Andrew Stiller wrote:
This is American vs. British usage. In the UK, "bar" can refer to
either the line or the contents. In the US, "bar" means only the
line in academic writing, and the contents are a measure. However,
colloquial US English uses "bar" in the British sense all the
time--it's just not acceptable in formal writing.
This is what gets us Canadians into trouble all the time. It seems as
if we have the worst of both worlds.
At Indiana University they kept drubbing into me "It's a MAY-SURE, not a bar!"
And that is how I first learned to tell when someone is from Indiana.
They say may-sure instead of meh-sure.
Related aside: It took me a year to even hear how we English speaking
Canadians say "aboot" instead of "about". After that I had to
practice the mid-West diphthong (adults only) for a few more months
before the teasing went away. The internal scars were a different
matter...
-Randolph Peters
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