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The Forum > Article Comments > The reorganisation (reorganization) of our written word > Comments

The reorganisation (reorganization) of our written word : Comments

By Louise Schaper, published 30/4/2008

Are we adopting American spelling because it is somehow superior? Are we happy with this? Do we care?

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When English evolved in Britain, there were dozens of different spellings for common words. Over time, this was standardis(z?)ed thanks to the printing press and spread of literature.

The internet is the new printing press which will cause some spellings to change globally. Two hundred years from now, much of the English speaking world will lose the "S" for the "Z".

The beauty and strength of English is its adaptability and nuances.

Unfortunately, thanks to text messaging, our written language will start 2 b lik this. LOL. :)
Posted by The quiet American, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 9:59:17 PM
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Wouldn't Americans lose the Z for the S? They also are only one of a couple of nations to still use the asinine Imperial measurement system.
Posted by Steel, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 11:29:40 PM
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The quiet American (shades of G G) says: "Unfortunately, thanks to text messaging, our written language will start 2 b lik this. LOL. :)"

Nooooooooooo!!
Posted by Passy, Friday, 2 May 2008 7:19:47 AM
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Language is evolving, as others have said, but in insidious ways:

I have as my bugbear the use of the word 'so' as a qualifier in the expression:

"Thankyou SO much!",

Prior to not that long ago the expression of thanks was "Thankyou" or 'thanks' or for special thanks "Thankyou very much".

Where did the SO come from?

And anyway, different states of Australia have different words for the one item: In some places swimming costumes are 'cossies' and in others 'swimmers' or perhaps 'trunks'.

Athletic shoes can be trainers, runners or joggers.

And pronunciation is different as well, which may eventually be reflected in spelling: I, for one, am looking forward to the name of the code of football originally known as 'Melbourne Rules', colloquially known as 'fooddy' be spelt like that to differentiate it from the other codes of ball games played on foot.

But in terms of spelling reform: In english virtually every Q is followed by a U, which would indicate that the U is actually redundant, so why don't we get rid of the U, the only people who may object are spelling purists and scrabble players.

At least, in the cross cultural context, we haven't taken up the US form of writing the date (yet) even though we still consider the attack on the World Trade Centre to have taken place on 9/11 (9th November?) rather than the actual date of 11/9 (11th September).
Posted by Hamlet, Sunday, 4 May 2008 1:05:10 PM
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I'd reckon the increasing trend to Americanisation of spelling etc generally comes about due to the pervasiveness of the internet and TV. Mr Gates has a big hand in it (spellcheckers set to US English and users too lazy to change) and so too do teachers- I am sick of correcting my child (who watches little TV) when she says "zee" for "zed". Judging by the output from British web users the trend is similar there. Americanisation of spelling is well-advanced in New Zealand, where they even use the rather ignorant looking "fiord" officially rather than the more usual "fjord" which denotes the word's recent Norwegian origin.

I don't agree that "color" is a "reversion" to an older spelling, rather, it's one of Noah Webster's many "reforms", which were only sporadically applied, and Mr Webster himself clung to many archaic spellings.

One aspect of modern spelling I find particularly annoying, and one which cannot necessarilly be blamed on the Americans, is the widespread misuse of the poor old apostrophe (including by many posters on this forum and others). "It's" and "its" are often confused, and apostrophes left out when needed in possessives while applied liberally in plurals, especially those ending in a vowel ("Suzuki's"). This comes down to sheer ignorance and laziness, and is prevalent too in shopkeepers' signs to the extent that it's rare to find a professionally written sign these days without at least one spelling error or misplaced apostrophe.
Posted by viking13, Sunday, 4 May 2008 6:02:42 PM
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A recent trend is to split compound nouns, several were in evidence in a recently written novel I finished only today. "In the mean time" may not mean the same as "in the meantime". "Red head" means something entirely different to "redhead". This error is not picked up by spellcheckers and is another example of laziness.

As for the "-ise" and "ize" endings, I agree with previous posters in that the latter is not necessarilly American in origin and is closer to the Greek etymology; however, the -ise ending has long been preferred in this country. The hard and soft "esses" denoted by "s" and "z" in many words are not rigidly applied (at least for the "esses"), and Americans who call us "ossies" should learn it's pronounced "Ozzies".

While disliking Americanisations intensely, it's my opinion that they will inevitably become all-pervasive. The internet has opened up written discussion to millions of people who would previously have limited their writing to their name on a cheque or in a short letter to their mum. Since the majority of web users in the English language are Americans, their bad habits in all areas, including spelling, will spread. The fact that the average American is less well-educated than the average Aussie or Pom only exacerbates the problem.
Posted by viking13, Sunday, 4 May 2008 6:09:22 PM
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