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Should tags be written in American or in British English?
On Cooking, I sometimes run into comprehension issues as food is labelled differently around the world. One recent example for this is ground beef and minced meat which both essentially mean the same, however, the first one is used primarily in American English and the second one in British English.
These small comprehension issues are easily sorted out in the comments but I thought about tags where you don't have the opportunity to discuss their meanings. Should these be written in American English or in British English? Should American and British English tags coexist peacefully alongside? What about synonyms? Especially on Cooking, it would be helpful to find the right tag if you search for both ground beef and minced meat.
Most English speakers are aware of the difference on the other side of the pond, at least for common terms. As an Ame …
4y ago
A similar question was asked on English language and usage and the answer is that it depends on the audience. However ch …
4y ago
Neither. Both are wrong for they are incomplete. Use any at the data layer, but if possible, both at the same time …
4y ago
3 answers
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Most English speakers are aware of the difference on the other side of the pond, at least for common terms.
As an American, I wouldn't be bothered by a Brit using "lorry" or "colour", although I might misunderstand "minced meat" at first glance. However, it would be very off-putting if I were forced to use the tag "colour" instead of "color".
The solution is to have tag synonyms, although I don't know whether the software supports that. There would be two tags "color" and "colour", for example, but both would point to the same tag definition. That definition can highlight both (or more) tags that it serves. Authors then pick whatever tag they are comfortable with.
For example the tags "ground beef" and "minced meat" would both point to the same definition:
American: Ground beef
British: Minced meat
Extruded ground-up cow. A common ingredient of fast food, and "mystery meat" served in schools.
A similar question was asked on English language and usage and the answer is that it depends on the audience. However choosing American English might be a better choice since it is more likely for the audience to be familiar with it:
(..) many Europeans have spent time in the U.S., or at least watch American movies. In the scientific realm, there are more publications written in American English so scientists may have more exposure to it.
Of course, having both forms defined as synonyms makes everybody happy, but makes it harder to manage the tags, so my suggestions is to prefer the US form as the base one.
Out of curiosity I have checked Google trends for two concepts and US forms seems to be way more used.
Neither.
Both are wrong for they are incomplete.
Use any at the data layer, but if possible, both at the same time - every meaningful data is stored; and use something like 🇦🇹 blah / 🇩🇪 bleh at the presentation layer, and of course feed that from the data layer in a most obvious way - presentation mapping is obvious for a schema with enough detail.
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