[Mageia-discuss] What is your motivation? (about American English in Mageia for British users)

[Anne Wilson]

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On 25/07/12 13:59, Max Quarterpleen wrote:
> I am so glad that Anne said that, because she is one of the few
> people qualified to say what I, and probably several others, were
> thinking. I grew up learning en_US, but due to one thing or another
> was exposed to mainly en_GB in high school. Since I have an open
> mind to these things, I taught myself en_GB spelling, grammar
> (which is slightly different when spoken) and idioms. Of course I
> am most comfortable in en_US, but that's not the point. The point
> is the mindset.

Long ago I read that US spelling is, in fact, much closer to 18C.
British English spelling, and that the spelling we now feel to be
correct is in fact something that has developed over the recent
centuries.  That interested me.

What really clinched things for me, though, was the concept that
writing is about communication.  The one thing that matters above all,
is whether the reader understands you.  Because of this, I sometimes
correct grammar, where I think a sentence as it stands leads to some
ambiguity.  Beyond that, as long as the meaning is clear and the
sentence not particularly clumsy, I leave well alone.

Wobo said that his English teacher told him that few people in Britain
speak "official" English.  How true that is.  I would be very
surprised to find anyone that didn't have some variations, often
showing centuries of ancestral culture.  It's not accident that in
Yorkshire there are few French influences and many Norse ones.  French
barons in the 11C settled much further south than this, whereas many
Scandinavians settled here.  We have beautiful words like "thoil"
which no-one else understands, but for us it expresses something that
has no equivalent in "official" English.  You can't thoil it if you
can afford to buy something, but you don't feel it would add
sufficient value to your life.  How about all that in one word?

T
> As they say in NY, put out or get out. The British translation for
> that would be: get down from your high horse and help out or just
> go away.

OR "Put up, or shut up" :-)

> So please, you are welcome to join the Mageia team and provide an
> en_GB translation for what is missing. You are welcome to sit in
> silent defiance and nurse your stubbornness. But this, this
> angst-driven tirade? This is not welcome at all. It only generates
> more angst.

After a bad start, just relax.  You will be welcomed if you do give
your effort.

Anne

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