different to and from

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Alina Israeli wrote:

> Here is an interesting chart: 
> <http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxdiffer.html>
> 
> The Collins Cobuild Bank of English shows choice of preposition
> after "different" to be distributed as follows:
> 
>                    "from"   "to"   "than"
>                    -----    ----   ------
> U.K. writing        87.6    10.8     1.5
> U.K. speech         68.8    27.3     3.9
> U.S. writing        92.7     0.3     7.0
> U.S. speech         69.3     0.6    30.1

Fascinating.

A quick look at these data would seem to suggest that:

1) "Different to" is deprecated in British English in favor of 
"different from." The 10.8% figure seems to suggest that it is making 
inroads into the written language.

2) "Different than" is deprecated in American English in favor of 
"different from," but widespread in the vernacular. The 7.0% figure 
seems to suggest that it may be making some inroads into the written 
language. "Different to" occurs in American English only in error, in 
foreigners' speech, and in contexts such as those Loren pointed out.

I'd be interested to know how old these vernacular forms are ("different 
to"in BE, "different than" in AE) -- in the context of the suggestion 
that foreigners may have influenced American English (and no doubt they 
have), I'd like to know whether we can reject the hypothesis that 
"different to" is the native form and "different from" is foreign. And 
taking off my scientist's hat and donning my native speaker's hat, I'd 
/really/ like to reject "different to" as a recent British invention. ;-)

I'd also be interested in comparable data for the prescribed form 
"differentLY than."

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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