What is the language "British"?

Matthew Saltzman mjs at ces.clemson.edu
Wed Aug 30 01:29:43 UTC 2006


On Tue, 29 Aug 2006, jdow wrote:

> For the record I have several dictionaries here that show both spellings
> with neither the preferred spelling. The "e" on the end has fallen off
> potatoe only in the days since the Quayle tarring. I learned it with
> the potatoe spelling when I was in school in the 40s. It was a "Toe May Toe" 
> or "Toe Mah Toe" thing. Both looked (sounded) wrong to
> about half the people.

My Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College 
Edition (1970) lists "potato" as the only acceptable spelling (plural is 
"potatoes").  Same with my Random House College Dictionary Revised Edition 
(1972).  I think it's safe to say those are pre-conspiracy.  I already 
cited dictionary.com, but I'm sure that's post-conspiracy.  wikipedia.org 
has an entry for "potatoe", which calls that variant "archaic" (the 
spelling, not SWMBO).  It cites the OED, which lists the most recent usage 
as 1880 (eighteen-eighty--surely before Dan's and Joanne's time). 
Wikipedia also describes the Quayle incident and mentions that the 
flashcard was misspelled.

Wikipedia cites this description of the incident: 
http://www.capitalcentury.com/1992.html.  Quayle's advance men were 
supposed to have checked the cards.  I doubt Quayle was set up, but he was 
certianly victimized by the media (who show no favoritism when it comes to 
victimizing people for gaffes and soundbites--witness the apocryphal Al 
Gore "invented the Internet" quote).

>
> {^_^}
>
>
>

-- 
 		Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs




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