>>>>I wont even mention "aluminum". ;)
>>>
>>>Ah but you have!
>>
>>How else could I spell it without mentioning it? ;)
>
>So TitanIUM is TitanUM, cadmIUM is Cadmum, etc.? I don't think so. So why single out Aluminium? (also from the French too, I think, as they invented the process of extraction)

That is a bit odd, but it may be the need to use the word aluminum more in everyday life than those others (alumnium foil, aluminum siding, etc.)

>>
>>>I remember during Dessert Storm thinking that the country trying to establish "Air Superiority" couldn't even pronounce it. Old Stormin' would say some treacly hotch-potch of R's sounding like
>>>
>>>"eeer supeerrioriree".
>>>
>>>You wanna take a look at yourselves in the "meeerrr" :-)
>>
>>I'm sure you have your regions and dialects where the spoken language is hardly recognizable as to your own current speech patterns. Nearly each State here in the US can be uniquely identified by their speech, though to the untrained ear it sounds merely regional. In some cases, even the city is unique from it's surrounding areas.
>
>Yeah, like the NY "Goil" for "Girl".

Let me tell youse guys, it took me years to rid myself of my Joisey accent. < g >

>Hell, we have dialects that vary across parish boundaries. I used to live on the boundary of Merseyside (Scouse, like the Beatles) and Lancashire (where they have a lazy, slow accent - pronounced lirzeh & sloor.
>
>"You have to go to the top of the road and climb the hill" would be
>"Tha's ter gor tut top o't' rord and climb th'ill) and, in the North East they have their own language practically. e.g. a "bary yag" is a "bright fire", "raj dyoogle" is a "mad dog". But I think these come from Romany and up there there was a lot of Viking influence to the language.

Wow, I don't think we have anything quite so extreme here, though some of the local terms used may not be familiar to all. For the most part, it's still pretty easy to get around and understand and be understood when talking with others. TV has probably made that easier as there's a pretty wide variety of areas represented on the tube. Even if you've never traveled there, most people recognize a Boston, a NY, or a Southern accent from just a few words.