English vs American: right spelling

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  1. #11

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    There is quite a bit of HK legislation which actually uses US English words, especially replacing the "s" with "z" in certain words.


  2. #12

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    What's wrong with "Hong Kong, China"? I mean, more correctly one might argue that it's "Hong Kong SAR, China" but that's a pretty marginal difference.


  3. #13

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    I have no problem with American. My only problem is when they call it English!


  4. #14

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    Like almost all countries HK uses the default language setting on the computer which in many cases is US English.


  5. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by pin:
    There is quite a bit of HK legislation which actually uses US English words, especially replacing the "s" with "z" in certain words.
    -ize is actually the preferred spelling in Oxford University Press, including in the OED.


    Quote Originally Posted by cybapunked:
    What about the Mainland, what spelling do they use English or US?
    Both exist, but given the U.S. influence, American spelling is more common.


    Spelling is simply orthography, and it is constantly changing. Why should it really matter, so long as people are understood? (Of course, I'm just a syntactician and could care less about orthographical variations. Variation in syntax and syntactic change, on the other hand, are terribly interesting. )

  6. #16

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    Hokuto, only Americans say, "why should it really matter"....

    It does matter, as it wasn't your native language, you adopted it to taunt the Brits with, by deliberately altering it, in spite. Not for the sake of making it better, but by dumbing it down..

    English owes its homage to West German, a EUROPEAN language, that originated in ENGLAND... Nothing is going to change that, the UK is a part of Europe, USA is not.

    In a nutshell....

    Last edited by Skyhook; 02-09-2009 at 11:17 PM.

  7. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hokuto:
    Spelling is simply orthography, and it is constantly changing. Why should it really matter, so long as people are understood? (Of course, I'm just a syntactician and could care less about orthographical variations. Variation in syntax and syntactic change, on the other hand, are terribly interesting. )
    [pedant]I suspect you meant "couldn't care less".[/pedant]

  8. #18

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    Well, all that was just fun!
    We forwarded this client's email to all our colleagues including our Marketing Director (who is English) and he answered
    "For me, he's right"

    Maybe we should change our brochures and wait for our US clients to complain ahhaha

    What about Australia? NZ? South Africa? Do they use s or z? Colors or Colours?

    Good thing is that all that nonsense disappears when we talk


  9. #19

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    I concur... 'check' is extremely annoying. It really doesn't take much brain power to learn to spell 'cheque' instead, and saves disastrous confusion with the actual word 'check'.

    Another word that I really really don't like is 'faucet'. Who, What, Why?

    The thing that gets me is why change the spelling of odd, random words like this. There are plenty of words out there in English that are not spelt phonetically which the Americans decided not to change. Why didn't they go for the whole lot, or just not bother at all?


  10. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by psjylife:
    What about Australia? NZ? South Africa? Do they use s or z? Colors or Colours?
    I *think* that it is only the yanks who are strange

    So add Canada to your list above. I know Canada use 'u's anyway, but think they are mostly 'normal' in the spelling department.
    Last edited by kryzlowski; 02-09-2009 at 11:35 PM.

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