Re: What is the language "British"?

[Ian Astley]

Good $whatevertimeofthedayitisinyourpartoftheworld, everyone.

Interesting that this topic has produced more responses than all the  
Windows rants put together.

Personally, I find that the real problem is not American English or  
British English or whatever. I once had the privilege of listening to  
a lecture by John Searle (not even in an English-speaking country at  
that!) and it was a couple of hours well spent. No trace of, Did he  
spell that with a zed or an ess -- or perhaps a zee? The real problem  
is rubbish English -- and there's more than enough of that around.

Turning to a slightly more on-topic tack, one of the things which  
frustrates me with just about any spell-checker on any platform is  
the way in which reactions to Trans-Atlantic differences have  
affected the way in which we spell. For example, in contrast to most  
"British English" norms, I insist on the -ize ending for verbalizing  
nouns because that is the traditional British spelling (and Bill  
Bryson, bless his American socks, is only one of the more recent  
writers to have his rants on this put into print); but I also prefer  
to retain the French etymology of words like colour (even if we only  
retain part of that reference!). Webster may have had a political  
point in introducing those orthographic changes to American English  
when he first brought out his dictionary, just as many peoples on the  
planet have a point in spelling English words as they hear them, for  
the simple reason that that is how they write their own language  
(e.g. Indonesia, which has been mentioned before).

I have done enough mucking about with altering set-ups and am  
wondering if there is any sort-of painless way of introducing my  
etymological neurosis into the resident spell-checkers on Unix systems?

Yours in anticipation of corrections to every comma in the above,

Ian A
(Brit on the other side of the planet)

What is the language "British"?

[Ed Greshko]

Ian Astley wrote:

>  Yours in anticipation of corrections to every comma in the above,
ctlly ftr mny yrs sng SMS w my ll b spllng ths wy  :-)

What is the language "British"?

[Anne Wilson]

On Friday 01 September 2006 10:15, Ian Astley wrote:
>  For example, in contrast to most
>  "British English" norms, I insist on the -ize ending for verbalizing
>  nouns because that is the traditional British spelling  
Is it?  I understood that the 'correct' 's' or 'z' depends upon
whether the 
word has a Latin or Greek root.  Since few of us these days have a classical 
education, the difference seems to have largely died out.  Personally, I just 
tell my spellchecker to recognise and accept my preferred, Anglicised, 
version.

Few people have any problem understanding, whether the British or US English 
spelling is used.  Rarely do I have a problem with the mis-spellings from 
those who obviously have English as a second language.  What I find utterly 
incomprehensible is SMS - thanks for the example, Ed ;-)

Anne

What is the language "British"?

[Tim]

On Fri, 2006-09-01 at 18:15 +0900, Ian Astley wrote:
>  I have done enough mucking about with altering set-ups and am  
>  wondering if there is any sort-of painless way of introducing my  
>  etymological neurosis into the resident spell-checkers on Unix
>  systems? 
You might have to do what I used to do with dictionaries not of my
locale:  Spell check a document that I know is perfectly typed, and add
every word the spell checker complains about to the local dictionary.
That gets most of the problems out of the way in the first go.

-- 
(Currently running FC4, occasionally trying FC5.)

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.
I read messages from the public lists.

What is the language "British"?

[Bill Case]

Hi:

Yes, the "What is the language "British"?" thread has been a long
one,
but I, for one, have thoroughly enjoyed the break and the education.
Just proves most people prefer sharing to ranting.

On Fri, 2006-01-09 at 20:48 +0930, Tim wrote:
>  On Fri, 2006-09-01 at 18:15 +0900, Ian Astley wrote:
>  > I have done enough mucking about with altering set-ups and am  
>  > wondering if there is any sort-of painless way of introducing my  
>  > etymological neurosis into the resident spell-checkers on Unix
>  > systems?
>  
>  You might have to do what I used to do with dictionaries not of my
>  locale:  Spell check a document that I know is perfectly typed, and add
>  every word the spell checker complains about to the local dictionary.
>  That gets most of the problems out of the way in the first go.
>   
While we are talking about specialized or personalized spellcheckers,
does any one know where I can get a computer language subsidiary
checker/dictionary.   I want something that will let me write 'ls -a' or
'cd ~/homename/sprdshts/*' or 'googled' or M$-isms in a message without
turning my paragraph red with underlines.

-- 
Regards Bill