Mark Williamson wrote:
I'm not so sure it's needed.
Unlike Serbian or Chinese, rather than using different writing systems we just have slightly different spellings.
And the occassional different words. And somewhat more rarely (and more subtly) occassionally minor differences of grammar.
But the key test that we use, and should use, is whether or not it is mutually intelligible. The valid point that Jack and Naree would be making if they weren't so obviously trolling us, is that we can and should be sensitive to these language differences and try to make sure that our articles are mutually intelligible to everyone.
I have proposed in the past that we could have a form of redirect which I would call a 'hard link'. This is an analogy to Unix-style "symlinks" versus "hard links". There are some reasons this would be good, and some reasons why this would be bad, and in any event, the idea has never gained much support.
Right now, 'aubergine' (British English) redirects to 'eggplant' (American English), while 'rapelling' (American) redirects to 'abseiling' (British).
courgette -> zucchini but checkers -> draughts
There is no particular rhyme or reason to which direction we go, although it does seem that the Americans have achieved a sort of dominate in the vegetables, while losing out in the sports/games area.
--Jimbo