Sharp PW-E500A operation manual Spelling, Variant spellings, Ise or ize?, Hyphenation

Spelling

It is often said that English spelling is both irregular and illogical, and it is certainly true that it is only indirectly related to contemporary pronunciation. English spelling reflects not modern pronunciation but the pronunciation of the 14th century, as used by Chaucer. This traditional spelling was reinforced in the 16th and 17th centuries, in particular through the influence of the works of Shakespeare and the Authorized Version of the Bible. However, in the two centuries between Chaucer and Shakespeare English pronunciation had undergone huge changes, but spelling had failed to follow.

In the 18th century, standard spelling became almost completely fixed. The dictionaries written in this period, particularly Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755), helped establish this national standard, which, with only minor change and variation, is the standard accepted in English today. The complex history of the English language, together with the absence of any ruling body imposing ‘spelling reform’, has ensured that many idiosyncrasies and anomalies in standard spelling have not only arisen but have also been preserved.

The Oxford Dictionary of English gives advice and information on spelling, particularly those cases which are irregular or which otherwise cause difficulty for native speakers. The main categories are summarized below.

Variant spellings

The main form of each word given in the Oxford Dictionary of English is always the standard British spelling. If there is a standard variant, e.g. a standard US spelling variant, this is indicated at the top of the entry and is cross-referred if its alphabeti- cal position is more than three entries distant from the main entry. For examples, compare filo/phyllo and aluminium/aluminum.

Other variants, such as archaic, old-fashioned, or informal spellings, are cross- referred to the main entry, but are not themselves listed at the parent entry. For example, compare Esquimau/Eskimo.

-ise or ize?

Many verbs end with the suffix –izeor ise. The form –izehas been in use in English since the 16th century, and, despite what some people think, is not an Americanism. The alternative form –iseis found more commonly in British than in American English. For most verbs of this class either –izeor –iseis acceptable; this dictionary has used –izespellings, with –isegiven as an equally correct, alternative spelling. For some words, however, -iseis obligatory: first, where it forms part of a larger word element, such as –mise(= sending) in compromise, and –prise(= taking) in surprise; and second, in verbs corresponding to nouns with –s-in the stem, such as advertise and televise.

Hyphenation

Although standard spelling in English is fixed, the use of hyphenation is not. In standard English a few general rules are followed, and these are outlined below.

Hyphenation of noun compounds: There is no hard-and-fast rule saying whether, for example, airstream, air stream, or air-streamis correct. All forms are found in use: all are recorded in the Oxford English Corpus and other standard texts.

However, there is a broad tendency to avoid hyphenation for noun compounds in modern English (except when used to show grammatical function: see below). Thus there is, for example, a preference for airstream rather than air-streamand for air raid rather than air-raid. Although this is a tendency in both British and US English there is an additional preference in US English for the form to be one word and in British English for the form to be two words, e.g. buck tooth tends to be the commonest form in British English, while bucktooth tends to be the commonest form in US English. To save space and avoid confusion, only one of the three potential forms of each noun compound (the standard British one) is used as the headword form in the Oxford Dictionary of English. This does not, however, imply that other forms are incorrect or not used.

Grammatical function: Hyphens are also used to perform certain grammatical functions. When a noun compound made up of two separate words (e.g. credit card) is placed before another noun and used to modify it, the general rule is that the noun compound becomes hyphenated, e.g. I used my credit card but credit-card debt. This sort of regular alternation is seen in example sentences in the Oxford Dictionary of English but is not otherwise explicitly mentioned in the dictionary entries.

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