CORNISH-L Archives

Archiver > CORNISH > 1999-04 > 0923468465


From: "Paul Gumpper" <>
Subject: Re: America Alone
Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1999 02:01:05 -0500


>Mr. Quayle (the man mentioned) corrected the
>student and said that it should have been spelled "potatoe." Well, the
>media went wild! Mr. Quayle was marked as a man who could not spell
>because he mispelled "potatoe." All the dumb jokes soon followed in
>masse. Now to some, this was quite perplexing... Anyone fellow Americans
agree? Or,
>am I truely alone on this one?

This bothered me a bit, too. At least because no one seemed to realize that
POTATOE was the original spelling of the word (my mother spells tomato with
an "e" occasionally... and, I was taught in 1st grade, in a US school, to
spell color "colour" which had me confused for a couple years). It did NOT
bother me however that the media found an occasion to point out what a dolt
the Vice (thankGod) President was! A question for all: why was English
"Americanized" by America, but not "Australianised" by Australia?
Spelling-wise that is.

Another interesting note concerning accents and the upward inflection...
A friend of mine, native of Pennsylvania, USA, (as am I) joined the
national guard several years ago. He went to boot camp in Georgia and a
stranger there immediately placed his home state because, as this person
explained, people from PA don't use an upward inflection when asking
questions. After my friend told me this we spent the better part of two
days listening carefully to our questions, and they were, to the ear, more
like statements. Also, we tend to misplace adverbs. (This depends on the
area of PA where one grew up - it's a remnant of PA Dutch accents).

-Leah.

This thread: