en-GB-oxford LANGUAGE TAG REGISTRATION FORM

Mark Crispin mrc at CAC.Washington.EDU
Sat Jun 14 18:21:53 CEST 2003


On Sat, 14 Jun 2003, Michael Everson wrote:
> That's already approved. Is everyone happy with the -GB-?

I'm not.

Is there a difference between en-US-oed and en-CA-oed and en-AU-oed and
en-GB-oed?

It seems that the OED is *not* the definitive reference of British
English; if it was then there would be no reason for the separate entry.
Furthermore, OED English deviates substantially from modern British
English; in some respects American or Canadian English is closer.

If we take the position that the OED defines an ideal form of the English
language, separate from different national dialects, then I consider it
wrong to label it as GB.

Does the OED include spellings such as "color" the way American
dictionaries include "colour" (e.g. "chiefly British variant of color")?
If it does, this is another indicator that the OED should be considered to
belong to the entire English-speaking world and not just to the island
whose southern part happens to be where the English language originated.

Perhaps en-UN-oed or en-INT-oed or en--oed (I'm not sure if there's an
approved "international" country code).

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.


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