Talk:defense

From WT:AEN:

"Words that are commonly spelled differently in different countries are all considered valid entries that should not be shortcuts to other versions. Full entries exist for both color and colour."

"defunct" per what policy -sche? Why is the most common variety of English (American English) known and taught world-wide being redirected to a regional one? --Ivan Štambuk (talk) 09:39, 21 July 2013 (UTC)


 * Entries are no longer synchronised per numerous discussions over the course of the last year or more, most recently Beer parlour/2013/June (which starts off being about something only semi-related, but then veers into this very issue). Re your last sentence: you seem to misunderstand the distribution of English varieties. British English is used in most of the world; American English is limited to the North American region and a small number of other places. American English is, however, spoken by a larger number of people than British English. - -sche (discuss) 19:19, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
 * Most of the speakers = most of the world. That British English spelling is official in some deserts of Australia or tundras of Canada (where indigenous languages are spoken anyway) means really nothing. If any spelling should be the default one (and to be clear: my opinion is that none should, and every spelling should have an equal standing), it is that of the most widely used variety. And that would be American English by a large margin. I'd guess that 90% of all of the world's FL-English dictionaries redirect defence to defense and not vice versa. The discussion you linked to is not about merging at all, but about how to format such merged entries. It appears that almost all of these mergers have been done by a small number of people, but this issue is too much of a how potato to be done in such a subtle way, especially when it directly confronts respected language's guideline page. --Ivan Štambuk (talk) 21:16, 21 July 2013 (UTC)