User talk:Alice/Kitchen/English language varieties

User:Alice/Kitchen/Template:TOCright

US English?

"Roundabout, as a noun, refers exclusively in US English to a circular intersection in which entering traffic must yield to vehicles already in the circle."

Where in the US is this? The first time I came across the word "roundabout" as a noun was when I was in Malaysia, which uses "Commonwealth" English. The only word I've heard for this thing in the US is "circle," but perhaps there's some American dialect usage I'm unfamiliar with. Ikan Kekek (talk) 11:27, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

As you know it can be very difficult to establish etymologies, but at least those Scandinavians in the Mid West know the word in this usage, Ikan: http://www.dot.state.mn.us/roundabouts/ -- Alice^✉ 13:05, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

Very well. I will still edit the article to ascribe the noun to "parts of the US," though. Ikan Kekek (talk) 20:04, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

Templating

One of the wonderful things about Wikimedia software is that you can achieve a really big splash without a lot of effort by using templates.

With this edit one of our most prolific and experienced editors has recently suggested

1) "This topic may not meet the Wikivoyage criteria for a separate article..."

This standard template he placed is rather misleading since the standard pipe leads to the beginning of the article Project:What is an article? and the first four sub-sections there only deal with destination-style articles. This article is not, of course, a destination-style article. Instead it is a travel topic and, at the time of composing this riposte, the standard for non destination-style articles was considerably more straightforward: "Travel topics should have their own articles."

2) "...and should should be merged into American and British English. If you have an opinion, please discuss on this article's talk page. Please do not add new content to this article, but instead add it to American and British English. You can help by copying any relevant information from this page to the new page. Once all content has been copied, this article should be made into a redirect."

I don't think that is a good idea for at least these reasons:

a) This article deals with the differences between different varieties of English - not just those between the British and (sadly misnamed) "American" varieties.

b) This article is already longer and more comprehensive. The American and British English article is just a stub and, if any article is to be merged, the very little new information that is contained in American and British English should be merged into this article and not the other way round. Personally though, I don't see why the different articles with different areas of emphasis can not co-exist.

3) "Please do not remove this merge notice without first gaining consensus for the removal on the article's talk page".

Personally I think this is the wrong order of things. For the reasons stated above and others, I think that consensus should have been reached on this article's talk page before placing this (inappropriate) template.

However, I am not going to remove the (inappropriate) template entirely, but I will amend it now to make it more specific and relevant to this travel topic (as opposed to a destination-style article). -- Alice^✉ 00:06, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

Firstly, you copy/pasted all information from American and British English to this page. This should never be done, because attribution information is lost and thus copyright is breached.

Secondly, this article covers exactly the same topic as the other article. Of course it is longer and more comprehensive now, because you added your own information to this article, which should have been added to American and British English in the first place. I applied the merge tag, so you can copy your information from here to that article. Then this page should be turned into a redirect. --Globe-trotter (talk) 00:19, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

I barely see a reason for having one article on English variation. Two articles makes no sense. Please merge your changes into the original, then propose a name change for the original. Also, the list should be restricted to those words likely to trip up a traveller. -- Cjensen (talk) 00:32, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

GT: Firstly, you are wrong in writing that I "copy/pasted all information from American and British English" Please take care and time to do your homework and stop behaving in such a sloppy, brutal and un-collegiate manner. Why can you not discuss first and win by force of reason rather than brutality?

Secondly, it does not cover the same topic in the same way. Do your research and argue a case! Please stop behaving like yours is the only opinion that counts. -- Alice^✉ 01:21, 5 December 2012 (UTC)