[ExI] C does not stand for the speed of light... (Colbert)

[Emlyn]

On 03/05/07, Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com> wrote:
> At 09:32 AM 5/3/2007 +0930, Emlyn wrote:
>
> >It's a generation gap, not a culture gap. I watched sesame street,
> >pronounced "zed" as "zee" for years...
>
> Yep. When I was a lot closer to 20 or 30 than I am now, I wandered
> into an Aussie rumpus room where the TV set was minding a bunch o' smalls.
>
> "This is a care-f," said the woman's voice, possibly from Sesame
> Street, showing a carf ambling beside a cow. "Say `care-f'!"
>
> All the little Aussies dutifully cried: "`Caaaaaare-f'!"
>
> And yet--oddly enuff, Aussies maintain an idiosyncratic accent even
> so, unless they've been to very posh schools.
>
> Damien Broderick

Too true. It's normal to resentfully protect Australian spelling
anomalies (which are really British spelling in almost all cases I
think), such as colour and gaol.

Australian English is something I used to care about a lot, but I find
I'm starting to succumb to the charms of the dark side. It's the
internet doing it to me, damnit. Some introspection tells me I
identify with the net far more than with Australia now. And online,
there are two kinds of english: International English (needs another
name... English' ?), a kind of creole spoken by people from
non-english speaking backgrounds (eg: all of codeproject.com), and
American English for the sticklers (like myself). American English has
become the high ground! Yee gods!

Emlyn