On 7/30/06, Mark Gallagher <m.g.gallagher(a)student.canberra.edu.au> wrote:
Displaying an Anglicised word because that's how
the word is best-known
amongst English speakers is bonza. That doesn't mean we need to operate
with a deliberate bias against those funny little foreign characters
used by funny little foreigners.
That's what I was trying to illustrate with the Dvořák/Dvorak example.
It's not a bias against using "those funny little foreign characters."
Like you said, it's how the word is best-known amongst English
speakers. I certainly understand and respect that American isn't
English; when we're writing hockey articles we go by the "first
author's wishes" rule, and maintain the articles with whatever mode of
spelling they decided to use, regardless of whether we use colour or
color.
I also went into this fully aware of what would happen. After two
previous attempts at moves like this, it's been a hailstorm of
criticism and "omg respect foreign characters!!!11!!!1". Really, I
should've known better than to get hip-deep in this shit again.
Like you said, policy is a stick to hit people with. There's been
absolutely no consensus as to this issue. None.
In your own words, we should Do the Right Thing.
Instead, I'm leaving it alone again. Much like the arguments we had
over whether Wayne Gretzky was "the best of all time" or "one of the
best of all time" et al, ad nauseum, I'm exhausted of debating points
with vocal minorities. I hate arguing over Stupid Shit, and this is
the stupidest.
Though I'm partial to the "Everyone does what Mark says" routine. It's
certainly better than "Everyone does what John says" as a decree,
because I'm a heavy handed bastard.
-John
--
John Lyden - rasputinaxp(a)gmail.com
"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to
live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same
time..." -Kerouac