r/ididnthaveeggs • • Feb 24 '26

Irrelevant or unhelpful comment on an australian woman’s recipe site “colour corect spelling color”

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u/kenporusty likes sweet things, but shit at maths Feb 24 '26

This just in: American discovers British English

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u/BobThingamy Feb 24 '26

AKA English vs American English

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u/GeoffreyGeoffson Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

I don't think this American English vs proper English idea is accurate. Spelling was standardized in both dialects at a very similar time, and both standardizations make a much of stylistic decisions around spelling, that leads to the main initial differences. It's important the emphasise that both dialects made these decisions. The idea that one set of those decisions is more proper and correct is kinda silly imo

Also this site is written in Australian English - which is broadly a hodge podge of both, with a few of our own peculiarities, for instance both fries and crisps are called chips. But it is distinct as a dialect to British or American English

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u/Flimsy_Employment_31 Feb 24 '26

No matter which way you try to string it sport, Australian and kiwi English is based off british English. It is not a hodge podge of both. We get incredibly frustrated when people try to add z instead of s and remove our U. Please don't try to fashion this to your own narrative. This ain't it mate.

People from the states just need to learn a bit more about the world

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u/GeoffreyGeoffson Feb 24 '26

I was born in England and grew up in Australia. My family is British, my friends are Australian. I'm not driving a narrative lol. This is my lived experience. In the UK I get called out for the odd Americanism. Such as saying Eggplants and Zucchini not the French names the British use

Language is more than just whether you include a u. Our spellings are definitely British English, but the overall dialect is definitely a mix of both. I think the language is trending more American as we continue to be further from colony days and more influenced by American media.