On Tuesday 19 May 2015 17:43:57 »Q« wrote: > The main difference between standard UK spelling and Oxford spelling is > that Oxford spelling uses -ize endings (criticize, optimize) whereas > standard UK spelling uses -ise. Using Oxford will make most readers > think you're using American spelling, since Americans use -ize.
Yes, and I've never understood that. The -ise version is true to its French origins (remember 1066?), while as far as I can see the -ize version has no precedent. It also doesn't help with knowing which ending to use in a particular case, so I've no idea why they've adopted it. Moreover, Oxford English insists on that egregious comma before nearly every "and", which is just stupid. It causes as many problems as it avoids, and it's deadly to the flow of the sentence. I once argued about it with an American contributor to an e-mail list, and was told "it's a matter of style". No. Wrong. It's just slavish obedience of an arbitrary rule which cannot be justified in any rational way. Just consider: "and" is equivalent to a comma in most cases; it's how a child starts out until it learns something more sophisticated. So pairing the two leaves us with nonsense. Just my two penn'orth. -- Rgds Peter
