Stephanie Cosme, 32, was killed last year when she inadvertently walked into the rotating propeller of an aircraft in California

Stephanie Cosme, 32, was killed last year when she inadvertently walked into the rotating propeller of an aircraft in California

A US air force civilian contractor had become disoriented recording data at an airport in California last year when she walked into a jet’s rotating propeller and was killed, officials said on Friday.

In a statement outlining the findings of a report into the contractor’s death, the air force materiel command said that 32-year-old Stephanie Cosme was mortally injured on 7 September when she inadvertently walked into the rotating propeller of an MQ-9A that was parked at Gray Butte airfield.

  • force@lemmy.world
    51·
    7 months ago

    Nearly every word with a “ou” diphthong

    Not a diphthong. A digraph. Either way American English didn’t “change” this, the now-prevailing British and American standards just standardized different spellings.

    “s” into “z” or vice-versa, “c” into “s”, the swap of “-re” for “-er”, etc.

    I assume you’re referencing words like realize/realise, defense/defence, maneuver/maneouvre. In which case same thing as for o/ou, Americans didn’t “change” this. These were spellings that were already common throughout Middle English; American and British varietes of English just happened to diverge around the time of the printing press (because the printing press was introduced to the English right at the beginning of colonization of the Americas) and they adopted different standards based on the many, MANY spellings already in use.

    Saying the Americans were [more] “prescriptivist” because common standard spellings in the US and common standard spellings in the UK are different is… a take, for sure.

    • Gabu@lemmy.world
      16·
      7 months ago

      Not a diphthong. A digraph.

      Ah, yes, I love the flavo-ur of tomatoes. Their odo-ur is quite nice.

      The “ou” digraph was only merged as a single “o” where it represents a diphthong. Way to instantly discredit yourself.

      • force@lemmy.world
        31·
        7 months ago

        … what? You seem to be unaware of what a diphthong is. “ou” is a digraph, which in words like “flavour” tend to “represent” a monophthong (or a syllabic rhotic in GenAm). You clearly do not know enough about the linguistics you’re trying to argue about.