On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:46:13 +0200 Helge Hafting <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> TheOldFellow wrote: > > On Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:55:24 +0200 > > Joost Verburg > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >> TheOldFellow wrote: > >>> How do I set the spellchecker to English-English (i.e. as written in > >>> England) instead of American-English? > >> You should set the document language to British. > >> > >> Joost > >> > >> > > > > Thanks. > > > > However, that is really appalling. My language is called English. I > > will just about stand up for English(UK), but British, never. What > > about Gallic, Cornish and Welsh - three completely different British > > languages? > > > > I have decided to call Dutch, Netherlandian from now on. > > > > How do I make a formal objection to the project authorities, who I > > assume are from South-but-not-as-far-as-Mexico-North-America? You > > know, the people who speak Usaian. You can't go around calling > > people's languages whatever you like you know. They get very angry. > > > I believe LyX simply follows latex conventions here. Complaining to > whoever is in charge of latex might work, but it'd take a long time > before anything happens after that. > > Alternatively, work as a translator, and translate the LyX software > into English. This involves editing a file that contains all the > text found in LyX. (Menu items, drop-down lists, button texts, and so > on.) Wherever Lyx deviate, add the proper English word/phrase/sentence > instead. This should be easier than translating LyX to other languages, > as most of LyX is in useable English already. Still, you can specify > "English" instead of "British", for example. > > > The best solution is to call the menu item 'Spelling' rather than > > 'Language' - then British is an appropriate choice. > > That's an idea, but be aware that the 'language' setting controls more > than just spelling. It also controls: > * The wording of automatic texts, such as "chapter" and "table of > contents". 'Spelling' may still be correct for this though. > * Hy-phen-ation, which also varies a lot from language to language > * Language specific typographic conventions. There are several of > these. Different conventions for quoting is one example. > > Helge Hafting Interesting post. Thanks. For information: I raised a bug (No. 5361) on LyX, and the maintainer has agreed to use English(UK) etc. in version 1.6.0 on. I am very grateful for that fast and positive response. What I find interesting here is that English(UK) does indeed have different rules to English(USA) for hyphenation, etc., as well as for spelling. Note, for example, the way I write "No." instead of "#". However due to the unhealthy influx of Americanisms into English(UK) these linguistic idiosyncrasies are dieing out. One of the very good things about LyX/Latex/TeX is the way that one can concentrate of the real job in hand - communicating your thoughts through words. If LyX is going to do a good job typesetting, the other things like grammar and spelling checkers need to be good too. Despite this being the first post that I've made here, I have in fact been using LyX for over three years with great success. It's a marvellous tool. I just got fed up with the US spelling and decided to ask for help. I'm glad I did. R.
