32 points

And yet they still use king George’s foot as a unit of measurement, curious.

permalink
report
reply
10 points

And then became a bloodsoaked colonial power to surpass the previous bloodsoaked colonial power.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points

A foot is defined as 0,3048 meter. They use the metric system, but with a conversion.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Miles, feet, and inches are all base 12 - just saying.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

It would be awesome to have a base-12 number system paired with a base-12 measurement system. It’s just so much nicer to deal with than metric or imperial. So many measurements would become much easier. Take length. You could have the base measurement be equal to a meter, then use 1/3 meter sticks as roughly equivalent to a 1 foot ruler.

permalink
report
parent
reply
27 points

I always want to pronounce the American versions of these words phonetically when I see them.

And what the heck is going on with the US pronunciation of “buoy”? None of those syllables are in that word.

permalink
report
reply
20 points
*

Buo-y

Apparently we have the Dutch to blame for that one, as the verb form is apparently descended from Spanish.

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points

I still don’t understand the English insistence on borrowing words from other languages, yet refusal to standardize spelling into ways that actually make sense within the language.

So I still blame English for being silly with their transliteration.

permalink
report
parent
reply
10 points

Blame the great vowel shift.

But also, English spelling can’t standardize because English pronunciation isn’t standard. West Coast vs Midwest vs South vs East Coast have vastly different accents. Any spelling reform that makes English phonetic for one would be wrong for the others.

And it keeps changing! People keep moving and interacting with other languages, adding and dropping words and accents over time.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points

Blame the French actually, they invaded and screwed everything up beyond repair.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

ʤəst stɑːt ˈjuːzɪŋ aɪ-piː-eɪ

permalink
report
parent
reply
10 points

Do it backwards, pronounce the British versions

  • Cull our
  • Hume our
  • Flave our
permalink
report
parent
reply
21 points

Simplified English vs Traditional English

permalink
report
reply
18 points

It’s not even that. At the time they split, English wasn’t as standardized. You can see it looking back in the Lewis and Clark expedition journals written by Meriwether Lewis. He doesn’t even have consistency in his own writing, and he was no country bumpkin.

permalink
report
parent
reply
20 points

I mean we already got rid of T.

permalink
report
reply
8 points

You mean we the Bri’ish?

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

I see what you did there

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

The good ol’ glottal stop.

permalink
report
parent
reply
17 points

Check the Declaration of Independence. You’ll find the ‘u’. Noah Webster was a dick.

permalink
report
reply
8 points

The Declaration was pre standard. It sure was a political decision to land on another standard than the Bri*ish

permalink
report
parent
reply

Memes

!memes@lemmy.ml

Create post

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

Community stats

  • 13K

    Monthly active users

  • 12K

    Posts

  • 259K

    Comments