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A huge point about why I hate American-spelt words so much.

Early in my life, before 2014 or 2015, I didn't used to feel annoyed looking at the way certain words were spelt in America's viewing because I didn't know what they were about, or the difference between their spellings and Britain's ones, until those years I asked my mother, "What are these spellings about?" She revealed to me that they are spellings used by America, and the others we use are ours, when writing text.

So, because this truth has been permanently known to me... Unfortunately I have this catastrophic problem (and jealousy) with seeing any of the words spelt by Americans, or even people not Americans not getting the real idea of native spelling and easily think the same way as America does, anywhere I go when reading such information on screen. Especially the two kinds of mispelt factors for words can be having "or" than "our", and "ize" than "ise". For example, "favorite" than "favourite", or "realize" than "realise".

But, sadly a lot of people and places always tend to spell these such words and any other possible ones in America's style, which really does annoy me seeing them, and even takes away my interests in things that they may exist in or get used for, especially video gaming, which I tend to think, "Why? Why don't others choose to use British spelt words for me on even the things I otherwise like? As if I don't deserve it?" There's so much odd reasons of a story here why they upset me and still today, even if I am trying to improve, get used to them again or whatever, as if it just never will work at all or not relevant in this case. When I just normally play through a game, for instance Legend of Zelda, since it has so much dialogue to read, the chances of those such "regional words" (which I personally refer to) can appear, depending on what is being said, and quite honestly it can prove very difficult to tell what any of the regional words will pop up to upset me and even distract my otherwise normal understanding in what the info are just generally saying about things in the game and/or what to do next. Yes I know that even America's chosen spellings in words still mean the same thing as Britain's, but even with all the advice from others and my family members that I've been sharing this apocalyptic mental problem of mine all the years, it still does test me, always seeing any words spelt in US style and not the British ones which I'm otherwise comfortable with and personally wish it get used more than US ones for anything, but they don't, sadly. Very disappointing for my system these days now and always, especially in games again. Looking at American spellings and being unintendedly upset by them for no reason is just like seeing ugly demons, along with the way my mind also has seen as a problem for decades - standalone letters such as "e" and "s", which has to look like happy but annoying faces. In fact, like that's always Nintendo's fault for being that way to me, however that would mean it. Complicated to explain why, I know, but hey, this is an autistic site, you know. It means a person's mind not being normal but have special ways of thinking about life.

And before any of you might use regional-based words if you choose to respond here, either type in the words for British format over American for me, or only use standard words not anything to do with regional spelling, UK or US, like commonly "the", "and", "game", whatever. Or if talking about colours, maybe just use "palettes" instead, as that's definitely not in the regional category of words like that "colours" one is. Simple as that. I don't like to get upset here so be careful.

Last thing to note about my problem with US spellings, even though not many of you here might understand anyway - when I see American words, especially the ones with "ize" over "ise", I think of that horrible and not-so-friendly boss character from Streets of Rage 4, called Diva. You haven't seen her? Look up pictures of her in the search engines (just not "G", that's another thing I refuse to accept, so don't mention it here, please). I know she's just another character, but since at first when I discovered seeing her first time, I normally thought, "OK, she's just another character I haven't seen before. No problem I guess." But, as more time passed by... Strangely she's become permanently known to me and a total annoyance even in my thinking, let alone seeing her in action of that "Streets of Rage 4" game itself. The way she looks in expression, with that mean attitude and so on... It really bugs me these days and probably forever more now, without any reasoning. Like I wished I never knew her but I did, as far as the many different people and things in life to discover are concerned. Some OK always, but some not. I really hate that Diva girl now, and it's also why I can't seem to give any trust to dark-skinned people now, either. They always torment me in mental situations, regardless of how I feel and such, positive or otherwise. Long story as well on this bizarre issue I have too, but there. Unless if one of the dark-skinned people could be reasonable to me somehow...but I don't know. Odd ideas the mind likes to run wild on.

  • All I am trying to say is, that autism has varying degrees of sensitivity, and living with him, I can state in all sincerity, he suffers severly. Becasue of that, I advise him not to come onto sites like this precisely because he will be misunderstood and made to feel even worse. Do with that what you will. I live with it everyday - it is for all of us, trying to walk a fine line

  • I appreciate that, but I hope you can appreciate when I say as much as it should be a safespace for him that cannot come at the expense of others here, it has to be a safe space for all of us too, and I'm not saying that without sympathy to his plight. It's just how it has to be in order to keep the space open to as many folk as possible, no one individual can take precedent here above the others, we are all "siblings in autism" to coin a phrase.

