Title: Re: [USMA:34530] Re: spelling
Dear Jim,
My point was not that I am advocating that all Americans should change to the 'metre' spelling but rather the use of two different spellings comes to us all at a considerable cost.
Not only do editors outside the USA have to carefully think about whether they choose metre or meter, but editors within the USA also have to edit carefully when they are preparing work for an international audience.
In the example I gave of editing a Chemical Engineering encyclopedia for a largely American audience I used the spelling, meter, although I have to say that I originally wrote the work using micrometres, millimetres, and metres. The change to micrometers, millimeters, and meters took place at the final editing stage.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin LCAMS
Geelong, Australia
61 3 5241 2008
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.metricationmatters.com
LCAMS means that Pat Naughtin has been recognised as a 'Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist' with the United States Metric Association.
This email and its attachments are for the sole use of the addressee and may contain information that is confidential and/or legally privileged. This email and its attachments are subject to copyright and should not be partly or wholly reproduced without the consent of the copyright owner. Any unauthorised use of disclosure of this email or its attachments is prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please immediately delete it from your system and notify the sender by return email.
on 2005-09-19 02.55, [EMAIL PROTECTED] at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Pat Naugtin, 17 September 2005:
>
>> ... The difference in spelling is a very important issue for
>> those of us who write, who edit, and who publish. Every word
>> of every document that is intended or might even be potentially
>> used in both a 'metre' market and a 'meter' market has to be
>> carefully checked word-by-word to determine the context and
>> to consider if it is appropriate in each individual context.
>
> This surprises me, coming from you Pat. Not that two versions of
> English complicate editing, but that you consider that reason for
> telling several hundred million people to change thier language. Why
> not just say the whole world should switch to Esperanto, and make an
> editor's job really easy?
>
> Like it or not, the -re spelling is not a part of American English,
> while the -er spelling is. Same with -our and -or (colour, color).
> And as I pointed out, 69% of English speakers use the American
> version, so why push American English to be the one to change? If
> everyone used "meter" your editing problems would disappear just as
> quickly as if everyone used "metre."
>
> If our goal is to metricate America, we do not speed up the process
> by adding unnecessary tasks to the job.
>
> Jim Elwell
>
>
>
