Random Daily Banter

[Pblakeney]

Aluminum is a pronunciation based on a spelling mistake.

Quite the reverse if you want to go back to the original. Sir Humphry Davy first called it aluminum. Aluminium was chosen as it sounded nicer.

In a publication made in 1808, he stated that, had he been successful in isolating the metallic substance he was after, he would have proposed the name Alumium for this elusive element. Apparently unconvinced by this first name, he used the word Aluminum in a book published four years later when mentioning that “…Aluminum has not been obtained in a perfectly free state.”

Nevertheless, other British chemists decided to adopt the name Aluminium. They thought it had a more classical sound and was in line with the ending of the other elements isolated by Davy. This confusion began the debate on the ending of the word that continues to our day."

 

[briantrumpet]

If you pronounce the final U as a diphthong (similar to 'pure'), you can get close to the UK pronunciation with the US spelling.

My brain is now niumb.

 

[First Aspect]

That's likely a US source. Ium is consistent with about 80 other elements. The "correct" spelling or pronunciation is the one that a out 6Bn of the world population would use. The US is an outlier. Same with non metric units.

 

[Ian H]

My brain is now niumb.

siuper!

 

[briantrumpet]

That's likely a US source. Ium is consistent with about 80 other elements. The "correct" spelling or pronunciation is the one that a out 6Bn of the world population would use. The US is an outlier. Same with non metric units.

I'd mostly agree, but I'm not going to call it 'wrong', any more than I'm going to call their past tenses 'plew' (ploughed) and 'pled' (pleaded), or their spellings of 'tire' (tyre) or 'curb' (kerb) *wrong* per se, as they've just held onto older 'correct' forms/spellings. The one US spelling that really winds me up though is 'maneuver' (manoeuvre), as they've left the word 'oeuvre' alone.

We can look at them with pity, OTOH, along with their adherence to non-metric units.

I'm sure if you're proofreading a US chemistry text, you're the kind of guy to correct all instances of 'aluminum' though to your correct version.

 

[Rusty Nails]

siuper!

Or sewper as we say in Wales. That's sewper as in brewing, not sewper as in sowing, and certainly not as in swooping.

 

[briantrumpet]

A very useful read, if you don't know this already (I didn't). It's worth reading the whole thing.

https://www.army.mil/article/109852/drowning_doesnt_look_like_drowning

The Instinctive Drowning Response - named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D. - is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people would expect. There is very little splashing, no waving and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the No. 2 cause of accidental death in children ages 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents). What's more, of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In some of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it was happening. Drowning does not look like drowning.

 

[First Aspect]

I'd mostly agree, but I'm not going to call it 'wrong', any more than I'm going to call their past tenses 'plew' (ploughed) and 'pled' (pleaded), or their spellings of 'tire' (tyre) or 'curb' (kerb) *wrong* per se, as they've just held onto older 'correct' forms/spellings. The one US spelling that really winds me up though is 'maneuver' (manoeuvre), as they've left the word 'oeuvre' alone.

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We can look at them with pity, OTOH, along with their adherence to non-metric units.

I'm sure if you're proofreading a US chemistry text, you're the kind of guy to correct all instances of 'aluminum' though to your correct version.

Your original source makes a good argument for alumium, from the root "alum" - an already known substance containing aluminium.

Aluminum seems to have been a transitory musing.

The "wrong" spelling in this instance has been internationally agreed, including in the US scientific community. An analogy would be if the general population referred to "a hart valve" despite the medical profession sticking dogmatically to "heart".

I appreciate that language changes, but sometimes you seem to argue to the extent that if a spelling is used somewhere, it is correct. If that's where we end up, then written language becomes almost phonetic (or should that be fonetik?), which in turn makes it unreadable if you don't share a particular accent with the writer.

 

[briantrumpet]

Aluminum seems to have been a transitory musing.

As I say, a curiosity of US English is how it's frozen some things in archaic (and sometimes more etymologically 'correct' forms, e.g. 'tire' for tyre) and updated (via Webster) others.

There's a difference between something being etymologically 'correct' and standard usage. I'm quite happy for you to call US spelling of aluminium an 'outlier', even if it can be etymologically justified . FWIW, I think in technical/scientific subjects, there is justification for convergence of terminology, which is the angle I suspect you're coming from.

Also, FWIW, musicians have to do the translation of note values (UK/US) semibreve=whole note, crotchet=quarter note, quaver=eighth note etc. Both systems have their sillinesses.

 

[briantrumpet]

Bon Dylan is 85 today, and I still don't get a single one of his songs as a song. That'd imply singing. Sorry.

 

[First Aspect]

Bon Dylan is 85 today, and I still don't get a single one of his songs as a song. That'd imply singing. Sorry.

How do you get on with cover versions, e.g. Tambourine Man, Byrds; or Knocking on Heavens Door, Clapton?

 

[First Aspect]

How do you get on with Lou Reed/Velvet Underground or Dire Straits?

 

[Pross]

How do you get on with cover versions, e.g. Tambourine Man, Byrds; or Knocking on Heavens Door, Clapton?

Dylan is a great writer of songs for others to perform better.

 

[briantrumpet]

Dylan is a great writer of songs for others to perform better.

It's just his voice I can't get past. At least Mark Knopfler's voice is part of a really great band, even if he does do a 'power drawl' (thinking Money for Nothing) rather than singing as such.

And before you call me a total musical snob, I can't stand wobbly opera-type voices either, for a similar reason: I can't get past the noise of the voice. I'd rather have Sting singing Dowland songs than some classically-trained wobbler.

 

[secretsqirrel]

I’m not a big fan of Whitney Houstan style melisma. When overdone it sounds like the singer can’t hold a note.