Proper English

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prmurat

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Jun 6, 2003
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Going through a Norton manual, 1965, I discovered a new term , for me: carburetter... I know carburator but never heard this one: proper english vs american?
Philippe
 
Carburetor in the U.S. Carburetter in the U.K. Probably just another French-origin word us Anglos butcher to suit.
 
Yanks can't even spell "aluminium" so "carburettor" (correct spelling) is bound to stump them. I'm off to make a tomato sandwich and may go to the nightclub tonight. A bit of labour on the Norton might be the go as well.
 
Both "carburettor" and "carburetter" (Amal Carburetter Co.) are correct UK English spellings of the word, although the "-or" version is the most commonly used these days:

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/ca ... or?view=uk

I know our American friends can't decide whether it's a "carburetor" or a "carburator". :wink:
 
Danno said:
Fullauto said:
Yanks can't even spell "aluminium"
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Even though it was first discovered here!
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Here? :?

If you mean Denmark? Hans Christian Ørsted is credited as being the first person to produce aluminium/aluminum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Christian_%C3%98rsted

"In 1825, Ørsted made a significant contribution to chemistry by producing aluminium for the first time. While an aluminium-iron alloy had previously been developed by British scientist and inventor Humphry Davy, Ørsted was the first to isolate the element via a reduction of aluminium chloride."
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http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/aluminium.htm

"The metal was named by the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy.....

... Sir Humphry made a bit of a mess of naming this new element, at first spelling it alumium (this was in 1807) then changing it to aluminum, and finally settling on aluminium in 1812. His classically educated scientific colleagues preferred aluminium right from the start, because it had more of a classical ring, and chimed harmoniously with many other elements whose names ended in –ium, like potassium, sodium, and magnesium, all of which had been named by Davy......

....It’s clear that the shift in the USA from –ium to –um took place progressively over a period starting in about 1895, when the metal began to be widely available and the word started to be needed in popular writing. It is easy to imagine journalists turning for confirmation to Webster’s Dictionary, still the most influential work at that time, and adopting its spelling. The official change in the US to the –um spelling happened quite late: the American Chemical Society only adopted it in 1925, though this was clearly in response to the popular shift that had already taken place. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) officially standardised on aluminium in 1990, though this has done nothing, of course, to change the way people in the US spell it for day to day purposes."
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Would now be a good time to introduce the Rest of the World to Jeremy Clarkson?
 
We canucks are happy to count ourselves on the "Queen's" side of the English language: colour, queue, chesterfield, serviette... and by the way, Z is pronounced "zed" not "zee"...
 
0 pronounced Nought instead of zero.Some other differences I remember
Bonnet-Hood
Boot-Trunk
Wing-Fender
Eubergine-Eggplant
Corguettes-Zuccini
 
I think differences in US/UK spelling are unlikely to cause any real problems, but anybody relatively new to British bikes may find the differences in US/UK technical terminology slightly confusing, especially if English is not their first language, although it shouldn't take too long to master the differences, and I'm sure most of our regular members are reasonably fluent in both, but would a list of equivalent US/UK technical terms included in the information section possibly be helpful?

For example:

US-UK

Fender-Mudguard
Triple tree-Yoke
Ground-Earth
Fork tube-Stanchion
Gear shift-Gear change
Muffler-Silencer
Petcock-Fuel tap
Gasoline-Petrol


Any more suggestions?

Or are there any other tech. terms which members may not be entirely sure about?
 
I recall sitting in a restaurant in Florida some years back with a couple of friends. Having taken our order, the waitress came back & asked if she could sit with us. She said we spoke English very well. My friend replied "Of course we do, we invented it!"

A few of these variations of proper English are understandable but where does "Triple Tree" come from?

Bob.
 
Didn't Cornwall have their own language, then nicked english?
Why do we have to pay to get out of Cornwall (Kernow) across the Tamar Bridge, we are not that desperate.
Triple trees are above your headers.
 
Don't know much about that but I do know my wife worked with this sweet girl from England, Every time she talked it just drove me crazy. The way she spoke and used her words was an amazing turn on. Don't know why but my wife stopped hanging around her for some reason???????? :?
 
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