Release Civ 4 in English in Australia

[Level]

I think the biggest differences are outside influences, in the United States there is a lot of Spanish, Native American, African, Japanese, and many other influences, I think England has mostly French and other European influences, I’m not sure what all of Australia’s are.
American English is more then just English now it is more of a composite with more words being added all the time, though most people just use the basics on the internet.
There are even different spellings in different places in the United States and England too.
For the game, the text files would take twice as much space to have two forms of English so why don’t we just use Old English, from before anyone made any changes?

 

[rhialto]

For the game, the text files would take twice as much space to have two forms of English so why don’t we just use Old English, from before anyone made any changes?

For teh kind of vocabulary and phrasing used in the game, colloqialisms and different loanwords are largely irrelevant.

As for your disk space complaint, unless you want to suggest that the amount of text involved is greater than the bible, you're looking at an extra meg taken up on the cd. Text is very small in storage space.

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

Wished I'd have read your post before as I wouldnt have had my rant, just agreed!

Wow Us and the Aussies AGREEING on something Talk about one small step....

It is freaky... either someone has poisoned the water worldwide, or suddenly the impossible has come to pass

 

[Synthshadow]

Knowing where I live I reckon its the water!

 

[Peck of Arabia]

I would say "Does it really matter, they're both the English Language arn't they?" but I figured, well that viewpoint is simply boring.

Why should everyone else in the English speaking world have to put up with a constant steam of mis-spellings (although I don't recall colour or flavour being written much) just because the people at Firaxis/Infogrammes/Sid Meir's HQ believe that English is English and since the Game's American, American English should be made superior. Would it kill them it add or take a few letter or change a few words here and there if it makes a large segment of their market happy little people who think that the company is really kind and compassionate and in touch with their customers because they've made minor quirks with the game text.

I'm also aware that this is largely a repeat of what other people have said so I wouldn't bother pointing that out

 

[Stid]

it annoys me but i wont lose any sleep over it lol. i also never knew civilization was spelt civilisation in my language - back to early learning for me

 

[teccuk]

Damn it winds me up too. Although words even worse, its default no matter how many times you set it, play about with the settings, AND set it in control panel is still bloody US English!!! I like civiliSation thats how you say it.

British or 'commonwealth' english would be much nicer. Hay, anyone know how they spell in Canada?

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

IIRC they spell words properly in Canada, but I'm not Canadian so I don't know for certain.

 

[sheerin]

Officially we spell the British way, but we've picked up some of America's bad habits. I know a lot of people who spell centre 'center' and metre "meter". I'm currently TA-ing a second year anthro course and in the essays submitted a good number of the students used American spelling. Of course this is most likely due to the fact that most people don't know how to switch dictionaries in Word.

I personally try to spell everything the British way...

And Russia isn't a true democracy, at least not with Putin at the helm... I wonder if he ever truly left the KGB?

 

[Corvex]

I would imagine so, since the KGB doesn't really exist anymore...

Or at least that's what they WANT us to think!

 

[dexters]

In terms of the marketplace, the US remains dominant.

In Canada, we get the US version of the game, with color instead of colour. Most Canadians are quite flexible in our english, we generally use both, and I personally prefer American english for its general efficiency over the English version.

 

[sheerin]

yeah, i mean, whenever I spell colour with a u I lose a whole tenth of a microsecond.

I personally hate the american way of spelling things, it seems almost, lazy I think ie: doughnut --> donut.

 

[dexters]

Efficiency is efficiency. all those u's add up over time.

And donut is my preferred spelling of odughgdfgfrnut.

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

Yeah, adds up to what, three seconds

 

[Synthshadow]

Well you know Americans with their "rush rush every second counts" policy on life imagine how many millions of dollars they'd lose if they took the time to spell ColoUr and ArmoUr. And FOR THE LOVE OF MERCY.. DOUGHNUT!!!!

Calling all Canadians... PLEASE DONT GO DOWN THE AMERICAN WAY OF SPELLING... Makes grown people appear childlike!



