Frequently Asked Questions
Spelling
Are spellings like 'privatize' and 'organize' Americanisms? |
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No, not really. British
spelling has always recognized the existence of variant spellings using the
suffix -ize/-ise. When American spelling was standardized during the
19th century (mainly through the efforts of the great American lexicographer
Noah Webster), the consistent use of -ize was one of the conventions
that became established. However, since then, the -ise spellings have
become more popular in Britain (and in other English-speaking countries such
as Australia), perhaps partly as a reaction against the American custom. Spellings
such as organisation would have struck many older British writers as
rather French-looking. The Oxford English Dictionary favoured -ize,
partly on the linguistic basis that the suffix derives from the Greek suffix
-izo, and this was also the style of Encyclopaedia Britannica (even
before it was American-owned) and formerly of the Times newspaper.
The main advantage of the modern -ise habit? Lazy spellers do not have
to remember that there are several important words which cannot properly be
spelt with -ize. These include words which are not formed by the addition
of the -ize prefix to a stem, but by some other root which happens to
end in the same syllable, such as -vise (as in televise), -cise
(as in incise), and -prise (as in comprise).
The American system resulted in the creeping of z into some other words
where it did not originally belong. Writers of American English should be aware
of some spellings that are regarded as incorrect in the UK, notably analyze.
Other questions in this section:'Fayre', 'fair', and 'fare': which is which? Are spellings like 'privatize' and 'organize' Americanisms? Can 'cannot' also be written as two words 'can not'? How do you spell 'poppadom'? Is there an apostrophe in the plural of pizza? What is the correct way to spell e words such as 'email', 'ebusiness', 'egovernment'? What is the difference between 'affect' and 'effect'? What is the difference between 'learnt' and 'learned'? When is it correct to use a hyphen? Which is correct 'caster sugar' or 'castor sugar'? Why can't I find the word 'perjorative' in my dictionary? Why is 'ye' used instead of 'the' in antique English? Why is the letter 'f' used instead of 's' in old-fashioned spellings?
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