Re: en_GB, gimp, and erasers

["David Lodge" <dave cirt net>]

On Thu, 16 Mar 2006 20:17:33 -0000, Thomas Wood <thos gnome org> wrote:
> Good question though. I wonder how many other dubious Americanisms there  
> are. I've always been struck by how many books by British authors use  
> -ize. What are we currently using in GNOME en_GB?

The primary reason is due to that the publishers are either international,  
or want to publish the book internationally - so they only have to prepare  
one set of proofs for the US and the UK.

The secondary reason is that the -ize ending is actually valid in the UK -  
either form is valid, but the -ise form is prefered.

The tertiary reason is that Oxford University Press says that you should  
use the -ize form. Though OUP is good for reference I always take them  
with a large pinch of Sodium Chloride as they advocate the Oxford comma  
and do speech quotes the wrong way around (e.g. 'What is this "Gnome"  
thing', he asked).

dave

ObInteresting: I've been messing around with VMware and some distros of  
Linux recently (trying to decide which distro to go done when I get rid of  
my Windows box) and noted that Mandriva scores high points with its  
language selection, the default option is "English" with "American  
English" listed as an alternative! Now, if only we can get the other  
distros to recognise this :-)