Another government fit up. Spoken to several Americans. The word "queue" is virtually unknown in the USA. And of course Obama had nearly a billion dollars from Wall Street for his election campaign. So what they want, he lobbies for.
Probably beacuse they call it a "line" as in "standing in line"
IME, people who see conspiracy theories are simply unable to think clearly or comprehend the wider world.
Ignoring the fact that Obama has used the word before several times, do you not grasp that Obama doesn't write his own speeches? He has teams of people to do this. Teams of intelligent, capable, well-travelled people? People who will tailor a speech for a particular audience and who will put in local references and use local words and, for example, know not to write "fanny" or "wanker" in speeches delivered in the UK?
And yet there are many, many programmers in the US that do know it. And, what's this? The Daily Mail ran an article praising the Americans for using the word? Heavens to betsy:
But don't worry; stick the tin foil hat back on and spend a little time picking all of the words out of my post that you want to convince yourself that I'm actually agreeing with you.
"harry" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com...
That's not what your link says.
Maybe you should try reading them before posting
As a first check on whether Americans ever use the word queue, consider the following
occurrences of the word in the Wall Street Journal 1987-1989 corpus (which is most of
them; I have omitted a few repetitions and some couple of references to a company called Queue):
1.. [w7_001] By the time he was ready to buy futures, three other buyers had jumped ahead of him in brokers' queues. 2.. [w7_009] She has only 90 minutes to sign books for the privileged 250 who queued up before Caldor's closed off the line. 3.. [w7_011] Who or what is primarily to blame for the desolation, queues, and empty shops of the nation's towns and cities can be endlessly argued over: the abrupt exit of the colonial Portuguese in 1976 after a rule that denied blacks all but the most menial jobs? 4.. [w7_015] This endeavor, in fact, could provide Mr. Konen with his most enduring legacy: shorter queues at half time. 5.. [w7_035] Although poor, Turkey has none of the shortages and endless queues characteristic of developing nations. 6.. [w7_036] I asked an adult standing in the queue with a curly haired pre-teen wearing a blue jacket with Lewistown lettered across the back. 7.. [w7_044] Since the nation's resources are not in fact limitless, acid-rain lobbyists will have to take their place in the queue along with everyone else vying for resources. 8.. [w7_049] Trading in J.P. Morgan opened an hour late Tuesday morning because some big sellers had queued up to unload shares. 9.. [w7_065] This took an hour and 45 minutes, the first part of which involved standing in a long queue in front of a sign that read not "Foreigners" or "Nonresidents," but "Aliens." 10.. [w7_065] It was pleasant enough, until I noticed that I could look out above the arrival lobby through a glass wall and see the long queue in front of the "Aliens" sign again, which turned my attention back to Ms. Weaver. 11.. [w7_068] "We had to queue up a week's worth of inventory to make a run worthwhile." 12.. [w7_069] In fact, the price decontrol that was one of his first acts upon taking office in 1981 made such queues a thing of the past, regardless of supplier problems. 13.. [w7_092] But like any other system, it has queues all along the way." 14.. [w7_096] What customers do is get in the queue. 15.. [w7_097] The queue outside the passport office stretched longer than a block. 16.. [w7_108] "Queues before dawn," trumpeted the headline in the Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti. 17.. [w7_109] And shoots his way out of the queue. 18.. [w7_109] He explains that in a market like that on Oct. 19, "You don't want to find yourself in a queue behind everybody else. 19.. [w7_118] "Everybody thinks, 'If only I can get first in the queue, I'll be all right.' 20.. [w8_002] The "extra" money pushes prices up, inflation accelerates, people are reluctant to work harder for higher pay, and the shop queues grow. 21.. [w8_012] Meanwhile, the Big Board's computers would sidetrack program trades into a separate queue, where the computer would try to match buy and sell program trades. 22.. [w8_024] Everywhere there are queues and turnstiles controlled by young people who smile a lot, even those toting rifles. 23.. [w8_032] "This is lots better than down south, where you have to stand in queues," he says. 24.. [w8_034] Several members of the Politburo have popped in for a look (without having to queue up). 