London: The British government is to ban Latin abbreviations on all its websites to avoid confusing non-English speakers. Phrases such as etc, ie, and eg will be phased out from all Gov.uk sites because foreign speakers find them “difficult to read”.
A spokesman said the phrases could even confuse English-speakers who were “under stress or in a hurry”. Objectors said the decision was “short-sighted”, as Latin has been part of common speech for many years.
But the Government Digital Service (GDS) said the move aimed to promote “plain English”. Gov.uk includes all government department websites as well as other agencies and public bodies and receives millions of visits every month. Persis Howe, the GDS content manager, said: “We promote the use of plain English on Gov.uk. We advocate simple, clear language. Terms like eg, ie and etc, while common, make reading difficult for some.
“Anyone who didn’t grow up speaking English may not be familiar with them. Even those with high literacy levels can be thrown if they are reading under stress or are in a hurry, like a lot of people are on the web.”
She added that programs which read the content for visually impaired people also mispronounce Latin abbreviations.
“Eg” can sometimes be read aloud as “egg” by screen-reading software. “There are better, clearer ways of introducing examples for all users,” she said.
Roger Wemyss Brooks, of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, which teaches Latin language courses, criticised the move.
He said: “Latin is part of our cultural heritage and it’s part of the basis of English. It unites us with other cultures throughout Europe and the world who have a connection with the Romance languages.
“It’s a very concise language which is used specifically for its precision and I think it’s short-sighted to be giving it up.”
