It seems to me that if one makes one’s comments clearly and concisely, then there should be no need to interpret the intent.
Just sayin’.
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It’s an imperialist colonial term. From teh wikis that you link “the term “British English” is sometimes used broadly as a synonym for the various dialects of English spoken in some member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, excluding those which have separate and long-standardised dialects of their own such as Australia and Canada.”
Don’t be that sometimes person please.
I thought that NZ and Oz had similar usage for apostrophes and s, is that not the case?
Edit:
And no: I don’t live in the fucking British fucking Isles. Fuck that shit. “it’s just geography, not politics”.
Fuck.
Okay, what term would you use to differentiate the usage of the language? To explain why “orientate” is totally acceptable when one writes a book in London, but grammatically incorrect if you write that book in Los Angeles?
I mean, the comparisons go on and on. Linguists use the term.
Furthermore, I wasn’t specifically saying “oh it must be British usage”, I was saying “Is that what the difference is, because Bridget Jones’s Diary was written by an Englishwoman and set in London”. If it were set in Australia, I’d have asked if it were Australian English usage.
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I wonder if I could talk my wife in renewing our vows…
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One of my favorite moments from Frasier:
Martin: Oh, hey Niles.
Niles: Hello, Dad. Uhh, looks like we had a little mix-up last night with our bags at the video store.
Martin: Believe me, I noticed.
Niles: [gives him the tape]Yes, there you go. At first I was dismayed; I popped in the tape and there was Charles Bronson blowing away street trash. I actually got into it… it was quite suspenseful.
Martin: Yeah, well, that’s the way Duke and I felt about “My Dinner With Andre.” Talk about suspense! “Will they order dessert? Will they leave a good tip?”
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And English doesn’t work fine for you here? I mean, Bridget Jones is quintessentially English I would have thought and the elements of usage we are referring to regarding apostrophes are essentially “non-American” English.
One may argue that, say, Newcastle English, is at least as far removed from Bridget Jones’s language as Scottish English, or Canadian or NZ or Oz English. Much further than upper class Oz English in truth (plus places like Newcastle exhibit the bones of English in their Frieslandish vocabulary quite charmingly, and somewhat incomprehensibly for most…)
Anyway that distinction, between US and other variants, is flattening. Our spellchecks default to US English at every opportunity so American spelling is largely accepted everywhere now and, whereas TV may have been dubbed into local variants (my elder daughter loved the wonderpets and on the internet the voices were American rather than English which was not what she wanted) the entertainment young children access now is not. My elder daughter had an English accent at one stage, she and her younger sister both have quite American ones at times now…
Look, I apologise for my crankiness (and my computer didn’t like my usage of an s rather than a z there…) but British English, rather than British imperialism, is a dubious concept.
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“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”
…
The Rev was, I submit, rather wise on that topic.
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But US English is ok? Do you realize there’s multiple versions of “US English” as well?
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It seems like you’re arguing semantics a bit needlessly.
English as it is spoken in the US is different from English as it is spoken in the UK or Australia/New Zealand, on many levels; grammar, spelling, colloquialisms, and vernacular.
One can call it whatever one wants, but the differences are still there, regardless.
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I do, but despite the anti-Federal vibes, the US is one nation (I think).
Now if some Americans wish to secede from the linguistic hegemony I’ve got their back…
I think of the term “US English” as being analogous to “RP” which is normative, hegemonic, and very much class and ethnically narrow. RP is no longer usable (I think) in the UK. The US has a stronger current tradition of prescriptive grammar than most of the rest of the English speaking world. Which I have always found interesting: my American friends found some of the standards over here to be borderline illiterate (and I’m guilty of that!). The whole spelling Bee culture is… well it’s just weird to everyone else I think.
But you really did have the gold standard in journalistic writing
And none of the [quote=“Melizmatic, post:170, topic:83245”]
UK or Australia/New Zealand
[/quote]
are synonymous with “British”.
Edit: and we are discussing semantics here. Right from the get go. You are right of course that we don’t need to at all but, as the Rev, Dodgson pointed out above, words and how we allow their meanings enforce power relations. So it is, I think, kind of important…
Importance, like many things, is in the eye of the beholder.
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You can go into your preferences section and change your Languages and Region settings and then your date, measurement, money, and spelling will match UK rather than US norms.
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Easy-peasy, lemon squeeze-zy.
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Ocean’s 11 is a remake? 
In every device you ever encounter? My point was that they default to US English (which, I don’t really have a problem with, I kind of enjoy the way that z or s are interchangeable in documents I encounter now. I genuinely don’t care. Usage has changed.) and when updates happen, new hardware is plugged in, new software is being used, a web service is parsing your typing etc. etc. it defaults to US English.
Again, this doesn’t really bother me. Any sustained typing you are doing is going to be on a machine that you control and I don’t mind US spelling. The “Letter” page size however. Now that hacks me off…
Edit:
And they have much more granular settings than just UK in most OSs, it can be Jamaican, Canadian, New Zealand etc.
Great, so we agree. Both “British English” and “American English” are umbrella terms that don’t encompass every variation but do make a useful distinction between how the language is used in a general geographic area.
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Can we have a separate Engrish thread?
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“British English”=“English”
“US English”=“American”
“Northumberland English”=“What the hell language is that?”
If you don’t think there is a difference, try being the (American) copyeditor for a journal published in the UK, with a UK-centric style guide.
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