P.S Just as an add on, in American cook books, when they list how to make bread and you make dough... how do they list dough? As if they spell it our way, then its not consistant much is it?

 

[Level]

I think doughnut is more common then donut.
Some words have multiple spellings like disc and disk or the many spellings of catsup, ketchup, etc.

Most Americas either don’t care or find British spelling neat or funny.

rhialto the disk space comment was a joke.
teccuk we say the "z" in civilization.

 

[Corvex]

'Doughnuts' sound more appetizing than 'donuts.' Don't ask me why; they just do.
As for Canadian spelling, its mostly British, with a few exceptions. Namely, we use 'z' rather than 's' in words like 'Civilization' (although, in our defense, we pronounce it as 'zed,' and heavily shun the traitors who use 'zee'). We also spell certain words that end in 'er' in American english with 're' (such as center--> centre, meter-->metre and I personally have been trying to convert quarter to quartre). I have heard that no one else actually does this (even in the rest of the commonwealth) and that this is a phenomenon unique to Canada, but I don't know for sure.

 

[sealman]

I think doughnut is more common then donut.
Some words have multiple spellings like disc and disk or the many spellings of catsup, ketchup, etc.

Most Americas either don’t care or find British spelling neat or funny.

rhialto the disk space comment was a joke.
teccuk we say the "z" in civilization.

From a consumer standpoint, there appears to be a rationale for the different spellings.

Next time you are in the store, take a look.

DONUT vs DOUGHNUT: items sold as "donuts" tend to be the generic version as opposed to a better known brand.

CATSUP vs KETCHUP: Same here. Heinz and other such companies make Ketchup or you can pick up the cheaper store brand catsup.

Just my little observations.

 

[Heat Miser]

Couple of points here:

1) The Whitehouse is the Whitehouse because it was torched in the War of 1812, not the Revolutionary War. The fire scorched the original rose colored marble and it was painted white to cover the damage.

2) See my earlier post regarding changing notions of spelling. Given the rise of the internet and numerous short cuts in writing used by most (my daughter drives me crazy with the way she writes online), I think we will see a sea-change in the way things are spelled in our life times.

3) I remember playing the text based adventure games on my VIC20 and seeing 'colour', 'armour', etc. I thought it was kinda (slipping into my daughter's way of writing) cool and never thought about pitching a fit about it.

4) Years ago before I remarried, I remember chatting on line with many folks from Oz. At the time I found the word 'Whingeing' (spelling?) curious but had no problem with it.

5) Lastly: As far as who is the arbeiter of proper English, who is to say. One of the other Field Engineers I work with is from York. You cannot tell me that it is proper to say 'me' in place of 'my' (as in 'HAVE YOU SEEN ME CAR?") as he does. Then again it is ridiculous that my wife says 'Heathern' instead of 'Heathen' (go Mississippi). Then again I speak Californian and not English, so go figure.

 

[Synthshadow]

Couple of points here:

4) Years ago before I remarried, I remember chatting on line with many folks from Oz. At the time I found the word 'Whingeing' (spelling?) curious but had no problem with it.

5) Lastly: As far as who is the arbeiter of proper English, who is to say. One of the other Field Engineers I work with is from York. You cannot tell me that it is proper to say 'me' in place of 'my' (as in 'HAVE YOU SEEN ME CAR?") as he does. Then again it is ridiculous that my wife says 'Heathern' instead of 'Heathen' (go Mississippi). Then again I speak Californian and not English, so go figure.

I know this threads milked to death but I HAD to reply as its the least I could do for giggling like a schoolgirl at the above points.

4) Whinging... Thats a good word, one attributed to us "Poms" normally, and 90% true, I hoever am proud to be in the 10% minority

5) HAVE YOU SEEN ME CAR - That IS a ridiculous term and should NOT appear in the language, though again I think its a British/Aussie term, but very funny and I have to admit I use that terminology more than the proper "English"

Though speaking as a cockney most of what I say really isnt in the English Language anyway E.G, Iam from SAAAAAAAAFFFF London

Pass me the buh - ER to put on me toast!

Got to love Cockney....