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From: afscian@violet.waterloo.edu (Anthony Scian)
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: Canada: one or two cultures?
Message-ID: <15418@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Date: 26 Jul 89 14:48:58 GMT
References: <627@philmtl.philips.ca>
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: afscian@violet.waterloo.edu (Anthony Scian)
Distribution: can
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 24

In article <627@philmtl.philips.ca> tremblay@philmtl.philips.ca (Michel J. Tremblay) writes:
>For the 'anglo-languages' it's a different story: American spelling, British 
>spelling, and such. 
The American spelling seems to be an attempt to make English spelling
easier. favourite->favorite, center&centre->center, metre->meter
Unfortunately, Canadian newspapers/magazines seem to be adopting
the American spellings. Canadianized English uses some British
(humour,colour) spellings and some American spellings (tire<>tyre).
We are moving towards the American language (as the US would like
to claim) but as Michel pointed out, English is fragmenting into
different global dialects whereas French is moving to one standard.
(Maybe two, is the French-Canadian dialect being standardized?)

>Standardization bodies are a necessity in our modern world. You could not
>read these lines without the existence of CCITT, ISO and other 
>Telecommunication Committies.
We need standards. Look at the mess of the Imperial weights and measures system
(U.S. gallon,British gallon). We have the French to thank for early
standardization of the SI (metric) system. (If I'm not mistaken
there was an attempt to improve the calendar in France, also)

Anthony
//// Anthony Scian afscian@violet.uwaterloo.ca afscian@violet.waterloo.edu ////
"I can't believe the news today, I can't close my eyes and make it go away" -U2