Re: [Lingo] British English

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Nguyen Vu Hung writes:
 > On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 9:33 PM, CL <az.4tlug@example.com> wrote:

 > > I wasn't aware that religious discussions were allowed.

 > I really didn't mean so; "lingo" is about about what it is meant to be
 > and I was completely innocent when I forwarded that email.

You do understand that CL's comment was a joke, and not at your
expense, I hope.

Yes, it is controversial with very little basis in fact for
strongly-held opinions.  It is not going to be a problem on TLUG
lists, though, because people here are very tolerant (except of
Microsoft in some cases, but we're all members of that religion! :-)

 > Some Japanese told me that they'd want to go to English and learn
 > English there because they consider that English is real.

Sure, some people think that, but your English is just as much "real"
English as mine or Jim B.'s.  England is a commercial nation, and
English is a language for trade, not a matter of national pride.
(English-speakers are proud of what their authors and poets do with
the language, and not so much of the language itself.)

 > So, you think that the difference is small and ignorable.

Small, yes.  The difference between "American English" and "British
English" as spoken is much than that of the English spoken on CNN and
that spoken in rural towns near Jackson, Mississippi, and much smaller
than the difference between "NHK-ben" and "zuzu-ben" (the not-so-nice
term of Tokyo folk for the dialect of Japanese spoken in rural Tohoku
IIRC).  Then there are the scores of mutually unintelligible dialects
that share the GB 2312 character set with Mandarin. :-)

Ignorable, that depends on whether you're haggling over the price of
USB memory in Hong Kong or writing for certain priggish professional
journals.  I can't ignore it! :-)