In Canada and the US we say math and sports, but in other parts of the English speaking world they say maths and sport. I find it funny that depending on the place you either add or subtract an S in certain words. :lol: What do you think of this and do you know any other words that do something like this? Note: I'm not talking about having or not having the letter U in certain words, I'm more talking about words where adding or subtracting a letter changes how you say the word like in math/maths.
Not sure about adding an "S" to a word. BUT I know Spain is the only Spanish speaking country that actually uses the vosotros conjugation for their words. Vosotros = "you all". In other Spanish speaking countries, they use "Ustedes". I'm not Spanish, but I learned this in Spanish class.
Techno kid, I don't have an answer for this but was thinking about math vs. maths the other day and wondering why it evolved this way.
Languages always evolve and become fluid. Especially with different locations. I believe the US and Canada are the only, or some of the only, countries that use the term "gas station". Other countries use the term "fuel station". It all depends on the customs and how the language adapts in a new location.
This reminds me of the end of that London Olympic special episode of Absolutely Fabulous where Eddy screams out "You're discouraging me from taking up sport!" as she gets kicked out of the Olympic stadium. :lol: Sport and math though I think are two different cases. In case of math(s), both are shortened from mathematics. For whatever reason the Brits decided to shorten it in the middle (dropping "ematic") but still keep the s at the end, whereas the U.S. we've simply shortened it by dropping off the whole "ematics". If you're going to shorten a word, I don't see why not just shorten it all the way. "Mathematics" generally functions as a singular noun, so a plural "s" really isn't necessary. You would say "I studied the (single) subject of mathematics in school", or "I studied many types of mathematics in school"; you wouldn't say "I studied many mathematics in school." Saying the word "maths" just sounds cumbersome too, with that consonant cluster at the end there, it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue the way "math" does. Sport and sports though, hmm. In the U.S. we use both "sport" and "sports"; the former is singular, the latter is a plural. I guess the difference between the U.S. and U.K. is simply which form we use to denote the concept of sport(s). The Brits have chosen to use the singular "sport", while Americans have chosen to use the plural "sports". But it would be a completely standard American English for an American athlete say "I love the sport that I play" when talking about one sport, although we would use the plural "sports" to make a general statement like "I HATE sports" (which I do! )
This is not a shortening, but a difference in usage. I understand that the Brits use revision/ revising for studying for a cummulative exam while Americans use reviewing or studying for an exam. Why? I don't know.
Well, in America, I'm pretty sure "sport" is referring to hunting, and "sports" refers to things like water polo and basketball.
"Math" vs "Maths" are both colloquial shortened forms of mathematics. The usage is the same. With "sport" vs "sports" though you are a right, it is a difference in usage. Eh, I don't think so. If you walked up to average Americans and asked them to name a sport, I'm sure they would say "baseball", "football", "hockey", "basketball", etc. Nobody would assume "sport" refers to hunting unless you're asking an actual avid hunter. "Sport" in the singular really isn't that uncommon or unnatural to use in American English, it just isn't used to refer conceptually to the general idea of "sport(s)".
Curse those new-word mongrels and their philistinism, butchering a perfectly decent West Germanic language and turning it into something utterly abhorrent.
"Mathematic" currently functions as a shortened form of the adjective "mathematical", not as a noun. Ending in an "s" need not imply a plural. For a parallel example: "obstetrics", "the branch of medical science concerned with childbirth and caring for and treating women in or in connection with childbirth", ends in an s, but is used with singular verbs. Someone who studies and specializes in the field of study of obstetrics becomes an obstetrician, just as someone who studies and specializes in the field of mathematics becomes a mathematician. Obstetricians-gynecologists are often shorted to be referred to as "OB-GYN" doctors, although following the British model I suppose it would be "OBS-GYN" doctor.
As far as my knowledge of linguistics goes (which is very minor so don't take my word for it) there were several groups in America that are responsible for spelling changes. One group wanted to make English more proper by returning it to Latin, which is why we spell defense with an s, from Latin defensus, but another group had the same goal but they wanted to remove the French/Latin influence, which is why we removed the French U from many words. Then another group wanted English to make sense so they spelled everything phonetically. Somewhere in that mess is your answer... maybe.
Well in the Latin versus French influence debate (for example the u's in labor versus labour), if your goal is to make words sound phonetically as they are spelled, you should go with the Latin, since like most of the Romance languages descended from it (obviously excluding French), the language is written as it is pronounced. Though I should note that the French world for defense, like the Latin word, uses an s, not a c: défense. So I'm not sure where the Brits are getting their crazy Cs from in those types of words. Also the French word for labor is "labeur", so at best the Brits can argue that their extra u in "labour" is somehow French-influenced, whereas "labor" comes directly from the Latin word "labor" with the same meaning. The Latin word for "defense" is the noun "defensio". "Defensus" is the perfect passive participle from the verb defendo, e.g., "defensus sum", "I have been defended".
I agree with Rakkaus about how "math" is a truncated word, so stands for "mathematics" with no need for an S on the end. As far as sport(s) goes, it must just be a cultural thing. The English say "sport" to mean the concept of sporting, versus Americans who say "sports" as if referring to a particular number of sports. I don't feel either is more correct than the other.
I've never really given it much thought. As far as I know, we use both "Math" and "Maths", depending on the context of the sentence. But we mostly use "Maths" We also say "Sport" and "Sports", ex. "We're going to watch sport" or "Which sports do you play?"
As far as I'm aware, before 1828, both variations of the same word (i.e humor/humour) were acceptable in both the US and the UK, but Noah Webster wrote an 'American Dictionary' of the English language, and picked his preferred forms, and they stuck indefinitely. The UK originally accepted many of the changed words, but they were dropped in favour of the original British spellings, because the changed forms were considered 'Americanisms' (i.e bad). Some are still around today though - such as public instead of publick and music instead of musick. The -ize suffix is considered correct in the UK, alongside the -ise suffix, but the latter is more commonly used. Americanisms are invading our language informally - words such as garbage instead of rubbish and program instead of programme. Neither garbage or program would be considered appropriate if you were writing an English essay for school or college, though, and more serious newspapers like The Guardian and The Telegraph will always use British spellings. Tabloid newspapers like The Sun will probably use American spellings when possible - such is the result of an increasingly globalised world, I guess - personally, I'd consider it a shame if languages across the world eventually become homogensed. I like the quirky differences that exist.
