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Flavor vs. Flavour
An anonymous reader writes "A recent flamewar ensued on the Linux kernel mailing list, this time debating the proper spelling of 'flavor', or is it 'flavour'? Even Linux creator Linus Torvalds joined the fray with some rather humorous comments. For the most part, it sounds like spellings will stay as they are, but it makes for an entertaining read."
I suggest we all, in a show of universal brotherhood and cultural tolerance, join hands and announce to the world:
Linux: It gots much flavah!
~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
It's an article about Torvalds' offhand comments about a flame war about the spelling of a non-critical word in the kernel tree.
Man, if I'd only subscribed I could have seen this way early!
The coolest voice ever.
"A recent flamewar ensued on the Microsoft executive mailing list, this time debating the proper spelling of 'Linux'. Is it 'Linux,' 'GNU/Linux', 'cancer,' 'our biggest threat', or 'our second-biggest threat'?"
The coolest voice ever.
Its because of aluminium poisoning. Sorry, aluminum.
Don't go to a brothel if you want to buy broth
In fact correct: the US form is "curb".
International English follows the British spelling. We Americans should just grin and bear it, and accept the fact that our "English" is nonstandard. (Like Microsoft's implementation of Java, perhaps) In any case, if your target audience is wider than the US (and maybe Japan as the English they use there tends toward American), it is best to use the international spellings - colour, flavour - than our utterly made up spellings. (Damn you Noah Webster! It's all your fault! No, seriously.) I think people gravitate to the US spelling because they are simpler, but they are not more correct. But no one else here in the US is likely to agree with me; I'm probably going to get modded (-1, Flamebait) for this one. Heh.
In short, we should just accept that our English is nonstandard, and use the English every other English-speaking country uses.
-uso.
Dreams, dreams, don't doubt dreams, dreaming children's dreaming dreams. Sailor Moon SS
Hello, this is Leenoos Toorvahlds and I spell flavor, f-l-a-v-o-u-r.
This sort of disagreement can only be resolved with a fork.
signed,
BSD
Use Python
No wonder I freeze up all the time when trying to talk to people!
sic transit gloria mundi
I'm no expert but there is a good description of differences in the variants of English here
M aj or_Dialects_of_English
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language#
"Compared to British English, American English is conservative in its phonology. It is often claimed that certain rural areas in North America speak "Elizabethan English," but in fact the standard American English of the upper Midwest has a sound profile much closer to seventeenth century English than the current speech of England has."
"American English has some small differences from British English. American English has both spelling and grammatical differences from British English, some of which were made as part of an attempt to rationalize the English spelling used by British English at the time. Unlike many 20th century language reforms (e.g., Turkey's alphabet shift, Norway's spelling reform) the American spelling changes were not driven by government, but by textbook writers and dictionary makers.
The first American dictionary was written by Noah Webster in 1828. At the time America was a relatively new country and Webster's particular contribution was to show that the region spoke a different dialect from Britain, and so he wrote a dictionary with many spellings differing from the standard. Many of these changes were initiated unilaterally by Webster.
Webster also argued for many "simplifications" to the idiomatic spelling of the period. Somewhat ironically, many, although not all, of his simplifications fell into common usage alongside the original versions, resulting in a situation even more confused than before.
Many words are shortened and differ from other versions of English. Words such as center are used instead of centre in other versions of English. And there are many other variations. "
"I respect a man who knows how to spell a word more than one way."
Wasn't that in response to calling "french fries" "freedom fries"?
You know, given the politics surrounding that war, the righteous thing for Americans to do would have been to start referring to french fries as "chips"... ;)
Kill, Tux, kill!
while(homies.down)
{
bustcap;
punk(whitey);
bustcap;
bustcap;
}
bite my glorious golden ass.
Very common misconception.
Unfortunately, sir, you are incorrect. Up here in Canada, as you put it, centre is always spelled -re unless one is referring to an object in the United States.
We still centre our sights on targets, albeit without handguns. Americans are the only ones who center anything.
As far as objects go, yes, Med Centre remains as such, although, the Kennedy Space Center is spelled in the American fashion.
Urban Detail
Wow, along that line of logic next you're going to tell me that the rest of the world doesn't use the English system of measurements! And I suppose we should switch to metric instead!?
Error 404 - Sig Not Found
No, it's called "English" as opposed to "American".
They speak English in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc. and in America, they speak American. Also they pronounce the letter z wrong. it's Zed, not Zee. And they think Kraft dinner is Kraft mac & cheese (and food, for that matter), and the beer tastes like watered down piss. etc.
Differences in countries are stupid to debate about, because there's no right answer, just differences.
It's not a case of "which was around earlier", it's a case of "what do the British use? Let's not use that". They could do no worse than the old English that the English themselves had discarded.
The reason most USian words are around earlier is because they're from pre-Norman Britain. We modified our language to be more pallatable to the Gallic nobles running the country, e.g. adopting the prefix -our over -or, -re over -er, -ise over -ize, and so on.
Let's use "centre" as an example. The French pronounce and spell it -re ("son-tre" for centre). The US prounounce and spell it -er ("sen-ter" for center). We Brits pronounce it -er and spell it -re.
In case you're wondering, center/centre is from the Latin centrum, so the French were right.
Does my bum look big in this?
The only time I see it spelled "flavour" is in British recipe books. As in, "boil until all flavour and texture has vanished". :-)
...wearing a skin-tight topless leather jumpsuit, with cutaway buttocks and transparent crotch panel.
We could argue for years over when dictionary-writing became serious, but most people would probably cite Samuel Johnson's dictionary, published in 1755, about 75 years before Websters. Note that it included only spellings, not definitions.
You mention Samuel Johnson... I just have to quote from Blackadder:
Dr. Johnson:
This book, sir, contains every word in our beloved language.
Edmund:
Every word, sir?
Dr. Johnson:
Every word, sir.
Edmund:
Well, in that case, sir, I hope you will not object if I also offer the doctor my most enthusiastic contrafibularities.
Dr. Johnson:
What??
Edmund:
Contrafibularities, sir. It is a common word down our way.
Dr. Johnson:
Damn!
Edmund:
Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I'm anaspeptic, frasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericumbobulation.
Google says:
Eminem - 2,230,000
Mozart - 1,970,000
Burger - 1,670,000
Caviar - 575,000
Piss - 2,750,000
Chardonnay - 742,000
Your point?
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
Then why don't you spell it as "about a yard"?
Best Slashdot comment ever
Please be quiet or I will assault you and have sex with your posterior.
As apposed to "Deep fry until rubbery, oily consistency has been achieved. Place between two halves of a bun. Serve."?