Official Site Spellings

I believe that all Canadians should spell words the Commonwealth way in a subtle resistance to Americanisation. It only takes a couple weeks of effort to get into it as a habit.

As for it being an official site policy, it would be extra work for our editors, so I think they should decide whether such a policy is a good idea to edit posts to use the Commonwealth spellings. Regardless, I encourage anyone submitting or commenting to use such spellings.

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Jesse

I'm with Jesse ... I prefer the Commonwealth spellings myself (I regularly submit to an American site and it drives me crazy when they alter it; they do the same thing to a colleague who writes from New Zealand and another who writes from Nigeria).

But I refuse, when speaking out loud, to say 'lef-tenant' just because the Brits couldn't stand using a French word a few hundred years ago. It's my one anti-Commonwealth foible. So there.

Paul Harris

I am with Paul here - I can not stand that word, I hated saying it even when I had to!

Though, the american and canadian spellings are now so intertwined its hard for some to pull them apart. I know I am guilty of that often.

Canadian spelling varies from the British version (colour vs. color, cheque vs. check) to the American spellings of other words, like: realiZe versus realiSe-the latter being British.

Therefore, our spelling is a unique combination of commonwelath and American spelling.

I disagree...

I for one, like many of the American spellings in the same way I like American writers and American music. Americans create certain unique things, this includes their spelling.

Take for example--"globalize". "Globalization" with a Z is something much more threatening to be against, rather than "Globalisation" with an S, which sounds somewhat effiminate.

That being said, I prefer labour and theatre, which seem somehow more refined. Not to mention the dreaded Foxboro and Greenboro, which are seem *very* declasse.

The ending -boro brings up an interesting point. The reason many cities in the US have that suffix is because in the 19th century some central agency, a federal department I can't recall, lead a push to standardize and economize (see the use of the "z"--much more rigorous) place names across the country. The result of this top-down bureaucratic push was abominations like Foxboro.

I would suggest having a "recieved" spelling at Vive would be much the same--a top-down imposition that would stifle creativity and local expression.

And why should the "official" spelling be Commonwealth (read: Imperial)? Surely this is legacy of a colonial past. Then again, why should bring the American spellings onboard whole hog?

The solution is to go with the flow, use some American spellings some Commonwealth spellings. Whatever seems best at the moment. In the end, unique Canadian spellings will develop.

'received'.

Are we can use computer language like "ur" instead of "your", "u" instead of "you", "thx" instead of "thanks", "yw" instead of "your welcome“. Of course there are others.

This computer language which you see mostly when you instant message with others, I'm also starting to see in forums. Could this computer language stuff start to be a negative effect on the English language over time? Who knows.

Kevin Gagnon

Absolutely Kevin, I find spelling a major issue in the written language, professionals write letters with major 'typos' and don't even check the text before they sign it. I received letters from government, doctors offices, lawyers etc that all fit this description. The more we erode our language skills the more we forget. I just wish there was a Canadian spell check. Obviously in this comment section there will be typo's due to the speed with which people usually comment, but that I ignore because of the forum, but not in articles, newspapers, books, or formal correspondence etc.

I don't think we should give up our english tradition, the American spellings denote a certain laziness, in my mind. For instance, 'nite' rather than 'night', also the 'your' gets used when it should say, 'you're' and in that case it has an entirely different meaning. Also adverstisers use the slangy spellings probably it started as a way to get attention, because it was different, but now it is norm. Just look at diet foods in the stores, they are called, 'lite' which means what exactly?

To me, commonwealth, or imperial, has nothing to do with it. I thought it had more to do with speaking proper english. Labour, colour, are correct spellings in my mind. Light- correct spelling! To me, this is proper english. And of course, how do you pronounce this word? - ADVERTISEMENT. Not ad-ver- TEYES-ment. But- ad-VER-tis -ment. The tis as in `tis the season. But I can appreciate many American things too. I just choose to speak proper english. Funny thing, though. In the Winston Canadian dictionary, realize is spelled with a ZED.

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Dave Ruston

In the United Kingdom, "practice" is the noun, "practise" the verb; but in the U.S. the spelling "practice" is commonly used for both, though the distinction is sometimes observed. "Practise" as a noun is, however, always wrong in both places: a doctor always has a "practice," never a "practise." <a href="http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/practice.html">source</a>

That was me, in the comment above...

Are we also going to use the word tyre instead of tire?

Is a billion going to be a million million or a thousand million?

Can we start saying petrol instead gas?