  • As OP's mum, I know he knows of all the explanations (ones I have myself tried to help him with), but due to the very problem which this site is all about, ie autism (and I believe in his case to a severe degree), he is unable to understand. He only seeks someone who may be able to empathise and find a little comfort. Not anyone's fault, but people generally think he is able to understand reasoning, but he can't. It's hard on him, and hard on those of us who live with him too - we literally feel like we have to walk on eggshells. But we know him by now, people here don't know him so well, but please give him some slack - of any place, this perhaps should be one where he feels he can be autistic without being condemned for it

  • I'm OP's mum. The issues he mentions are very deep in his tumultuous mind and literally cause him torture. I have advised him not to participate in forum discussions such as this as most likely, people don't or can't fully understand. I will say this though, he means well, has a genuine heart but suffers immensely with his autism in these ways. I hope you will all appreciate that, and learn as I have done over the last 27 years of his very restricted life, that you can't really reason with someone who hasn't the capability in certain things, to reason.

    I'd like to know the answer as his life seems one long round of mental turmoil through these everyday 'normal' things (whatever normal is supposed to be).

  • In Old English 'Angelcynn' (English-kin) was used, and its Latin equivalent, employed in Medieval times, was 'Angligena'. A logical neologism might be 'Angligenic'. I imagine that, as we have the word 'Anglosphere', then a logical adjectival extension of this would be 'Anglospheric'

  • As someone from England, I do find it interesting when other nationalities describe where I am/ from.

    Always a whole world of confusion that there are nations, countries in their own right etc...

    The majority of the younger population can;t particularly differentiate between Britain, UK etc... as its really not focused on in education.

    The following link is helpful and there are 'tweaks' on other sites.

    https://www.britannica.com/story/whats-the-difference-between-great-britain-and-the-united-kingdom

  • No need to apologise, those are separate uses (as prefixes). It's better to be able to have a nice chat and find out this information from people who live in those countries, between you and me I thing Google is a bit pants at looking this stuff up because it often doesn't include colloqial stuff either.

    A Hispanic person is someone who's culturally from a Hispanophone nation.  Is there an Anglo equivalent, like an Anglic person?

    The word is literally English person, because there is not direct translation for context because the whole anglo-saxon region give or take just became England later on, it wasn't really split into 2 or more countries, Wales is considered a Celtic origin country. And it couldn't be the word Anglican because that pertains to a type of church. Angles has been used historically but again that is old laguage use and would be really archaic in modern English. Which I know sounds odd on the surface of it since you get Celtic in th same context as Hispanic, but that's because there are more than one of them (lands/countries) ie, Welsh, Irish, Scots, and even Cornwall. (The abridged and poorly phrased explaination of Cornwall: Cornwall got annexed into England early when England formed from smaller kingdoms and didn't remain an separate state but became a large county. Unlike Wales which united into England later on but still remains techinaclly it's own country. Hence why on the plant themed Β£ coins England is represented by a rose, Scotland a thistle, and Wales a leek, with a clover for Northern Ireland, that last one being a can of worms I'm not going to open lol.)

  • Deutsch means 'people' or 'folk' so Deutschland is just the 'Land of the People'. Deutsch is related to the Anglo-Saxon 'theod', as in Theodoric (Ruler of the Folk). It was originally used to describe the German language, as the 'folk language' as opposed to Latin, used by the church and learned people. It was then transferred to meaning the country where the language was spoken,

    German was a Roman usage (Germani) and originally was a geographical term (Germania) designating all the land east of the River Rhine. By association, it then became used to describe the various tribal peoples living there.

    Yes, the Alamanni (meaning 'The All-Men') was a tribal confederation, originally living near the headwaters of the Rhine and Danube rivers.

  • That is your prerogative. Though your dislike does not impact me in any way. If my wife objected, which she does not, that would be a different matter. In point of fact we were married in a church service where 'wife' and 'husband' were included in the vows, so my use of the word is, in a sense, divinely sanctioned.

  • Dutch. 'I am a Dutch' does not work grammatically, but 'I am a Dutchman', does.

  • I think I have the opposite. Ordinary words just drop out of my 'ready access' vocabulary in mid sentence, irritatingly often, when speaking English. However, when speaking French I think that I am primed to search around for alternative words and expressions, as I am very far from fluent, so I don't have the same problem. 

  • Uh, no offence but, I don't like that word "wife".

  • If Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain but not from the island of Great Britain, someone from Northern Ireland is both British and not British at the same time?

