Conference thebay::joyoflex

There is a story that was required reading in the Boston grade school I
attended detailing how Webster single-hadedly changed the language from
English to American.  As the story went, he held a spelling bee at a
party and declared "out" anyone who spelt words in the English manner
with a nasty "That's not how we spell it in AMERICA!"  (This happened
during the anti-Brittish days of the post-revolutionary United States.)
He later went on to decimate the dictionary.  I've always assumed that
the story is apocryphal.  It's a nasty, jingoistic sort of story, and if
it has any truth is a matter of shame for the American public. 

					>>>==>PStJTT

    I like that story. Yes, it was old Noah Webster. He also changed many
    words ending in 'ck' to end in 'c' or 'k' (musick, magick, speack,
    etc.). That particular simplification spread throughout the
    English-speaking world.
    
    	Jon

Re:1.
	More of the story is rising out of the mists, and of course, I forgot
the most important part:  

The reason young Master Webster went into his patriotic fever of American
Spelling was (again according to the story) that he was bounced out of a
spelling bee in school for spelling "colour" wrong.  If you can't pass the
test, change the conditions... 
					>>>==>PStJTT

    Webster did much of his work from a small abode in
    Hartford, Connecticut.  The library, etc. there might
    have more information to authenticate said stories.
    
    	RMM
    

     How did theatRE change to the American theatER?  Is there any 
reason, other than to be cool, why it has changed back to theatRE in 
the USA?  What other words underwent xxxRE->xxxER in the US and have 
or have not changed back?

    Re: .5
    
    Centre and litre are two that come immediately to mind.  It is
    interesting that "theatre" is becoming fashionable in the US but
    "centre" and "litre" are rare.
    
    Bernie

    re:.6
    
    Except in Framingham, where Framingham Center and Framingham Centre
    are two separate places. :-)
    
    --- jerry

    Re: .4
    
    Its no wonder he (Webster) could not spell properly, he even spelt
    Hertford wrong.
    
    dcb (Who_used_to_live_in_the_original_Hertford)
    

Here are the "tre" words I could find.  Perhaps someone else can
research which of these can be spelled with "ter" instead, or which
ones used to be spelled with "ter" etc.

accoutre
antre
bistre
cadastre
centre
dioptre
goitre
litre
lustre
metre
mitre
nitre
philtre
piastre
rencontre
sceptre
spectre
theatre
titre
tre


/Eric

    (or is that the palindromes note?)
    
    Metre/Meter is an interesting one.  In UK spelling, "metre" is used
    for the unit of measurement (and also metre in poetry etc.).  Meter
    is used for the measuring instrument (voltmeter etc.).
    
    We could extend this to the reduction of double letters to single,
    as in travelled -> traveled.  I once confused everyone in one DEC
    facility by asking for a Mr. Vayber.  How was I to know it was
    supposed to be Webber?
    
    Jeff.

     Wasn't George Bernard Shaw intent on simplifying English 
     orthography? It seems to me the endless and boring introductions
     to his plays are full of things that look like typos. Then
     again, maybe I just read cheap editions.

     John H.

    GBS certainly poked fun at the way English is spelt:  he coined
    the word "ghoti", pronounced "fish" - gh as in enough, o as in women,
    ti as in station.
    
    Jeff.

    Re: .12

        GBS certainly poked fun at the way English is spelt
    
    Or, as some of us would put it, "spelled."

    
Lew Lasher

     While we're on the subject of US/UK spellings, here is one I 
always get in trouble about.  Whenever I have a word that ends in a 
short vowel and a consonant, when I want to tack an ending on the 
word, I double the consonant.  EG: edit->editTing, model->modelLer, 
exit->exitTing.  Some people here (in the US) say I overdo it; the 
examples cited should not observe this rule.  I always respond that I
learned a bunch of spelling rules while in junior high school in Hong
Kong, so some of my spelling rules are British and some are American.  

     So, a specific question is:  How do YOU spell 'person-who-models'
and make gerunds of EXIT and EDIT?

     A general question is:  what are the rules for 
	<short-vowel><consonant>   --->
		<short_vowel><consonant><ending>	?

