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#1 2018-10-01 09:32:06

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

US vs. GB English

I have my Mac setup to use British English, and my txp installation too, but the text editor still displays words like ‘colour’ and ‘centre’, etc, as spelled incorrectly, which is kind of annoying since I’ve tried to take steps to avoid that.

I realize this is not a UI strings thing since I’m talking about the text I write in the box, but if anyone has a clue, I’m all ears.

I do have another question out of curiosity, though, about the British English text pack. I know there are two camps of British English users when it comes to certain spelling conventions. Even as an American, I tend to favour the OED as the definitive authority on the English language, due to their academic rigueur with the etymology, which, as a result, also most favours many -ize spellings used in American English. For example ‘organization’, which is based on the original Greek root, versus ‘organisation’, which was more recently influenced by the Normans, etc. But even the Brits are split on this; academia often following the OED, while general society following that squirted in by the French conquistadors.

So I was just wondering which style of British English is used in the GB pack, or more accurately, which dictionary is the defining source? I would suggest the OED (or the convenient subset known as Oxford Dictionary of English), which happens to be what Apple uses in its OSes for British English, pleasantly enough.

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#2 2018-10-01 10:13:06

philwareham
Core designer
From: Haslemere, Surrey, UK
Registered: 2009-06-11
Posts: 3,564
Website GitHub Mastodon

Re: US vs. GB English

In Textpattern 4.7 onwards, the ‘en’ Textpack is International English, and follows OED conventions.

The ‘en-GB’ Textpack is British English and follows the common British conventions of ‘-ise’ and ‘colour’ and ‘centre’, etc.

Long story short: nobody in the UK outside of academia uses the OED conventions.

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#3 2018-10-01 15:02:06

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: US vs. GB English

philwareham wrote #314309:

In Textpattern 4.7 onwards, the ‘en’ Textpack is International English, and follows OED conventions.

I’d never heard OED referred to as International English, which still seems to be a ball of hair-infused wax, but that’s okay with me, if but a little dubious on the main stage.

Ultimately my stance is an individualistic approach, as described in the dual standard section of the International English page there, but that still really depends on the publisher of the work, not the author of the content. I’m not familiar with what the ‘new dialect approach’ is, which is also mentioned there, but I’d be curious to know.

There’s a lot more to the idea of International English than spelling, which is hard to get my head around.

So which is preferred for docs, en or en-GB? Maybe just using whatever spelling you want (color/colour, organize/organise, center/centre…) is fine as long as it’s correct in at least one English dictionary on planet Earth. :) Otherwise what source dictates the convention to use there, OED?

The ‘en-GB’ Textpack is British English and follows the common British conventions of ‘-ise’ and ‘colour’ and ‘centre’, etc.

I might be wrong, but off the top of me dome the only notable difference between OED and other British usage are the situations with ‘-se’ vs. ‘-ize’ words, but only for the groups of words coming from the Greek roots using ‘z’.

Long story short: nobody in the UK outside of academia uses the OED conventions.

Yeah, that seems to be my impression.

On the other hand, I think EU bodies like the UN and whatnot that share English across nations follow a more OED format. I guess that doesn’t matter to you Brits anymore. Maybe that was the whole brunt of Brexit — the spelling!

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#4 2018-10-01 16:17:41

colak
Admin
From: Cyprus
Registered: 2004-11-20
Posts: 9,007
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Re: US vs. GB English

philwareham wrote #314309:

Long story short: nobody in the UK outside of academia uses the OED conventions.

I prefer using the EN-GB spelling!! :)


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#5 2018-10-02 09:06:26

phiw13
Plugin Author
From: Japan
Registered: 2004-02-27
Posts: 3,058
Website

Re: US vs. GB English

colak wrote #314311:

I prefer using the EN-GB spelling!! :)

me too !

And right yes, OED is preferred with multinational bodies (UN, EU, …) and also in international negotiations and trade agreements. In addition of academic environment.


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#6 2018-10-02 12:52:29

philwareham
Core designer
From: Haslemere, Surrey, UK
Registered: 2009-06-11
Posts: 3,564
Website GitHub Mastodon

Re: US vs. GB English

For our docs site, please use OED.

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#7 2019-07-23 02:22:10

bici
Member
From: vancouver
Registered: 2004-02-24
Posts: 2,071
Website Mastodon

Re: US vs. GB English

colak wrote “#314311”

I prefer using the EN-GB spelling!! :)

my vote


…. texted postive

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