I did a little research on how meter is spelled in various non-English languages. According to https://translate.google.com the primary SI unit is spelled meter in thirteen non-English languages. Those 13 languages are Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, German, Hausa, Islandic, Indonesian, Latin, Malay, Norwegian, Slovak, Slovenian and Swedish. Hungarian has an accent mark in the first syllable méter (which is pretty close to meter, so 14 if you count Hungarian). The primary SI unit is spelled metre in only two non-English languages. Those two languages are Catalan and Turkish. French has an accent mark in the first syllable: mètre (which is pretty close to metre, so 3 if you count French). Other languages have many different variations (for example, metro in Spanish). Some languages use non-Latin-based scripts. (English is written in a Latin-based script.) English, as we already know, has evolved two different spellings for many words, not just for the word meter / metre.
----- Message from Brian White <[email protected]> --------- Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2014 06:39:24 -0700 From: Brian White <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: [USMA:54013] Re: tries to pull a truck in heels - YouTube To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Meter and metre are fine. Both are better than feet or yards. ------------------------- From: Harold_Potsdamer[1] Sent: 6/21/2014 4:37 To: U.S. Metric Association[2] Subject: [USMA:54012] Re: tries to pull a truck in heels - YouTube A lot of people make spelling errors, it doesn’t mean it is right. Why didn’t they just use the symbol “m”? FROM: [email protected] SENT: Friday, 2014-06-20 23:53 TO: U.S. Metric Association[2] SUBJECT: [USMA:54010] Re: tries to pull a truck in heels - YouTube Harold. Clearly, the signs say 1 METER - 2 METERS - 3 METERS et cetera, rendered with the American spelling, not the British spelling. ----- Message from Harold_Potsdamer <[email protected]> --------- Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 20:44:48 -0400 From: Harold_Potsdamer <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: [USMA:53999] tries to pull a truck in heels - YouTube To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMSStSeQyUI&feature=player_detailpage#t=50
The distances are measured in metres.----- End message from Harold_Potsdamer <[email protected]> ----- David Pearl www.MetricPioneer.com[3] 503-428-4917
----- End message from Brian White <[email protected]> ----- Links: ------ [1] mailto:[email protected] [2] mailto:[email protected] [3] http://www.MetricPioneer.com David Pearl www.MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917
