rbutterworth@watmath.waterloo.edu (Ray Butterworth) (07/22/88)
In article <1051@garth.UUCP>, smryan@garth.UUCP (Steven Ryan) writes: > >Because my Webster's indicates that *realize* is the only valid spelling! > I have a dictionary that says -ise is normal and -ize is an american variant. That's funny. My Oxford English Dictionary says that -ize is the correct English spelling everywhere and that -ise is an acceptable British variant. Here's an excerpt from the Oxford English Dictionary: "-isation", frequent variant of "-ization". "ise", a frequent spelling of "ize", suffix forming verbs, which see. "-ization", suffix forming nouns of action from verbs, in "ize". "ize", suffix forming verbs. ... and this became established as the normal form form for the latinizing of Greek verbs, or the formation of verbs upon Greek analogies. ... in modern French, the suffix has become "iser" .... Hence, some have used the spelling "ise" in English, as in French, ... and some prefer "ise" in words formed in French or English from Latin elements, retaining "ize" for those of Greek composition. But the suffix itself, whatever the element to which it is added, is in its origin the Greek iota-zeta-epsilon-iota-nu, Latin "izare"; and, as the pronounciation is also with z, there is no reason why in English the special French spelling should be followed, in opposition to that which is at once etymological and phonetic. In this Dictionary the termination is uniformly written "ize". Note especially the last three lines: "there is no reason why ...". The unix spell program is especially bad on this. The man page even documents that it is wrong. The -ize words really should be put into the common word list. Insisting on -ise with the -b option is almost as bad as insisting on "nite" and rejecting "night" for American spelling.