25.. [w8_043] But bondholders rightly worry about releveraging that can set them back in the payment queue, says Kelly Dunne, head of First Boston Asset Management's junk-bond investments. 26.. [w8_047] The queue is still the most effective Soviet ad; a Russian will join a long line without a clue as to what is for sale at the other end. 27.. [w8_048] Gas Stations in Poland Are Swamped As Cars Queue Up for Unrationed Fuel 28.. [w8_053] The infamous Soviet queue would vanish, one story said, with the advent of computerized bar codes. 29.. [w8_053] They're doubling the number of service lines to shorten queues and offering children's plates to attract families. 30.. [w8_057] Cardiac-bypass queues grow and patients die before their turn; hip replacements and cataract operations join a growing list of corrections that are triaged, ostensibly because more serious operations must be performed, but in reality because the resources are being used to continue first-dollar insurance coverage for sniffles and splinters - and for asphalt laying in the constituencies of members of the government. 31.. [w8_057] The persuasive or well-connected manage to jump the queue. 32.. [w8_057] Of greater concern was investors' perception that the market mechanism itself didn't cope - telephones weren't answered, computer routing systems queued, program traders shut out smaller investors. 33.. [w8_068] It's a sheet-metal shed with a long queue out front. 34.. [w8_087] Mr. Robinson replies that any country holding out for a better deal could be told that if it doesn't cooperate now it will be put at the end of I2D2's queue. 35.. [w8_091] The chore can involve queueing for several hours at the embassy here or waiting two weeks for postal applications. 36.. [w8_097] But many remain unsold as Soviets wait in queues for better-quality imported footwear. 37.. [w8_100] For this he jumped a queue at Addenbrooke's, a prestigious teaching hospital in Cambridge, where some 5,000 British citizens are on the waiting list for various procedures. 38.. [w8_100] But sick Britons who aren't expected to die the next day queue. 39.. [w8_104] And rather than queue up with competitors to bid on assignments, big Japanese construction companies often initiate projects and help with the financing. 40.. [w8_124] Mr. Robinson replies that any country holding out for a better deal could be told that if it doesn't cooperate now it will be put at the end of I2D2's queue. 41.. [w8_140] And rather than queue up with competitors to bid on assignments, big Japanese construction companies often initiate projects and help with the financing. 42.. [w9_003] Characters complain ceaselessly about food queues, prices and corruption. 43.. [w9_004] They were frustrated by the longer queues at the cashier and the small coins given as change. 44.. [w9_009] Once secure in the long and slowly moving queue of cases headed for trial, a plaintiff will almost certainly be able to settle for a substantial sum. 45.. [w9_013] He estimates Shearson is involved in about $70 billion in announced merger deals that might close in the next two quarters, giving it the biggest "merger queue" on Wall Street. 46.. [w9_027] Some 60 tired Poles queue in the lobby of Super Sam, a big food market. etc etc etcmichael adams
[etc]
So is there any rule or logic as to whether in American English they use "queue" or "line", in situations where we'd always use "queue" in British English? Or are the words used interchangeably (with "line" perhaps the more common word)?
A glance (or even better a subscription) to
suggests that quite a few "Britishisms" have madfe their way across the Atlantic.
Indeed:
tells us that
"Queue may possibly have initiated the current crop of not one-off Britishisms; a Google Ngram indicates a steady rise in popularity since the early 1950s"
So Queue has been known about in the US since the 1950s. And yet the Leave camp can't imagine it ever being used by an intelligent US citizen who managed to graduate top of his class at Harvard ?????
I think this is almost a crystallisation of the navel gazing of the leave camp, and their inability to grasp the idea of "other countries".
"American English" covers New York to Los Angeles (which is further than London-New York) and Chicago to Miami - quite a large area. It would be naive (to put it mildly) to expect there to be any rhyme or reason in the same way it would be naive to expect all EU citizens to speak "European".
When I go to the US I make a point of using words like "Gas", "Bathroom" "Line". "Sidewalk"..
