Voting Chart

Total votes : 62

Is it gray or grey?

  •  
    It is grey
  •  
    It is gray
  •  
    I thought it was greigh?!

How do you spell gray? Grey or gray?

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Post May 19th, 2006, 1:51 pm

This point might of already been made but most people in England don't speak the Queen's English so to me it is an irrelevant point wether you spell it colour or color, although I do kick myself when I write colour when I'm not doing webpages ;)
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Post May 19th, 2006, 1:51 pm

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Post May 19th, 2006, 1:58 pm

I wouldn't say it makes me angry, I just see it as a disrespectful way to treat something as great as the English language. We were nice enough to lend it to you, So you should be nice enough to look after it.

If there was justification for these changes it would be fine, But there is no justification and there is no reason.. So why do it?
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Post May 19th, 2006, 2:33 pm

meman wrote:
I wouldn't say it makes me angry, I just see it as a disrespectful way to treat something as great as the English language. We were nice enough to lend it to you, So you should be nice enough to look after it.

If there was justification for these changes it would be fine, But there is no justification and there is no reason.. So why do it?


Hey, we've been trying to give it back for ages, however, the people we originally borrowed it from have been dead for about the same length of time, making it kind of hard. Not to mention, thoose before us left no notes on how to give it back, or who it was ok to give it back to in the event of thoose whom it was borrowed from were not available.
To give it to you with nothing to go on but your word would be foolish & irresponsible of us now wouldn't it ? :D Might as well get some use out of it before it decays completely.
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Post May 19th, 2006, 2:57 pm

Personally i would quite like to see you guys speaking German, There is a widespread belief that German was the second choice when deciding what language the states would use as it's official national tongue...

But whatever language you decided to adopt as a replacement, All you have to do to give English back is stop using it... We will take it from there.
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Post May 19th, 2006, 3:07 pm

meman wrote:
Personally i would quite like to see you guys speaking German, There is a widespread belief that German was the second choice when deciding what language the states would use as it's official national tongue...

But whatever language you decided to adopt as a replacement, All you have to do to give English back is stop using it... We will take it from there.

Sir, if it hadn't been for the United States and Canada's help during wartime, I truly believe that it is the population of dear old England who would have been the ones speaking german.

Please, do us the courtesy of dropping this while we are still speaking in a civilised manner.

I'm done with this non-topic.
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Post May 19th, 2006, 3:33 pm

meman wrote:
It would be very impracticle to change the spelling used in code now, So i am happy to let that slide, But browsers should also support the correct spelling of "colour".
I don't like that i am forced to spell my native language incorrectly when setting an HTML attribute.


Well the good thing about using color instead of colour with html is that it saves 1 byte. That translates into using less bandwidth :)
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Post May 19th, 2006, 3:35 pm

It makes me want to blow chunks every time i hear that "america saved the planet" nonsense.
America turned up late, contributed little and had a minimal effect on the outcome of the second world war.

In fact, the biggest effect america had on the second world war was financing Hitler through the Union Banking Corporation...
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Post May 19th, 2006, 3:37 pm

Bigwebmaster wrote:
meman wrote:
It would be very impracticle to change the spelling used in code now, So i am happy to let that slide, But browsers should also support the correct spelling of "colour".
I don't like that i am forced to spell my native language incorrectly when setting an HTML attribute.


Well the good thing about using color instead of colour with html is that it saves 1 byte. That translates into using less bandwidth :)

Lol yes i guess that would have save a fair bit of bandwidth over time..
Perhaps the attribute should just be "c=r" instead of "color=red".
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Post May 19th, 2006, 3:47 pm

Quote:
Sir, if it hadn't been for the United States and Canada's help during wartime, I truly believe that it is the population of dear old England who would have been the ones speaking german.


