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WOT: "Correct" English



G'day Rob,

* Rob Reid <kepler@xxxxxxx> [031120 23:39]:
> At 11:40 AM PST on November 20 Stephen sent off:
> > I've always tried to use proper "English" spelling as I'm a Canadian. Is
> > there a UK spelling dictionary
> 
> I'm Canadian and I prefer American spelling because it makes more sense.

Huh???  Makes more sense?  In what way?  Too much Sesame Street for
you me thinks.

This is the thing that has confused me for a while.  There are
language translations and then the regional dialects - take Portuguese
for example, there is Portuguese (pt) and Brazilian Portuguese
(pt_BR), but why are we English speakers subjected to a dialect en_US
as the default rather than en being PROPER English.  (I should point
out that even though I've got a .uk email I'm in fact an Australian).

> Sorry for going OT, but I wouldn't want all the nonnative (or even
> uncanadian) English speakers on this list to get the wrong idea.

The wrong idea is that US English is "the" version of English.  It is
a dialect, nothing more.  I suspect (and I'm prepared to be shouted
down) that is is the MINOR dialect of English and that UK/GB English
is the wider spread one.  (Take the UK, Ireland, Australia, New
Zealand, India, Fiji, etc (i.e. ex-colonies and Commonwealth
countries)).  Looking at the origin of the langauge en_GB should be
the default, looking at population numbers that use the dialects en_GB
should be the default...

(I have a lot of fun publishing in US journals.  I send off my
manuscript, they send back the "spelling" corrected version, I
reinsert all my "u"'s (and "s"'s) in words and send it back and we
play mail ping-pong for a while!)


This is in fact reminiscent of the Microsoft "What language do you
want?  US English?" garbage.

We should have mutt's default language as _proper_ "en" and then
translate for the ignorant Yanks with an en_US.  Let's regain the
correct spelling of colour!

> > I ask because doing an apt-cache search on Debian Stable, doesn't show any
> > en_GB, only "aspell-en".
> 
> There's something to be said for enforcement of standard spelling when it
> happens to other people ;->

*ROTFL*  Yup, and you are one of those "other people".



S.

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