Peter Ansell wrote:
On 13/06/06, Steve Bennett <stevagewp(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
On 6/12/06, Michael Snow
<wikipedia(a)earthlink.net> wrote:
Mark Gallagher wrote:
There's a big, wonderful, English-speaking
world out there that aren't
American, and we aren't British, either.
Apparently in that wonderful world of English for non-British
non-Americans, people has some interesting rules for subject-verb agreement.
Yep, there's definitely some interesting grammar rules in Australian english.
And as such, these rules should be accommodated for on the "English" wikipedia.
There's a tendency to prefer "standard" British and American English,
and variations on those such that they're relatively similar or a blend
(like Canadian English). I'm not sure this is codified anywhere, but
it's mostly a practical matter to maximize its usefulness---American and
British English are the most widely familiar and understood varieties of
English.
Australian English isn't particularly discriminated against in this
regard, any more so than African-American Vernacular English, standard
southern-US English, Singapore English, or various other less common
varieties. I certainly don't think less of any of those varieties
(being from the southern US myself), but as a practical matter I
wouldn't write an encyclopedia article for a worldwide English-speaking
audience in any of them.
That said the occasional oddity from smaller versions of English doesn't
bother me as long as everything's easily understandable (i.e. no
regional slang, and that including either UK or US slang).
-Mark