Posted by Jock on August 11, 2008 at 08:43:21 user Jock.
In Reply to: Re: Bad Spelling posted by Mike Dennis on August 11, 2008 at 06:39:44:
I have worked in computers for 25+ years and at university I studied for a year
linguistics.
Have I missed something while I was out sailing? Is this a new way to introduce
ourselves before posting to TarBoard? Oh well here goes.
I first used a computer 40 years ago. I studied Chemical Engineering for one year,
Philosophy for two years. Then I was granted a year's leave of absence in order to
rescue a railway, then I returned to my studies for another year and obtained a BA.
It's enough for us in the UK to talk of English, anywhere else that uses a variant
it has to be so named.
'English' is a first language for some 300-400 million people. Another 200-1,400
million use the language as a second language. The inhabitants of England, Northern
Ireland, Scotland and Wales all use distinct variations of English, although,
because until recently they were all ruled from Westminster, the UK variants
do have common core. English is not the first language of some 50% or more
of the residents of my home town in the UK. The 'English' that they use reflects
the usage in their home countries. All that I have just written is to make the point
that sometimes we may want to be more precise than to say just that something is
'English'.
The Mac OS that I use offers me the choice of 'British', 'Canadian' and two 'US'
keyboards. The particular version of MS Word that I use offers me 'English AUS',
'English UK' and 'English US' spelling. The Firefox browser that I use offers
'English (Australian)', 'English (British)', 'English (Canadian)' 'English (South
African)' and 'English (US)' dictionary plug-ins.
When referring to computer keyboards, spell checkers or dictionaries I use the
names used by the producers. I gave up worrying whether these were strictly correct
when I stopped worrying about the quaint spelling used by our transatlantic cousins
for 'disc' and 'programme'.