Write Access

More on Spelling

I am writing this email to agree with Paul Clenton when he raises the rather large issue of the creeping US Americanisation of the world, as exemplified in language. I am an Australian, who has lived and worked in the US. I have also visited the UK for work and play, so you could say that I have experienced this issue from both sides.

The comments made by the editor sound well and good but do not seem to recognize that there is a worldwide bias creeping into language and even general culture on a broader scale. This pattern is particularly the case in magazines: Many seem to be pandering to the US sensitivities, but the US Americans do not seem to recognize the validity of non-US sensitivities at all.

As Paul says, it doesn't feel quite right to read US spelling in an English magazine, and even in my multi-cultural country we primarily speak UK English, so it equally feels that way here. The seemingly enforced changing of the spelling to US English here makes me feel like a second-class citizen in my own country… and I would suggest that mine is not a unique reaction.

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