# Will Americans ever learn to spell "whisky" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 5, 2002, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673 "2002-12-05T11:34:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rampisad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/858c86/32.png) [@rampisad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rampisad)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673/1 "2002-12-05T11:34:51Z")
There are a couple of obscure little factories in continental North America (and that means I’m including Canada) that produce some form of liquid chemical compound that the local population call **whiskey** , causing great confusion when they refer to the wonderful life-giving nectar of Scotland by the same name. Puh - leeeazzzze! Get it right! To refer to something as \*\*\*15 year-old Single Malt Whiskey \*\*\* is a travesty. It’s the equivalent of Dr. Atkins calling Mcdonalds food! ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673/2 "2002-12-05T11:40:22Z")
If you run a search you’ll see that we’ve already had this conversation. _Whiskey_ is the Irish spelling, and is also used in the USA. _Whisky_ is the Scottish spelling and the preferred spelling in Canada. So there’s nothing wrong with “15 year-old Single Malt Whiskey”, but “15 year-old Scotch Whiskey” would be incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673/3 "2002-12-05T11:42:59Z")
“Whiskey” is correct with reference to the Irish product; “Whisky” with reference to the Scotch product. I have no idea what the convention is with regard to American and Japanese products; it may depend on whether they are trying to imitate a Scotch or Irish style of distilling and blending. ---
**Author:** ![mikan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@mikan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikan)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673/4 "2002-12-05T11:51:00Z")
Well, that took all of 8 minutes to clear up. Impressive! ---
**Author:** ![rampisad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/858c86/32.png) [@rampisad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rampisad)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673/5 "2002-12-05T11:52:21Z")
everton - I tried to run a search. I looked for “whiskey” only in titles and got none. I tried to run the search again, but was bounced by the rule that you can’t run searches closer than 30 seconds apart. That’s like forever, man! I’ve got work to do here. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673/6 "2002-12-05T11:58:00Z")
Can’t we all just get along? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673/7 "2002-12-05T12:11:30Z")
Yes, with the aid of enough Scotch whisky. (I did learn _something_ at Edinburgh you know.) ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673/8 "2002-12-05T12:31:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rampisad \* > \*\*everton - I tried to run a search. I looked for “whiskey” only in titles and got none. I tried to run the search again, but was bounced by the rule that you can’t run searches closer than 30 seconds apart. That’s like forever, man! I’ve got work to do here. \*\* Try this one: [What’s The Secret Of Scotch Whiskey?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=109535#post1998612) No charge :). ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673/9 "2002-12-05T12:50:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Steve Wright \* > \*\*(I did learn _something_ at Edinburgh you know.) \*\* It hasn’t got “more pubs per square mile than any other city in Europe” for nothing. At least, that’s what they told _us_ in indoctrina…errr…orientation week. ---
**Author:** ![mrcrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@mrcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrcrow)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673/10 "2002-12-05T12:59:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Aspidistra \* > \*\*It hasn’t got “more pubs per square mile than any other city in Europe” for nothing. > > At least, that’s what they told _us_ in indoctrina…errr…orientation week. \*\* i prefer the highland spelling uisge beatha this is how i pronounce all my whiskies after sufficient sampling 😃 auld reekie rests. ---
**Author:** ![mikan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@mikan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikan)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673/11 "2002-12-05T13:13:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rampisad \* > **everton - I tried to run a search. I looked for “whiskey” only in titles and got none.** Could be that you did the search without telling it to go back to the beginning of time. The default setting is to search in posts since … yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![garius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e19b73/32.png) [@garius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garius)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673/12 "2002-12-05T14:51:42Z")
its well worth looking at some of the posts from the beginning of time by the way - i can’t be arsed to reference them here, but **last week’s big bang - worth it?** and **Hi I’m God** are pretty good (although God later got banned by **Coldfire** for trolling. **So she’s telling me to eat this apple…** is a good read too. ---
**Author:** ![Hazen21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Hazen21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazen21)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673/13 "2002-12-05T16:38:52Z")
"It hasn’t got “more pubs per square mile than any other city in Europe” for nothing. At least, that’s what they told us in indoctrina…errr…orientation week" Actually, this is what they told us at St. Andrews Orinetation also (about an hour from Edinburgh). ---
**Author:** ![Oblong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c0e974/32.png) [@Oblong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblong)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673/14 "2002-12-05T17:25:43Z")
we’ll learn to spell whiskey when you learn to spell aluminum 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673/15 "2002-12-05T18:10:57Z")
Oblong, you are being obtusely obstinate in your oration.😉 ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-americans-ever-learn-to-spell-whisky/140673/16 "2002-12-05T18:23:21Z")
This seems to be more of a rant against American/Irish spelling conventions and/or against American/Canadian distilled spirits rather than a General Question with a factual answer. I’ll close this thread and let it be reopened in a more appropriate forum if anyone cares to continue the topic.