English (International)

[sobrique]

I have just been to the Hewlett Packard Website looking for a driver for a Host Bus adaptor.

To my eternal irritation, there were two choices of 'language' for the download:

English (American)
English (International)

Now, whilst I appreciate that 'English (American)' may indeed be a separate and discrete language, I have to ask WHAT is wrong with 'English' and 'English (American)'. English (American) is the default, which ... well ok, they probably get more requests for that one than the others.

But really. It's NOT English (International). It's just 'English'. The one we invented. You can tell, because IT'S NAMED AFTER ENGLAND. Assuming of course, by 'International' you are, of course, referring to 'everywhere that isn't America'.

Grrr.

Comments

[cbr-paul.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of the Eddie Izzard remark to Americans:
"I'm from Europe. You know, where history comes from...?"

[malal.livejournal.com]

Except I believe there is an "international" English standard. It does things like use American billions instead of English ones, etc. :-/

[xarrion.livejournal.com]

At least it isn't just called 'American'

[dr-wez.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that English (International) was a Microsoft-ism, but it seems I'm (probably) wrong. Microsoft's language identifier table does list more than a dozen different regional varieties of English, so it's possible that English (International) means "includes strings for all those wacky foreigners who speak English sort-of" (like us, for example...) Is the English (International) package is noticably larger?

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

So British English, Australian English, Canadian English, Singapore English are all the same? Hm.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

But of course. Personally I think it's just because the 'Internationals' insist on spelling colour with a U.

[xarrion.livejournal.com]

Maybe English (Colonial) would be more appropriate? ;)

[ihilate.livejournal.com]

At least now there's an "international". I remember the days when the choices you had were "American (North)" and "American (South)".

Although in those days, only the North had computers.



Some or all of this may not be true.

[tenuous.livejournal.com]

International English is *not* the same as U.K.English. It's a semi-standardised version somewhere in the middle.

In practice it doesn't make much difference to the markup, but for a document to be truly written in International English it need to avoid localised slang and grammar that may not be immediately apparent to English speakers from another part of the world. Similarly it should use as simple and clean a set of punctuation as possible.

For example, International English always includes the 's' after an apostrophe indicating the possessive of a word ending in 's':

St. Thomas's Hospital

In U.K. English this is is/isn't required depending on who you speak to and where you are.

I work for a publishers, and documents designed for an International audience as the bane of our lives.