I often wonder about why words are said differently in different places but generally the reasons have been lost in the mists of time, or are understood only by academic linguists. There are many odd things about the different UK dialects, often the difference are far greater than the difference between US English and BBC English.
I'm learning Italian at the moment and since I already speak fairly fluent German and some French I'm seeing odd patterns between the languages. I'd love to know more about the roots of various words and the history of their development - in fact I think it'd help me learn and understand the vocabulary - but it's not really feasible.
So, sorry I can't give you an answer, but I wish there was an easy way of answering these sorts of questions
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