When writing stuff online, do you non-USAians out there adhere to the traditional spelling conventions, e.g. "colour" or "programme", or do you instead tend to write with US spellings like "color" and "program"?
I do. When I get used to typing common words one way, it feels odd to type them differently. I catch many of my own spelling mistakes prior to proofreading because pressing the wrong key feels wrong. That only works for words with which I'm familiar, of course.
Don't "programme" and "program" have slightly different meanings?
Programme is a noun and program is a verb? I don't know...
>>4
"program" is both a verb, and a noun, for instance; computer programming. Code monkies program in various languages and build computer programs . teh is another culprit I see, as well as many other keyboard typing errors that people just ignore and get over. Or get antsy about it.
Color? Colour. That pisses me off no end writing HTML etc and putting in colour="#ffffff" and then wondering why its failing w3c compliency.
> Color? Colour
AE ≠ BE
lol "traditional spelling conventions"... the fucking brits added the fucking u to color because they're fags.
God forbid you should use English English.
> teh
or "fuck", as 4chan would have it.
slightly incorrect, it was the americans who took it out because they're not fags. they also added pointier edges to the s in '-ised'.
>>10
according to my research, it was "colur" is the oldest english spelling of the word, "color" is second oldest, and "colour" is third... also, it might be worth mentioning that the word comes from the latin word "color"...
also, using the grapheme <s> for the phoneme /z/ is wrong on so many levels.
> using the grapheme <s> for the phoneme /z/ is wrong on so many levels.
Let's write everything in a romaji derivative for maximum phonetic consistency.
no no.
Use AOL speling.
it's lik teh bom, d000d.
lol u tk him 2da bar|?
I tend to write American English, just because that is what I learned first, and my pronouncement sounds a lot more like American English than British English.
Engrish rurez oll! bwahaha
Languages are sooo interesting.
> using the grapheme <s> for the phoneme /z/ is wrong on so many levels.
Also important to watch out for a slippery slope that we could fall down here. Do you suggest that we "revize" the English language?
I'm normally a pedantic fuck, but I have bigger things to worry about than American fuckupisation of my language.
Know what we should be talking about? Forget this US vs. rest-of-civilised world shit. What shits me more is this homie nigga street jive talk crap that assaults my ears, and I'm not even anywhere near the US.
Know what? This is rant material.
Hey, listen to me for a moment. I know it's got nothing to do with american vs. british english on the net, but just listen. Yesterday I went for a walk down the street to go to the supermarket. Yes, that supermarket, the Woolworths on the corner. The place was so crowded I was in a queue for hours.
Then I heard one of the checkout chicks say "That'll be one dollar fifty". Then the guy said "haha lol kthx brb" and went digging in his bag to scrounge up some change. I though to myself, geez, this is fucking amazing. People like you don't normally even leave the house. And then a bastard like you comes here for something worth a dollar fifty. Just a dollar fifty. ONE FREAKIN' FIFTY!! Then I heard another guy. Four of them actually. All here at the supermarket. So much for convenience. Then one of them said "zOMG lololol rofl, k one sec d00d". I couldn't believe it. Are you out of your fucking mind!? Shiiit, I'll pay your dollar-fifty if you shut your goddamned mouth and get away from me.
Dude, you don't go to the supermarket and start talking shit like that. It's where you pick a fight with someone in the next aisle because they got the last bottle of soy sauce. Kill or be killed, you know? That's what I expect.
Women and children should stay away, because thing's are gonna get fucked up now. After ages I finally get to the checkout. But then the guy at the register says to me "hey, brother, how's it hangin', nigga?" How the fuck can you say "how's it hangin'" with that "i just got out of prison" tattoo on our arm!?!? Damn! I was THIS close to saying to his face "GODDAMMIT, MAN, CAN'T YOU FUCKING SPEAK ENGLISH?!" All the way home I was THIS CLOSE to going back there and doing that.
Shit, I bet you wanted to say "brother" out loud. Oh, you're, like, so fucking cool. Sir, you need to be like me. See, I know how to communicate in English. What's cool right now is punctuation. That's it. You see, using commas and stops is what literate people do. Like ME. Using punctuation means what you say is a bit longer, but with a WHOLE LOT of coherency. Mm, punctuation and correct spelling. Now that's what I call communication.
Anyway, speaking like that can be a bit of a double-edged sword. 'Cause next time you're in the "hood" with all your "brothas", they might get suspicious and think you're not "keepin' it real, yo". So yeah, I can't recommend this for all you "niggas". For you guys, just try to use peoples' name every once in a while. Not everyone is related to you, you know what I'm saying?
Chill out and have something flabby man, lol!
Fuck the UK
>>23 is Welsh!
>>12
Phonetic writing would indeed be the best and simplest, and I love the KISS rule.
>>19
Welcome to 'slippery slope' logical fallacy :D
I'm a German studying in the UK. Generally I tend to use the spelling I've seen used most in the English stuff I've read so far, both on- and offline. In the most common cases like "colour" vs "color", I often have to make a conscious choice. I usually like the British spelling more for some reason. Maybe because American spellings have a tendency to look "lazy" to me, and I'm a bit of a spelling nazi.
Then there are some words where one spelling looks closer to the one used in my native German. "Aluminium", for example, is identical to the German spelling except that German always capitalises proper nouns. Probably that's the reason that I still can't accept "aluminum" as a proper spelling. Or pronunciation, for that matter. "A-loomin-um." shudders
But since this thread is about spelling on the web, and not my private pronunciation pet peeves, I'll save that for another time.
>>28
"I'm a German studying in the UK. ... I'm a bit of a spelling nazi."
How many types do they have over there? (ノ∀｀)
I took German in high school for one semester; I really liked the idea of always capitalizing nouns. As for spelling in general, I use the American standard. There is no reason to have the additional U's from British English. All they do is make English spelling and pronunciation harder for non-native speakers to learn.
I prefer the somewhat more ´elegant´ UK spelling.
I spell exactly the way Emma does. I love her spelling so much it's actually a bit problematic!
More seriously, I actually prefer British English because I consider myself a European citizen and think of it as "European English". However, since I'm constantly absorbing American English from the intarweb and don't know enough to really make a conscious choice outside words like 'colour', it doesn't really make any difference.