Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 14:24:41 -0800
Subject: American spellings


Post by David Butz:
>>Not in Canada, it isn't! Isn't the imposition of American spelling
>>conventions on non-Americans a form of cultural hegemony?

Paul Miller replied:
>Absolutely.  For example, in Australia, the newspapers that are owned by
>Americans must use Americanisations in their spelling.  Thus "Love thy
>neighbour no matter what the colour of their ideology" becomes "Love they
>neighbor no matter what the color of the skin."  It used to bother me but
>it doesn't any more.

>Paul Miller
=======================================================Not only spelling but also punctuation conventions.

In my Editing Workshop course, whenever there
are British, Australian, or Indian students, the class has
a bit of exchange on my insistence on American
punctuation practice. They find commas and
periods inside quotation marks "suprising."

The American students, however, cheerfully express
their hegemonic assumption: American language,
not British English, is emerging as the global language
-- American book-publications far exceeds the rest of
English language publications. Likewise American participation
on the internet.

 PoCo list comments on this topic welcome
--will present them in my next course beginning
in two weeks.

c. j. s. wallia

------------------------------
C. J. S. Wallia,  Ph.D.
Publisher, IndiaStar: A Literary-Art Magazine
http://www.indiastar.com
Phone and Fax: (510) 848-8200
P.O. Box 5582, Berkeley, CA 94705, U.S.A.
--------------------------------




     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---