4.11.2009

More whilst usage with globalisation

A translation company asked me if they could submit something to my blog, and what I received seemed to be a self-serving piece which essentially was advertising the importance of their company. So I decided not to post the whole "article" here, but I did notice their use of "whilst", which Americans never use.

They started their promotional piece with: "Whilst there may be around 7,000 distinct languages in the world today, many of them descend from the same roots and therefore have many similar characteristics."

They used the word "whilst" later on, then concluded their ad with the word "globalisation." Note the spelling: Americans often use "z" instead of "s" in such words. Even now, my computer is telling me that "globalisation" is spelled wrong.

So an attempt to advertise a company has become an opportunity for me to point out the differences between British and American English :D

2 comments:

Silas said...

Curiously, the '-ise' ending has infiltrated some American spellings, like 'advertise', but not others...

Margaret Larkin said...

I hadn't thought of that, though "ise" is rare in American words.