Why in Canada is meter spelled metre?

[LilianaUwU]

Speaking of English differences, my personal favorite:
USA:  Sneakers
Canada:  Runners
UK:  Trainers
NZ:  Joggers

Because I'm one of the superior Canadians who speak French, it's "souliers" (soo-lee-ay) for me.

Having said that, I wonder if you hypothetically had an American, a Canadian, an Irish, a Brit, a New Zealander, and an Aussie all in the same room for a meeting, what that meeting might sound like.

Sounds about like the late night Discord VCs I'm into.

[cockroachking]

Regional differences...does that mean that if a life-long New Yorker and a life-long Californian were to meet up, then they might still not quite understand each other??

LA-speaker: "That's a hella sandwich you got there!"
Philly-speaker: "This isn't a sandwich; it's a hoagie."
LA-speaker: "What's a hoagie?"

FTFY

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I think "sandwich" is pretty universally understood with these regional terms being types of sandwiches (a hoagie is a sandwich, but not every sandwich is a hoagie). If you wanted to mix in "hero", "po' boy", "submarine" unshortened, etc. maybe you could trip up some people.

[Scott5114]

Regional differences...does that mean that if a life-long New Yorker and a life-long Californian were to meet up, then they might still not quite understand each other??

LA-speaker: "That's a the sandwich you got there!"
NY-speaker: "This isn't a sandwich; it's a hoagie."
LA-speaker: "What's a the hoagie?"

Fixed for actual California-speak accuracy.

California is a the Mushroom Kingdom?

[Max Rockatansky]

Regional differences...does that mean that if a life-long New Yorker and a life-long Californian were to meet up, then they might still not quite understand each other??

LA-speaker: "That's a the sandwich you got there!"
NY-speaker: "This isn't a sandwich; it's a hoagie."
LA-speaker: "What's a the hoagie?"

Fixed for actual California-speak accuracy.

California is a the Mushroom Kingdom?

Don't make me try to explain how "put gas" or "take down stuff from the car."

[Takumi]

[GaryV]

"gym shoes"

Back in the 1960's, we got a pair of gym shoes in the fall, took them to school and left them there. In the spring we brought them home and wore them outside in the summer - the first time they hadn't been used indoors. We wore other shoes like Hush Puppies the rest of the year.

When I was 5 my family went to Florida in March/April. I didn't have any shoes to wear because "gym shoes" weren't on sale in Michigan that early in the season. We stopped at a store somewhere down south, and I didn't understand the clerk who asked me if I wanted "ray - ed" shoes (red).

[1995hoo]

Don't the British speak the real English?  We Americans just took their language and twisted it into our version.

...

The Brits made an early effort and Americans improved on the things the Brits botched.




Regarding terms for a certain type of athletic shoe, the oddest term I've ever heard is in the Beach Boys song "Vega-Tables" from the Smile album when Brian Wilson sings, "I tried to kick the ball but my tenny flew right off."

[Brandon]

Don't the British speak the real English?  We Americans just took their language and twisted it into our version.

Yes and no.  The two diverged, but American English maintains some older pronunciations and terms lost in British English.  Believe it or not, British English used to be as rhotic as American English.

[jgb191]

I've also noticed that Texas English is pretty diverse within my home state.  Consider a driver from Houston visiting San Antonio and asking a local for directions:

Houston driver:  "Can you tell me how to get to the nearest H-E-B?"
SA local:  "Keep driving down this access road."
Houston driver:  "What's an access road?"
SA local:  ::Points to the frontage road::
Houston driver:  "That's a feeder!"
SA local:  "Is it feeding season already??"
El Paso visitor overhearing the conversation:  "He means drive on the gateway."

[kphoger]

It's easy for us modern folk to imagine that spelling has always been as standardized as it is now.  But it wasn't.  There were multiple ways of spelling a given word for most of the language's history.

Even our own Declaration of Independence has these two spellings just a single paragraph apart, of a word you'd think they were pretty familiar with:
  Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren
  that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown

[formulanone]

It's easy for us modern folk to imagine that spelling has always been as standardized as it is now.  But it wasn't.  There were multiple ways of spelling a given word for most of the language's history.

