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America renames Chemistry
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nigelswift
8112 posts

Re: America renames Chemistry
Jun 04, 2017, 10:57
I'll settle for smaller billions and bigger golf balls and even sulfur in schools, so long as they don't send us creationism, intelligent design and other right wing christian crap. It's a funny day to say it but also apt.
Littlestone
Littlestone
5386 posts

Edited Jun 04, 2017, 12:15
Re: America renames Chemistry
Jun 04, 2017, 11:35
Howburn Digger wrote:
is everyone aware that the chemical element Sulphur has been officially renamed Sulfur? Apparently American "lazy" spelling has been adopted by the UK and international chemists. Not all are happy about this.

But what can you do?


Actually, the word sulfur is derived from the Latin word sulpur (later Hellenized to sulphur). The spelling sulfur appears towards the end of the Classical period.

“In 12th-century Anglo-French, it was sulfre; in the 14th century the Latin ph was restored, for sulphre; and by the 15th century the full Latin spelling was restored, for sulfur, sulphur. The parallel f~ph spellings continued in Britain until the 19th century, when the word was standardized as sulphur. Sulfur was the form chosen in the United States, whereas Canada uses both. The IUPAC adopted the spelling sulfur in 1990, as did the Nomenclature Committee of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1992, restoring the spelling sulfur to Britain. Oxford Dictionaries note that "in chemistry and other technical uses … the -f- spelling is now the standard form for this and related words in British as well as US contexts, and is increasingly used in general contexts as well.” (Source Wikipedia).

So, the spelling and etymology of the word has an interesting and chequered history, with the ‘f’ spelling of the word (as in sufre) being in use for several hundred years. Hardly a new or ‘lazy’ adoption, especially as the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the Nomenclature Committee of the Royal Society of Chemistry adopted the sulfur spelling in 1990 and 1992 respectfully.

The spellings for aluminium and aluminum also have an interesting history (and the latter is neither a new nor a lazy option either). It might also be worth noting that American English has preserved many old English words and phrases which have disappeared from 'British' English. Google ‘Appalachian English’ if you're interested.

Trivia alert: The 1893 statue of Eros (actually it’s a statue of Anteros) in Piccadilly Circus, London was the first statue in the world to be cast in aluminium/aluminum.
dhajjieboy
913 posts

Re: America renames Chemistry
Jun 04, 2017, 13:10
Thanks for doing what i can't be bothered to do anymore..{constantly de-bunking all of HowBurn's lies /snipes/jabs/slanders at the USA}

Mr. HowBurn exists in a strange nether-world where the only reality that exists is RT News {russian television} informed.

It's OK though...just as so many before him, i am slowly but surely dismantling and putting on display for all to see, what a quite nasty and willfully mis-informed individual he truly is...
As with all his ilk...i barely have to try.
Littlestone
Littlestone
5386 posts

Why the Americanisation of English Is a Good Thing
Jun 05, 2017, 12:57
Sadly, so much here (and on TMA) is now so opinion-based it’s hardly worth the time and trouble reading it. There’s little or no regard to either the facts nor to the historic context where that’s relevant. When the facts and the context are known they’re often ignored to support the opinion of the poster. This sulphur/sulfur thread is just one example of that. Howburn Digger may have been genuinely concerned at what he sees as a lazy use of some English words by our American cousins but his concern, I’m afraid, doesn’t hold water. It doesn’t hold water because it ignores the facts and the historic context of the issue.

The trouble with opinion-based threads/comments such as this one is that they tend to snowball and we get, for example, the use of aluminium/aluminum then being introduced as further proof of lazy Americanisms when that, too, doesn’t hold water. Result? No-one really learns anything from such an ‘exchange’ and the inevitable fisticuffs break out.

On a lighter note BBC Radio 4 recently ran a programme called Americanize!: Why the Americanisation of English Is a Good Thing. It’s here if anyone’s interested (and it's well worth a listen). You might think WOW for example is an Americanism but actually it’s originally from 16th century Scotland! Ditto so many other words like ‘trash’.

Going back to different spellings of a word though; there have been various attempts to standardise English spelling but none have come to fruition. It’s not an impossible task however, in fact any half-decent dictionary will give you both the phonetic spelling as well as the ‘accepted’ spelling of a word. The thing is should we rationalise the spelling of English? I’ve never been able to come a decisive decision on this. On the one hand it would make learning how to read and write English so much easier but, on the other, it would strip away so much of the historic nuance that our written language has gathered around itself.

Perhaps the brave new world of uniformity (that I’ve alluded to elsewhere) will determine the future direction of travel for the English language – one away from the present rich diversity of our language towards expressing ourselves in the blandest way possible.
dhajjieboy
913 posts

Re: Why the Americanisation of English Is a Good Thing
Jun 05, 2017, 13:06
It's good to see an iota of thought process is still to be found here-abouts.
drewbhoy
drewbhoy
2550 posts

Re: Why the Americanisation of English Is a Good Thing
Jun 05, 2017, 13:25
Littlestone wrote:
Sadly, so much here (and on TMA) is now so opinion-based it’s hardly worth the time and trouble reading it. There’s little or no regard to either the facts nor to the historic context where that’s relevant. When the facts and the context are known they’re often ignored to support the opinion of the poster. This sulphur/sulfur thread is just one example of that. Howburn Digger may have been genuinely concerned at what he sees as a lazy use of some English words by our American cousins but his concern, I’m afraid, doesn’t hold water. It doesn’t hold water because it ignores the facts and the historic context of the issue.

The trouble with opinion-based threads/comments such as this one is that they tend to snowball and we get, for example, the use of aluminium/aluminum then being introduced as further proof of lazy Americanisms when that, too, doesn’t hold water. Result? No-one really learns anything from such an ‘exchange’ and the inevitable fisticuffs break out.

On a lighter note BBC Radio 4 recently ran a programme called Americanize!: Why the Americanisation of English Is a Good Thing. It’s here if anyone’s interested (and it's well worth a listen). You might think WOW for example is an Americanism but actually it’s originally from 16th century Scotland! Ditto so many other words like ‘trash’.

Going back to different spellings of a word though; there have been various attempts to standardise English spelling but none have come to fruition. It’s not an impossible task however, in fact any half-decent dictionary will give you both the phonetic spelling as well as the ‘accepted’ spelling of a word. The thing is should we rationalise the spelling of English? I’ve never been able to come a decisive decision on this. On the one hand it would make learning how to read and write English so much easier but, on the other, it would strip away so much of the historic nuance that our written language has gathered around itself.

Perhaps the brave new world of uniformity (that I’ve alluded to elsewhere) will determine the future direction of travel for the English language – one away from the present rich diversity of our language towards expressing ourselves in the blandest way possible.


Would you like to name those on TMA LS?
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