Aluminum or aluminium?

"for so we shall take the liberty of writing the word, in preference to aluminum, which has a less classical sound."

-Cocky British Dudes commenting on Davy's book.

aluminum (n.)1812, coined by English chemist Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829), from alumina, name given 18c. to aluminum oxide, from Latin alumen "alum" (seealum). Davy originally called it alumium (1808), then amended this to aluminum, which remains the U.S. word, but British editors in 1812 further amended it to aluminium, the modern preferred British form, to better harmonize with other metallic element names (sodium, potassium, etc.). http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=aluminum

Aluminium. American English is a disgrace.

American Aluminum Illuminati. They're bigger than US steel Michael.

lol

I find some of the American pronunciations quite strange, then again probably the same vice versa for Americans. Like Colin Powell having his first name mispronounced, he apparently gave up correcting people. That kind of thing is a shame, as it it really is disrespectful to get someones name wrong.

Englisc swā ǣnig sprǣc wrǣsnan

Sorry that's the best I can do. Syntax may be a little off. And yes, that's Enligsh.

It's aluminium for goodness sake...

Aluminium for me. Aluminum sounds strange when I say it =P

plutonium, uranium, helium, lithium, sodium, potassium, cesium, magnesium... So I'm gonna go with aluminium, for consistency, not because I care that English was born in England or whatever that argument consists of.

Aluminum cuz 'MURICA!

Aluminium cuz not 'murica.

Given that current American English is supposed to be closer to 'older' English, it doesn't surprise me that aluminum is the original. Here, due to my work though, we use aluminium. It irritates when people spell it sulphur though, when it should be sulfur.

It's both.

Just like we have so many other variant pronunciations and spellings of things in various English dialects.

I like the new way. Aluminium, sounds cool and up to date. Although it does not sound like foil, it sounds more like battery power ?

Is it N U C U EL A R or nuclear :P

Traitor...

:P

I know its -ium, but I say and spell it -um.

'Murica!

I don't think it's about right or wrong, just where you come from.

Now....about calling pants "trousers" and cookies "biscuits" and fanny meaning "vagina", this is something we need to address.

Aluminum. If it had an i before the u then I'd pronounce the ium but in American English it doesn't. I still have a hard time remembering that British English says zed instead of zee.

Just realized platinum is both American and English. I wonder why it's not platinium in English....

I have yet to hear anyone (British or otherwise) pronouncing it "alyuminium" though. Nyew York yeah, that I've heard.

Both forms are correct.

Zed is weird. Then again adding a u to words like color is strange as well. Anyway aluminum just as it's spelled.

:))))))))))))))))

i like the way Americans pronounce that ...it's oddly satisfying :D

Aluminium, I have no idea why I said that maybe because I use it most of the times. #TeamAluminium

It all depends if you want to speak proper English. I do so I say the correct word, Aluminium.

Americans do struggle though.

I must admit though, I don't understand the whole zed thing. Zee seems much better. If I was to walk around saying zee here though I'd get funny looks.

I did some looking a few years back and it seems that the southern US is actually the closest extant dialect to that of the Queens English circa 17th century. Some of the vernacular now unique to the Southern US can actually be traced all the way back to pre-Briton Angles (Angeln peninsula area).

I wish I had taken more notes so I could quickly give you references, but I did not. :-(

The colour/color thing confuses me. At least with aluminium/aluminum both parties pronounce it the way they spell it. But Americans still pronounce color as if it had a u in it.

Isn't one US version and other British version?. Its also like football and soccer

Whatever, I'm sticking to Aluminum cause screw the other guy.

Its actually illuminati, lmao !

Aluminium. But I really only ever say it when talking about aluminium foil which I just call al foil anyway.

I'm British and I always say Aluminium, but I'm wrong it's an an American invention so they can call it whatever they want!

I say aluminium because it's pretty much pronounced the same as in Dutch.

Aluminum all the way

Is it spelled "aluminium"? No?

/Thread

Now I'm going to go play some soccer.

-Byshop

Aluminium... Only because we spell it that way in Norwegian as well.

Ah, yet another case of the english phonetic alphabet being nonsensically arbitrary and confusing foreign speakers.

Aluminum it is.

Not sure you can invent a raw element.

Weird Al is never wrong;

-Byshop

@Byshop: Didn't know he was still doing that. Must be quite hard now that everyone and their mothers are making parody videos on youtube.

Aluminium.

- Because British people communicate and spell things correctly.

His latest album hit number 1 on the US Billboard.

-Byshop