On Tue, 05 Oct 2004 15:48:33 -0700, David Friedland david@nohat.net wrote:
I want to note that all my examples are from the American perspective because I am American. Also, it is my understanding (although I don't have any firm proof of this) that American culture has a stronger overall impact on the British than the reverse, due partly to global American cultural hegemony and partly to rampant cultural isolationism in the US. In other words, my guess is that it is more likely British readers will be familiar with American usage than the other way around.
We should not forget, however, that English, and a British derived one, is an official language of 1 milliard (er, billion) people in India. And that the Beeb (that's BBC to non Brits) is a more influential news source globally than any American broadcast concern. However, I do agree that given contemporary media exposure, American English tends to have more overall impact given the number of pirated films and music around the world.
As Jimbo said, we should not overengineer the system to weed out all color|colour and flavor|flavour in our English articles. But I do agree with you though - in situations where precision is paramount (ie. scientific articles, statistics, legal issues, politics, etc.) this stylistic confusion should not be left open ended. If WP can come up with a mechanism and policy to conditionally display milliard|billion, slate|schedule definitively.
PS - I can speak as someone close to this subject, as I recently moved from an American style to a British style university system.