Proper spelling

[sincnoel]

Sorry, but I'm going to have a rant here. I am sick of the increasing Americanisation of our language ... which is English English. If the Yanks want to spell certain things their way, in their own country, then fine. But not here. 8d in today's You crossword should be "Pasteurisation." However, because of the answer to 19a, You magazine foists Pasteurization upon us, The Yankee spelling. With a zed. Well, I'm sick of this garbage. Either our newspapers/magazines use proper English English or they don't bother publishing. I've noticed in recent times that more and more of the American spellings are appearing in our media. IT HAS GOT TO STOP! End of rant. PS: You can call me pompous if you like but I like our language the way it is on this side of the pond. Simple as that.

[mike11111]

Although I agree with you in general, unfortunately, in the case of ize/ise, ize is the original English spelling which the Americans have retained while we over time have changed to the more common ise. The answer in this case is not incorrect British English, though 'pasteurisation' would be more common.

[bearsrule]

I agree with you sincoel

[bearsrule]

sorry for that

I meant I agree with you sincnoel

[rockfordill]

I have to agree with Mike
Because of the vast size of america it never was under any pressure from anywhere to change its language - it is as it was brought over by the early west country settlers -they say you can still hear Elizabethan (I) spoked in the Appalachian hollows.

England on the other hand is a very compressed country and is forever adopting speech from other places - look at the richness it has given to the English language. I have read that the French have something like 20,000 words in common useage,
English has 200,000 !!! So many words over here that the English complain of as being american were actually all the original words used in England in the first place.
English has changed not the original American English I believe.

[mike11111]

Although I hate to say it, American spelling is often more etymologically correct than in British English. Take for example words like favour, labour, honour, valour. All of these are spelt in America without the 'u', yet if you go back to the original Latin word from which each is derived, you will find no 'u' there either.

[chasnoel]

You sound a bit like my younger son who is constantly telling me that I have a mobile phone NOT a cell phone. Too many holidays in the US I guess. Do we share the same birthday?

[Gizmonster]

The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as Euro English (Euro for short).

In the first year, 's' will be used instead of the soft 'c'. Sertainly, sivil servants will reseive this news with joy. Also, the hard 'c' will be replaced with 'k.' Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome 'ph' will be replaced by 'f. This will make words like 'fotograf' 20 per sent shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent 'e's in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing 'th' by 'z' and 'W' by 'V'. During ze fifz year, ze unesesary 'o' kan be dropd from vords kontaining 'ou', and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.
After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil b no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer.

Ze drem vil finali kum tru!!

[boxtops]

I took agree with Mike and those who agree with him. IZE was the original British English spelling for this word ending which I learned when I was at school in the 1950s, and it has taken many years of resistance for me to use the now more popular ISE ending which now feels more modern to me. However - all through history, language and spelling has evolved, and both endings now appear interchangeable.

[boxtops]

^ I too agree with Mike..

[JandyAF]

I generally use 'ise' suffixes in line with most others, but I agree with Mike in that I grew up with 'ize', and do in fact prefer it. But I don't go for other Americanizations, eg 'color' instead of colour. I think that words like this, instead of deriving directly from Latin, came via Norman French (couleur, honneur) where the suffix is again a bit different.

[scotman]

Being Scottish and old I was taught the ..ise ending. I accept that ..ize was the original spelling and is now coming back into fashion. Chamber's Dict lists the ..ize ending first with ..ise as the alternative.

A short poem to finish

Krwelti Tw Children

A FROLLICK

Mai hart iz sad for littel wunz
Hw uend dheir uai tw skwl
Tw lern dhe Inglish speling uith
Itz total lak ov rwl.

Dhe aiern enterz taini soulz
And dhei lwz awl dheir bauns
In lerning werds dhei kannot spel
And spelz dhei kan't pronauns.

Nau aut upon dhe Parliment
Dhat thuortid children'z blis
Prifering prezent drudgeri
Two luvli stuf laik dhis!


Allan M. Laing

[boxtops]

Neat one scotman - that's why I am always impressed why foreigners can speak English so beautifully when it's so hard to grasp!

[mike11111]

I suspect the author of that poem was being just a little bit ironical! It took me two minutes to read and understand it.

[scotman]

2 minutes isn't bad; it took me longer than that the first time I read it.

[mike11111]

Was anyone here a victim of the ill-fated ITA (initial teaching alphabet) which was introduced into some schools in the very early 70s? I was too old for it, but used to hear horror stories about how it ruined children's ability to spell correctly later.