Re: What is the language "British"?

[Mike Wright]

Hi all,

(Sorry, I was overzealous in cleaning my maildir and can't find the 
beginning of this thread) but I seem to remember that the OP objected to 
the use of "British" as opposed to "English".

Granted, this is from an American dictionary but it does show that 
"British" is an acceptable American usage.

 From Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary:

Briticism, n. ...peculiar to British English.
British, n.
   1. British English
   2. the language of the ancient Britons


And certain to fan flames:

Since we were also discussing the -our vs. -or we have this.  An excerpt 
from H. L. Mencken's 1921 "American English"

The logical superiority of American spelling is well exhibited by its 
persistent advance in the face of all this hostility at home and abroad. 
The English objection to our simplifications, as Brander Matthews once 
pointed out, is not wholly or even chiefly etymological; its roots lie, 
to borrow James Russell Lowell’s phrase, in an esthetic hatred burning 
“with as fierce a flame as ever did theological hatred.” There is 
something inordinately offensive to English purists in the very thought 
of taking lessons from this side of the water, particularly in the 
mother-tongue.

Ouch!

:m)

What is the language "British"?

[Timothy Murphy]

Mike Wright wrote:

>  (Sorry, I was overzealous in cleaning my maildir and can't find
> the
>  beginning of this thread) but I seem to remember that the OP objected to
>  the use of "British" as opposed to "English".
>  
>  Granted, this is from an American dictionary but it does show that
>  "British" is an acceptable American usage.
>  
>   From Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary:
>  
>  Briticism, n. ...peculiar to British English.
>  British, n.
>     1. British English
>     2. the language of the ancient Britons 
As the OP, my objection was to the use of the word "British"
as a synonym for "English", in the FC-5 installation.

It wasn't used in either of the above senses,
since there was no other version of English on offer.

I think it is just wrong, and should be replaced by "English".

A German colleague tells me I am right,
and as we all know Germans know far more about English
than native English speakers do.





-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: [phone]
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

What is the language "British"?

[Mike Wright]

Timothy Murphy wrote:
>  Mike Wright wrote:
>  
>  
> >(Sorry, I was overzealous in cleaning my maildir and can't find the
> >beginning of this thread) but I seem to remember that the OP objected to
> >the use of "British" as opposed to "English".
> >
> >Granted, this is from an American dictionary but it does show that
> >"British" is an acceptable American usage.
> >
> > From Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary:
> >
> >Briticism, n. ...peculiar to British English.
> >British, n.
> >   1. British English
> >   2. the language of the ancient Britons
>  
>  
>  As the OP, my objection was to the use of the word "British"
>  as a synonym for "English", in the FC-5 installation.
>  
>  It wasn't used in either of the above senses,
>  since there was no other version of English on offer. 
Wasn't aware that that was the only English offered.

>  
>  I think it is just wrong, and should be replaced by "English". 
Good call.  I concur with you completely.

:m)

>  
>  A German colleague tells me I am right,
>  and as we all know Germans know far more about English
>  than native English speakers do.
>  
>  
>  
>  
>

What is the language "British"?

[Tim]

On Tue, 2006-08-29 at 23:38 +0100, Timothy Murphy wrote:
>  As the OP, my objection was to the use of the word
> "British"
>  as a synonym for "English", in the FC-5 installation. 
Just to clarify, it was actually a "language" option, rather than a
"localisation" option?  The second being more than just language and
spelling, incorporating various other customs and defaults (monetary
values, dates, etc.

-- 
(Currently running FC4, in case that's important to the thread)

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

What is the language "British"?

[Timothy Murphy]

Tim wrote:

>  Just to clarify, it was actually a "language" option,
> rather than a
>  "localisation" option?  The second being more than just language and
>  spelling, incorporating various other customs and defaults (monetary
>  values, dates, etc. 
Yes, it was just the language choice -
it came after the localisation choice in the FC-5 installation
which comes before the installation proper begins.

Incidentally, the localisation choice was also a little confusing,
since it was mixed up with choice of keyboard.
Basically, I have a "uk" keyboard,
but would like euros in place of pounds.
Choosing "Irish" keyboard caused Gaelic to be taken as default language,
though that could be changed to English.
But that is a different issue.


-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: [phone]
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

What is the language "British"?

[Tim]

On Thu, 2006-08-31 at 13:55 +0100, Timothy Murphy wrote:
>  Basically, I have a "uk" keyboard,
>  but would like euros in place of pounds. 
Wash your mouth out!  ;-)  But being serious, isn't there an
international keyboard that gives you a euro on another key, while still
retaining the pound?

Here, in Australia, we use the US keymap,  with the $ on the shifted 4
key.  Next door is the 5, shifted for the %, and some other qualifier
key can used with the 5 for the euro (this is a variant of the older US
keymap, with this extra character, and the power/sleep/wake keys, five
custom keys, and multimedia keys - so it's not really a US keymap, as
other computers would call it).

-- 
(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"?

[Anne Wilson]

On Thursday 31 August 2006 16:13, Tim wrote:
>  On Thu, 2006-08-31 at 13:55 +0100, Timothy Murphy wrote:
>  > Basically, I have a "uk" keyboard,
>  > but would like euros in place of pounds.
>
>  Wash your mouth out!  ;-)  But being serious, isn't there an
>  international keyboard that gives you a euro on another key, while still
>  retaining the pound?
>  
The UK keyboard normally has the € symbol on AltGr+4 these days (that's the 
right-hand Alt key, if you don't have one labelled AltGr).

Anne

What is the language "British"?

[David Fletcher]

At 16:13 31/08/2006, you wrote:

> On Thu, 2006-08-31 at 13:55 +0100, Timothy Murphy wrote:
>  > Basically, I have a "uk" keyboard,
>  > but would like euros in place of pounds. 
On my keyboard, I have:-

Shift-3 gives me a pound symbol
Shift-4 gives me a dollar symbol
AltGr-4 gives me a euro symbol

Any help?

Dave

What is the language "British"?

[Timothy Murphy]

David Fletcher wrote:

> > > Basically, I have a "uk" keyboard,
> > > but would like euros in place of pounds.
>  
>  On my keyboard, I have:-
>  
>  Shift-3 gives me a pound symbol
>  Shift-4 gives me a dollar symbol
>  AltGr-4 gives me a euro symbol
>  
>  Any help? 
Thanks, I'll try that.

But I wasn't really talking about producing a euro symbol
on the screen or on paper -
I was really just discussing how to answer this question
early in the FC-5 installation (long before the "British" question)
where you are asked what keyboard you are using.
If you answer "UK" it tells you how it is going to print pounds and pence.
If you answer "Irish" it tells you how it is going to print euros and cents.
That's fine, but then there is some confusion
as it seems to suggest that you must want to write or read irish (gaelic).

I think basically, that two issues - keyboard and localisation -
are considered together, and this causes confusion.


-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: [phone]
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland