User:Pashley/Spelling
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This page in a nutshell: Destination guides should be written in the local variant of English. If the destination has no history of using English and no clear preference for a variety to use, US English is used. |
This is a guide on issues of spelling and punctuation.
National varieties of English
editWikivoyage prefers no major national variety of English over any other.
American English and British English differ in vocabulary (soccer vs. football), spelling (center vs. centre), date formatting ("April 13" vs. "13 April") and, very occasionally, surface grammar.
Australian, Indian, Irish, Singaporean, New Zealand, Pakistani and South African English are almost identical in spelling to British English, and Canada mostly uses those spellings as well. These varieties are often collectively called Commonwealth English.
But it's no big deal. The general rules are:
- Writers should write in whatever variety of English they know.
- Editors should not "correct" varietal differences in spelling. For example, changing "colour" to "color" or vice versa is almost always a complete waste of time.
There are two exceptions to those rules:
1) Articles for countries where English is a major national language should use the spelling variant used locally:
- American spellings for the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Liberia, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, the Philippines and the United States
- Commonwealth spellings for other English-speaking countries:
- Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, UK
- Africa: Botswana, Cameroon, Eritrea, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somaliland, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe
- Americas, Atlantic and Caribbean: Anguilla, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize (formerly British Honduras), Bermuda, Dominica, the Falkland Islands, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands
- Asia: Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Pakistan, the Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka
- Europe: Cyprus, Gibraltar, Malta
- Oceania: the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Nauru, Niue, the Pitcairn Islands
2) When an article is getting the final polish before being labelled a Star or Destination of the Month, it should be edited for consistency, including consistent spelling usage. In the cases above, the variety choice is clear.
Elsewhere, try to determine which spelling variant is used locally; if there is a clear preference, the article should follow it. Your own experience might indicate this or you could check which variant is used in government publications or local English-language newspapers (not the magazines for expatriates), or which one the local schools (not international schools) teach. Leave a comment on the article talk page indicating how you determined this.
If the destination has no clear preference for the variety to use, we prefer US English spelling. This isn't because US English is somehow better or to stomp on the rights, heritage, and cultures of other English-speaking countries. We just have decided to pick one default spelling style for consistency.
Other varietal differences
editSome words differ across English varieties. For example, American and Canadian cars have a hood at the front and a trunk at the back while those parts of British/Aussie/etc. cars are the bonnet and the boot. In such cases, it's useful to gloss the meaning or the equivalent word in another variety in parentheses immediately after the first occurrence ("some drivers charge extra for the use of the trunk (boot) of their cab").
- Reference guides for US spelling
- Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition, Wiley Hoboken, NJ
- Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Springfield, Mass.
- A useful, free dictionary for checking the Commonwealth variety of English on-line
- Place Names
- National Geographic Atlas of the World, National Geographic Society, Washington, DC
Society, Washington DC
Proper names
editSome proper names do not follow spelling or punctuation conventions. Write them as they are used. Don't change them to conform to spelling conventions.
- Joaquin Miller's home, "The Hights", rests on the heights of the Oakland hills.
- King's Cross, St James's Park and Barons Court are London Underground stations.
It can be helpful to other editors to use an HTML comment to mark unconventional spellings in proper names:
* '''Café Art's<!-- sic -->''' - a popular cafe in the Paquis neighborhood of Geneva.
Apostrophes
editPlurals should not have apostrophes (unless the result is ridiculous).
- "1800s" not "1800's"
- "apples and oranges" not "apple's and orange's"