    Yes, anyone born in Northern Ireland can hold either a British or Irish (Republic of Ireland) passport, or both. My wife's mother was born in Northern Ireland and, because of this, she holds both British and Republic of Ireland passports.

    Well, it was the Romans who called the inhabitants of the island of Britain, British. Originally it was 'Pretanni', possibly meaning 'The Painted Ones', referring to blue skin dye, woad, used by many Celtic peoples, it later morphed into Bretanni, and finally Britanni. The people would have mostly identified with their tribe, such as the Cantiaci, Brigantes, Catuvellauni etc. Catuvellauni literally meant 'The Battle Experts', it was the tribe that Caratacus belonged to.

    The English, or Anglo-Normans. began the conquest of Ireland in the 1170s under a leader called 'Strongbow', but it wasn't really completed until the late 16th and into the 17th century. The English conquered the Welsh in the late 13th century under Edward I. He also tried to conquer Scotland, but unsuccessfully. The Scots and English first came under a 'personal union' when James VI of Scotland succeeded to the throne of England when his childless cousin Elizabeth I died. The two countries were only formally unified by the 'Act of Union' in 1707, at the time of James' gt granddaughter, Queen Anne. The successful struggle for Irish independence began withe the 'Easter Rising' of 1916 and was ended when effective independence was achieved, following a bitter armed conflict, in 1921. This was immediately followed by a civil war within Ireland. The civil war was largely triggered by the peace being dependent on the division of Ireland into the Irish Free State, later The Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland, which remained part of the UK. This was because The North (Ulster) had a large Protestant population that feared being politically and culturally swallowed up by a largely Catholic Republic.

  • I think it would generally be taken incredibly poorly if you were declaring that someone wasn't British enough. Like very John Cleese. If a person felt like that other part needed to be distinguished they would generally add it on. Nigerian-British or whatever. 

    Technically I believe the full name is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, so there's always a distinction. And the history and present status is such a mess that I'm not sure you really want to hear it from someone who isn't actually from there. 

  • What if someone is only kind of a Briton, like if I was describing a meal that had Cuban influence, but was not clearly Cuban.  "That's a Cubanish meal.  It has garlic, peppers, and onions, but I don't know what that BBQ sauce is about."  Then they would Britonish or Britishish?  Or is there a suffix that doubles the -ish, such as -ese, which would make it Britese.  "They're not completely a Briton.  They're Britese."

  • More fun!  In English, The country is called Germany.  In Spanish, it's called Alemania. In German, it's called Deutschland. Now, I may be incorrect, but I heard it's because of the respective tribes/nationalities that first had contact with the respective language ancestors.  So the Angles met the Germanic tribes.  The Castilians (possibly wrong Iberian nationality) met the Alemain tribes, and the Germans met the land.

  • Do you know of any other nationalities that require the use -man in it like Englishman?  Even Spanish people are Spaniards. Trying to think of British colonies, there's American, Jamaican, Trinidadian, Indian, Cuban, Bahamian, Canadian, Australian, South African, Kenyan, Palestinian, Iraqi,...not one .  There's no Bahamishman.

  • ohhHHHhh!  And Great Britain is the island that has England, Whales, and Scotland.

    If Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain but not from the island of Great Britain, someone from Northern Ireland is both British and not British at the same time?

    I feel like I'm on the opposite side of the conversation when I explain to someone that people from Miami are not Southern but people from Georgia are.

    I'm guessing here, trying to put the pieces together. Someone from continental Europe made it to the islands north of what is now France.  These people called themselves Britons.  They spread out and covered all of the nearby islands.  They called the largest island Great Britain, probably organizing as a kingdom.  While separated on separate islands and experiencing invasions, the cultures naturally diverted their dynamic trajectories.  The people on Great Britain eventually gained political control over all of the islands and respective kingdoms, and called them the British Isles, while naming the kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain.  The people of Ireland then had a war of independence.  The Irish on the island were able to achieve independence, but the Irish on Great Britain were not.  Is this how it happened more or less?

  • That's so cool!  Lately, I've been interested by English history, both the people and the language.

  • I apologize for my ignorance.  We barely learn any English history in US education. 

    In my head, Anglo- and Hispano- are two pre-fixes in the same category that mark descendance from their respective colonial power's culture, collectively known as the Anglosphere and Hispanosphere, respectively.  Therefore, we have Anglophones (English speakers) and Hispanophones (Spanish speakers).  A Hispanic person is someone who's culturally from a Hispanophone nation.  Is there an Anglo equivalent, like an Anglic person? Does the concept of a person of English-speaking ethnicity even exist outside my head?

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