Language "British"?

[Kazunari Hirano]

Hi,
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2006-August/msg03475.html
This is an interesting and long thread :)
What do you think about "British" language?
Thanks,
khirano

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[Ian Lynch]

On Tue, 2006-08-29 at 10:39 +0900, Kazunari Hirano wrote:
> Hi,
> https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2006-August/msg03475.html
> This is an interesting and long thread :)
> What do you think about "British" language?

I think it usually means British English rather than US English. In
Britain we spell things differently eg

USA Center, theater, color
British Centre, theatre, colour etc

There are different meanings too.  Take the following words

rubber - in British English its an eraser, in US a contraceptive
torch - in British English a flashlight in US a burning hot thing

So if I said pass me the torch to look for the gas leak an American is
likely to panic. If I say "that child needs a rubber" in an American
school it would raise a few eyebrows.

Then there is pronunciation - Most English people pronounce route -
root, most americans pronounce it rowt.

One of the reasons that an EN-NL project was proposed was to look after
and maintain the British English localisations of OOo. Australian
English and I think New Zealand is nearer to British English than US
English. These issues are particularly important to schools because
schools in English teach British spelling not American. It goes beyond
dictionaries. Ideally all the messages and help files should be fully
localised to British English. Its ironic that although US English is the
main medium for OOo, British English is the one language that is blocked
from having its own official NL project by the other NL projects and the
project leads. Imagine if they did that to say Japanese. If I had more
time I'd be tempted to just set one up unilaterally but I am committed
to too many other projects at the moment. Maybe some time in the future.
It would certainly help the marketing effort for OOo in British English
speaking countries because some people feel strongly about their
language and cultural heritage so if nothing else it has a good chance
of getting more committed active support into the project.

Ian
--
www.theINGOTS.org
www.schoolforge.org.uk
www.opendocumentfellowship.org

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[Daniel Carrera-2]

On Tue, 2006-29-08 at 09:46 +0100, Ian Lynch wrote:
> Then there is pronunciation - Most English people pronounce route -
> root, most americans pronounce it rowt.

/daniel finally understands why everyone here says "router" wrong ;-)

> It would certainly help the marketing effort for OOo in British English
> speaking countries because some people feel strongly about their
> language and cultural heritage so if nothing else it has a good chance
> of getting more committed active support into the project.

Although Canada is not part of my "heritage" I do feel strongly about
being Canadian. It's a combination of things. I felt welcomed in Canada
(someone once said to me "Daniel, of all the countries in the world you
could have gone to, you chose Canada; I'm honoured"). So I built strong
feelings about Canada.

Cheers,
Daniel.
--
"I AM in shape. Round IS a shape."

[Ian Lynch]

On Tue, 2006-08-29 at 09:53 +0100, Daniel Carrera wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-29-08 at 09:46 +0100, Ian Lynch wrote:
> > Then there is pronunciation - Most English people pronounce route -
> > root, most americans pronounce it rowt.
>
> /daniel finally understands why everyone here says "router" wrong ;-)

Yeah, its a rooter :-)

> > It would certainly help the marketing effort for OOo in British English
> > speaking countries because some people feel strongly about their
> > language and cultural heritage so if nothing else it has a good chance
> > of getting more committed active support into the project.
>
> Although Canada is not part of my "heritage" I do feel strongly about
> being Canadian. It's a combination of things. I felt welcomed in Canada
> (someone once said to me "Daniel, of all the countries in the world you
> could have gone to, you chose Canada; I'm honoured"). So I built strong
> feelings about Canada.

Its a common mistake to try and motivate people through brute logic.
Appealing to emotions is usually more successful - or highly
counter-productive if you stir up anti-emotions.

I just need to say one word in evidence. Microsoft ;-)

Ian
--
www.theINGOTS.org
www.schoolforge.org.uk
www.opendocumentfellowship.org

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[Kazunari Hirano]

Hi Ian and Daniel,

Thanks.  I will listen to BBC announcers and learn how to pronounce
"router" and "rooter" correct.

Regards,
khirano

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