[Wikipedia-l] Re: Re: Wikipedia English English

[Mark Williamson]

>  I'm sorry but there are not a "few" usage differences, there really are
> quite a lot. And this is more than just dialect we are talking about: I'm
> not arguing for "equal rights" for each dialect; but for "equal rights" for
> the two orthographies, in the same way as Scots, and the two forms of
> Norwegian.
>  this is just an example:
> http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~jphb/american.html
> http://www.krysstal.com/ukandusa.html

You really are barking mad, aren't you?

The vast majority of those aren't even real differences.

Some examples:

"note" vs "bill" -- "bill" would probably not be understood in the UK,
but referring to them as notes would be understood in the US.
"maths" vs "math" -- any good encyclopaedia should always say
"mathematics" rather than abbreviating it so lazily.
"autumn" vs "fall" -- we use them both as synonyms on this side of the
pond. You guys don't?
"bank holiday" vs "legal holiday" -- I've lived in the US my entire
life, and I've never even heard of the latter
"tick" vs "check" -- not the same thing. a check is a distinct symbol,
as is a tick, and they are two different symbols.
"pissed off" vs "pissed" -- WTF!? first of all, this won't be found in
most encyclopaedia articles. second of all, we say both here.
"trousers" vs "pants" -- although we consider "trousers" to be a bit
old-fashioned, it will be widely understood here. I did used to think
it meant shoes though.
"pedestrian crossing" vs "crosswalk" -- we use both here.
"store" vs "shop" -- this is probably the lamest one on there.
"chemist" vs "drug store" -- "chemist" isn't common here, but it's
better than "apothecary", which is probably less ambiguous than either
of the other two.
"bill" vs "check" -- uhh... we use both.
".co.uk" vs ".com" -- that's not a linguistic difference. There are
plenty of UK companies that have a .com, as it's supposed to be
international (as opposed to .us)
"car" vs "automobile" -- we usually just say "car" here. only people
like you say "automobile".
"jug" vs "pitcher" -- absolut rediculos~!

I could go on. But I'm getting bored. You're mad. End of story.

Mark