Still, Big Ben is the name of the bell, not the name of the tower.

OK, hereâ??s the final word on the tower that houses Big Ben.

No it’s not…

The building to which the tower is attached is the Palace of Westminster. The palace contains the Houses of Parliament, but that is not the name of the building. The tower is St Stephenâ??s Tower. The clock, AFAIK, has no name. The large bell that is housed in St Stephenâ??s tower is called Big Ben.

Wrong, it’s only known as “The Clock Tower” St. Stephens Tower is the middle tower.

http://www.parliament.uk/about/images/exterior/ststephens.cfm

Quite right, Doug. I would recommend “Mother Tongue” by Bill Bryson, in which he uncovers that many of the “Americanisms” that are criticised in the UK actually started here, got shipped over the Atlantic, and then fell out of favour here.

Since English has borrowed from so many other languages, the pronunciation of that last letter has remained “zed” over here (in common with several other European languages) and become “zee” in America. Thus, the name of that letter is pronounced one way in Europe and another way in America. If I can live with “zee” in Americans’ speech, I’m sure they can live with “zed” in Europeans’.

Doug again:
“Criticism of others for continuing that pattern is unjustified and hypocritical. ”

I would qualify this, Doug. I agree with you up to a point, but if the change of usage obscures the meaning of a word, I would argue against it. English has become a worldwide lingua franca (I love the irony of that expression). To retain its value as a means of communication across all sorts of boundaries, it has to retain some measure of consistency. If, for instance, we had a word meaning one thing in Europe, another in America, yet another in Asia and so on, it will be bound to cause confusion.

The same goes for spelling. Pronunciations are extremely idiosyncratic, but if the spelling is (mostly) consistent, people from different parts of the world can still use English to communicate. An example used by Bill Bryson was the word “girl”. In various parts of Britan and America, it is variously pronounced “gerl”, “gel”, “gurrul”, “goil”, “gal” and several others. But, by retaining its spelling, it remains comprehensible (most especially, of course, in written English).

The building to which the tower is attached is the Palace of Westminster. The palace contains the Houses of Parliament, but that is not the name of the building. The tower is St Stephen’s Tower. The clock, AFAIK, has no name. The large bell that is housed in St Stephen’s tower is called Big Ben.

However, if you call it St Stephen’s tower, only a few people will know what you are talking about, so calling it “the Big Ben clock tower” (or “Big Ben’s clock tower”) is actually clearer.

However, calling the tower Big Ben is just plain out-and-out wrong. Calling me a pedant will not change this fact.

Here’s a picture of St Stephen’s Tower:
http://www.artofthestate.co.uk/london_photos/st_stephens_tower.htm

It’s not ZedZed Top… it’s DoubleZed Top!
Along with Blink One-Eight-Two and Gloria ESS-te-FAHN.

Wouldn’t that be a “pair o’ docs”?

J/P=?

Wait… weren’t you annexed into the Desperation Compound? Or was that the Duchy Of Bill Smith?

Man, we *really* have to update the property maps here at the Compound.

Um… don’t people do that every day?

In fact, I believe there is a native population unless I have been seriously misinformed.

(puzzled stare)

Dana: What, flat would be any better?

Better on two counts: no time zones, and the pure joy of tossing idiots off the edge.

Andy Mak: “We speak ENGLISH! Not American, which isn’t even close to real English…

Yes, yes, Andy. (QD pats Andy’s wittle head) If that’s important to you…

Hm…

Actually *ahem* it’s Professor Brian Cox, to you. Also, he’s a high energy particle physicist not an astrophysicist…. but I will say that I’ve never seen the two of them in the same room together…

Hmmm.

Well duh! That would be after The Great Vowel Shift.

Here’s a thought:

Dr. Brian Cox
Dr. Brian May

Two Brians
Two musicians
Two astro-docs.

Hm…
–

Perhaps that CERN thingy has caused a disturbance in the time space continuum…… oh never mind.

You sound like you’re having a blast. Can’t wait for the next installment!

Eddie Izzard did a great documentary about it called ‘ Mongrel Nation’. Excellent viewing!

Just so you know, as excited as you were to see Canary Wharf the other day, I have a clear view of it from my flat. I watched the whole Dalek / Cyberman invasion as it happened. It was very exciting.

Maybe if you get the folks at CERN to transmit your blog updates inside the Large Hadron Collider, your posts will be arrive here — before you left Boulder!

Actually, in my country of “Chipozodia”, posting a message “in funny times” means you have to send it whilst Turner Classic Movies is airing a Marx Brothers movie. But I realize that’s not what you meant. Looking forward to your next update!

American English did evolve due to many local influences. Immigrants to the colonies included those of French, Spanish, Dutch, Scots, and German origins. Many words from those languages, as well as a healthy helping of Native American words, and a dash of West African influence caused the English to change considerably between the first settlements just after 1607 and the American Revolution 168 years later.

The design part came in later. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson both toyed with the idea of simplified spelling. Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755, was well known by the end of the American Revolution. With independance came the desire for more than just political change.

The new nation adopted a new monetary system as well as different weight and measurement standards (When was the last time you cut an ell of cloth or the doctor weighed you in stone or pennyweight?) By the time Noah Webster published his American Dictionary in 1828, there had been several movements to make American English officially distinct from the old colonial tongue. These included plans to simplify spelling and, whenever possible, adopt Norman French-influenced words instead of Anglo Saxon based ones. (Another way to stick it to the English and give a nod to our new best friends, the French.)

The rest, as they say, is history.

ZedZed Top is still a great band.

Americans may say “zeebra”, but the English do not say “zedbra”.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/29682_Steins_Expelled_Exposed

Many on the right including Charles Johnson and Zombie would like to see the ID’ers rightly expelled.

Phil, if you’re a Salvadore Dali fan there is at least one melting clock statue on south bank just down the river from the London Eye. I was there last weekend and got a picture of it with the Big Ben clock tower visible in the background across the river. Sadly, I didn’t have more time to explore London. Really only a day.

When we landed at Heathrow, we were amazed at just how casual things were going through customs. We went through the door marked “nothing to declare” because well we had nothing to declare and we didn’t have to actually talk to anyone. It was a bit surreal.