4 ms·

The article doesn’t actually answer the question. The month-day-year date format was commonly used in the UK until the 1920s or so, simply because it matches a

The article doesn’t actually answer the question. The month-day-year date format was commonly used in the UK until the 1920s or so, simply because it matches a common order of spoken dates: December (the) sixteenth, 2013. Presumably, Americans just retained the older form while Britain moved on; a similar thing happened with the rhotic General American accent. (No, I don’t have a citation on hand.)

mooism2 13y ago
Although if you or anyone else could come up with a citation, I'd love to read it.
ksec 13y ago
Sounds like a possible reason and explanation. Thx.
gabemart 13y ago
> simply because it matches a common order of spoken dates I'm a native British English speaker and I would say "16th of December" more often than "December 16th".
- nemof 13y ago
  did you fall through a crack in time from the 1920's?
  - nodata 13y ago
    Same here: "11th January" sounds British to my ears, "January 11th" sounds American.
nodata 13y ago
I thought it was because, to an American at least, the month was most important, then where you are in the month, then the obvious part (the year).
eyko 13y ago
I always thought the common order was: 16th of December, 2013. You can also argue that it has been that way for a long time. For example, the English King James' Version of the Bible uses dates in the same dd-mm maner (not always including the year), like here: > "Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement" Both religious texts and common language influence each other, so I'd say it's safe to assume that some people imitated it in spoken word. I don't know how the other format (December the 13th) may have come about, but my first guess (and that's just a guess) would be that it may have been a good replacement in texts - it sounds good and formal without sounding too religious. Also, as the secularism pushed to move away from the dominance of religious institutions, it might have been an incentive to look for other forms of expressions? Okay, that was a lot of speculation there and I'm probably wrong, sorry! ;-)

mooism2 13y ago

Although if you or anyone else could come up with a citation, I'd love to read it.

ksec 13y ago

Sounds like a possible reason and explanation. Thx.

gabemart 13y ago

> simply because it matches a common order of spoken dates I'm a native British English speaker and I would say "16th of December" more often than "December 16th".

nemof 13y ago
did you fall through a crack in time from the 1920's?
- nodata 13y ago
  Same here: "11th January" sounds British to my ears, "January 11th" sounds American.

nodata 13y ago

I thought it was because, to an American at least, the month was most important, then where you are in the month, then the obvious part (the year).

eyko 13y ago

I always thought the common order was: 16th of December, 2013. You can also argue that it has been that way for a long time. For example, the English King James' Version of the Bible uses dates in the same dd-mm maner (not always including the year), like here: > "Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement" Both religious texts and common language influence each other, so I'd say it's safe to assume that some people imitated it in spoken word. I don't know how the other format (December the 13th) may have come about, but my first guess (and that's just a guess) would be that it may have been a good replacement in texts - it sounds good and formal without sounding too religious. Also, as the secularism pushed to move away from the dominance of religious institutions, it might have been an incentive to look for other forms of expressions? Okay, that was a lot of speculation there and I'm probably wrong, sorry! ;-)