American-English was British-English, except that it was altered significantly by all of the various influences (immigrants/languages from other countries) that learned to speak it in America. Everyone in the UK knows how to communicate in English

Apon is a Middle English spelling of upon . Many u- prefixes were spelt a- in Middle English. However after spellings were standardised, the a- prefix largely fell out of use. The correct spelling in Modern English is upon . Although, in many

So is this the dumbing down of England or have they always been dumb, too? Dumb enough to be the ones who came up with those spellings in the first place. English spelling is no longer phonetic, although it was to the monks and scribes who wrote

Yes. Pronouncing "-ing" as "in" is an American dialectic. Authors will even show this pronunciation by using a single quote in spelling, similar to the contraction. He's goin' to the store. There are many American

Do you mean "voiced" (pronounced (z))? Yes, I believe it is. The alternate, probably more common, spelling "youse" suggests the pronunciation more clearly. In some British and Irish dialects, it's definitely voiced. In

Is the sibilant in "yous" always vocalized? I have no taped "Sopranos" shows to check. Do you mean "voiced" (pronounced (z))? Yes, I believe it is. The alternate, probably more common, spelling "youse"

As far as I know, when a French word begins with a vowel, the glottal stop precedes it. This does not happen in English, but many dialects (e.g. the urban dialects of London, Edinburgh, etc.) use the glottal stop in words such as "little,

I must be slow this morning, but I got there in the end. You are not the only one, even I did not get it straight away. As John seems to have noticed, in day to day life I am John Lawler. But when I first started posting to this group and

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"Youse"? That's funny. It would sound like Brooklyn (NY) talk In that usage it would be pronounced "yooz" rather that "yoose", surely? I was commenting on the differing pronunciations of use/used. I understand.