Talk:Commonwealth English

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Current revision as of 23:15, 9 February 2023

[edit] Rename

Why is this called "Commonwealth English", not "British English"? The linked Wikipedia page is mainly concerned with the English language outside Britain. "British English" is a much better term for what this article describes. See also American and British English spelling differences. Loafing 07:52, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Inclusion

Of the 6 entries listed so far... three aren't related to Commonwealth or British English at all, but rather fake old-timey English (Thy Dungeonman, and the two "whilst" mentions). sb_email 22 is a stretch, trying to tie that to words with French-oid spellings... especially since, in the email, Strong Bad is talking specifically about names having an extra vowel at the end. Fan Stuff is legit, but is just a different spelling... there's no joke involved. So there's only one actual joke based around British English there... well short of the number needed for "running gag" status. --phlip ^T_C 09:11, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

neutral:One thing that could be added would be the use of Australian slang in more armies, but that only brings the total to 2 actual uses. (This gag would also mitigate the need to move the article if we can scare up a couple more...) wbwolf (t | ed) 14:35, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

I have to agree with Phlip that this is kind of shaky at present. "Flavourite" and possibly "adVERtisements" are good, but otherwise this all seems like kind of a stretch (even the Australian slang really seems to me like it would be a separate gag). Heimstern Läufer 01:03, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

So... this has been open for a while, but hasn't gotten many opinions... Is there anyone who has a good reason why this article should stay? --phlip ^T_C 09:10, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

It could stay if we broadened the title to something about alternate versions of English. ^(The)trlkly 23:24, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Countries

How about we create pages for England and Australia? StarFox 23:04, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Revived

I revived the page, but might need some help. 76.102.80.126 18:35, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

You should probably add the bit about Coach Zed. --BroncoTroll^☺ 00:14, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

[edit] Formatting

I'm not convinced yet that this should stay "undeleted", but we ought to give it a chance. However, it should be formatted like other articles, which appearances in chronological order referencing specific instances in specific toons rather than just generalizations about various items and subuniverses. — Defender1031*Talk 01:29, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

Done. RickTommy (edits) 04:25, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

[edit] Four and twenty stone

An easter egg in radio has Sir Strong Bad say "four and twenty stone". Stone is a very common measurement in the commonwealth countries, I think it means 12 pounds. --BroncoTroll^☺ 07:23, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

Explanations. The Knights Who Say Ni 07:38, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

Ah, 14 pounds. Gotcha. --BroncoTroll^☺ 08:43, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

[edit] Cleaned up. So, does it make the cut?

Okay, I've removed all the entries which were not actually Commonwealth English and corrected the information in a couple of others. What do people think? Is it worth inclusion at this point, or should it be redeleted? At the moment, I'm neutral leaning slightly toward keep. — Defender1031*Talk 23:33, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for the help. I hope your cleanup allows it to look more encyclopedic. 76.102.80.126 06:00, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

I like it. --BroncoTroll^☺ 06:03, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

Still a stub, but definitely keep. --BroncoTroll^☺ 21:07, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

[edit] Reviving rename discussion - "Commonwealth" vs "British"

I believe British English would be a better name for this article. This has been mentioned before on the Talk page, looking to revive the discussion and raising a few points:

• The Wiktionary article for "Commonwealth English" notes that the term is "uncommon" and "rare".
• A cursory Google search (without quotes) for 'commonwealth english' simply returns results for the definition of commonwealth, by comparison a search for 'british english' returns results about the dialect and spelling.
• Compare the Wikipedia articles for British English and English in the Commonwealth of Nations - the Commonwealth article is a brief historical overview of the use of English, while the British article talks about the dialect in great detail.
• The use of this dialect in Homestar Runner tends towards being British if a country is specified. This is most obvious in sb_email 22 (the Wikipedia article notes that Scottish English is typically counted under the umbrella of British English, which would include the reference to a "23 metre" caber toss as well). Looking at the English in the Commonwealth of Nations article again - the HRWiki doesn't indicate references to Carribbean, West African, or Indian English.

Because "British English" is more common and a better description for the use of this dialect on Homestar Runner, I think the page name should be changed. -- Bleu Ninja 00:52, 8 February 2023 (UTC)

Of those that do mention or imply a specific variety of English, sb_email 22 is in reference to English as spoken in England; do over, while it doesn't mention it in this article, uses "zed" in reference to Canadian English; and Teen Girl Squad Issue 10 (and by extension, Disk 4 of 12 - World Games) implies Scottish English. The fact that Canadian English is included and that most of the other references don't specify a variety of English makes me hesitant to rename it to specifically "British English". If there's a different way to say "Non-American varieties of English", perhaps a name like that could work, but despite Wiktionary listing it as an "uncommon" sense, that is the way "Commonwealth" is being used here. DEI DAT VM^┌_{datvm center}\^{super contra}_┘ 19:37, 9 February 2023 (UTC)

Maybe we could cut it up into sections, call the specifically british section "British English" the canadian part "Canadian English" etc. ----J∃ffJMan 20:02, 9 February 2023 (UTC)

I'm down for sub categories Guybrush20X6 23:15, 9 February 2023 (UTC)