4 ms·
The article continues: “The vast majority of differences are purely arbitrary word selections, though.” He’s not measuring a property of languages, but of part
by leephillips 5y ago
The article continues: “The vast majority of differences are purely arbitrary word selections, though.”
He’s not measuring a property of languages, but of particular translations of the privacy policy.
By the way, sometimes North Americans encounter attitudes that UK English is in some way more authentic or better than their variety. That’s silly, too, and ahistorical. The difference with Spanish is that, like the French, they have an Academy that hands down official language judgments, and these are taken seriously by publishers, etc. The Academy is based in Spain, so they have a way to sort-of enforce their linguistic dominance. English is more anarchic.
- DFHippie 5y agoIt's not just the absence of an a academy resisting linguistic change, it's that the people who brought English to North America were English, so the dialects that have evolved in North America have been evolving from Old English just as long as the dialects in England. And moreover, languages don't change at a uniform rate. Until recently the center of linguistic change in the anglosphere was London, so British English, and particularly London English, was more innovative than North American dialects. I expect things have gotten more complicated since there are populous power centers outside of London now.