The reality is that English standards are set by publishers and broadcasters. What people refer to as "the King's English" is in reality, the BBC's English. It is also recognized that British English and American English are distinct language groups with many regional dialects present in both. Canadian English and Austrailian English are mixtures of the two. Of course Canadian and Austrailian are heavily influenced by local dialects and indiginous languages.
Indian English as well as "Chinglish" (Hong Kong) are distinct as well. This goes for any of the Commonwealth nations both former and current. There was a great book and TV series from 1986 that was broadcast on both PBS and BBC called "The Story of English" that showed how the language developed and what it is today. I suggest you look for it if you want to learn more. So, in the meantime, I am content to see how many kilometers I need to drive my truck to get gas while my British friends can drive the same distance in kilometres to fill their lorry with petrol. One question though, if American women have junk in the trunk, do British women have rubbish in the boot? :) Phil On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 10:00 AM, Martin Vlietstra <[email protected] > wrote: > Stan, France and Germany have boards who dictate how words should be > spelt. There are no such boards for the English language. The Oxford > dictionary, long accepted as being the authority on UK English spelling, > catalogues the trend rather than setting it. > > > ------------------------------ > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] *On > Behalf Of *Stanislav Jakuba > *Sent:* 29 January 2011 14:38 > *To:* U.S. Metric Association > *Subject:* [USMA:49667] A mole hill into Himalaya > > > > I cannot but show my discomfiture at the enduring importance given to this > –er –re non-issue. Americans must be the laughing stock of anyone who speaks > other languages. None have this “problem.” European languages, except > English, are (more or less) phonetic, and many other languages do not bather > writing vowels in the first place, let along the silent ones like the > irritating “e.” This debate is an American specialty as other English > speaking countries including such as India use –re or do not care. Slavic > languages, for example, have 6 or 7 ways to spell the name. This smear on > American reputation as a get-things-done-country could be ignored if it was > not one of the reasons for the failure of the Metric Board to get the > changeover going back in the 1970s. That mole hill issue on the Himalayan > scale of metricating a country should have been treated as follows: > > > > “Mr. Chairman, I would like us to decide the issue of spelling …” > > A reply: > > “Mr. Irritant, you or anyone else can spell it anyway you want. Let’s move > to the next item on the agenda - a review of the report on structural steel > sizes and deadlines the steal industry propose.” > > (A subcommittee reports.) > > Etc. > > > > It is a reflection on the poor quality of the Board members that they would > let themselves be occupied by such a triviality. It is also a reflection on > this Forum, that there are people on it still insisting on spelling one way > or another knowing well what harm treating that issue as Y/N caused. As if > there were no other words in the American English that can be spelled more > than one way. > > Stan Jakuba >
