ENGELSKA - översättning, fakta och frågeställning [Sammanfogad tråd]

among, amongst. There is certainly no broad distinction either in meaning or in use between the two. The OED illustrates under amongst each of the separate senses assigned to among; it does, however, describe amongst as 'less usual in the primary local sense than among, and, when so used, generally implying dispersion, intermixture, or shifting position'. Such a distinction may be accepted on authority, but can hardly be made convincing by quotations even on the liberal scale of the OED. It is remarkable, at any rate, that one of the forms should not by this time have driven out the other (cf. on and upon, although and though, while and whilst, amid and amidst). The survival of both without apparent differentiation may possibly be due to the unconscious desire for euphony or ease; few perhaps would say amongst strangers with among to hand; amongst us is easier to say than among us. Some confirmation of this is found by comparing the ratio borne by initial vowels to initial consonants after amongst with the corresponding ratio after among; reckoned upon the 19th-c. quotations in the OED, this ratio is four times as high for amongst as for among. Though the total number of quotations is too small to justify the belief that this proportion prevails generally, it probably indicates a tendency. It may be said with some confidence that (1) among is the normal word, (2) amongst is more usual before vowels, but (3) before the, which so commonly follows as easily to outnumber all other initials, the two forms are used quite indifferently. [...]