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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