From the Wikipedia whilst (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/While) article:

In standard British English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_English) and Australian English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English), whilst is synonymous with while in meaning and usage. In American English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English) and Canadian English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_English), whilst can be considered pretentious or archaic.[4][5]

Some publications on both sides of the Atlantic disapprove of whilst in their style guides (along with "amidst" and "amongst"); for example:


Times Online Style Guide: "while (not whilst)"[6]
Guardian Style Guide: "while not whilst"[7]
Hansard: the Canadian Parliament record: "while not whilst"[8]


The American Heritage Guide writes that, "while using whilst runs the risk of sounding pretentious, it can sometimes add a literary or ironically formal note to a piece of writing."[9]

Notably, there are no style guides that explicitly recommend the usage of whilst over while in any circumstance. The general consensus among scholars of English is that whilst is an unnecessary and archaic word whose primary usage is by Britons who prefer what they perceive as a more "noble" word. Its etymology derives from the early English whiles and, simply put, while is the word that has replaced whilst in modern English[4], just as "thee" and "thou" were replaced by "you".

[4] [a b] http://www.articlesbase.com/languages-articles/english-usage-whilst-or-while-795377.html
[5] Strunk, W., and White, E.B. The Elements of Style. 4th ed. 2000. Allyn & Bacon, Boston. Pg. 63-64.
[6] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2941-583,00.html
[7] http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide/page/0,5817,184822,00.html
[8] http://www.hansard.ca/styleguide.pdf
[9] Houghton Mifflin Company (2005). The American Heritage guide to contemporary usage and style. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,. p. 503. ISBN 0618604995.


Whilst Hongkongers uses many Briticisms, "whilst" is not in common use and the predominant spelling is "while." Hong Kong stylesheets generally have no authoritative opinion on whether to adopt North American grammar or Colonial grammar, hence differing opinions on the em-dash (preferred by North American grammarians) versus the en-dash (em-dashes: "they generally look like such--notice that there are two dashes and no space between the em-dash"; en-dashes: "they generally look like such - notice the single dash and a space"). Nevertheless, phrases such as "queue up," rather than "line up," are preferred in Hong Kong, as are phrases such as "[d]o you have any queries?" rather than "[d]o you have any questions?"

Note that Colonial grammar gravitates to placing punctuation outside quotation marks, such as "this", but North American grammar suggests having punctuation inside the quotation marks is more correct, such as "this," except for use cases where a question mark is part of that being quoted ("Is it 'this'?" is questioning if it's "this," but "[i]s it 'this?' " is quoting "this?") and technical syntax (programming or engineering) that is being quoted to avoid being ambiguous (variable "xy" or variable "xy.").

To cite another example of what would be acceptable in Colonial grammar but not North American grammar, Colonial English users may say "try and do something," but North American grammarians will cite this is unacceptable usage and state that "try to do something" is correct syntax.

If you want to confuse your average North American (especially "US American"), whilst queuing for a bank teller or a sandwich, ask the person in front of you if they're "queued up." I have observed that many people will return bizarre looks, or initially answer "no" because they have no idea what "queue up" means.

I'm interested to hear your opinions--and I'm especially looking forward to the usual obnoxious response from Mr. Haloface (or Mr [sic] Haloface).

Additional Reading:

Punctuation and Quotation Marks (http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pun1.htm) (World Wide Words)
I Don't Give a Dash (http://www.grammar-slammer.com/archives/i-dont-give-a-dash/) (Grammar Slammer)

Obnoxious? :(

I use whilst quite a lot of the time.

It's the old addage that the US and Britain are 'seperated by a common language'.

And it's also very ironic that the English language colonised the modern world and has become as influential as Latin or Greek ever was. But in the past 5 years, many teachers in primary and secondary schools here in Britain have had problems with students Americanizing their words - the primary influence being the internet. Gosh I cannot remember where I read this now, but more I recall more than two thirds of students did not know when to use 'z' or 's'. Predominantly, the American English language substitutes 's' for 'z', so 'realize' and not 'realise'. Infact, I remember years ago on these forums, a Yank pulled me up on my poor spelling due to the fact that I used 's' rather than 'z', so it certainly doesn't seem confined to Britain.

I read a book once about the imperialism of English (my research interests are to do with Imperial Britain, though from an economical and political perspective, not really a social or cultural one, but I nonetheless found it very interesting) and a good explanation for a lot of the linguistical differences between American English and British English is that a majority of the colonial migrations happened from regional areas of Britain, where local dialects were extremely strong (if you come to the UK today, you'll note that people from Birmingham, or Manchester, Dorset or Newcastle, speak almost a foreign language, their dialects and accents are so prominent still) and thus many of their spellings and pronounciations stem from this fact. Therefore, while we in Britain pronounce the letter 'z' as 'zed', from the Greek 'zeta', in American English 'z' is rather pronounced as 'zee', which derives from a late 17th century Northern English dialectal form.

I've always been fascinated by language, and the history of modern words. I'm nuts about wanting to know where each word came from - was it of Greek origin, was it brought over with the Normans, was it once of religious importance and therefore of medieval Latin origin? Hey, some people spot trains, I occasionally have a hard-on for words. Bite me!

Canadian English shares most of US English's qualities, except for words of original French spelling (colour vs. color, centre vs. center), with exceptions on words like defence (which is spelled defense in Francais). Canadian English, simply put, is just weird.

Duringst.

So how did Australia and the United States end up being so different? Or should I say how come Aussies, in spite of the whole "pommy" thing towards Brits, more or less maintain almost identical usage of the English Language and maintain so many similar cultural traits where as Americans sort of went their own way so to speak? Granted the US had a Rebellion where as Australia was lucky enough to be told they are on their own when the English did not renew their lease on the World when the empire ceased to exist. So perhaps there was no need for any driving ambition to distinguish themselves. They really got quite a gift in the long run. Their nation takes up a whole continent, packed full or resources to sell to Asia while their population is less than that of Tokyo.

Sort of related but a bit farfetched, still I want to comment.

I've been watching this ridiculous Austrailian Drama that is since off the air but was 8 seasons long and with each season having 22 1 hour episodes I've been exposed to allot of Aussie slang. I find it absolutely fascinating I might add so I can understand you a smidge Halo ;)

Also comparing it to my relatives from Manchester England and reading some of their entries on facebook I am like WTF are they saying? It amazes me how very different each are.

Examples....

"I am off work week commencing 11th October! Let me know if you are free for lunch xxx"


"Is bottoming the house with a rotten head...."


Such odd expressions to me :)

Rofl!!