Aussie here. Yanklish spellings have been a pet peeve of mine ever since I
was old enough to read.
I consider those forms to be Commonwealth English affectations. They should
> be discarded with powdered wigs, fox hunts, and the monarchy. ;-)
I'd like to remind you that the entire Anglosphere agrees on spelling
differences apart from Canada (who use -ize suffixes) and the United
States, a backwards, failed experiment in democracy whose citizens prefer
to lampshade their country's illogical inconsistencies than fix them (e.g.,
continued use of their former overlord's measurement system ("Freedom"
Units).
Moreover, if any country claims the right to be a central authority on
"standard" English, it's Britain (or to be more specific, England).
I understand that the FSF is based in the US, and therefore, most of their
projects' codebases are written in Yanklish. But FFS, please don't try to
justify that decision beyond a *"we're retaining consistency with how it
was originally written"* (which is Wikipedia's policy
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:ENGVAR> to spelling variations in
articles whose subject matter doesn't pertain to a specific nation or
region of the world).
Yours truly,
— A speaker of English, addressing a speaker of Yanklish
On Tue, 10 Nov 2026 at 02:47, G. Branden Robinson <
[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Morten,
>
> At 2026-11-09T15:43:53+0100, Morten Bo Johansen wrote:
> > On 2026-11-09 G. Branden Robinson wrote:
> >
> > > Good catch! Expect this fix in my next push.
> >
> > Here's some more. Recurring corrections:
> >
> > columnation -> columniation
> > esthetic -> aesthetic
>
> These are deliberate spellings.
>
> columnation:
> https://www.oed.com/dictionary/columnation_n
> https://wehd.com/17/Columnation.html
> https://www.dictai.org/w/columnate
>
> "aesthetic" is a spelling of æsthetic without the ligature.
>
> However, in groff's documentation we do not use similar "relaxations" of
> the ligated "ae" vowel pair, nor, similarly, "oe". That is, we do not
> (or would not, had these words anny occasion to arise) say
> "encyclopaedia", "haemophilia", or "foetus".
>
> I consider those forms to be Commonwealth English affectations. They
> should be discarded with powdered wigs, fox hunts, and the monarchy. ;-)
>
> The spelling "esthetic" is standard (if less common).
>
> https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/esthetic
> https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/esthetic
>
> Further, whereas one could argue that the unligated "ae" bigram
> indicates to the reader that the vowel sound is a "long e", as in "feed"
> or "meat", and one can point to "encyclop(a)edia" and "h(a)emophilia" in
> support, "(a)esthetic" breaks that pattern. One says "ezz-thetic", not
> "eeze-thetic". Alternatively, to don a fez is a fine esthetic choice,
> but "eeze-thetics" are sleazy. ;-)
>
> But for all I know they say "eeze-thetics" at Eton and Balliol College.
>
> > and then the odd typo.
>
> > An alternative approach to complexity management, particularly when
> > constructing tables, setting mathematics, or drawing diagrams, lies in
> > -preprocessing. A @dfn{preprocessor} employs a domian-specific language
> > +preprocessing. A @dfn{preprocessor} employs a domain-specific language
>
> Got that one already.
>
> commit 74d961509e50e6c9f32bdb0ae5803cb5304f7911
> Author: Stefan Möding <[email protected]>
> Date: Mon Nov 9 07:56:54 2026 +0100
>
> doc/groff.texi.in: Fix typo.
>
> diff --git a/doc/groff.texi.in b/doc/groff.texi.in
> index 614d28a36..e38b76c4b 100644
> --- a/doc/groff.texi.in
> +++ b/doc/groff.texi.in
> @@ -752,7 +752,7 @@
>
> An alternative approach to complexity management, particularly when
> constructing tables, setting mathematics, or drawing diagrams, lies in
> -preprocessing. A @dfn{preprocessor} employs a domian-specific language
> +preprocessing. A @dfn{preprocessor} employs a domain-specific language
> to ease the generation of tables, equations, and so forth in terms that
> are convenient for human entry. Each preprocessor reads a document and
> translates relevant portions of it into GNU @command{troff} input.
>
> > @@ -793,7 +793,7 @@
> > including UTF-8.
> > Unlike most preprocessors,
> > @code{preconv}
> > -operates on its entire enput
> > +operates on its entire input
>
> Good catch! Thanks!
>
> > @@ -1115,7 +1115,7 @@
> > passes relevant options and operands to it.
> >
> > @c We don't know the width of what at-g-at interpolates, so indentation
> > -@c might be hinky. Format for the common case of a null prefix.
> > +@c might be jittery. Format for the common case of a null prefix.
>
> That's not a typo. :) Since this is a comment, I feel that
> colloquialisms are more acceptable there than elsewhere.[1] Also,
> "jittery" is not quite the denotation I want here. The issue is not a
> quantization problem, as implied by "jitter" is the audiovisual domain
> (en_GB: "judder", a perfectly horrid word). The hazard of substituting
> `@g@` with something else in our Texinfo manual is one of inaccuracy,
> not imprecision.
>
> > @@ -1642,7 +1642,7 @@
> > @xref{Device and Font Description Files}.
