[Wikipedia-l] A language question

[Brion L. VIBBER]

On lun, 2002-04-08 at 16:56, Karen AKA Kajikit wrote:
> I am Australian, and so I write my articles using Australian English,
> which is pretty much the same as British English... somebody just came
> along and re-edited one of my articles, changing most of the terms over
> to US English and removing the Australianisms.  I know that most
> Americans wouldn't have a clue what a 'milk bar' was, but does that mean
> that I should NOT use the term in any of my writing?

Well, unless it was in [[Clockwork Orange]], *I* certainly wouldn't have
the slightest idea what you're talking about.

IMHO, if a term's not generally understood internationally, either it
should be explained, or (if the choice of term itself isn't relevant)
more widely known terms should be used in its place. (That goes for
Americanisms that are unclear or ambiguous as well; for instance the
"billion" problem. I'd prefer to simply use "thousand million" or
"million million" and remove all doubt.)

> Australians use the
> internet too!
> 
> What is the policy on language? 

I'm quite sure there's a discussion on use of US vs British English
buried in an article that's either been moved or is about to be moved
into the Wikipedia: space. Or on meta. Either way, I can't find it just
now... The gist of what I recall finding once is that all grammatical
English is acceptable, but it seems to be a good idea to keep usage
consistent in each individual article.

-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)