Uncanny valley of languages

[Jonas Wielicki]

On 01.03.2015 18:34, Mark Lawrence wrote:
> On 01/03/2015 17:01, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
>> Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy at yahoo.co.uk>:
>>
>>> Are you suggesting that we Brits have a single "home accent"?  If you
>>> are, you need to stand up as your voice is rather muffled.  That by the
>>> way is a British expression that may or may not be used around the
>>> Commonwealth.  Should we unlearn it to fit in with American English? Two
>>> chances, zero or none.
>>
>> What you (or I) speak in our native surroundings is up to you (and me).
>>
>> However, when I exhange software engineering ideas with you, I wish both
>> of us could stick to American English.
>>
>>
>> Marko
>>
> 
> Well I'm not going to, so tough, or is that togh?  Colour, harbour,
> tyre, antogonise are the way I spell words, and I'm not changing the
> habits of a lifetime simply because I'm on a technical site.
> 

I wonder whether this discussion has anything to do with the Uncanny
Valley [1]. Anyone who is not native to some dialect of English just has
to learn that language it if they want to be taken serious in the SE
world. That’s kind of a law. On the other hand, there are some British
refuse to learn a few minor adaptions to their native tongue, while
others have to trade their native tongue completely.

This leads me to believe that due to the fact that there are so many
similarities between en_US and en_GB (they are even closer than C and
C++, which are already taken as being the same language with dialects by
some), it feels as if en_US was dictating them how to live their own
language, while in fact, they are distinct and noone tries to dictate
anything about en_GB.

That said, I also prefer the British spelling. But that is just, like,
my opinion, man.

regards,
jwi


   [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley

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