By Chris Cosci

Despite the vast number of people who speak English in the world, it often seems that each person's version of the language is like a snowflake -- no two are ever like. While the basic foundation of the language is the same, the definitions and usage often vary, typically from location to location.

It's amusing how people are often fascinated by these slight variations. Whenever people hear somebody use a different name for something, they become awestruck -- as if that person had just uncovered a mystery that lay unsolved for centuries. "Wait a minute -- you call them hoagies? I always call them heroes. That's so interesting!"

What follows is usually a three-hour discourse on the subtle variations in dialect. "So tell me, do you call it soda or pop?" "Do you say the beach or the shore?" "What do you eat on your ice cream -- jimmies or sprinkles?" For that last case, let me just say that the name "jimmies" doesn't make any sense. They're called sprinkles because they're sprinkled on top of ice cream. Anyone who calls them jimmies is just wrong... period.

Anyway, the point is that this type of conversation never seems to grow old. No matter how many times people discuss it, they're always willing to talk about it again. Without question, at any gathering with people from different parts of the country, everybody in the room will have something to say about it. It's like a conversational black hole that everybody gets sucked into.

Of course, this mainly works when discussing local vernacular. You don't often hear people carrying on long discussions about the differences between English spoken in the United States and English spoken in England. You would think that this would be more fascinating, given how vastly different the two versions are. For example, dessert is called pudding in England, which can be very confusing to an uninformed American tourist. "You said we were having pudding -- this looks like ice cream." And thus begins yet another three-hour discourse: "so when you say holiday, you're really talking about a vacation? That's so interesting!"

Many of these differences are well known, such as French fries being called chips in England and elevators being called lifts. These differences are rather minor and don't really have any serious effect on people's lives. However, not every variation is as inconsequential.

In the U.S., the number 1,000,000,000 is called a billion. Unlike words, numbers represent a mathematical value, which one would assume couldn't possibly vary from country to country. Of course, all that can change if people decide to use different words for different numbers.

Up until 1974, the British used the term "milliard" for the number we called a billion. That would be all well and good except that they used the term billion for another number. For them, billion was the word for a million million (i.e., a one followed by twelve zeroes instead of nine). While confusion over the word "football" is trivial, a disagreement over the word "billion" during a business transaction could be devastating.

Originally, the million million definition was widely accepted. This is what is now called the "long scale" definition of a billion. Then, in the 1600s, a group of scientists in France and Italy changed the definition of a billion to mean a thousand million -- now called the "short scale" definition. By the 1800s, France had switched to the short scale and the U.S. officially adopted it and taught it in schools. During this time, England held fast to the long scale definition.

Then, perhaps in an early sign of their disdain for Americans, the French officially converted back to the long scale in 1961, leaving the U.S. in the minority of countries using the short scale. However, with rising economies and the growing threat of fiscal confusion, England caved in and officially adopted the short scale in 1974.

Still, while most English-speaking countries have now adopted the short scale, many adults in England still recognize the long scale definition from their school days. In addition, most of Europe, including France, Germany and Spain, still use the long scale. It's enough to drive one crazy -- unless you live in England. There you'd be going barmy.