Submitted by Andrew Kelley on January 27, 2022, at 23:13
A very educative & illustrative document!!
As a Canadian, I prefer to adhere to the Canadian style of spelling myself; I feel that it gives Canada distinction & myself a sense of patriotic pride in having & using those spellings! However, I do prefer to use the British style of spellings for many words as well; e.g., ‘ise’/‘isation’, words with ‘ae’/‘oe’, words like ‘instil’ & ‘fulfil’, &c. I also prefer using British spellings for a number of misc. words, such as ‘programme’ & ‘plough’ instead of ‘program’ & ‘plow’ (I’ll still use program in a computer sense). I’ve read on the Internet, from different sources, that many British spellings, ones that aren’t considered to be usual for Canadian spelling, are considered to be valid alternatives in Canada!
There’s another spelling pattern in British spelling that isn’t as common nowadays as it once was, & that’s ‘xion’ instead of ‘ction’ for words like ‘connexion’ & ‘reflexion’ instead of ‘connection’ & ‘reflection’. It’s still considered an valid alternative in British English, so I choose to use ‘xion’ for those words, & such, when I spell them. I find the spelling’s more in line with those words’ etymological roots (Latin); plus, I really like the way they look spelt with an ‘x’ instead!
There are some words, which have changed, that I would have liked to have seen kept in their older spellings; specifically, other words that had the ‘our’ spelling. There used to be a bunch of words that had that spelling; for the most part, they have been kept in abstract nouns of Old French/Anglo-French origin. In saying that, I feel that the words ‘error’, ‘horror’, ‘terror’, ‘tenor’ (not in the musical sense), & ‘tremor’ should have been kept as ‘errour’, ‘horrour’, ‘terrour’, ‘tenour’, & ‘tremour’. I’ve found ‘tenour’ listed in a current dictionary as a British spelling of the word ‘tenor’, so I’ll use that one when I’m spelling it in the non-musical sense.
Speaking of music, I’d be excited to see ‘ick’, ‘ack’ spellings restored as well; e.g., ‘musick’, ‘aphrodisiack’, &c. I learnt about this spelling back when I was younger in school. I was explained that the ‘ic’ & ‘ac’ spellings are of, mainly, Greek origin & that the letter ‘k’ was used to, possibly, reflect the transliteration of that. It seems that Greek is older than Latin, so I can definitely see the ‘logick’ of what I had mentioned! In that connexion (words of Greek origin), I think that the word ‘alchemy’ & its descendants: ‘chemistry’, &c.; would be benefited from returning to their previous forms: ‘alchymy’, chymistry’, &c.
English used to have two ‘s’s; the one that is used today, ‘s’, & this one, ‘ſ’; the ‘long “s”’. ‘ſ’ used to be used in almost all initial & medial positions, whilst ‘s’ (‘short “s”’) was used almost exclusively at the end of a word. In handwriting, ‘ſ’ was usually only practised in words with ‘ss’, but only the first ‘s’ would be ‘ſ’; e.g., ‘busineſs’, ‘aſsembly’, &c. Printed materials switch to handwritten conventions for ‘ſ’ for a short while before it was dropped entirely. I wouldn’t mind if it came back that way again, as a vestige to the letter that was once used; then there’d be words like ‘aſseſsment’ & ‘expreſsway’, &c!
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to ‘expreſs’ my opinions & reflexions on this document & its subject! I should be most excited to see this posted & hope that there would be other people who would find it interesting!
Thank you.
As a Canadian, I prefer to adhere to the Canadian style of spelling myself; I feel that it gives Canada distinction & myself a sense of patriotic pride in having & using those spellings! However, I do prefer to use the British style of spellings for many words as well; e.g., ‘ise’/‘isation’, words with ‘ae’/‘oe’, words like ‘instil’ & ‘fulfil’, &c. I also prefer using British spellings for a number of misc. words, such as ‘programme’ & ‘plough’ instead of ‘program’ & ‘plow’ (I’ll still use program in a computer sense). I’ve read on the Internet, from different sources, that many British spellings, ones that aren’t considered to be usual for Canadian spelling, are considered to be valid alternatives in Canada!
There’s another spelling pattern in British spelling that isn’t as common nowadays as it once was, & that’s ‘xion’ instead of ‘ction’ for words like ‘connexion’ & ‘reflexion’ instead of ‘connection’ & ‘reflection’. It’s still considered an valid alternative in British English, so I choose to use ‘xion’ for those words, & such, when I spell them. I find the spelling’s more in line with those words’ etymological roots (Latin); plus, I really like the way they look spelt with an ‘x’ instead!
There are some words, which have changed, that I would have liked to have seen kept in their older spellings; specifically, other words that had the ‘our’ spelling. There used to be a bunch of words that had that spelling; for the most part, they have been kept in abstract nouns of Old French/Anglo-French origin. In saying that, I feel that the words ‘error’, ‘horror’, ‘terror’, ‘tenor’ (not in the musical sense), & ‘tremor’ should have been kept as ‘errour’, ‘horrour’, ‘terrour’, ‘tenour’, & ‘tremour’. I’ve found ‘tenour’ listed in a current dictionary as a British spelling of the word ‘tenor’, so I’ll use that one when I’m spelling it in the non-musical sense.
Speaking of music, I’d be excited to see ‘ick’, ‘ack’ spellings restored as well; e.g., ‘musick’, ‘aphrodisiack’, &c. I learnt about this spelling back when I was younger in school. I was explained that the ‘ic’ & ‘ac’ spellings are of, mainly, Greek origin & that the letter ‘k’ was used to, possibly, reflect the transliteration of that. It seems that Greek is older than Latin, so I can definitely see the ‘logick’ of what I had mentioned! In that connexion (words of Greek origin), I think that the word ‘alchemy’ & its descendants: ‘chemistry’, &c.; would be benefited from returning to their previous forms: ‘alchymy’, chymistry’, &c.
English used to have two ‘s’s; the one that is used today, ‘s’, & this one, ‘ſ’; the ‘long “s”’. ‘ſ’ used to be used in almost all initial & medial positions, whilst ‘s’ (‘short “s”’) was used almost exclusively at the end of a word. In handwriting, ‘ſ’ was usually only practised in words with ‘ss’, but only the first ‘s’ would be ‘ſ’; e.g., ‘busineſs’, ‘aſsembly’, &c. Printed materials switch to handwritten conventions for ‘ſ’ for a short while before it was dropped entirely. I wouldn’t mind if it came back that way again, as a vestige to the letter that was once used; then there’d be words like ‘aſseſsment’ & ‘expreſsway’, &c!
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to ‘expreſs’ my opinions & reflexions on this document & its subject! I should be most excited to see this posted & hope that there would be other people who would find it interesting!
Thank you.