Tuesday, October 17, 2006

literally

Contrast or differentiation, both in vague terms, makes an appearance, in guess in all aspects of our daily life.

One such field, is that of languages. Considering that, we have eighteen, state languages(i'm not sure) and an endless list of dialects. Some of the languages bear similarities, as most of them are derived from sanskrit. Others are linked to hindi.

Having come across a similar kind of distingushing character in English, is, in the very least, strange.

We are advised to refer books written by foreign authours, where the discrepency is evident. That between, american english and british english.


English took birth in the United Kingdom, and flourished there. And here, we have the United States of America, which is occupied with people from different roots, so much so that the natives are minimal in number. Apart from that, both countries, adopting english as their state language, it is pretty funny to note that, the developments in the same is different. Slang is associated with America, while literary works are to do with U.K.

That apart, we also have different spellings for the same word. It is understandable, when the accent is varied, whereby the same word can be pronounced in a variety of ways, but can the spelling change?

Biology, and the scientific terms are spelt in two fashions, one the american way, and the other the english style. It sounds foolish, when the english say 'colour' and the americans put it as 'color'.

A funny add-on: i used to read this storybook series. A character, always used to have trouble spelling words, and she used to justify, saying that as long as the word is pronounced properly, the spelling shouldn't matter.

So, here we go, wuman or woman?

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