USAGE: CHATTER Re: USAGE: Verse, was: Re: Thorn vs Eth

Curiouser and curiouser.....

Barbara Barrett wrote:

>Barbara babbles;
>Indeed 'tis so. In Northern Ireland the coloquial solution was to take
>the poster abreviation "Vs" and voice it! If one actually said "versus"
>some wag would quip "It's a poetry comp' then? ha ha"....
That would be my rather puzzled reaction to hearing "Glentorn verses
[v@rs@z] Rangers".  A poetical bunch, those Glentorners :-)

 It had its own
>grammar too; future tense "The next match is Glentorn Vee Rangers",
>present tense "Today Glentorn Veez Rangers", past tense "Did you see
>Glentorn Vee Rangers?".
Aside from that present tense form, these sound more like our US system of
naming court cases:  "The next case is US vee Enron", "Have you read US vee
Enron?".  But would they say "Yesterday Glentorn veed (the) Rangers" ??

Although we've had a couple instances of verse/versed from people this side
of the pond, I'm wondering if this may not be more of a Commonwealth
phenomenon? I'll have to pay more attention next time I hear the BBC "...and
now, the news of sport."

OTOH, I have next-to-zero contact with small children/teenagers (who seem to
be the main culprits), and only minimal contact with sporting events, so
what do I know?  :-)))