RE: Same language, two locales

[John Cowan]

On Sun, 3 Sep 2000, Alistair Vining wrote:

> Except that the Oxford dictionaries (and hence many UK users) have gone over
> to -ize spellings, so you have to learn to ignore the false negatives and
> search for the false positives...

In this case it is the Americans and the Oxonians who preserve the
traditional spelling of English words derived from Greek words in "-izein".
The change "-ize" > "-ise" (doubtless by analogy with non-Greek words
in "-ise" such as "advertise") is a 19th-century innovation.

-- 
John Cowan                                   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"[O]n the whole I'd rather make love than shoot guns [...]"
        --Eric Raymond