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Re: Single vs double quotes?

Subject: Re: Single vs double quotes?
From: Grail <talthane -at- mac -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 09:01:20 +0100


The point wasn't about education levels in the Deep South or anywhere else, for that matter - it was about American views of what constitutes 'British English', and British views of what constitutes 'American English'. Sometimes it's too tempting to overgeneralise, and sometimes things just get misunderstood as a result of travelling over five thousand miles of water (!). Another friend of mine, who's from Tennessee and therefore you could presumably say she was just as 'Southern', said that was completely wrong, too. Which goes to show the point about generalising.

The example used a Southern state but it wasn't about the South particularly (okay, my comment about Deep South jokes was, but it was meant in jest). For that matter, where I live - the West Country, in the south-west peninsula of England - is frequently stereotyped as full of stupid rural folk too...

Grail.

Cynthia Armistead wrote:


At 04:18 PM 6/20/2002 +0100, Grail wrote:

But then, I was told - by a woman from Alabama, so anyone who wants to make Deep South jokes can have a field day now - that American English writers place punctuation marks outside of the quotation marks (Let's go to the beach", Jane suggested) . In British English, that's regarded as completely wrong. (So is the American English practice of including an entire sentence in brackets, like this.)


I'm originally from Alabama, and have spent my entire life living in that state or in Georgia. I was educated in both. I have never placed punctuation marks outside the quotation marks. I have never encountered anyone who claimed that was the proper way to use them, either.

Being from the "Deep South" does not mean that someone is stupid or uses poor grammar. We have our share of people who use their native language poorly - and so does every other part of the world.

Cyn




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References:
Single vs double quotes?: From: Hart, Geoff
Re: Single vs double quotes?: From: Cynthia Armistead

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