On Mon, 16 Apr 2007 at 07:53:02 +0200, Roger wrote: > If you are meaning meaning that it chooses -ize instead of -ise > endings, these days these endings are often considered as optional > even in British dictionaries.
In fact some sources (such as the Oxford English Dictionary) prefer -ize. The following quote is from Ask Oxford.com (http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutspelling/ize?view=uk) Are spellings like 'privatize' and 'organize' Americanisms? 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. -- Robin Using The Bat! v3.98.4 Windows XP 5.1 Build 2600 Service Pack 2 Popfile v0.22.4 ________________________________________________ Current version is 3.98.04 | 'Using TBUDL' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
