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Re: A language by any other name



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On Wednesday 19 Sep 2001 8:37 pm, John Hasler wrote:
> Steve Langasek writes:
> > en_UK is English as spoken in the United Kingdom.
>
> While en_GB is english as spoken in Great Britain.  Perhpas one of
> the residents thereof can explain the difference.

en_UK doesn't exist as a locale AFAIK, it is en_GB I believe.

The difference between "United KIngdom" and "Great Britain" is rather 
blurred.  However, it appears to be that "Great Britain" comprises 
England, Scotland and Wales, whereas "United Kindom" adds Northern 
Ireland to that.

stephen:~$ dict -d wn "united kingdom"
1 definition found
 
- From WordNet (r) 1.7 [wn]:
 
  United Kingdom
       n : a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the
           British Isles;  divided into England and Scotland and
           Wales and Northern Ireland [syn: {United Kingdom}, {UK},
           {Great Britain}, {Britain}, {United Kingdom of Great
           Britain and Northern Ireland}]


stephen:~$ dict -d wn "great britain"
1 definition found
 
- From WordNet (r) 1.7 [wn]:
 
  Great Britain
       n 1: a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the
            British Isles;  divided into England and Scotland and
            Wales and Northern Ireland [syn: {United Kingdom}, {UK},
             {Great Britain}, {Britain}, {United Kingdom of Great
            Britain and Northern Ireland}]
       2: an island comprising England and Scotland and Wales [syn: 
{Great Britain}]


The line *does* seem rather blurry.  Personally I use the two terms 
interchangeably.  Others like to be more exact about it.

- -- 
Stephen Stafford
finger bagpuss@debian.org to get gpg public key
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