> > The
> > @option{-X}
> > -option overriddes this selection.
> > +option overrides this selection.
>
> Already taken care of.
>
> commit 91f2085141f1da5d043a7d6ed416e493d70a6df7
> Author: G. Branden Robinson <[email protected]>
> Date: Sun Nov 8 14:43:40 2026 -0600
>
> doc/groff.texi.in: Fix typo.
>
> diff --git a/doc/groff.texi.in b/doc/groff.texi.in
> index f99c843c7..63324d7c2 100644
> --- a/doc/groff.texi.in
> +++ b/doc/groff.texi.in
> @@ -1642,7 +1642,7 @@
> @xref{Device and Font Description Files}.
> The
> @option{-X}
> -option overriddes this selection.
> +option overrides this selection.
>
> @item -U
> @cindex mode, unsafe
>
> > @@ -6015,7 +6015,7 @@
> >
> > @code{groff} @file{ms}
> > organizes most of its internal names into modules.
> > -The naming convenion is as follows.
> > +The naming convention is as follows.
>
> Good catch! Thanks. I see two spots that need fixing.
>
> $ git grep convenion
> doc/groff.texi.in:The naming convenion is as follows.
> tmac/groff_ms.7.man:The naming convenion is as follows.
>
> > @@ -12933,7 +12933,7 @@
> > The default scaling unit is
> > @samp{v}.
> > @var{space}
> > -must be nonnegative.
> > +must be non-negative.
> > Omitting
> > @var{space}
> > implies
>
> Our use of a hyphen in this word is inconsistent. But your change would
> align that text with the majority. Here are the minority cases.
>
> $ git grep nonnegative
> ChangeLog.123: passed a mounting position that is nonnegative. Use `pos`
> as
> ChangeLog.123: not nonnegative, values.
> ChangeLog.123: a last list element being nonnegative if the list size was
> zero
> ChangeLog.124: for adjustment must be nonnegative. While rare, this can
> in
> ChangeLog.124: * src/roff/troff/node.cpp (is_nonnegative_integer): New
> function
> ChangeLog.125: to read a font mounting position, a nonnegative integer.
> In
> ChangeLog.125: *roff, nonnegative integers also happen to be valid
> identifier
> contrib/mm/ChangeLog: that it's a nonnegative integer or in the set
> {a,A,i,I}.
> doc/groff.texi.in:must be nonnegative.
> src/roff/troff/env.cpp: warning(WARN_RANGE, "vertical spacing must be
> nonnegative");
> src/roff/troff/env.cpp: warning(WARN_RANGE, "post-vertical spacing
> must be nonnegative");
> src/roff/troff/env.cpp: // Clark uses `unsigned char` here for a small
> nonnegative quantity
> src/roff/troff/input.cpp: error("expected nonnegative indexed
> character value; got %1",
> src/roff/troff/node.cpp:static bool is_nonnegative_integer(const char *str)
> src/roff/troff/node.cpp: if (is_nonnegative_integer(from.contents())) {
> src/roff/troff/node.cpp: if (is_nonnegative_integer(to.contents())) {
> src/roff/troff/node.cpp:// `pnr` and `pm`. Will need to reject
> nonnegative integers.
>
> "Nonpositive" and "nonzero" should be handled consistently with
> "nonnegative".
>
> I would not, however, write "nonnull".
>
> > @@ -15246,7 +15246,7 @@
> > the next
> > @var{n}
> > productive input lines.
> > -A nonpositive argument cancels any pending underlining.
> > +A non-positive argument cancels any pending underlining.
> > Omitting the argument implies an
> > @var{n}
> > of
>
> Ah, you noted my foregoing point as well. However, in this case,
> the unhyphenated "nonpositive" is in the majority. :-/
>
> > @@ -26060,7 +26060,7 @@
> > character embedded in a string argument is part of that argument,
> > not the beginning of a comment command.
> > Any character other than a decimal numeral
> > -terminates a command that mtakes a numeric argument,
> > +terminates a command that takes a numeric argument,
> > and,
> > if not whitespace,
> > is interpreted as the start of a new command.
>
> Mmmmm, I mthink I'll mincorpororate this mfix, as mwell. Thanks!
>
> (Then all the fly Texinfo skimmers can feel the beat...mmmmmmdrop.)
>
> > @@ -26877,7 +26877,7 @@
> > The legacy compressed encoding makes the content of formatted text
> > in @acronym{AT&T}
> > @command{troff} @c AT&T
> > -output almost incomprehenible.
> > +output almost incomprehensible.
>
> That must have been a consequence of hunt-and-peck typing. Thanks!
>
> Regards,
> Branden
>
> [1]
>
> BIGGS: This is hinky. This guy is a college graduate. He's not going
> to go through all of this security and look for one of his own
> people who may not exist. It's hinky.
>
> GERARD: What does that mean, Biggs--"hinky"?
>
> BIGGS: Strange.
>
> HENRY: Weird.
>
> GERARD: Just say "strange" or "weird". "Hinky"--it has no meaning.
>
> BIGGS: We say "hinky".
>
> GERARD: I don't want you people using words that have no meaning. I'm
> taking the stairs and walking.
>
