Sulphur or sulfur ?

[VicS]

No question. The English spelling has ph in it - the other is yanky vernacular. Why the RSC has erred on that and spelled aluminium in the English way I do not know.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the different american spellings were the result of a serious planned exercise to make more sensible the weird english spellings, and not just divergent cultures. And I also seem to remember that aluminium was discovered by a yank and the historically correct spelling is the yankee one.

The RSC has followed the IUPAC recommendation.

Spelling of aluminium has a complex history if Wikipedia has it correct. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#Etymology

Not really clear either who first discovered it!

 

[macd]

Not really clear either who first discovered it!

There's a difference between 'discover' and 'isolate'. Yes, it's a bot blurred, but Davy seems to have recognised its existence and given it that name.

 

[VicS]

At least my poll shows there is a big majority who, like me, thought that the correct spelling is sulphur with a 'ph'.

I was very surprised when I read that the QCA have recommend spelling it with an 'f'.
I think I was still working in a school at that time. A school which I suspect would not have rushed to accept sulphur with an 'f' but perhaps I was away that day!

I guess it's spelt with an 'f' in all the text books now!

 

[lustyd]

Looks like kow-towing to the Yanks, to me.

They'll have to relinquish their "Royal" tag if they don't stick to the Queen's Spelling!

Mike.

So you really think they simplified English after the split rather than our French influenced monarchy adding stuff according to trends?

 

[Momac]

The spellling in Britsh Standards has been 'Sulfur' for a few years.

 

[skyflyer]

So its sulfur? With an F?

Well, I'll be phu**ed!

 

[BrendanS]

http://lavengro.typepad.com/peter_harvey_linguist/2007/07/sulphur-or-sulf.html

but I'd still use Sulphur

 

[VicS]

http://lavengro.typepad.com/peter_harvey_linguist/2007/07/sulphur-or-sulf.html

but I'd still use Sulphur

Not capitalised though surely

 

[Salty John]

I've recently driven through the somewhat undelightful town of Sulphur, Louisiana. It was named for the chemical industry which supports it.

I wonder if they'll change their signs now that they've be respelled?

 

[BrendanS]

Not capitalised though surely

 

[AndrewB]

"PH" pronounced "F"?? As in "ghoti" pronounced "fish"?? I think US spellings and usage usually make more sense. Sidewalk rather than pavement, boom vang rather than kicking strap.

Come on guys, language moves on.

 

[Tomahawk]

"..... I think US spellings and usage usually make more sense. Sidewalk rather than pavement, boom vang rather than kicking strap.

Come on guys, language moves on.

Never have worked out what a vang is... sounds like a teenage expression for something rude...

A kicking strap is a strap to stop the boom kicking up...

 

[mjcoon]

"PH" pronounced "F"?? As in "ghoti" pronounced "fish"?? I think US spellings and usage usually make more sense. Sidewalk rather than pavement, boom vang rather than kicking strap.

But "kicking strap" is prefereable for the Spoonerism addict...

Mike.

 

[AndrewB]

Never have worked out what a vang is...

Vang or Fang: English term meaning a gripping device, used nautically from the C18th to denote a rope or tackle which controls or restrains a spar. From the Dutch "vangen", to catch, Norse "fang".

How can you possibly criticise American usage, if you don't know your own?

 

[Deleted member 36384]

..... How can you possibly criticise American usage, if you don't know your own?

Easily.

 

[matelot]

Scientists enjoy changing names.

And how. Just look at the daft way that unit names have been changed. Cyles per second, a totally obvious unit, is now officially called Hertz. And millbars have become something liked to some froggie I believe. Even a perfectly honest hoirsepower has become a pferdstercke or something like that.

Its all gone to hell in a basket.

 

[Grumpybear]

And how. Just look at the daft way that unit names have been changed. Cyles per second, a totally obvious unit, is now officially called Hertz. And millbars have become something liked to some froggie I believe. Even a perfectly honest hoirsepower has become a pferdstercke or something like that.

Its all gone to hell in a basket.

What scientists really fear is non-scientists understanding their business and dispelling some of the mystery that all elite groups (just think of lawyers) love to wreathe themselves in. Changing units is just part of the screen of priestly mumbo jumbo.

 

[mjcoon]

And how. Just look at the daft way that unit names have been changed. Cyles per second, a totally obvious unit, is now officially called Hertz. And millbars have become something liked to some froggie I believe. Even a perfectly honest hoirsepower has become a pferdstercke or something like that.

Its all gone to hell in a basket.

To be fair, it's aimed at having a set of abbreviations that are consistent and cannot be confused (without effort, anyway!) with those for multiples like m, k, M etc. So MHz is better than Mcps, or whatever...

Is it really so difficult to remember the ones you want to use? Compared with understanding what it all means?

Mike.

 

[Davegriff]

And while we're going slightly off-topic, does anyone know why Americans call a two stroke engine, which makes one piston stroke up, one stroke down, whereby the engine shaft completes one and only one circle or cycle, a two cycle engine?

 

[RobBrown]

It happened in medicine as well- fetus and fetal now, not foetus and foetal. Not quite Hematology in the UK yet, but the time is coming. Is simply a numbers game . US have more scientists, more publications and more international clout. Unfair perhaps but realpolitik.