LANGUAGE TAG REGISTRATION FORM (last updated 2003-07-09) Name of requester : Michael Everson E-mail address of requester: everson&evertype.com Tag to be registered : en-GB-oed English name of language : English, Oxford English Dictionary spelling Native name of language (transcribed into ASCII): English, Oxford English Dictionary spelling Reference to published description of the language (book or article): The orthographies of en-GB and en-US differ in a number of ways, largely due to reforms introduced by Webster. The kinds of differences are summarized here: en-US artifact, center, color, esophagus, esthetic, rationalize en-GB artefact, centre, colour, oesophagus, aesthetic, rationalise The spelling used in the editorial practice of the Oxford English Dictionary, however, differs from other en-GB spellings in its preference for -ize (and deriviatives -ized, -izes, -izing, -ization) to -ise for words making use of this productive Greek suffix. The tag en-GB-oed can be used to mark text which, for instance, should be spell-checked against an Oxford-specific spelling dictionary, rather than a generic "British" one. References From Pearsall, Judy, ed. 2001. The new Oxford dictionary of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860441-6: "The form -ize has been in use in English since the 16th century; although it is widely used in American English, it is not an Americanism. The alternative spelling -ise (reflecting a French influence) is in common use, especially in British English." From Simpson, J. A., and E. S. C. Weiner, eds. 1994. The Oxford English dictionary. Second edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press: "... the suffix itself,whatever the element to which it is added, is in its origin the Greek -izein, Latin -izare, and, as the pronunciation is also with z, there is no reason why in opposition to that which is at once etymological and phonetic. In this dictionary the termination is written uniformly -ize." From Friedrichson, G. W. S. 1975. The shorter Oxford dictionary on historical principles. Third edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-861126-9: "The suffix, whatever the element to which it is added, is in its origin the Gr. -izein, L. -izare; and, as the pronunciation is also with z, there is no reason why in English the special French spelling -iser should ever be followed. Hence here the termination is uniformly written -ize." ------- (created 2003-07-09) []