Bloody hell, now that's fighting talk if ever I heard it ;)
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Post May 19th, 2006, 10:24 pm

Don't mind meman. It's in his nature to be argumentative and bash Americans lol. (no offense bro, but it's the truth - you've displayed such ever since you arrived). Bottom line is meman loves an argument (Idid spell argument the American way, btw and the spellcheck didn't bother me about it lol)
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Post May 20th, 2006, 7:01 am

Bigwebmaster wrote:
Gray is the American version, and Grey is the English version. For the most part gray seems to be used more than grey. The both mean the exact same thing though, and they are both correct, just different dialects.


another useful information there dude!
i choose grey, but honestly i think those two were just the same.
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Post May 21st, 2006, 1:05 am

lol, this has been a very funny topic, to be honest. It would seem that people can take offense at anything, even something as trivial as this. I really did get a good laugh. Gracias seniors y senioras! Este bein para me education! :)
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Post May 21st, 2006, 3:48 am

I voted for greigh - he never gets any attention.

I actually always thought of it as "grey" mainly because every time I hear the word I think of the aliens, the Greys (don't ask - I live in my own world).

Anyway, if inflamable can mean non-flamable and there's such a word as viruses, I'm of the opinion we can give more color to grey - er greigh.

I suppose I should point out that I never use gray, grey or greigh in html, I use the hex code for which grey I want.
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Post May 30th, 2006, 12:39 am

An amusing read to say the least!

I certanily have a keen interest in the English lanuage and in etymology and as this thread has been going on for years I'll try and cover the main areas of discussion in one post. Apologies up front for any lack of brevity.

I think we can all agree "Gray" is commonly used in America and becoming more and more accepted elsewhere over time.

Language does change and adapt in terms of: Spelling, usage of words, meanings, introduction of new words, sentence structure and so on, and although we may not like some of these changes or the continued move to what I consider lazy spelling (leaving off letters for no other purpose than to make words easier to remember and spell), there is not much we can do about it.

Memam: If you want to start a movement to maintain formal spelling everywhere English is used, I'd be a proponent!

I do find it interesting that while adopting "gray" many people still tend to spell it "greyhound" (read a bus!).

Words become acceptable (and correct) when they are used commonly, published and referenced. The Oxford dictionary set the standard for how words enter the English language (many moons ago) and sadly "gray" has become acceptable and is referenced as an alternative spelling within my Oxford dictionary (published date 1994) and distributed in Australia.

I might also point out that English has adapted over the years incorporating words from numerous languages including but certainly not limited too: Latin, German and French. In fact when the word "blue" originally entered common English usage (since we're talking about colours) it was "bleu" which is the *correct* French spelling of the word and was in fact a spelling mistake by Chaucer that through popularity caught on.

Cold Canuck: Refer to the Canadian Government Style Manual! In fact the common spelling of the word in Canada is in fact "grey" and not "gray". This is a common misconception because so many people have been influenced by various sources: American television, printing and perhaps far more heavily by software and the internet (as pointed out by other posters). Just as here in Australia, in Canada many people also end up using the "American" style of spelling, often without even realizing. In basic terms this means that they were actually misspelling the word, though this confusion is certainly understandable with the prevalence of the Americanized version. I would hazard a guess that this very fact and the consequential usage of (what was originally) an incorrect spelling within formal publishing is one of the reason that the word moved into formal acceptance. Indeed you may well ask many of your friends and family and find them divided, but if not then its certainly true that language tends to change in some areas more quickly than others.

To be clear, gray was once incorrect just as blue was; over time it became more socially accepted as an alternate spelling (not just in America), began to be used in published writings and references and has now become formally accepted and has and will continue to make its way into all English dictionaries (over time) as an alternate spelling. Your dictionary or online reference may not pay "gray" its dues, but give it a few years and I assure you this will change. I fervently hope "gray" will never completely replace the original (and in my mind more accurate) version "grey"

Synopsis: For me; a vote for grey!

This post was intended to further the discussion and debate "waged" here thus far and was conducted in good humour. No offense or disrespect was intended or implied. :)
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Post May 30th, 2006, 6:11 am

I don't really care how you spell it, in fact I'll write it whatever way your little heart desires, just tell me one thing, do you know WTF I'm talking about ?
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Post May 30th, 2006, 6:11 am

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