94 replies to this topic

[simplezz]

sanke1, on 13 April 2012 - 12:26, said:

No offence. I believe, there should be just one English.

There was until it was bastardised by the U.S. But I agree, we should standardise on a single written form. It's not possible for speech because it varies too much from place to place. The french, spanish, and italians do it, so why not British/American?

[Amarok]

simplezz, on 13 April 2012 - 17:32, said:

There was until it was bastardised by the U.S. But I agree, we should standardise on a single written form. It's not possible for speech because it varies too much from place to place. The french, spanish, and italians do it, so why not British/American?

Don't worry, it's being further bastardized by both the American youth and more or less the youth in every English speaking region.

[+Brando212]

Amarok, on 13 April 2012 - 17:39, said:

Don't worry, it's being further bastardized by both the American youth and more or less the youth in every English speaking region.

wut r u tlking abt?

[Kirkburn]

simplezz, on 13 April 2012 - 17:32, said:

There was until it was bastardised by the U.S.

Absolute rubbish. There has never been a 'single' correct version of English. France manages it through laws, which only apply to French controlled areas - I doubt that prevents area specific differences. And evidently since the US and UK have different governments, they're not going to apply a single law.

Edit: aha. Quebec is a good example. Also, see http://en.wikipedia....Standard_French

McKay, on 13 April 2012 - 16:47, said:

But it irritates me when it spells tonnes of words wrong, I have a spell-checker add-on for IE, but it's American English, you know how irritating it is seeing it underline

Certainly it annoys me to have a spellchecker doing that ... but that's the spellchecker's fault. (I have the enGB dictionary on my Firefox, for example.). And they're not 'wrong', just different.

Amarok, on 13 April 2012 - 17:39, said:

Don't worry, it's being further bastardized by both the American youth and more or less the youth in every English speaking region.

It's been being 'bastardized' ever since humans started communicating.

[+GreenMartian]

jakem1, on 13 April 2012 - 13:09, said:

It's generally not in terms of spelling. However an Australian English dictionary should include spellings/definitions of words that are commonly used in Australia but not elsewhere. For instance, bogun.

You mean bogan? Yeah, you're right, the UK dict doesn't recognise it. Although, it's interesting that it also doesn't recognise "chav"

[Scorpus]

I'm Australian and should use UK spellings but I prefer the United States way.

Favor > favour (and all similar words) because "favor" has one less character, making it slightly quicker to type/write.
Organize > organise (and all similar) because you don't say "orga-nice" you say "orga-nize"
Center > centre again because it seems more phonetically correct to say "center" ("cen-ter" not "cen-treh").

I'm undecided, however, about the differences between single- and double-lettering in some words like focussed/focused and cancelled/canceled, and switch between -og and -ogue for things like analog and catalogue

Not that UK English is wrong, just the US way seems more logical. That said I prefer to say "aluminium".

[spader]

I'm from New Zealand and as a British Colony we are taught UK English. Americans are taught something different and thats ok. Were all different. the only time it becomes an issue is when you are having an English essay marked and they deduct marks for incorrect spelling. Other than that there really isnt a problem.
Having said that, there is a case for the Poms (enGB) to be having a whinge....this time. It does make it seem that their contribution to the English language is being diluted or in some cases discounted, as it is not an option. Yet it is up to each developer what language options they wish to have in their applications. Some may offer a smaller subset of dictionaries to reduce loading times or overall application size.

And Scorpus Aussie is worse than America. You claim Kiwi (enNZ) items to be your own! Phar Lap, Pineapple Lumps, Evermore, Crowded House, Scott Dixon, the list goes on. Is there no shame ? P.S you can have Russell Crowe.....

[simplezz]

Scorpus, on 15 April 2012 - 13:46, said:

Favor > favour (and all similar words) because "favor" has one less character, making it slightly quicker to type/write.

You could do that with many words. But the point here is consistency. Are you also going to shorten 'hour' to 'hor' just because it's one letter less? Or you could just go back to the latin root 'hora'. Having less letters does not make a word better. It maybe more convenient for you because it saves on typing, but that doesn't make it correct. More people speak, read, and study British english than US. So naturally your target audience will be smaller. There's nothing I dislike more than language irregularities. At least with english (British), word prefixes/suffixes are quite regular and predictable for a large percentage of the vocabulary. In US english it's a mishmash of different spellings, some the same, some not.

Scorpus, on 15 April 2012 - 13:46, said:

Organize > organise (and all similar) because you don't say "orga-nice" you say "orga-nize"
Center > centre again because it seems more phonetically correct to say "center" ("cen-ter" not "cen-treh").

If you want a phonetic written language you can forget about english. It's never going to be one. You'd be better off learning spanish. Things like this developed out of lack of education. The same as vulgar latin degraded classical latin.

Scorpus, on 15 April 2012 - 13:46, said:

I'm undecided, however, about the differences between single- and double-lettering in some words like focussed/focused and cancelled/canceled, and switch between -og and -ogue for things like analog and catalogue

Stick to British english, it's universally accepted as the standard for writing.

