Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: jcf@world.std.com (Joseph C Fineman)
Subject: Re: Wierd U.S. Date Order : M,D,Y
Message-ID: <E6AArI.FqC@world.std.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <E61zF8.DFA@cix.compulink.co.uk> <5epmns$t2h@dailyplanet.wam.umd.edu> <33108fdf.4158679@news.csuohio.edu>
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 23:04:30 GMT
Lines: 26

scott@math.csuohio.edu (Brian M. Scott) writes:

>I'm American, born and reared in the States, and I say 'the 13th of
>May, 1948' or even '13th May, 1948' at least as often as I do 'May
>13th, 1948'.  This is a conscious choice on my part, however, and I
>also choose to write dates in the form '13 May 1948'.  Still, while
>'13th May, 1948' is definitely unusual, the longer form isn't really
>all that uncommon in my experience.  I have certainly heard the
>shorter form in England.

The two forms are both pretty common in speech in my experience as
well.  They also seem to have been in competition for several
centuries.  It is odd that Americans almost always refer to
Independence Day as "the Fourth of July", tho the Declaration itself
(which you might expect to be authoritative) calls it "July 4th, 1776"
in large letters.

It remains true, tho, that in common business usage (dating letters,
for example), the month almost always comes first in the U.S., and
more commonly second in Britain.  Scientists & the military put the
day first even in the U.S.

---  Joe Fineman    jcf@world.std.com

||:  Those of you who think you know it all are a source of  :||
||:  amusement to those of us who do.                        :||
