Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 13002

A proper noun is a noun that is the name of a specific individual, place, or object.

Hence 'Labour Party' is a proper noun. There is no such thing as the 'Labor Party' in the UK.

Is it me or has almost every single bloody journalist in the US thrown this simple rule of grammar out of the window?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,81234,00.html

http://www.msnbc.com/news/886393.asp?0cv=CB10

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/18/i...ope/18BLAI.html

Now I know you yanks spell it differently when it is not a noun, that's fine. But spelling it the way you want when its a proper noun is not fine. Its like knowing someone is called 'Philip' and insisting that its should be spelt 'Philip'

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 7504

If somebody writes in "Labor Party" on their ballot, would the party accept the votes?

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 13002

hah... if we voted like that probably. But we use a pencil and draw an 'X' in a box by the name of person with a little by line that says the party name.

I know this sounds petty btw, but it really getting on my tits for some reason.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35656

I imagine that it is not necessarily the journalists who are lacking knowledge, but rather they fear that their audience are. That would seem a reasonable guess, at least; plenty of Sun journalists are pretty smart, but they write as if they are morons because that is who they are trying to sell newspapers to (and this labor/labour distinction is way less bad than what is produced in The Sun as a matter of course).

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Just to the right of the moon
Posts: 3141

The Sun newspaper has a computer programme that highlights long or complicated words in the written text, and suggests shorter or less complicated replacements, for the readers benefit.

Slightly disingenuous, I think.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: zanzibar
Posts: 10477

Editors probably run through it all and Americanize it (change the 's'es to 'z'es - or zeds if you swing that way).

But, as I pointed out the other day, its moronic. Sort of like when my work makes me change "Ministry of Defence" to "Ministry of Defense." We don't use British spellings, but in some cases it should not be changed.

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 13002

quote:

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Originally posted by DevilMoon
We don't use British spellings, but in some cases it should not be changed.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35656

The way that I have heard it said on US television sounds more like 'colon powell' to me, but I am obviously confused by the accent.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
Posts: 15003

Should it be spelt "Philippe"?

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Registered: Mar 2003
Location: Here
Posts: 181

Anyway, its not Labour Party, or Labor Party.
Its NEW Labour Party.

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