Scorpus, on 15 April 2012 - 13:46, said:

Not that UK English is wrong, just the US way seems more logical. That said I prefer to say "aluminium".

It sounds to me like you've been influenced by Americanisms. Nothing wrong with that, but if you want to be taken seriously outside of the US, then stick to British english.

[Denis W]

Funny this debate's popping up. Occasionally you see this on the front page, when some of us spell it "rumor" and others (like me) "rumour."

Simon-, on 13 April 2012 - 13:43, said:

It annoys me on the iPad I can choose between English (United States) and get American English spell-check with a "$" sign on the keyboard, or choose English (United Kingdom) with British English spell-check but have to have a "£" sign on the keyboard instead. What about non-British countries that use Dollars like Australia? Have to fiddle with the language options and keyboard layouts quite a bit to get it to work right.

Actually, I do get a dollar sign on the keyboard (though this is on the iPhone). It depends on what "Region Format" is set to under Settings > General > International.

linsook, on 13 April 2012 - 16:25, said:

Everyone, calm dowm. The solution is easy. Adopt Canadian English.

Excellent answer

rajputwarrior, on 13 April 2012 - 17:13, said:

just use canadian english instead? (it's the same...)

There are minor differences. We adopt the British spelling for cheque and -our words, but use the American spelling for -ize words and aluminum. Names of edibles usually match those by Americans: cookies, chips, fries instead of biscuits, crisps, and chips.

[Denis W]

Calum, on 13 April 2012 - 12:38, said:

Good riddance to it, I say. All of us from England and other countries that speak British English, Australian English, and other such variants should just speak American English.

Try saying something similar like that to the Quebecois, that their French isn't "real" French, and watch how fast people will come at you with burning sticks.

[Shaun]

Scorpus, on 15 April 2012 - 13:46, said:

Not that UK English is wrong, just the US way seems more logical. That said I prefer to say "aluminium".

They just got lazy with the language and the bad spellings have stuck throughout the years. I'm surprised they didn't change "hour" to "awa"

[foonacha]

Not going to matter that much in the great scheme of things as American "English" gradually morphs into Spanish/Gangsta patois

[Nashy]

Calum, on 13 April 2012 - 12:38, said:

Good riddance to it, I say. All of us from England and other countries that speak British English, Australian English, and other such variants should just speak American English.

What?!

American English is lazy English. Nothing more. English UK should be the only English on the planet. English-AU is only there for dumb Australians who think it's different from UK English.

[Reacon]

Oh wow. Didn't realize my spellcheck in FIrefox had an option for EN-GB. I occasionally spell things with the extra "u" and inverse the "er". Wish there was a dictionary that supports all spellings to a word, though, as my language is quite a mix of both.

Other than that, I really do not notice a big difference in all this. Anyone using the internet will come across both versions time and time again - I simply see it as a non issue. It's not like we're using unknown slang (usually).

[HardyRexion]

jakem1, on 13 April 2012 - 14:31, said:

That would be because it's typically only racists and thugs who feel the need to fly St Georges and Union flags. I wouldn't worry though because that's generally the case all over the world. After all, you know what they say about patriotism and scoundrels.

Your culture/heritage isn't going anywhere and nobody's forcing any other culture on you.

Really??

I've never shook my head as much at a statement since I heard a black footballer say he can't be racist because he's black!

The point is, though I don't fly a national flag outside my home, politicians telling me I can't because it may cause offence, simply makes me want to! I'm a very proud English man and national pride is a part of human nature.

Though that is just one part of a large pie.

You can break that down like this.

I live in Radcliffe (a small town in North Manchester) and youths from neighbouring estates would fight over local pride.

These same people would fight together with people from South manchester

People from differing counties have fought over the pride of the county.

People from the North of England have fought with people just because they from the south

People from England have fought with neighbouring British countries (Wales Scotland Ireland)

People from Britain have stood shoulder to shoulder to fight Europeans

and so on,...and so on.... up to the point that if Earth was ever attacked by an alien race we would all stand shoulder to shoulder as a planet and fight. Without question.

So you see Pride starts at a very low level and when ever that pride is questioned we come out fighting. It's deeply set in human nature and to say typically, those showing pride by flying a flag is a thug and or racist is laughable and extreme.

There are those who welcome all cultures and religions but not at the expense of our own. I'm not racist but I should not fear offending someone by flying the flag of my nation.

Back on topic, with respect to English(UK) It's simply down to the nationality of the programmer who decides what locales to include and some software doesn't incorporate all variations of English because it's not worth it. If I wrote a software package that wasn't heavily dependant on local spellings then I would use English and have no option for US English.

Whilst I agree it's annoying I don't think it's going to change anytime soon unless UK programmers decide to exclude English US.

And if they intend on selling well in the USA then it would be a bad decision because of how proud Americans are and the size of the market is massive compared to the UK market so It isn't a straight forward argument...