Trevor Coultart wrote: > Now here’s an extra confusion… > > IIRC, our good old “Oxford English Dictionary” uses -ize where most > other English Dictionaries use -ise.
You do RC, though the OED also mentions somewhere in the front that where
a word ends with -ize it’s also acceptable to use -ise.
I remember debating this with my Mum many years ago, which is why I came
to check the front of the OED. She always uses -ize, because that’s what
the OED uses. I always use -ise, as I think -ize looks American.
(Bizarrely my Mum thinks -ise looks American).
UniVent wrote: > I hate to drag things out, but we Americans really have screwed > up the use
of > English. Both noun and verb forms in American English are “practice”. In
the > Webster’s New World Dictionary the only listing for practise is cheifly
Brit. > spelling of practice.
It seems that way and it’s always tempting to blast Americans for not
being able to spell , but I’m not sure that ‘screwed up’ is really
accurate. America was colonised by Europeans before the first dictionary
was compiled, at a time when there were no fixed spellings for a lot of
words (like Shakespeare/Shakspeare/Shakspear, or Raleigh/Rayleigh/Ralegh).
So I guess when dictionaries were compiled on different sides of the
Atlantic, the pioneering lexicographers just had different ideas of how
things should be spelt.
Of course, the New World lexicographers should really have looked to their
UK counterparts for advice - they were bound to get it wrong doing it on
their own
If the unicycle had been invented before the dictionary, I wonder if UK &
US riders would be constantly squabbling over the difference between a
unicycle and a monocycle. Naming the ng could have been even more
difficult - ISTR the debates between people who wanted a rec. ng (mostly
unics) and those who wanted an alt. ng (mostly non-unics), and between
those who wanted to include the word ‘sport’ and those who didn’t, were
bad enough.
> So I guess when dictionaries were compiled on different sides of the > Atlantic, the pioneering lexicographers just had different ideas of how > things should be spelt.
Spelled.
“Are you getting fagged working at that computer? If you want I’ll spell
you for a piece.”
I wonder if English was already a screwed-up language before it split on
either side of the Atlantic? The variations in spelling seem to go
nicely with all the other rules-with-exceptions that this language
claims to have.
Is English the “Windows” of spoken/written languages? It’s accepted by
vast numbers of people, even in some international applications, yet it’s
inconsistent and plagued with problems.
> ISTR that one of the spellings can be used as both a verb and a noun in > UK usage, but I can’t remember which one. It’s a few years since I’ve > seen my dictionary (3 or 4 moves ago, and I’ve never unpacked all my > books), so I can’t check.
Given that it ws me who used it and I can’t spell even in English english
, who cares. sarah
–
Euro-cycle 2001 20 - 22 July Plymouth UK A european unicycle convention http://www.eurocycle.org
John Foss wrote… >> So I guess when dictionaries were compiled on different sides of the >> Atlantic, the pioneering lexicographers just had different ideas of >> how things should be spelt. > >Spelled. > >"Are you getting fagged working at that computer? If you want I’ll spell >you for a piece." > >I wonder if English was already a screwed-up language before it split on >either side of the Atlantic? The variations in spelling seem to go >nicely with all the other rules-with-exceptions that this language >claims to have.
How strange that we are havinmg a lexicographic discussion (that’s my
job). Who is it that said that “The US and Britain are two nations divided
by a single language”, something like that?
>Is English the “Windows” of spoken/written languages? It’s accepted by >vast numbers of people, even in some international applications, yet >it’s inconsistent and plagued with problems.
If you think Enlish is inconsistent, wait till you see Japanese. I wrote
many articles on this but here are two:
“Jeff Lutkus” <lutkus@unicyclist.com> wrote in message news:20010711152445.6E0F136F9@sitemail.everyone.net… > Riding from work yesterday, a curious child prompted me with the "how do
you do that?" question as I cruised by on my Coker. I realized I had no
good concise answer to issue (and being that I was in a rush to pick up my
car before the repair shop closed, I didn’t stop to think about it). > > So, any suggestions about what words of wisdom I might be able to impart
to someone in 15-30 seconds? > > Jeff Lutkus > > _____________________________________________________________ > Free e-Mail and Webspace - http://Unicyclist.com
, but I’m not sure that ‘screwed up’ is really
