American French
One of my jobs for the next couple of days is to convert a paper I hope to submit for a conference in to U.S. English. I have to begrudgingly admit that because the conference is in the U.S. I don’t have much grounds for complaint, but it seems like a bit of a tedious process for very little benefit (after all, are we really to assume that the international readership won’t understand use of the word “colour” in lieu of “color”?). Hopefully it won’t waste a tonne* of my time. Anyway, I saw a headline about the fast-food chain Chick-Fil-A yesterday and it has got me thinking about American English – or perhaps more accurately, American French – which is not as consistent in terms of pronunciation as one might expect. For example, if I was from Maine, I might conceivably drive to Calais ( pronounced “Callous” ) in a coupe ( pronounced “coop” ). I might then stop for some food – possibly some chicken fillets (“ fil-ay,” apparently). At some point I might also drin...