Post B2TDFKdLSOjRfrcZkG by tfb@functional.cafe
 (DIR) More posts by tfb@functional.cafe
 (DIR) Post #B2T7VRHntJrdDOqJHM by clacke@libranet.de
       2026-01-20T07:07:49Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       According to Wikipedia, "finalise" is a "Non-Oxford British English standard spelling" of "finalize". If I check the OED, "finalise" redirects to the canonical "finalize".So that means UK and US both use "finalize", right? What is a standard British spelling that is non-Oxford? Who monitors that?It seems that most people online are sure that "finalise" is the British spelling, regardless what the OED says.I got curious where Euro English stands on this, and searched the European Commission site. It uses "finalise" a handful of times and "finalize" zero times.Now I'm curious where Commission English is standardized.en.wiktionary.org/wiki/finalis…
       
 (DIR) Post #B2TCoToRDpI8K70QNM by mansr@society.oftrolls.com
       2026-01-20T08:07:12Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @unixsmurf @clacke That's a different category of word.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2TDFKdLSOjRfrcZkG by tfb@functional.cafe
       2026-01-20T08:12:09Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @clacke Common British spelling uses -ise and -lyse forms, but Oxford spelling insists on dying on the molehill of but in the original Greek pedantry thus -ize but -lyse. In particular, newspapers don't follow the pedantic Oxford style.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2TLfAPAuNZt75p6WG by mansr@society.oftrolls.com
       2026-01-20T09:46:24Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @unixsmurf @clacke Citizen doesn't end in -ize. Nobody questions the spelling of zebra either. The real question is, how do you spell Americani[sz]e?
       
 (DIR) Post #B2Wct0EjnAemKH0Kbg by clacke@libranet.de
       2026-01-21T23:43:20Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @tfb Is there a documented Common British? Newspaper style guide?Regardless if it's spelled -ise or -ize, it's pronounced -ize, so I don't know quite where the Greeks come in. Does Oxford have a consistent mapping from Greek letter to English Latin character?
       
 (DIR) Post #B2Wd7IhlvMKLetP1s0 by clacke@libranet.de
       2026-01-21T23:45:55Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @unixsmurf @mansr All rules are pretend! Pretend rules are real!In the sphere of "depends on which of the 20 languages we mugged for words", there are pockets of consistency. 😄
       
 (DIR) Post #B2Xr83v3yWjobjpwMi by tfb@functional.cafe
       2026-01-22T13:57:13Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @clacke There are definitely newspaper style guides. To the extent that your needs overlap with a newspaper's, The Guardian's guide is perfectly fine (on their website). Hart's Rules is also fine, very book orientated, and is good at pointing out the elements of style about which one needs to take a decision.Generally, I find questions of style strangely fraught in English. There's the question of the many dialects, but also a systemic pedantry that aspires to the loathsome Académie française. So many style sections of dictionaries and style guides, will give rules that are not followed by the great writers in the language. Rather than cite T. S. Eliot and Virginia Wolf and William Faulkner and James Baldwin and so on, they'll make "rules" that none of those writers followed.The OED is mostly a decent counter-example, relying heavily on citations of known good works. But then, to answer your commentI don't know quite where the Greeks come inIf you look up the question of ise vs ize endings in the OED, you'll be treated to a pedantic discussion involving classical Greek, the letters iota zeta eta, Latinisation, Middle French, etc. So they go contrary to conventional British usage and make a weird pedantic argument. The peculiar style they advocate exists and is relatively common in certain circles, but is a bit of an elite aberration.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2XrO7fDoxs8r25LxA by tfb@functional.cafe
       2026-01-22T13:59:59Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @clacke Myself, I've long ago decided to just go with my idiosyncratic mid-Atlantic mishmash, and when trying to write more formally to just take a more Gallic approach and look at usage rather than "rules". My spelling in particular though is just an indefensible combination of valid English spellings (-:
       
 (DIR) Post #B2ZjPeJ9Wg1J4QtpEe by clacke@libranet.de
       2026-01-23T11:40:40Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       > long and kind of ranty@tfb Excellent! Wonderful! 🥰