Jeremiah wrote: "German and French both have had recent spelling reforms. I think such a reform is long overdue for English." There's a difference in linguistic philosophy between English and languages like French and German. French and German dictionaries are prescriptive, whereas English dictionaries are descriptive. The former reflect the decisions of a governing body (e.g., l'Académie Française); the latter reflects common usage. There is no governing body prescribing either the spelling or the meaning of words used in the English language. We accept certain dictionaries as authoritative (e.g., Merriam-Webster for U.S. English, OED for British English, etc.), which allows us to resolve disputes over meaning. However, unlike French and German dictionaries, they give us alternative spellings in descending order of perceived frequency of use. By the way, it's cheque, not checque. Bill _____
Bill Potts W <http://wfpconsulting.com/> FP Consulting Roseville, CA <http://metric1.org/> http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]
