Here are some collages I made from photos my friend in Michigan sent me some time ago. One of the collages refers to gas as Petrol which I find interesting. It shows me how American English (if that can make sense) has changed in the last fifty or more years. Calling gas (or gasoline which I detest) Petrol is very British to me. Perhaps other countries on that side of the Atlantic also call gas Petrol…
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/39778/why-does-gasoline-have-the-word-gas-in-it-if-its-never-gaseous
It does begger commonsense to call a fluid “gas”, but the etymology of the word “gaslone” somewhat clarifies the word, if not what Americans use it instead of “petrol”.
Of course, Petrol is abbreviated from “petroleum”, which is the base substance from which other combustible fluids, etc. are distilled, making use of that word to describe a distillate of petroleum just as perplexing as calling the same distillate “gas”.
Hey, to-may-toe, to-mah-to!
As long as we’re on it, I cringe when I hear English pronounce “taco” “tay-co” Eek! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!
Tay Co? Oh man, slap ’em upside the head! I blame that Noah Webster guy for screwing up our English, Doug. All in the name of separating ourselves from the British? Many Americans have British genes including my lineage. Maybe we should go back to being one of the British colonies!
He definitely had his impact. Of course, he reflected how Americans were speaking words and the spelling business was an effort to reform spelling to better reflect the pronounciation. Some makes sense to me, some doesn’t. “Tho” for “though”, for example, will never appear in anything I write!
What a marvelous montage, John. Nicely done, sir!
Thank you guys!! 🙏🏻❤️