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Comment by tobylane | Hacker News Reader

If there was one, who’d follow it? York, New York, Melbourne (Ireland) and Melbourne (Australia) all have their variants from what London speaks.

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Americans, for one, would never recognize the authority of a foreign body over their language.

But each English speaking country could form its own academy and work together, which is how Spanish speaking countries do it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Academies_of_...

But why? There are specific dictionaries and a variety of widely-used style books both specific and less so. There are some disagreements which may result in, say, a given company following different style rules for different purposes.

To the latter point, for example, a lot of companies use Oxford comma in general but don't for press releases and related because AP doesn't follow Oxford.

In general, though, it all works out. I see very little appetite for another group of authorities than the ones who already exist.

Right. I think people forget that there are many dialects of English.[0] I wouldn’t be surprised if linguists find a new “internet dialect” of English in the future as well.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dialects_of_English

> I wouldn’t be surprised if linguists find a new “internet dialect” of English in the future as well.

You might be interested in "Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language" by Gretchen McCulloch. McCulloch is a linguist, but it's a light/layperson's book. I really enjoyed it.

https://gretchenmcculloch.com/book/

IANAL(inguist) but internet speak and memes have been studied for well over a decade by linguists. huge opportunity for publishing, and if they're lucky they might get hired by google. no i do not have an optimistic outlook for the field outside academia.

How do you consistently refer to the green or yellow citrus fruit in Spanish?

As an American, I don't even recognize the authority of the Chicago Manual of Style over my use of English.

They already do. The Americans who speak Spanish in Honduras, Colombia, Argentina, etc. recognize the authority of La Real Academia Española (even though their own brands of Spanish differ a bit from the kind spoken in Spain).

This is, by the way, not a criticism of your use of “Americans”, which I and all English speakers use the same way.

I really doubt that (many) Americans in any Latin American country recognize any "authority" on the language, other than what the locals speak.

My two Spanish teachers, who live in two different Latin American countries, use the RAE as a fallback authority in cases where it’s not clear what usage is preferred. So it is kind of a weak authority. And, believe it or not, the concept of correctness in language exists in Latin America, regardless of what the “locals” speak, and it matters to a lot of people, who love their language and treat it with respect.

My Spanish teachers from Argentina did the same. When coming across words and phrases that they were unfamiliar with (hey, they don't have the dictionary memorized either) they almost always sent me something later (or brought it up in the next session) citing RAE or a source that itself cited RAE.

Also, the best online dictionary for Spanish is the excellent one at the RAE site (although it only works once you know enough Spanish to read the definitions!).

Sure, the Spanish teachers do. The Americans? I still doubt it.

Well, but the baker and the policeman in Paris are not preoccupied with conforming their speech to the dictates of the French Academy, either. But it is still recognized as a kind of authority for many purposes, although, I’m sure, often begrudgingly.

By Americans he means the locals. The (Latin) Americans.

I read his post as explicitly saying that he was not meaning that.

We wouldn’t even recognize the authority of a Congressionally-chartered organization over our language.

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