I have heard that unaccented proper "English" is very similar to Midwestern American English. What is otherwise spoken in England is British English, except for those who speak Cockney. I've never even seen that referred to as a dialect of English <grin>. The popular Australian version is actually a variation of "Thieves Cant". Which was popular in the US about 1840. Strangely some words from thieves cant still remain in regular use in the US, though usually only as slang. And the American version of English, ala TV (ugh!) is the most widely spoken in the world.
As far as misspellings on the Internet. So what? As long as it does not confuse the meaning. It was in some ways better before spell checkers because you tended to simply misspell rather than accidentally use the wrong word. I personally can write well if I work hard at it. However, in that case I would not post much of anything on this list, because I hang out here for fun. Hard work would make that not fun. I assume that is the case of most of those who post obviously unedited messages here which is why I seldom comment on peoples English unless they accidentally said something really funny. But then, Eleanor, you were the one who objected to folks using the word suck, weren't you? Must make you feel powerful, seeing all the folks falling over backwards so not to offend your sensibilities. That sucks, girl! graywolf http://www.graywolfphoto.com "Idiot Proof" <==> "Expert Proof" ----------------------------------- E.R.N. Reed wrote:
*no such thing as "British" spelling. There's American English, and then English used by everybody else in the English speaking world. "British spelling" implies the non-American version is the minority version,
-- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.322 / Virus Database: 267.0.0 - Release Date: 5/27/2005

