the line " and about 2000 miles of water, thank God!"
2007-06-01 07:11:17 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
Some third rate comedian perhaps, with little knowledge of geography?
2007-06-01 08:19:02 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually, George Bernard Shaw may have said it, but he never actually wrote it.
Oscar Wilde on the other hand actually wrote in the Canterville Ghost (1887) “We really have everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language”, and there have been many others who have shared similar sentiments including Bertrand Russell (Saturday Evening Post, June 3, 1944) ‘It is a misfortune for Anglo-American friendship that the two countries are supposed to have a common language’ and Dylan Thomas in a speech published posthumously in the Listener, April 1954 that English writers and scholars in America were, ‘up against the barrier of a common language’. None of them actually wrote that particular quote.
Since the quote itself is of dubious attribution, it would be impossible to discover the author of the addendum.
2014-07-10 16:33:56 · answer #2 · answered by Cato_I 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What is the question? The statement you quote is very famous (at least the first part). The reference to separation by 2000 miles of water (thank God) reveals his general disdain for Americans. In addition to corrupting his native tongue, he differed with them on politics (he was a socialist).
More significantly, Shaw considered language to be a critical component of our lives. In addition to Pygmalion, his excellent play about a London flower girl made into a high society lady by a professor of linguistics, Shaw was a great proponent of phonetic spelling.
To illustrate the apparent haphazard nature of our language, he offered that we might spell "fish" as "ghoti". After all, the "gh" in laugh is pronounced as an "f" and the "o" in women (the plural form only) is pronounced as a short "i". We pronounce "ti" in many words such as nation, intuition, deflation and consternation as "sh".
I say the apparent haphazard nature because there actually are reasons for our peculiar spelling. I find them helpful in remembering the meanings of words because the spelling frequently reveals the origins of words, particularly what foreign language we borrowed/stole them from.
2007-06-01 07:51:36 · answer #3 · answered by one_eyed_teacher 2 · 4⤊ 0⤋
No. nevertheless, they was somewhat of large Brittian. united statesa. began out because of the fact the thirteen Colonies, which belonged to England, yet at last began a Revolution and grew to become this is very own united states of america.
2016-10-09 06:33:07 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have no idea really, but it sounds like Mark Twain or, possibly, Dorothy Parker but more likely Mark Twain.
2007-06-01 09:40:14 · answer #5 · answered by Beau Brummell 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Looks like something P.G. Wodehouse would say.
He may have hidden it by attributing it to any one of the uncles that infest his literature, so good luck with that.
2007-06-01 09:12:28 · answer #6 · answered by rhapword 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
No idea. GBS would have assumed that people knew how far away the USA was.
2007-06-01 08:10:53 · answer #7 · answered by cymry3jones 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Great question, but I'm not able to find the answer. I've put this one in my watch list because I'm curious.
2007-06-01 07:36:56 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Hopefully an English person, if he didn't he would now, and it would prob be me.
2007-06-01 07:16:06 · answer #9 · answered by DALE A 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