On Sunday 02 October 2011 15:51:52 Nate Bargmann wrote: > * On 2011 02 Oct 07:59 -0500, Stephen Powell wrote: > > Similarly, center is the > > American spelling and centre is the British spelling. Same word, > > same meaning. How the spelling differences came about I have no > > idea. > > I always though the 're' instead of an 'er' was a French thing. Only > within the past few weeks have I learned that the Brits claim the > credit/accept the blame for that one. ;-)
Which Brits?? I have never met anyone who would claim that!! -re is, as you say, French and came over originally with the Normans. -er is American (used, anyhow in the United States). But British English uses both, which, as a child who attended French, American and British schools in turn, I found very confusing and only finally sorted out recently. Logic works however: i.e. the length came over form France, but a good deal more recently than 1066, and is spelt metre, but the use of electric power came over from the States, so a machine for measuring/keeping track of electricity is called a meter. Lisi -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/201110021634.23906.lisi.re...@gmail.com