It is not a secret that we have different words.
I do recall chatting to a driver once at the airport and talking about my encounter with a lorry. After a while he asked "What is this lorry thing you are talking about?" He really didn't know. I now remember to use "truck"
Watching "Mythbusters" is instructive. "Bumper" is used (correctly) in regards to part of a car. "Toilet" is also used.
Those with an interest in such things (almost axiomatically excludes Brexiters :) ) learn that some - not all, but some - different words have their origin in different backgrounds. "Sidewalk"/"Pavement" is an excellent example. In *English* it's pavement to signify a *paved* "sidewalk" which is the word which would have been used to signify an
*un*paved path. In the US there is an assumption that all paths are paved- hence no need for "pavement" as a separate word to "sidewalk" and lingustic efficiency is maintained.
Spellings are interesting too. The original English for a bank instruction was "check" (i.e. what USians use to this day). I have no idea why it was Francophoned into "cheque". Maybe the disappearance of "check" as in "bill" in English was related ?
Slight difference: in the USA they all speak English (excluding Italian, Hispanic, Pennsylvania Dutch etc immigrants) and there are a lot more similarities of vocabulary within different parts of the USA than there are between USA and the UK. Yes there will be regional dialect variations, just as there are in the UK, but I'm talking about the standard US English.
And you can't compare USA to EU, because the EU is made up of many countries and each one has its own language. If you are talking about English as spoken as a second language in mainland Europe, I'd expect it to be similar in vocabulary to either British or US English.
So, I wonder if in general there are any situations where "queue" is used in preference to "line" or vice versa.
...
That would be a first for Harry
An assumption that in the US they are paved - as opposed to what? Tarmacked? Or bare earth with no hard surface? I tend to think of "pavement" as describing any path that has a hard (paving stone or tarmac) surface, alongside a road.
Would "sidewalk" (to denote an unsurfaced path) have been used in British English? I don't think I've ever heard of it in any other situation than as the US equivalent of pavement.
Likewise for "fortnight" - it seems that US English doesn't use this word, and uses "two weeks" instead. I found this when I went over to stay with my sister when she lived in Boston: her neighbour asked me how long I was staying in Boston and looked blankly when I replied "about a fortnight". Now I know and have added it to my mental conversion list (pants/trousers, apartment/flat, faucet/tap, closet/cupboard etc). Hopefully Americans who deal with British people have a similar list, and know about things like the different meaning of "fanny" this side of The Pond :-)
Computing, for a start!
I regularly IM chat to a guy in Boston and several others around the world (left over from an online game) and I think I have more issues dealing with the American than any of the others, simply because of the different words we use for the same thing. I don't think there is a paragraph goes by when one of us uses a word that the other typically doesn't (I think I understand more of what he says than he does me, possibly down to the thought that the Americans are less 'worldly wise' than the rest of us)?
We all know the vehicle differences like 'trunk, hood, fender, quaterpanel, shifter' etc but it even carries on with the transmission where what we would call a 'half shaft', they just call a drive shaft (and other similar things I've forgotten).
The other thing when comparing Americans with other nationalities is that the others generally learn 'British English'. So, when I'm chatting to my mate in Denmark for instance (in English) we have far fewer 'language / communication' questions than I do with my American mate. One difference that does tend to come up more with other nationalities though is food and the names of things that may be common to them and not us (especially brand names).
It's definitely that we and the Americans are 'two nations divided by a common language', far more so (IMO) than most of the other English speaking nations.
Cheers, T i m
Both are used, but the context is different.
According to the OED, its use as a walkway alongside a road can be traced back to 1739. It is, however, also noted, in the 1884 edition, as 'now' being a US term.
Quite a number of 'American' usages are older forms, which we have moved away from and they have retained.
In the same way that Afrikaans is a sort of 17th century rural Dutch.
You wouldn't snort a queue of coke in any language would you. You certainly wouldn't draw a queue to join the dots together either.
I don;t think the word queue and line are that interchangable in English or american there's only relitively few was you can use them to mean the same thing.
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