As a person with a degree in Honours English (not honors, thanks) I want to say that I am very conscious of this issue. <p> But I want to emphasize that to divide our choices between American and British spellings is to miunderstand Canadian language use. <p> Yes, in many ways we echo the British, but not in all cases. To use Canadian spellings such as "our" vs "or" is not to simply adopt a colonial attitude and the language of the British empire. <p> For a good explanation, see this <a href="http://www.geist.com/columns/columns.php?id=16">column by Stephen Henighan</a>: <P> <blockquote> Standard Canadian spelling follows British spelling in many, though not all, cases. (The British drive on “tyres,” use “aluminium” siding and “realise” that they can be sent to “gaol.”) Like other aspects of Canadian culture, our spelling, in spite of its second-hand appearance, is unique. Part of our inheritance is a system for distinguishing between related nouns and verbs. The laminated card that authorizes you to get behind the wheel of a car is a “licence,” but the bar from which you take a cab home is “licensed.” Your son “practises” a sport, but you drive him to “practice.” <p> My students at the University of Guelph—and even some of my colleagues—are unable to master this system. Many of them write “colour” and “favour” and sometimes “centre,” as a basic declaration of identity, but after that they throw up their hands. Their confusions mirror the inconsistencies of the signs we see around us, where dissonant spellings mingle. Our newspapers offer little guidance. For years Canadian newspapers used U.S. spelling. In the early 1990s the Globe and Mail, in theory, changed to Canadian spelling. Major Southam papers such as the Montreal Gazette switched to an impoverished version of Canadian spelling, adopting “centre” but not “colour”; under Conrad Black’s ownership of Southam, the “-our” forms came into use, though some American spellings (“traveler,” “two-story house”) were retained. Quill & Quire, another editing anomaly, brandishes a house style that juxtaposes the Canadian “offence” with the U.S. “defense.”... <p> Most younger Canadian writers, even the best ones, spell inconsistently. Michael Redhill, in Fidelity, shuffles between “moulded” and “molded”; Ann-Marie MacDonald, in The Way the Crow Flies, alternates the U.S. “crenelated” with the Canadian “panelled.” While these writers’ lapses are rare, the inconsistencies run rampant in many who are less accomplished. Almost no Canadian writer—not even Leo McKay, Jr., who is a high school teacher in Truro, Nova Scotia, and one of the few Canadian authors who continues to write “snowplough” rather than “snowplow”—can resist the insidious spread of “license” as a noun. Any spelling adopted by high school teachers in Truro, Nova Scotia has become the Canadian standard. <P> The case of “licence/license” and “practice/practise” shows how inconsistency (also exemplified by hyper-corrections such as a “licenced” bar or an “honourary” consul) is the hallmark of cultural erosion. In the Ottawa Valley village where I grew up, grade four girls from families with modest formal schooling would chant, “‘Ice’ is a noun so when ‘practice’ is a noun you write it with ‘ice.’” This dictum enabled them to disentangle “licence” from “license” and spell “defence” correctly. Such seemingly trivial ditties are the bricks and mortar of a culture. <p> It is tempting to shrug off the scattershot spelling of current authors, attributing it to an uphill struggle against U.S. spell-checking programs (although most computer programs now offer a Canadian spell-check option), or seeing in the inconsistencies a typical Canadian compromise between American and British customs. But this won’t wash, because current spelling is too irregular to fit a defined pattern, and most publishers no longer enforce a uniform house style. A conscious move away from British spelling toward American forms might be interpreted as an ideological statement in favour of integration into U.S. culture—and to some extent the promotion of U.S. spelling in Alberta and British Columbia may be seen in this way. (Hence the unusual spelling career of the B.C./Alberta novelist Gail Anderson-Dargatz. Her first novel used U.S. spelling; after acquiring a national audience she switched to Canadian spelling.) <P> To state the spelling question in terms of British versus American is to misunderstand it. Canadian writers long ago forged distinctive spelling conventions. The question is why—without any of the passion that swirls around spelling wars in countries like Germany or Romania—these conventions are fraying even as they have been consolidated by the publication of volumes such as the Oxford Canadian Dictionary (1998). My summer reading turned up a “theatre” here, an “odour” there, with other spellings intermittently Americanized; where the authors stumbled, the editors were incapable of picking up the slack. This is not a conscious decision, nor is it trivial: it is evidence in microcosm of a culture that is being forgotten. </blockquote> <P> In practical terms, it would be impossible to enforce a policy of Canadian spellings only for visitors to the site (too much energy to bug all people who comment etc). What I have been doing so far and will continue to do is to use Canadian spellings/conventions where possible in "official" site materials such as our static content (FAQ, About pages etc) and in our columns where possible. I will always give preference to Canadian spellings in submissions as I'm editing. <P> And PS I made the choice on the word "globalization" to use the z spelling because it seems to be very common usage here in Canada. But I would accept globalisation as well.

<i>it would be impossible to enforce a policy of Canadian spellings only for visitors to the site (too much energy to bug all people who comment etc).</i><p> And it breeds a new form of troll, the "Grammar/Spelling/Punctuation Nazi".<p> Way I see it, english was standardized many moons ago. That's what I'll use. And because it bugs Americans when I use words like "kilogram" and "colour". hehehe.<p> <p>---<br>"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme" Mark Twain <br />
"The greatest price of not participating in politics is being governed by your inferiors." Plato

I had a very hard time learning to spell. I was, and am, left handed, in a school that wanted only right handed students. I think I came out of that experience ambidextrous because I don't know if I would have used both hands had I not been forced to write with my right hand.

I envy your discussion of the "proper" way to spell. I've always complained "how do you look up a word if you don't know how to spell it?" I'm sitting here with Merriam-Webster On-line with me. What kind of spelling is in that dictionary?