Math or Maths? 2

[CajunCenturion]

In another thread, the following question was asked:

By the way, without wishing to go off topic, why do we Brits use maths while Americans use math? Is the full name mathematic or mathematics?

Anyone interested in tackling this great mystery?

Good Luck
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[Stella740pl]

"why do we Brits use maths while Americans use math? Is the full name mathematic or mathematics?".(Columb Healy)
I don't know of the thread on this topic, and the name is 'mathematics', but I don't see how it's related to the way contraction is created. I don't know of a rule governing which letters to leave, and which to omit. If you drop a bunch of letters after "math", why would you insist on keeping the last letter? Does it make a word more recognizable? Does it bear some additional meaning, like plurality, possessiveness, etc.? It's just a matter of agreement, I guess. No mystery.

 

[SQLSister]

Well clearly the full word is mathematics. AS to why we shorten it the way we do, I would suspect we do not use the s because that would make it seem like a plural and mathematics is a singular even though it ends in s. As to why the British shorten it differently, I have no guess. Do the British say "Maths is my favorite subject." Or do they say "Maths are my favorite subjects."

Questions about posting. See faq183-874

 

[ZoomerZ]

In my native language Math was always a singular. So I wouls say American way, but then American English came after British. So why in my language it is singular as in American English? Wow!

Care to research other languages? Like German, French?
What languages ARE we speaking here in TT other then English?

 

[Dimandja]

>What languages ARE we speaking here in TT other then English?

Only English. If another language's phrase is appropriate, we have used it -- a translation may be required.

 

[SF0751]

Hmmmmm.....
<not serious>

If I were British, I would say that "maths" is the proper shortened form of "mathematics", since they both end in the letter "s". However, I'm an American; I think that the British just like extra letters in their words (color vs. colour, for example), and "math/maths" is no exception!

</not serious>

Susan
"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example." - Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894)

 

[Genimuse]

My British friends say that "Maths is my favorite subject" would be considered correct, and that, contrary to logic, they've never heard anyone say "Maths are" anything.

 

[blueark]

Expand it out....

"Mathematics is my favorite (favourite!) subject"
"Mathematics are my favorite subjects"

I suppose if the full, singular word ends in s, there's no reason why the shortened version can't either. Does a plural even exist? Does the second sentence make sense if you are studying many branches of mathematics? Why does my brain hurt?!

 

[KenCunningham]

Too much festive cheer?

 

[blueark]

Or maybe not enough...

 

[Stella740pl]

I suppose if the full, singular word ends in s, there's no reason why the shortened version can't either.

Sure it can, why not? And the opposite is just as true; if the full, singular word ends in s, there's no reason why the shortened version should, too. Right?

 

[Genimuse]

I fully understand the concept of the s being there due to the s on the end of mathematics, but I felt it was worth verifying with actual Brits that they don't, in fact, mean some kind of plural, kind of like mathematicses. (And yeah, that makes my brain hurt.)

 

[Stella740pl]

...I felt it was worth verifying with actual Brits that they don't, in fact, mean some kind of plural...

Oh! Did anyone here seriously (and not in the form of a rhetorical question) say that they do?

 

[dyarwood]

I would make the suggestion that Americans do not speak English but rather American. And yes I'm waiting the angry responses.

 

[Stella740pl]

I would make the suggestion that Americans do not speak English but rather American.

Oh! So then why, again, contraction "math" in American and other differences whould be a problem for Brits who use "maths"? Since they are different languages, we don't argue which one is better, do we?

 

[Genimuse]

Oh! Did anyone here seriously (and not in the form of a rhetorical question) say that they do?

Yup, me, in my head. Should I have waited for someone to ask it non-rhetorically?

 

[GwydionM]

I think that the British just like extra letters in their words (color vs. colour, for example)

No, US dictionaries made a few changes from the British standard established by Dr Johnson. Which were a total muddle, unfortunately, including obsolete sounds like the 'w' in two, still sounded in 'twice'. Rough dough-faced ploughmen wandering through Slough were not rationalised to Ruff dow-fased plowmen wandring thru Slowh, or however you'd say it.

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A view from the UK

 

[Genimuse]

Our own Daniel Webster, who was very much a British separatist, intentionally changed American spellings and pronounciations in his famous dictionary, with the intent of America eventually having it's own language, different in its entirety from English.

 

[Dimandja]

>Our own Daniel Webster, who was very much a British separatist, intentionally changed American spellings

Wasn't there another thread hereabout that said America owes much of its weird spelling to an illiterate would be encyclopedist? Or something to that effect... If he had his way, this guy would have us spell tongue as tung. Actually, he had a point.

 

[ZoomerZ]

Genimuse wrote: Our own Daniel Webster, <> intentionally changed American spellings and pronounciations in his famous dictionary, with the intent of America eventually having it's own language, different in its entirety from English.

Is this actually can be even remotely true?
Would Webster or anyone else even having half-of-brain believe that language can be completely reborn into unrecognizable state and this process can be altered by spelling words in the different way?

Yeah, and why is it always between American English and British and never Australian and British? Too far away? :-D