For those of you who are interested in the evolution of the English Language (up to and including "new" words added from the America's, Australia, and other "English" speaking nations) I highly recommend reading ...
The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg. Actually, I recommend listening to it on audio books as you can hear the changes the language underwent.
It was also made into a BBC tv series. One of these days I'm going to find a copy of it.
The book was excellent!!
My husband is an English immigrant and he and I constantly do battle over the language. He is often mystified how places with names like Macinac is pronounced Macinaw, and Illinois is pronounced Illinoy. I am befuddled how the English spell Grossvenor and pronounce it Grovenor, and they say "shedule" but not "shool" when they both have the same Sch beginning.
So just when you think what a travesty the American's have made of the English language, we come by it honestly as the English have managed to screw up a good bit of it all by themselves
