Articles in British vs American English

[RogueFiccer]

Originally Posted by poli

The stabilty probably is the result of the advent of the written word.

Excellent theory, and I suspect you're correct in terms of spelling.

[poli]

That's right Rogue. The fact that the written worn is now available to all of us for over one hundred years has got to have a stabilizing effectt on the way we spell. Additionally the way we speak must also be effected. I have noticed that in English the word grand had largely been replaced with great. For example : It's been grand to have met you has be replaced with it's been great to have met you. But generally how we spoke eighty years ago and how we speak now is pretty much the same. We have the advent of sound
to thank for that. At least that's my opinion. It has been about 85 years since sound has been recorded. It would be interesting to to see if there has been any documentation regarding how language has morphed in the 85 years prior to the recording of sound. My guess is that the change between 1840 and 1927 is greater than the change between 1927 and the present.

[RogueFiccer]

I talked to a linguist friend about this and he said there isn't anything in particular to explain the differences between British and American English, but my theories were probably on the right track.