Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2023 September 5

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September 5

British spellings and autocorrect

I have noticed that by default, in non-American countries, autocorrect uses American spellings. It makes me wonder if that for younger generations especially, this may cause non-Americans to use American spellings and therefore cause British spellings to decline? Are there any studies on this or related to the decline of British spellings? Panamitsu (talk) 05:02, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

Do you mean in your word processor? Autocorrect will use whatever variety of English it is set to. You need to find the language settings for that particular word processor. Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:29, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

But the OP's point is about the default settings. Some people might not know that it is possible to change these. When I read the OP's question, out of curiosity I went to my version of Word (I'm in Europe) and saw that the OP is correct, the default setting is US English. An additional question to the OP's, therefore, is why copies of MS Office shipped in Europe have US English as the default setting. --Viennese Waltz 09:04, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

No MS Word on my computer, but the LibreOffice clone is on my Linux box (although I rarely use it). The spelling checker isn't part of the word processor (or the web browser, text editor etc.), but is an external program interfacing with those, so they all use the same dictionaries. The default language is normally taken from the system's locale settings, which are set when installing the operating system, and in most of the world are set to something different from English. Alongside the local language, support for American English is installed by default, so if you switch the language to English, it will use American English, unless you install support for other kinds of English. Which I did. For obvious reasons, schools in my Western European country teach British English.

So in Linux at least, it's the choice of the distributor of the OS which languages are installed by default. I suppose that in the UK British English is properly set as the default. PiusImpavidus (talk) 10:35, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

In Microsoft WORD 2016, go to the "Review" tab on the top, then "Language, then click "Language preferences".

In Corel WordPerfect X9, click the "Tools" tab on top, then "Language", then "Set Preferences" (which also allows preferences for written Australian and Canadian English (as well as U.K. and U.S.), but not — so far — South Asian, African or Caribbean English. —— Shakescene (talk) 13:59, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

The question was not about how to change one's autocorrect preferences. It was about whether British spelling is in decline as a result of the default autocorrect setting being American English. Please confine yourself to answering the question asked. --Viennese Waltz 14:03, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

Using data from Google Ngram Viewer, see The Decline of British English, Visualized (2016), although the results show a much longer time-frame than the OP suggests and could just be due to the increasing volume of literature originating in the USA. Alansplodge (talk) 16:02, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

Yes, a look through scholar.google.com found several studies. "Americanization" might be a good search term if you wish to look further. For example, Mapping the Americanization of English in space and time, published 2018, says "We find that American English is the dominant form of English outside the UK and that its influence is felt even within the UK borders." However, they date the timeline of the shift much earlier than widespread computing and autocorrect: "The past two centuries have clearly resulted in a shift in vocabulary and spelling conventions from British to American. This trend is especially visible in the decades following WWII and the fall of the Berlin Wall." 70.67.193.176 (talk) 16:03, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

"Don't look at me in that tone of voice, you smell a funny color." Probably gray. Stay on the sidewalk, get in line, shelter in place and stay in post. Look out for our in-store offers. Beware, y'all Limeys. MinorProphet (talk) 20:20, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

Even in the UK, some spellings such as paediatrics, foetus and encyclopaedia are often replaced by the simpler American counterparts. Alansplodge (talk) 08:37, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

You can take my “mediaeval”, but I will not budge from “archaeology”. – b_jonas 14:50, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

I know it has little do to with spelling, but Straightforward British things American twats claim to be baffled by may be of interest. My favorite American movie is Lads In The Bonnet, btw.

That linked article is blurred out. Or maybe that's the point? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:12, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

I think the implied Yank Slank in the title is a clipping of "neighborhood", so I prefer the alternative title Blokes On The Block... 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 20:00, 7 September 2023 (UTC)