So I just found out something troubling....

[Mino]

The British often spell the word "jail" as "gaol". What the high-flying *censored.3.0*?! Brits, explain yourself.

 

[[Nook]]

They invented the English language, not the Americans, who just merely changed a bit of it, so the British are supposed to be surprised over us spelling it "jail".

 

[Mino]

,Jul 24 2010, 12:54:10 AM]They invented the English language, not the Americans, who just merely changed a bit of it, so the British are supposed to be surprised over us spelling it "jail".

I'm not sure why, but the fact that you assumed that I don't know from where the English language comes is quite annoying. On top of that, your simplistic version of how the English language came into being is just plain wrong. There have been very few "invented languages", the rest have evolved out of previous languages. English is a Germanic language, with the same parent languages as the Romance and Slavic language trees.

I looked up the etymology of jail/gaol, and it has its roots in Latin, so perhaps the Romans should be surprised over our bastardization of their word "cavea."

Or, you know, you should recognize a joke when you see one.

But seriously, gaol?!

 

[D1llon]

(off topic D is Mino a roll-off of meanie?

 

[Rene]

i recognise this word & i use it frequently :r

but our word G

 

[Jas0n]

Gaol? Never heard of it. We spell it as "Jail". Whatever you heard is wrong.

 

[Megamannt125]

Can you believe brits call Video Games "Rooby Dooby Points 'n' Scories"?

 

[Mino]

Gaol? Never heard of it. We spell it as "Jail". Whatever you heard is wrong.

Yes, because your experiences speak for the entire range of accepted vocabulary in British English. Please look up the damn word in the dictionary and tell me "Whatever I heard was wrong."

 

[Mino]

EDIT; this might be helpful though

Interesting, so it seems that [Nook] was even more wrong, jail was not even an Americanized version of the word.

 

[Mino]

Can you believe brits call Video Games "Rooby Dooby Points 'n' Scories"?

Oh you.

 

[Dimitri Petrenko]

Never met or heard of anyone who spells jail like that

 

[Jas0n]

Gaol? Never heard of it. We spell it as "Jail". Whatever you heard is wrong.

Yes, because your experiences speak for the entire range of accepted vocabulary in British English. Please look up the damn word in the dictionary and tell me "Whatever I heard was wrong."

Whatever you heard was wrong.

Gaol
Obsolete spelling of jail.
(Australian, New Zealand) Preferred alternative spelling of jail.

 

[Mino]

Gaol? Never heard of it. We spell it as "Jail". Whatever you heard is wrong.

Yes, because your experiences speak for the entire range of accepted vocabulary in British English. Please look up the damn word in the dictionary and tell me "Whatever I heard was wrong."

Whatever you heard was wrong.

Gaol
Obsolete spelling of jail.
(Australian, New Zealand) Preferred alternative spelling of jail.

Whooosh. That's the sound of my point traveling past your face at high speed.

 

[Jas0n]

Gaol? Never heard of it. We spell it as "Jail". Whatever you heard is wrong.

Yes, because your experiences speak for the entire range of accepted vocabulary in British English. Please look up the damn word in the dictionary and tell me "Whatever I heard was wrong."

Whatever you heard was wrong.

Gaol
Obsolete spelling of jail.
(Australian, New Zealand) Preferred alternative spelling of jail.

Whooosh. That's the sound of my point traveling past your face at high speed.

You asked me to look it up in a dictionary, which I did, and I proved you wrong. There is no point flying past my face here.

And since when did you know everything about the British anyway? I've lived in the UK my entire life and not once has it been spelt "Gaol", I've even shared your comments with 3 of my friends, 2 of which live in a completely different region of the UK and NONE of them have ever seen or heard of it being spelt "Gaol".

 

[Princess]

Once Americans start spelling colour and sulphur right, you'll get an explaination.

 

[Deleted User]

I'm British & I genuinely have never seen jail spelt "gaol" before in my life.

 

[Garrett x50 cal]

Limburgish: G

 

[Mino]

Quoting limited to 4 levels deep

Whatever you heard was wrong.

Gaol
Obsolete spelling of jail.
(Australian, New Zealand) Preferred alternative spelling of jail.

Whooosh. That's the sound of my point traveling past your face at high speed.

You asked me to look it up in a dictionary, which I did, and I proved you wrong. There is no point flying past my face here.

And since when did you know everything about the British anyway? I've lived in the UK my entire life and not once has it been spelt "Gaol", I've even shared your comments with 3 of my friends, 2 of which live in a completely different region of the UK and NONE of them have ever seen or heard of it being spelt "Gaol".

The dictionary definition proved I'm not wrong. A word being "obsolete" according to the dictionary says very little about its usage. Did you suddenly forget who was claiming what?

I don't recall saying I know everything about British English, but I do recall asking you how it is that you (or you and your 3 friends) can claim to know everything about it.

Also, see: http://podictionary.com/?p=682

Christ, I know you don't like me, but that doesn't mean you have to go out of your way to argue a point that's already been proven.

 

[Jas0n]

Quoting limited to 4 levels deepGaol
Obsolete spelling of jail.
(Australian, New Zealand) Preferred alternative spelling of jail.

Whooosh. That's the sound of my point traveling past your face at high speed.

You asked me to look it up in a dictionary, which I did, and I proved you wrong. There is no point flying past my face here.

And since when did you know everything about the British anyway? I've lived in the UK my entire life and not once has it been spelt "Gaol", I've even shared your comments with 3 of my friends, 2 of which live in a completely different region of the UK and NONE of them have ever seen or heard of it being spelt "Gaol".

The dictionary definition proved I'm not wrong. A word being "obsolete" according to the dictionary says very little about its usage. Did you suddenly forget who was claiming what?

I don't recall saying I know everything about British English, but I do recall asking you how it is that you (or you and your 3 friends) can claim to know everything about it.

Also, see: http://podictionary.com/?p=682

Christ, I know you don't like me, but that doesn't mean you have to go out of your way to argue a point that's already been proven.

"Obsolete" means it's no longer used, so therefore it has no usage.

I don't know everything about the english language, but by the sounds of it I sure know a hell of a lot more than you. Gaol is not used at all, maybe 100 years ago, not today.

That link does nothing but just repeat everything you've already said.

&How is the point already proven? You can't prove that it's used in England today, especially when every British person in this thread has said that it's not.

 

[Deleted User]

I think it's moderately conclusive that, generally speaking, it isn't used widely in Britain.