A few days back there was an exchange on whether or not cellphones posed an electrical hazard in areas where flammable items exist, and gas stations were quoted as the obvious place for this.
Quite a few of us, myself included, pooh-poohed this. especially me since the Philippines has one of the world's largest, if not the largest, number of cellphones in use as a percentage of population, and no linkage has ever been reported between cellphone use and fire occuurence.
Yesterday's Philippine Star carried a report where a policeman who was filling his tank was severely burnt when the gas pump exploded. The City Fire Dept investigation's preliminary findings placed the cellphone he was using at the time high on the list of probable causes.
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Is that a local expression for eating one's hat, suck salt, etc.? I haven't heard that before.
Many thanks of the information. Duly noted.
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You got it. Sorry living in such a US-oriented culture the Americanisms creep in unnoticed.
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sheesh!
You would never have gotten away with that in England, I guess!
I think you need a vacation back home.
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Eating crow is a phrase that is in use in Staffordshire.
It doesn't relate to any part of clothing, but is an observation about young children who put their fingers in a nostril and then eat whatever they find within.
Jonathan
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I thought it might refer to the crow eating legend. Refer to the link for the story. The second story there has a motoring link.
webpages.marshall.edu/~ullerup2/archives.htm
AFM
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Ian (cape town):
"You would never have gotten away with that in England, I guess!"
Looks like "have gotten" has gotten into the vernacular as well!
I can still remember when I went to the US in the 60s asking someone in the office for a rubber and getting a robust reply. I also learned quickly that "homely" doesn't mean the same as it does here.
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Double helpings of *humble pie*, methinks?
DD
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Gotten ?? This I am given to understand is a East Anglian word that was taken to over the water by the Pilgrim Fathers and kept in common usage by our US cousins. So is it an Americanism or an Anglianism........chicken and egg or Crow
and egg.
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As so often in the past Pug Ugly (US Plug Ugly!?) is right "on track" *** here. From the time of the first settlers, the rules of English spelling were almost certainly delightfully vague, not least because not every one would have been able to read or write (which also explains why so many American first names and surnames have been passed on in interestingly different forms from - or similar to! - British names. Like our own use of English, which is constantly changing, the American use of English evolved over the years and, whilst many scholars may lay claim to have been the inventor of American English, it is fairly generally accepted that it was Noah Webster who brought about the divorce between English example and American practise.
His first major work on the subject was his ?Grammatical Institute of the English Language,? published at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1783. His first dictionary, in 1806, reinforced his claim to fame, and numerous editions of his dictionary were published, showing all sorts of alterations and additions. Finally, in 1828, he printed his great ?American Dictionary of the English Language,? in two large volumes, which not only ruled the roost over other American dictionaries, but also over the best dictionaries produced in England. Indeed, it is considered by many academics that, until the appearance of the "Concise Oxford Dictionary" in 1914, the United States remained far ahead of England in the compilation and publication of dictionaries.
Webster was very much in favour of simpler spellings in his early spelling books, best expressed in his dictionary of 1806 when he made a head on attack on some of the dearest prejudices of English lexicographers, and based his changes on a saying by Benjamin Franklin, namely that ?those people spell best who do not know how to spell?, meaning those who spell phonetically and logically.
Curiously enough that quotation brings us back to this forum when I said, on another thread that "yes! Correct grammar, or use of the English language, really *does* matter, but probably a great deal less on a site like this than on many others if it is to attract the splendid contributions it does on such a wide range of subjects, and from such a wide range of contributors." It really would be the most enormous loss if a single contributor to this forum (possibly bar one ....) was the slightest bit put off from putting in his tuppence worth for fear that someone would criticise his English, including spelling.
So, let it not be "for-gotten" - our only real present day use of "gotten" (Thank you, Pug Ugly!) - that so many of the American spellings we sometimes like to laugh at today were once our *own* preferred spellings, which our friends on the other side of the Atlantic use to this day.
Ronnie
*** Motoring theme!
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Ah but there is Automobile/Car link. Is it not true that the Americans at the turn of the C19th brought in legistlation to ammend the spelling of English words such as "colour" "Through" "Harbour" and the such like because of the number of Non English speaking immigrants and to simplify "daft" English spelling. I think I read this in Bill Bryson's book "Mother Tounge" on a long train journey which proved to me how much more pleasant it is to travel by car. (a very very
slight motoring link I admit)
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You really are firing on all cylinders ** today Pug Ugly! I believe you are indeed correct in referring to Bill Bryson's book "The Mother Tongue", and its sequel "Made in America", which I seem to recall even suggests that German was considered as the official language of the new nation, somwhat curiously in my view because of the Germanic origins of King George III. Even more curiously, during the American Revolution, plans were even considered to substitute Hebrew for English, but this was rejected because ?it would be more convenient for us to keep the language as it is, and make the English speak Greek"!
Interestingly enough, Webster had no agenda for abandoning English altogether, however keen to establish American as a different version of English. The rest, as they say, is history - the same history that Henry Ford *** is alleged to have described as "more or less bunk".
Most amusing of all to me as a Scot, is that some of the fiercest opponents of the continued use of English in America were Scots, in particular a Scottish minister named John Witherspoon, who arrived in the US in 1769 to be President of Princeton University.
Regards
Ronnie
*** Compulsory motoring links since there appears to be no e-mail address for "m'learned friend" and whileI *do*appreciate that not everyone is as interested in this fascinating subject as Pug and me, I felt he deserved the courtesy of a reply to his last post.
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My God! What have I wrought?
I've recently finished Bryson's Lost Continent, in which he details his drive*** around the States. fascinating!
My favourite linr:
"I have only met one journalist with a tidy desk, and he was later arrested for molesting young boys."
We have photocopied it (LARGE!) and stuck it on the wall!
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Blimey. Just goes to show how a thread can get away from you.
By an interesting coincidence, I am proceeding to UK in a couple of weeks to take my Teacher of English as a Foreign Language Course -- part of some work I'm planning in Asia. When I return I shall take great delight in reviewing and correcting everyone's written English.
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Growler and Ian - Don't feel guilty - fiat lux!
Regards to you both - and enjoy your course Growler. Can't wait to see your equivalent of Mark's reports on the UK and UK motoring on your return, not forgetting the Pony of course.
Ronnie
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Should I mention that I am taking the English course in Newcastle...?
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Do they speak English there?
Are we going to have a generation of little filipino's speaking advanced Geordie?
The mind boggles ...
Maybe when you are there, you can visit some of the 'local' backroomers!
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