Why Do Americans Have Only One Math...

[ToraToraTora]

.....when we have lots of them?

[stuey]

Yes, Prudie; as in one of their Presidents: Erbert Oover.

[Quizmonster]

As Mamy's link material briefly outlines, re 'aluminium' as opposed to the American version ‘aluminum', Sir Humphrey Davy - who discovered it in 1807 - originally called it 'alumium' without an 'ni', before altering it to ‘alumina' and then changing it yet again to 'aluminum' still without the second 'i'.
Later, the editor of a British scientific journal changed it to 'aluminium' "in preference," he said, "to aluminum which has a less classical sound."
However, it has to be said that the Englishman who discovered it called it exactly what the AMERICANS now call it, not what WE now call it! The supposedly "missing i" British people often refer to didn't GO... in fact, it CAME!
So who's really right...those who accept the discoverer's nomenclature or those who accept an obscure magazine editor's nomenclature? If I had ever discovered and named something major, I'd be rather pee'd off if some journalistic hack just changed it!

[whiskeryron]

To be frank, I just looked in the trunk of my auto to find the boot.

[Mamyalynne]

Where did you put the other boot - with the lost socks?

[whiskeryron]

The lost socks of Milligan ( lost in the lost gardens of Helligan)

[Tuvok]

no wonder Superman got confused with his pants!

[keyplus90]

And they also believe in attacking (with or without UNO approval) any country in the world if they "suspect" that the other country "may" pose a threat to American interests.

[Quizproquo]

[mikey4444]

My favourite American mispronunciation is boo-ee, for buoy ! I can't even begin to see how that they do that.

And yet they say boy-ancy aid, for buoyancy, not boo-ee-ence aid !

horseshoes (13:52)........not sure you are right about Route 66.....I travelled the length of it in 1994, and most American people I met pronounced it rowt, not root. Only Nat King Cole actually sang about getting his kicks on root 66.

[Chipchopper]

Why ?....You do the math(s)

[mikey4444]

Bet that got your foot tapping !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCYApJtsyd0

[Old_Geezer]

Aye that hit me on the one time I was over there. Jarred every time. I was in a training class for telephony equipment and the lecturer kept referring to rout instead of route. I thought he was referring to what the British forces forced the enemy to do during wars.

[ToraToraTora]

thanks all but I was rather hoping there was actually some reason why they say math and we say maths.

[Old_Geezer]

I suspect it is lost in the mists of time.

Two groups of relatively isolated people will inevitably diverge in language. It may be that they simply started pronouncing the word differently and it caught on. Or maybe it is something to do with the different folk who wrote original dictionaries in either place.

[mikey4444]

TTT...I have done some research for you !

http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t4494.htm

http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/14872/where-do-people-pronounce-route-as-ro%CD%9Eot-and-as-rout

Now, these sources seem to say that both pronunciations are used in the States, although I never heard root, only rout when I spent 4 weeks "doing Route 66 !

OG.....I used to use a router when I did O Level Woodwork, so if the Americans use rooter for both a woodwork tool and a line on on a map, it must cause confusion !

Although both must come from the same French base.

[atalanta]

In Shakespeare' time spelling was not settled. The spelling found in his printed plays was more the business of the typesetters than of the Bard himself. They often shortened words like "Sonne" to "Sun" if they had to fit lots of words into one line of type.
But doctors looking up "oestrogen" will miss all the mentions of "estrogen". Similarly "sulfur"/"sulphur"

[jno]

a lot of this is just regional, as is some UK pronunciation. Some people say erb and booey, others say herb and buoy.

[THECORBYLOON]

I have noticed that "medieval" and "encyclopedia" are becoming more popular these days.

[ToraToraTora]

thanks mikey but that's about route i was asking about math/maths

[mikey4444]

Sorry TTT...got a bit carried away withe Route 66 !

Here is some info on the word in question...math or maths.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/12/08/math_versus_maths_how_americans_and_brits_deploy_the_collective_noun.html

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/math-or-maths/