Peter Ansell wrote:
On 13/06/06, Steve Bennett stevagewp@gmail.com wrote:
On 6/12/06, Michael Snow wikipedia@earthlink.net wrote:
Mark Gallagher wrote:
There's a big, wonderful, English-speaking world out there that aren't American, and we aren't British, either.
Apparently in that wonderful world of English for non-British non-Americans, people has some interesting rules for subject-verb agreement.
Yep, there's definitely some interesting grammar rules in Australian english.
And as such, these rules should be accommodated for on the "English" wikipedia.
There's a tendency to prefer "standard" British and American English, and variations on those such that they're relatively similar or a blend (like Canadian English). I'm not sure this is codified anywhere, but it's mostly a practical matter to maximize its usefulness---American and British English are the most widely familiar and understood varieties of English.
Australian English isn't particularly discriminated against in this regard, any more so than African-American Vernacular English, standard southern-US English, Singapore English, or various other less common varieties. I certainly don't think less of any of those varieties (being from the southern US myself), but as a practical matter I wouldn't write an encyclopedia article for a worldwide English-speaking audience in any of them.
That said the occasional oddity from smaller versions of English doesn't bother me as long as everything's easily understandable (i.e. no regional slang, and that including either UK or US slang).
-Mark