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[ecchi]

Originally Posted by CD Smith

Canadians, Brits, Americans, Aussies, S Africans, all understand each other (for the most part) because of one reason and one reason only... because they all speak English.

This is not entirely true. British, Australian, and South African movies are sometimes dubbed or subtitled when released in the USA because the Americans cannot understand them in their "native" language.

[CD Smith]

Originally Posted by ecchi

I don't have a problem with this. But remember, one language means one spelling, so if it is not a different language then it is the same language written by morons!!!!!

You wanna tell your southern neighbours that, or shall I?

Knock yourself out. But you're wrong, one language does not mean one spelling.

Color -- US variant.
Colour -- UK/Canadian spelling.

Same language, same word with same meaning, two different spellings.

Originally Posted by ecchi

This is not entirely true. British, Australian, and South African movies are sometimes dubbed or subtitled when released in the USA because the Americans cannot understand them in their "native" language.

That is due to accents being difficult to understand for some, not language.

Around the time I graduated high school I met a girl whose family was Scottish. They all spoke English, all were speaking the same language as me barring a few Scottish colloquialisms, but her mothers' accent was so thick that at first I couldn't understand her fully. I'd get maybe one out of every three or four words and that was it.

It took me a good half a year of being around them in order to get used to her accent.

Same language, just pronounced differently. Just like the technical help person on the phone speaking to you from India, or SE Asia, etc. They're speaking English but with a heavy enough accent it can seem as if it's another language. But it isn't.

[ecchi]

I think you misunderstand my point. I am not saying defiantly that American is a different language to English. I am saying that I have no idea what is the correct definition of "language" (although Dictionary.com defines it to include "the system of linguistic signs or symbols.......any set or system of such symbols as used in a more or less uniform fashion by a number of people........any system of formalized symbols, signs....." which effectively means that if you use letters as the symbols, they have to all be the same spelling).

However all languages have "rules", and if you don't stick to those "rules" you are, by definition, at best ignorant, and at worst illiterate. So if we say that the language used in the US is English, then you are saying that the correct spelling in the US is the English spelling, and spellings like "color" and "ass" are incorrect spellings. Since all Americans use these spellings, this means that, if Americans speak "English", then all Americans are idiots. That is why I prefer to believe the option that Americans speak "American" rather than "English"!

As an amusing(ish) post script: Dictionary.com is an American site. When I spell checked this post, my spell checker (which is set to "English") objected to their "incorrect" spelling of "formalised".

[CD Smith]

Originally Posted by ecchi

I am saying that I have no idea what is the correct definition of "language"

Yes, that much is painfully obvious.


I believe you're simply overthinking it. You'll drive yourself mental trying to make sense of it all. Write in the style you know best and let everyone (including the Americans) figure it out on their own.

We don't say "skint" over here in Canada much, but on first reading it I quickly figured out it meant 'broke'. You don't see me declaring a new language do you?

Write what you know.