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From: comm@zeus.bris.ac.uk (M. Murray)
Subject: Re: Brit/Am Eng styles?
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Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1996 14:08:35 GMT
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D Gary Grady (dgary@nando.net) wrote:
: comm@zeus.bris.ac.uk (M. Murray) wrote:

: >D Gary Grady (dgary@nando.net) wrote:
: >:The British
: >: typically say "fifty pounds thirty-five" but before converting to a
: >: decimal currency they used to say things like, "fifty, two, and six"
: >: for 50 pounds, 2 shillings, and 6 pence (12 pence to the shilling, 20
: >: shillings to the pound) with the currency units themselves not
: >: actually mentioned.
: >
: >Oh no they didn't. The case you mention became ambiguous between 50/2/6, 
: >52/6/0, and 52/0/6 when people stopped saying two and fifty. We used to 
: >say fifty pounds, two and six, etc., to avoid such ambiguities, though I 
: >agree we rarely said "shillings" and "pence", unless one was zero, e.g 
: >"fifty two pounds six shillings" or "fifty two pounds and sixpence" 

: Given that you're a native speaker I would be inclined to accept what
: you say here without question were it not for the fact that, by
: sheerest coincidence, I was just last week reading a 1936 novel by a
: British author in which an expression like "50, 2, and six" was used
: in dialog. I've also heard the like on _The Goon Show_. So I have good
: reason to believe such expressions were used at least sometimes.

Maybe sometimes, I don't like saying never. I could imagine it better 
with examples like "fourteen, nine and eleven" and "fifty, nineteen and 
six" where there is no ambiguity.

: Incidentally, I would think that a pause would be sufficient to avoid
: the ambiguity you mention, that is, to distinguish fifty (pause) two
: from fifty-two.

Yes, but we can probably drop the "pounds" into where you want the pause 
without making the whole thing much longer.

: Here's a question for you: Before metric weights came into widespread
: use, were expensive cuts of meat priced in so many pounds per pound?

They haven't yet (the weights), so we still say meat is so many "pounds a 
pound". No-one here seems to find it odd.

: (If you're going to tell me that expensive cuts were priced in
: guineas, then tell me if guinea fowl were sold at so many guineas per
: guinea...)

Nice one, but I think guineas died out long before guinea fowl became 
common, and anyway guineas tended to be used for professional people's 
fees etc., not for things like food.

: D Gary Grady
: Durham NC USA
: 73513.2350@compuserve.com / dgary@nando.net

--
Martin Murray :: School of Chemistry, Bristol University, BS8 1TS, England
