en-GB-oxford LANGUAGE TAG REGISTRATION FORM

Mark Crispin mrc at CAC.Washington.EDU
Sun Jun 15 09:31:02 CEST 2003


On Sun, 15 Jun 2003, Michael Everson wrote:
> >Needless to say, those preferences are not universal; but fortunately we
> >have no need to discuss that matter.
> ISO prefers Oxford spelling. :-)

ISO does some smart things, but they also do some pretty stupid things.
Typically the smart things were based on sound technical judgement and the
stupid things were based on politics.

Fortunately, we have the luxury of using what ISO has done well and
disregarding what ISO has done poorly.

I don't know why I thought of this, but I note that the "Harry Potter"
series of books have separate British and American editions with not only
different orthography, but also different titles, different word usages,
and different covers.  This, along with a clever advertising campaign
emphasizing these differences ensures that all the youthful "Harry Potter"
fanatics on both sides of the Atlantic buy *both* versions and compare
them.  I'm sure that Ms Rowling is thinking "ka-CHING!" (or the British
variant thereof).

I (and probably most parents) shudder to think of the possibility of an
third, OED-compliant, "Harry Potter".

-- 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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