h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm just wondering, as this has happened to a couple of my articles, but why do the editors change all the spellings from American to British? Obviously, this is a British website and it's their prerogative. I, however, am an American writer and I spell things the way I want them spelled. Organised is organized because it's pronounced that way. Colour is color because the extra u just adds bulk. Manoeuverability is maneuverability because o, e, and u together just look weird. Anyway, I'd like to see recognized spellings (whether British or American) left the way they are. Is that possible?

Lochinvar

nope.

it's pretty standard editorial policy, across both websites and hardcopy media (magazines and newspapers) to pick one editorial standard (i.e., one grammar rulebook, one kind of spelling) and standardize that across the entire production. and given that this is a british site, with british editors, words are spelled british.

for american sub-editors, like myself, this has taken some getting used to. but, then again, as a medical writer/editor I do the same thing with medical articles from european countries that are using british spellings -- we change everything to American spelling.

when it comes down to, it's not really that big of a deal, is it? the words are still the words, and everyone knows what they mean. it's not as if people look at "organised" and don't realize that it means the same thing as "organized".

if it truly, *truly* bothers you, you can simply opt to keep your entries out of the edited guide -- there's no editing then, and you can keep your spellings as you wish.

Mikey

And of course there are other versions of English. Two that spring to mind are New Zealand and Australian, both with their own quirky way of spelling various words.

As one editor mentioned to me when I first started working on newspapers: "You mightn't agree with it but the fact remains the house style is the style".

Nuts.

The same in any language.

As a side-point, in a few years time, because of the influence of people for whom Spanish is their first language and urban youth (rap, slang etc), American will be like a foreign language to English speakers from other parts of the world.

I wonder how much that depends on American English continuing to be an influence in the rest of the world. Won't the evolution of English in the rest of the English speaking world keep pace with the change? I would have thought that the trend would be towards a more international blend of the language, including influences from non-English sources. Do you see much in the way of an Asian influence in English as it is spoken in Godzone and the other place?

New Zealand English has assimilated many indigenous Maori and Pacific Island nation words as, to a lesser extent, Australian English has with native Aboriginal words. Aus English contains more Americanisms than NZ English.

There hasn't been much Asian influence, mainly because not many Asians live here. That is gradually changing. NZ and Aus now actively encourage immigration from wealthy Asians, especially business people. Previously most immigrants were sourced from Britain/Europe and, in NZ's case, the Pacific Islands.

A growing trend, and a lucritive income source, is for overseas-based Asian families to enroll their children in NZ and Aus universities. The students end up with degrees that are recognised throughout the western world. As a bonus they also end up with an excellent grasp of the English language.

A year or so ago, in NZ schools, there was a push to accept American English usage in written examinations. One justification was the amount of American English pupils are exposed to on the Internet.

The resulting public outcry - based around a fear that dropping standards could be seen as accepting mediocrity plus the reasons I posted earlier - meant the idea was quietly dropped.

And a good thing too... probably... possibly.

I heard recently that the bulk of new Australians are of Asian origin, and I wondered if that trend was true in NZ as well. Canadian universities also have a lot of Asian students, many of them here under circumstances similar to those you describe.

The evolution of language is an interesting topic, when you come to look at it. At what point does an official standard come to represent mere snobbery? I heard recently that Ebonics had been accepted as an 'official language' in some US school districts. Some would say that Ebonics is nothing more than ghetto English, and Ebonic speaking children are best served by being taught to use mainstream US English. Others argue that Ebonics is a legitimate branch of the language representative of a distinct culture, and merits preservation on those grounds. At the other extreme, at what point do you say that the convergence of different branches of English represents a legitimate stage in language evolution and bow to pressure to accept the new hybrid as a legitimate breed?

I'm just a gardener. Oi don't 'ave ta talk proper, less oi wants to.

Good points John. Interestingly, the rise of Ebonics in the US was a factor in the NZ school system not accepting American usage in exams. The thin edge...

Australia, in common with countries like Canada, is indeed accepting more "mainstream" Asians. A lot of recent migrants to Aus have come from places like Vietnam and Hong Kong.

NZ is concentrating on trying to attract Asian business people who, hopefully, will bring investment money with them. Most of these people come from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.

In NZ, a small but vocal backlash about Asian immigrants has been lead by the Maori community. Unusually for a native people, Maori have certain rights enshrined in legislation. (The Waitangi Treaty signed in 1840 between most Maori chiefs and the British Crown). These rights include protecting and nuturing the Maori language. A bit like the protection the Welsh language is given in Britain.

A surprising statistic. There are more English (of whatever version) speakers in China than North America. It would be my guess the same could be said about English speakers in India and mainland Europe.

I suppose, in time, there will be three dominate world languages - English, Spanish and Mandarin - each including words taken from lesser used languages.

Interesting stuff! The statistics about English speakers in China, and so on, makes senses when you stop to think about it. It's easy to forget how vast and populous China and India are, compared to many other countries. I read recently that Szechuan is bigger and more populous than Germany. As John Cleese said, 'Makes you feel sort of small, really. Doesn't it?... Can we 'ave your liver?'

I think Philip K Dick had us speaking an amalgam which included Mandarin and English; Burgess made us speak a blend which included Russian; and Orwell turned us into the talking clock. Whatever the future brings, old codgers like you and I won't have to worry about. The younguns won't listen anyway.

"Sounds about right," dribbbles the man in the rocking chair

Actually, while many school districts have debated the Ebonics idea, I don't know of any that wanted to use it so that they could "preserve the culture" or whatnot.

The problem was (and is) that many urban African American children grow up speaking an American English dialect that is different in both gramamar and vocabulary from the "standard" American English that is used in primary grades reading and writing instruction. Many education researchers and linguistics experts suggested that this might be one of the reasons why urban African American children tend to be slower at reading to read/write than other children in their schools. The idea was never to use "Ebonics" as an actual language of the schools, but to recognize it's existence and make an obvious effort to help the children adapt to the differences while they are learning to read -- much like we do with 1st graders whose primary language is Spanish or Russian.

This was one of those issues that the media made out to be *way* more than it actually was.


Mikey

Or to put it another way...

Through exposure to American music, TV etc, "western urban youth of colour" throughout the world are growing up speaking an American English dialect that is different in both gramamar and vocabulary from "standard" English.

These young people are also wearing clothing and forming peer groups (often gangs) modelled on their North American counterparts.

And we're all, of course, being inexorably drawn into 'Internet English' as well - it's evolving more quickly than any language ever on the Earth because it can be read instantly anywhere on the planet, and has more driving forces in terms of the sheer number of roots and usages than any language ever. I think it'll be a while before people can distinguish it from other Englishes, though - it's quite hard to maintain an accent.

BTW, English is easily the most commonly and widely-spoken language in India. It is, in fact, the only language that is universal in that country. No prizes for guessing why...