LL-L "Orthography" 2003.02.14 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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From: Críostóir Ó Ciardha <paada_please at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2003.02.17 (12) [E]


Ian wrote:

"I noted _aging_ when I was in Australia actually
(where of course you also have the _Labor_ Party,
though broadly _colour_ and so on seem to be preferred
otherwise). It *looks* wrong to me, but again it's a
case of two valid options - individuals will have
their own preferences of course. But this is to get away from my original
point -
*either* can be used as equally valid options."

The truncated orthography of the Australian Labor Party is a famously
irreverent exception to Australian English conventions, and shouldn't be
seen as indicative of a wide range of options for the language. Australians,
like Canadians, are very fond of the /ou/ in words such as colour. Indeed,
when I first went to Australia, I undertook to help my wife - a
schoolteacher - with essay-marking. As I had seen "Australian Labor Party"
plastered everywhere, I naively presumed the convention was to drop the /u/
in "colour" et al and proceeded to "correct" the spelling of about thirty
essays so. My wife, when she discovered what I had done, laughed her head
off and then groaned.

So really it isn't a case of two valid options. I think you tend to
over-estimate the options available to any English-speaker in how they spell
their language, regardless of whether they conform to a US- or Non
US-standard. The way I see it if there is a choice, that choice is rapidly
dying out.

(Of course, the other possibility aside from radical-progressive
orthographies is that of regionally differential ones. It's probable that
users choose one option or the other based what is standard in their local
region - in England this would be the famed north-south divide, for
example.)

Go raibh maith agat

Criostóir.


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