Even our own Declaration of Independence has these two spellings just a single paragraph apart, of a word you'd think they were pretty familiar with:
  Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren
  that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown

When in the course of human history, it it becomes necessary to recognize that Parchment-Out had not yet been invented.

[kphoger]

Parchment-Out had not yet been invented.

Which is why...

[wxfree]

It's easy for us modern folk to imagine that spelling has always been as standardized as it is now.  But it wasn't.  There were multiple ways of spelling a given word for most of the language's history.

Even our own Declaration of Independence has these two spellings just a single paragraph apart, of a word you'd think they were pretty familiar with:
  Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren
  that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown

They were just recognizing how the British abuse the T.  They don't have a little kitten, they either have a li'el ki'en or a liTTle kiTTen with emphasis starting on the Ts.  The first case is pronounced BriTTish (with emphasis at the end) and the second is Bri'ish.

[JayhawkCO]

I just yesterday learned that the British pronounce lieutenant as left-tenant.

[kphoger]

I just yesterday learned that the British pronounce lieutenant as left-tenant.

Now ask them to pronounce "the sixth lieutenant's medicine"...

[jakeroot]

Japan uses American English. This should surprise absolutely no one.

Ironically, the Japanese who take their working holidays in a commonwealth country do end up with accents and, I would have presumed, a tendency to spell things the British way. But my experience was that spelling remained American-ized but the accent was...well, awful.

[wxfree]

I just yesterday learned that the British pronounce lieutenant as left-tenant.

I've been rewatching "As Time Goes By" on BritBox.  Lionel was Second Leftenant Hardcastle.  Don't the British (in some accents) pronounce van Gogh as van Goff?  There are, of course, many accents over there.  Most of the differences are in how they mangle the language in different ways.  Lionel and Jean are not aristocratic, but are rather posh, and tend to speak well.  "Are You Being Served?" gives a better array of accents.  I rather enjoy the two ladies' sales associates different ways of speaking.  Miss Brahms is Cockney and Mrs. Slocombe tries to sound posh but when frustrated her northern accent comes out.  In another show, the character Frank Gallagher pronounces "party" as pah ay, because in Manchester English "rt" sounds like a long A.

In Star Trek, Q spoke with some kind of eastern European accent, and pronounced "lieutenant" as loy ten ahnt, which is rather like how it's spelled.

[wxfree]

Japan uses American English. This should surprise absolutely no one.

Ironically, the Japanese who take their working holidays in a commonwealth country do end up with accents and, I would have presumed, a tendency to spell things the British way. But my experience was that spelling remained American-ized but the accent was...well, awful.

A combination of Japanese and British accents speaking American English, what could go wrong?

[kphoger]

Don't the British (in some accents) pronounce van Gogh as van Goff?

If I had to choose, then I'd say that's actually closer to correct than the American van go.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Don't the British (in some accents) pronounce van Gogh as van Goff?

If I had to choose, then I'd say that's actually closer to correct than the American van go.

I went to HS with some Dutch speakers, van Gogh sounded like hawking a loogie saying it authentically.

(Sorry Chris. We probably have werid sounds in English too.)

[kkt]

Don't the British speak the real English?  We Americans just took their language and twisted it into our version.

The first answer would be "no" and the second would be that I hope you don't imagine that all British people speak English the same way.

[kphoger]

Don't the British speak the real English?  We Americans just took their language and twisted it into our version.

The first answer would be "no" and the second would be that I hope you don't imagine that all British people speak English the same way.

It's funny when people assume that everyone else's English changed over time but the language of Britain just stayed the same during the same time period.  Same with Spanish, for what that's worth.

[1995hoo]

Mi pensas, ke mi komencos aludi al ĉiuj landoj uzante iliajn nomojn en Esperanto.

[Road Hog]

Mi pensas, ke mi komencos aludi al ĉiuj landoj uzante iliajn nomojn en Esperanto.

I had to translate this into German to get the gist of what this says, and then re-translate that into English. Esperanto > English is a blind spot in teh Googs.