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Comment by Anon1096 | Hacker News Reader

Colour and realise I suspect most American readers would be able to understand just fine. But you start writing tyre, kerb, and gaol, and there will be real reading comprehension issues that start arising. We have standardized spellings for a reason and that's what schools are there to teach.

And this is just spelling, not even going into words that have different meanings in the US vs UK like pants and lemonade.

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Interestingly, recently there is a push in the US to normalize African-American (for the lack of a better name) grammar and spelling, e.g. using "do" in place of "does". Wonder if this includes normalizing the usage of British spelling as well.

> normalize African-American (for the lack of a better name) grammar and spelling

The name is “Ebonics.” It’s had its own name since the seventies, although the push to “normalize” it peaked in the nineties.

> Wonder if this includes normalizing the usage of British spelling as well.

No.

Thanks, I haven't heard of Ebonics before. Looks like at this point in time its usage is becoming discouraged (the term, not the phenomenon it describes).

Like so many things that become objects of policy argument in the United States, the term describing it became overloaded to the point where it was rendered less useful. You don't hear the term so much now.

The term reached peak use around the time (I'm going from memory here as far as timeline) some educators began exploring the concept of teaching kids who spoke Ebonics at home with some of the same techniques they would use to teach English as a second language students. America reacted with the focus, intelligence, and empathy it always does when issues of education and race are brought up.

Yeah I am starting to notice that (not from the US originally) re: how America reacts to this topic. Also, it looks like even the term "ebony" itself in the context of African-American culture is considered archaic.

I love this example. I felt ick at realise but yeah, still understood it. Tyre I thought no way, that can't be tire. Kerb, wait, like curb?? And then gaol I think my tongue tied itself in knots and gave up trying to imagine what it might actually mean lol.

Archaic spelling of "jail". Read it with a soft g and a long a and it makes a little more sense. There's also the derivative "gaoler".

(American here, but that's one I've come across before.)

My goodness, I never would have guessed. Thank you for sharing.

Also, if gaol can have a soft g, then so can gif? :-)

Lots of soft Gs around, like gentleman… though Gif isn't one of them!! :)

Yes, but like a lot of minor regional spelling or pronunciation differences, some people say it with a hard g. It may be the improper pronunciation when compared to the origin, but that’s how words work, grating as it may be to our enlightened sensibilities.

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