Aluminium

Kev

Kev

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Joined
Nov 7, 2011
Messages
7,698
This is an oldie, but I feel like letting it out for a bit of fresh air ... something that has always annoyed me is the fact that the US have dropped the "i" from Aluminium and have never bothered to fix the mistake [mad]

I've heard stories about Aluminium cladding brochure spelling mistakes being the "reason" .. but I really don't buy it. There's a thing called the Periodic Table, it has all the right spelling!

I've never heard of an American refer to something as Plutonium, Uranum or Helum !!! What's the real story?

So here's the important question .. when kids in the US learn about the elements in science, what does the high school periodic table spelling look like?

I'm "ok" to be not being ok with tire v's tyre and centre v's centre ... and even the liberal use of z's where they don't belong. I'm guessing a period of English speaking in the US with poor literacy caused this drift to happen.

Anyway, if the spelling of Aluminium is not immediately addressed I'm going to start spelling wood as "wuid". There, bet that's got you really scared!!!
 
We could start on the way you lot down under pronounce things...

Got any Durex?  [eek]

 
E30Mark said:
We could start on the way you lot down under pronounce things...

Got any Durex?  [eek]
Click to expand...

[member=32208]E30Mark[/member] leave me alone ... I was born in Luton [sad

"Durex" haven't heard that one ... does it sound any different to someone bonking a large dinosaur?
 
Just blame it on the indecisiveness of Sir Humphry Davy.
http://chemistry.about.com/b/2014/05/04/aluminum-or-aluminium.htm

I don't know about Durex (thought they produced condoms  [eek]) but I have heard of Dural especially when referring to British motorcycles of the 1940 to 1980 time period. Dural is just a shortened form of Duralumin, or Duraluminum, or Duraluminium, take your pick, Sir Humphry strikes again...
 
We eliminated a syllable. It's more efficient that way.

We also refuse to pronounce the last letter of the alphabet as "zed." Then the song wouldn't rhyme.
 
Durex here is a condom manufacturer, but in Oz the biggest manufacturer of sticky tape was called Durex....  [cool]

 
Now I have some Pommie Bas*ard [poke] telling me how to pronounce Aluminum.

[popcorn]
 
The origin of the difference has already addressed by Cheese.  I believe it was further cemented by the founders of Alcoa, who first made aluminum commercially available in the US.  I prefer aluminium (which as I typed it was flagged as incorrect) because it is more fun to say.

By the way...
If I received literature that spelled tire that way, I would burn it in the fyre.
Do you realize that you spelled center wrong twice?
I find your comment on the liberal use of z's pussling.

My favourite complaint about other English speaking nations is their liberal use of u's.
 
Kev,

We Yanks butcher the  English language in a multitude of ways. Setting aside the political content, whenever I hear Sarah Palin speak I feel her abuse of our common language should be outlawed by the Geneva Convention.
 
Or as a Hong Kong cop once said when queried by an american, "Yes, I speak English, and also understand American"...

RMW
 
greg mann said:
Kev,

We Yanks butcher the  English language in a multitude of ways. Setting aside the political content, whenever I hear Sarah Palin speak I feel her abuse of our common language should be outlawed by the Geneva Convention.
Click to expand...

As someone who leans Republican, she needs to just stay off the tv. Her voice makes my skin crawl (as does half of what she says).
 
I have always heard of U.K. And U.S. Relations described as two countries divided by a common language.  No reason Aus can't make it 3....
 
travisj said:
I have always heard of U.K. And U.S. Relations described as two countries divided by a common language.  No reason Aus can't make it 3....
Click to expand...

... and don't forget New Zealand. I had a long conversation with a work colleague from NZ and not until after did I realise that he wasn't talking about some chicken he ate at the airport, he was actually saying "airport check in".
 
Untidy Shop said:
E30Mark said:
We could start on the way you lot down under pronounce things...

Got any Durex?  [eek]
Click to expand...

Or rubbers. [eek]  [big grin]
Click to expand...

Never leave home without them...  [ban]

[attachimg=1]

RMW
 

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