[Wikipedia-l] A language question

[Jimmy Wales]

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

These are my thoughts, but don't take this as policy, of course.

There are minor issues of spelling: colour versus color, for example.
These I recommend we ignore, since either is readable enough.  If you
feel like changing them one way or the other, you probably need to
relax a little bit.  :-)

If a term is not easy for any large population (British, Australian,
American, Canadian, etc.) to understand, then it should either be
avoided or explained.  It will often be the case that non-Americans
will not know whether their local slang is known to Americans.  And
vice-versa, except that American slang is in American movies, which
are popular in non-American countries.

--Jimbo