On 2009-01-18, Willie Wong <ww...@princeton.edu> wrote: > You have way too much faith in the education system provided by > English speaking countries.
+1 QOTW > Of course, you can bloody-well argue, by way of Henry Higgins, > that "in America they haven't spoken [English] for years." :) Rather more OT: I once heard it argued (IIRC, by the guy that did "The Story of English" series on the BBC) that British English that has changed much more than American English since the two began to diverge in the 1600's. He claimed that Shakespeare and other Elizabethans would probably be more comfortable with modern American English than modern British English (though both would sound pretty foreign to them). He mentioned a whole list of "English" words that mean the same thing in America today that they did in England in the 17th century, but now mean something different in England. IOW, they haven't spoken English in England for centuries... And after you've heard the "proper" British pronunciation of words like Featheringstonehaugh, it's pretty difficult to keep a straight face when Brit's complain about what we Americans have done to the lanugage... ;) -- Grant
