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    Kevin F. Kiley
    Sep 02, 2020

    English Spelling in the Napoleonic Period

    in General Discussions

    I found the following interesting and quite 'revealing.'


    From Napoleon and the British by Stuart Semmel, xiii, A Note on Spelling and Punctuation:

    'Unless otherwise indicated, italics in quotations are original to the sources. Spelling mistakes and typographical errors in quotations have generally been preserved and indicated. Certain spellings that depart from twenty-first century British practice, and which might appear to be the work of an American transcriber-for example, 'honor' and 'center'- were in fact the spellings employed by late Hanoverians, before a desire to Frenchify British spelling exerted itself later in the nineteenth century. In this sense…modern American usage remains closer than modern British usage to 'the king's English'-if the king in question is George III.'


    Now isn't that both revealing and a surprise. So, modern British spelling is apparently French-inspired. 😀

    14 comments
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    J
    Jacqueline Reiter
    Sep 03, 2020

    That is absolutely true.

    Like

    J
    Jacqueline Reiter
    Sep 03, 2020

    Indeed -- it's interesting to see how the two languages have evolved in parallel! I have a ca 1815 pronunciation dictionary (Walker's) and was interested to see that some of the UK pronunciations in the period would be closer to modern US ones -- for example "missile" would have been pronounced with a short second "i"...

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    D
    david Tomlinson
    Sep 03, 2020
    Replying to

    To be honest Jacqueline, when it comes to pronunciation, there is even today more variation with Britain than across the pond. In England we get a new accent every 20-30 miles or so, and this is despite nearly a century of the BBC. Before the broadcast and the recorded audio, and the consequential rise of RP, this was probably more marked. I once came to the rescue of a puzzled looking American tourist trying to make sense of the directions they were getting from someone on the street. They thanked me for my assistance and then asked me what language the first person was using! Nottnum, like worritiz spowk uv corss

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    J
    Jacqueline Reiter
    Sep 03, 2020

    You find both of what we would describe as modern-day US and UK spellings in contemporary MSS, but yes, "color", "favor", "behavior", "center", etc etc etc were pretty common (sometimes you find both in the same letter, which is great fun). There is that saying about how the English language doesn't borrow from other languages so much as mug them in dark alleys and go through their pockets for loose change...

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    D
    david Tomlinson
    Sep 03, 2020
    Replying to

    Like many things we have to thank the Victorians for, the regularising and normalising of the language. Up until then even those thought of as educated could be quite flexible in their spelling. US and British usage therefore represent a fork, with US preserving some Georgian practices and idioms in it’s unevolved form.

    Like

    Kevin F. Kiley
    Sep 03, 2020

    As the initial colonists in Virginia and Massachusetts as well as Rhode Island were English, their mother tongue was English. So, I believe the idea of it being 'gifted' is a misnomer. The colonists spoke English when they showed up...🙄

    Like
    D
    david Tomlinson
    Sep 03, 2020
    Replying to

    You are welcome anyway.😉

    Like

    Kevin F. Kiley
    Sep 08, 2020
    Replying to

    @david Tomlinson And, unfortunately, the English colonists in Jamestown bought the first black slaves in 1619 which caused major problems when the US was formed in 1776 and led to a terrible Civil War and the deaths of 630,000 Americans.

    Like

    D
    david Tomlinson
    Sep 08, 2020
    Replying to

    @Kevin F. Kiley !

    Like

    D
    david Tomlinson
    Sep 02, 2020

    @Kevin F. Kiley certainly not a surprise to me. I’d understood that we British had gifted the English language in it’s then form to the colonies. Of course a great deal of upper class English is French, courtesy of Norman French being the medieval courtly language. The Anglo-Saxon therefore became debased. Pork (porc) describes the meat, Swineherders look after the animal husbandry.. this has led to perfectly normal Anglo-Saxon becoming some of our most disliked (and beloved!) four letter swear words. This has a resonance in our period, Col Hake of Cumberland Hussars fame have his bridle seized and being “addressed in words of plain Saxon”.

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    D
    david Tomlinson
    Sep 08, 2020
    Replying to

    @Hans - Karl Weiß I once had a detachment on exercise in Holland (Fresia I think?) and he was amazed they spoke Geordie. “Ma brune koo” apparently worked really well!

    Like

    Kevin F. Kiley
    Sep 08, 2020
    Replying to

    @Hans - Karl Weiß Both English and German are Germanic languages. That being said, many military terms are from French and are still in use. Perhaps this is a result of the pre-eminence of French technical education from 1500-1850. See Frederic Artz, The Development of Technical Education in France, 1500-1850. The French military technical schools, artillery and engineer, were the model for like schools in Austria, Great Britain, the United States, and elsewhere, and the technical manuals for those two arms were translated from the French for use in English and German. And that also later included Thiebault's staff manual of 1800. So French military terms were used in English also.

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    D
    david Tomlinson
    Sep 08, 2020
    Replying to

    @Kevin F. Kiley The use of French and French inspired words date back considerably earlier than that. Norman French was the language at court stretching back to 1066. The English and the British Royal Arms bore fleur-de-lis for centuries. As a Romance language it makes eminent sense for the English schoolboy to follow on from their Latin with French. And they are our nearest neighbours, just 20 miles away. The British had been fighting on the continent for generations, where the only common language they had with their allies (as it was again in 1815) was French. French, as the language to wage war with, pre-dates this. Indeed, for a professional officer, it was a prerequisite.

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    14 comments
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