The Inglish Langwij is 1 L of a language for travelers so I say 2 L with travellers but please communicate in some version of English, just give me a clue as to which version. Recently I sent an email to a Dude Ranch operator in one of the northern states using the word 'traveller' which is the way I was taught to spell it many decades ago. I received a terse reply and admonishment to my email saying that if I could not spell traveller as traveler I obviously could not be trusted with her business listing at TopTravelSites.
I replied that the '2 L' spelling was used more than the '1 L' as this was the original 'English' but this has since made me think about the predicament of those of us who think that we speak the same language called English! I was created in England and considered myself a reasonably adept 'speller' although not in the 'wonderspeller' category, but still pretty good for a limey, pommie, brit or whatever we are being called lately.
Having travelled or traveled extensively over the past decades to Australia (I am still trying to learn 'strine'), New Zealand (Maori phonetics), USA (a separate dictionary for 'English' but still not called 'American'), Canada (both Webster's and the Oxford add to the confusion) and now being rebuked over the internet by a cowboy (I think it was a cowgirl or cowperson), I can only try and put pen to paper and hope to be understood by anybody that is interested in the Inglish Langwij and help a few travelers and travellers on their journeys.
'Our' language is a mongrel of the first water and maybe this attempt at humour or humor will generate some debate or discussion so that we can all have a bit of a giggle but we should also appreciate the power and strength of mongrels such as low vet bills and good survival rates! Evolution is great for language, speling, grammer and sin-tacs are important but they have all changed over the centuries and are hopefully still changing to make us all better communicators, which reduces the risk of misunderstandings such as the Aussie who was arrested for saying 'Fair Dinkum' on an internal USA flight, sheer stupidity on the part of the flight crew or merely a lack of 'worldliness.' I hope the latter or as an Aussie would say "bloody right mate!" or "my oath."
Friday, January 30, 2009
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