ear as I get my French Genders wrong again

Run twice around the schoolfield while reflecting on the feminine gender of une orange (probably got that wrong as it was nearly 40 yrs ago)

[mikk]

Originally Posted by denisovich321

...there was a trend in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for writers to alter the spelling of words derived from Latin and Greek in order to reflect their origins...

Unfortunately, some of them were nothing like as clever as they thought they were.
Someone put the 'h' in 'posthumous' under the impression it was connected with earth - ie burial. In fact, 'postumus' came from 'post' (after) and meant last or latest.
Similarly, the 'g' was put in sovereign as though it came from reign and the Latin root regn-; in reality it came from the Norman-French 'souverain' (superior), from late Latin 'superanus' (stop sniggering there!)

I could go on for ages, and often do until forcibly restrained...

[deepsepia]

I don't know if this is exactly a British specific question, but . . . What's the deal with Morrissey fans?

Was just at a concert and the beefy security were having to fight off girls and boys half his age.

It was a good show, but I didn't see quite what the nuttiness was about. Other than some rap concerts, I've never seen so much security . . .

So what's it about?

[rosestone]

Originally Posted by deepsepia

I don't know if this is exactly a British specific question, but . . . What's the deal with Morrissey fans?

Was just at a concert and the beefy security were having to fight off girls and boys half his age.

It was a good show, but I didn't see quite what the nuttiness was about. Other than some rap concerts, I've never seen so much security . . .

So what's it about?

Morrissey is just one of those artists who inspires blind religious devotion in his followers. It's bizarre to witness. I can't remember the exact quote, but novelist Will Self said that Morrissey fans hurl themselves at Morrissey in the belief that a touch from him will cure the spectre of loneliness, or something like that.

Incidentally, JK Rowling is a Morrissey devotee, and I heard her once describe the one time she met him, which occurred long after she had become much more famous than him. She said that she shook his hand and exchanged pleasantries, and after he had walked away, she stood with her hand still raised in position from where she had shaken Morrissey's, and she kept repeating "he touched me, Morrissey touched me", while her sister-in-law (I think), was whispering to her "Put your hand down. You look mental".

I did once laugh very much at a clip I saw of Morrissey in a documentary, where he met one of his rabid fans, and the exchange went like this:

Rabid fan: "Oh my god, I can't believe I met you! I just want to say that you've made me and millions of other people extremely happy."

Morrissey (completely deadpan): "Well, I certainly didn't mean to."

[deepsepia]

Originally Posted by rosestone

Morrissey is just one of those artists who inspires blind religious devotion in his followers. It's bizarre to witness.

I'll say.

Its Halloween here, and many of the fans were in costume. I was near the front and so got a close up view as security took on a weedy hipster in a blue bunny suit who tried to climb on the stage-- he didn't make it.

Then a zombie tried to rush from the other side and punched another of the security guys- he got smacked down, banged his head on an armrest and there was blood.

Its been a summer of old British acts here, also saw Dave Mason (terrific) and Bryan Ferry (getting on in years and never was a strong singer)

[bloke57]

Originally Posted by deepsepia

I'll say.

3000 posts deepsepia.

Congrats on your landmark.

[haroldeye]

Not too sure about his views on Bryan Ferry mind.