Jaime:
On Thu, Feb 28, 2002 at 12:19:58PM +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
...and, once more, the use of EU money to fund US English.
Howdy, It is not US English. It was written by a Spanish-speaking person and I bet he doesn't know the difference between US English and British English [...]
Oh, I'm sure it's not deliberate. This is why it is usually recommended to get native speakers to translate into their own languages. It is just getting a little depressing seeing our *own* language being eroded by our European cousins because of the continual Americanisation of European internet culture, so I mention it in passing.
Of course, your message will check out in a native English dictionary, as many of the Americanisms are actually descended from an older form of the language, pre-independence. At most, they are flagged with "US" in italics or some such, but it doesn't make them part of modern native English. They forked our language and are now trying to merge the changes by resolving all conflicts in their favour ;-)
Shall we take this off-list, though? It was only a side issue.