From owner-freebsd-chat Tue Apr 11 22:52:10 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from theory1.physics.iisc.ernet.in (theory1.physics.iisc.ernet.in [144.16.71.20]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id AEE9037B716 for ; Tue, 11 Apr 2000 22:51:47 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from rsidd@theory5.physics.iisc.ernet.in) Received: (qmail 6622 invoked from network); 12 Apr 2000 05:51:04 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO theory5.physics.iisc.ernet.in) (144.16.71.125) by theory1.physics.iisc.ernet.in with SMTP; 12 Apr 2000 05:51:04 -0000 Received: (qmail 1605 invoked by uid 211); 12 Apr 2000 05:51:03 -0000 Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 11:21:03 +0530 From: Rahul Siddharthan To: Mark Ovens Cc: Brad Knowles , freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BSDCon East Message-ID: <20000412112102.B1588@theory5.physics.iisc.ernet.in> Mail-Followup-To: Mark Ovens , Brad Knowles , freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG References: <38F11BBA.0137@funbox.demon.co.uk> <20000411222112.B235@parish> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0.1i In-Reply-To: <20000411222112.B235@parish>; from mark@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org on Tue, Apr 11, 2000 at 10:21:13PM +0100 X-Operating-System: Linux 2.0.36 i586 Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org > I would have to say that *the* canonical reference to the English > language is the OED and that Webster is probably the American > equivalent. Yes, but the OED doesn't necessarily represent existing usage accurately. It contains a lot of editorialising and attempts to shape the future of the language. My favourite example is "Shakspere" -- they admit that the more common spelling is "perh. Shakespeare". This is the first edition, I haven't checked what the newer edition says. > My favourite spelling difference is where the English (for the most > part) actually get it wrong. Words ending ~ize are almost always > spelled ~ise here (in books, newspapers etc) yet the OED shows ~ize to > be correct, and it is only in recent versions of the OED that ~ise > appears as an *alternative*. No, the first edition lists -ise as a frequent alternative. I think this is also an example of trying to influence future usage rather than representing current usage faithfully. I've never seen -ize in English books older than the mid-20th century: it's always -ise (in analogy with -ism and -ist). To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message