    'editing' (single t) and 'modelling' (double l) are correct in UK
    English.  But so is 'hitting' (double t).  The rule is pretty obscure
    (I don't know it :-) ).  A clue may be in the noun form: edit becomes
    editOr, hit becomes hittEr.
    
    Also, I personally avoid verbing [:-)] exit, because of its derivation.
    "He exits" is tautological - why not "he leaves"?  (If you forced
    me, then one 't') .
    
    Exeo.
    Jeff.

      re .15
      
>    "He exits" is tautological 
      
      Do you mean redundant?  I'm no Latin scholar, but I think I
      remember that, even though the verb sometimes implies its subject,
      it is allowable to state the subject explicitly. 

      Exeunt omnes.
      
      Dave C.

    Re: .14
    
    'Transmit' goes to 'transmitting', but 'edit' goes to 'editing'.
    
    'Model' can go to either 'modeling'/'modeler' or 'modelling'/
    'modeller'.  Either spelling is considered correct.
    
    When in doubt, check your dictionary.  If you're still not sure,
    try to imagine what the recipient will think looks better.
    
    "When in Rome...."

    The correct rule for English is as follows:
    
    If a monosylabic word [one grunt] or a polysylabic word ending in
    a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, is accented on the 
    final sylable, then double the final consonant before adding 
    a suffix begining with a vowel.
    
    
    re: .17  your dictionary shows usage that is "common", not
    "correct.":-)
    

    Re: -.1
    
    I guess we "commoners" just like to establish a rapport with those
    to whom we wish to communicate.  I'll leave the arguments on
    "correctness" to the nobility. :^)
    

   In language, what is "common" soon is "correct." 

   John H.    

A number of years back, I was having a discussion with a technical
writer about

	"When inputting the date, use the following format:..."

The debate was whether "inputing" or "inputting" is correct.

We finally realized that NEITHER is correct because "input" is
not a verb (or at least didn't used to be!).

So, I think we settled for

	"When typing the date..."

/Eric

    re: .19 I agree that if "correct" makes something so awkward that
    it interferes with the communication of the message, then it should
    be ignored or rephrased.  
    
    	Rick Merrill
    

    re .21:
    
    >	"When inputting the date, use the following format:..."

    How about,
    
         When entering the data, use the following format:...
              --------
    
                                                   
                  /
                 (  ___
                  ) ///
                 /
    

      Re .18
      
      Title:   -< depends on the pronounciation >-
      
      Arrgh.  'Pronunciation,' not 'pronounciation.'
      
      Dave C.

      
      I know, I know:  'Arrgh' is not a word.

    re:.21
    
    Well, etymologically speaking, if one was to use "input" as a
    verb, the gerund form would be "inputting", since "input" is a
    combination of "in" and "put", and "putting" is the proper
    gerund for "put".
    
    "When putting in the data..." would have been acceptable.
    
    --- jerry

    re: .25
    
    Use posessive before the gerund:
    
    "When's inputting the data ...
    
    
    Oh!  You ment "While [you are] inputting the data..."?
    
    	RMM
    

    re:.25
    
    Well, maybe not!
    
    Another note just pointed out that you double the final consonant
    when the LAST syllable of a word is accented and has a single vowel
    followed by a single consonant, i.e., put is monosyllabic and is
    the same as accented, thus putting; also, controlling, etc.
    
    But INput has the emPHAsis on the wrong syLABble for that rule to
    apply.  Thus, "inputing".  However, there's probably a rule in the
    VERY small print that says you base the word on the radical, not
    the actual word, and since input is a contraction of "in" plus "put", 
    it's still doubled.  That's speculative.
    
    There.  Isn't English speling easie?

    Assuming for the sake of argument that "input" is a real word then
    the question is is it pronounced "in'put" or "in-put'"?
    Well, guess what, American Heritage (measily 60,000 wds) defines
    it as "-in'put'" v. so any inputting to the word "inputing" would
    seem to be acceptible!
    
    I recommend the double "t" to underscore the correct pronunciation
    of the vowel, as contrasted with the verb "to impute" which becomes
    "imputing".
    
    	Rick Merrill
    

    Re .-whatever
    
    So the deletion of redundant vowels from the American language was
    performed by Noah Webster in Hartford, Conn.  Is that also where
    the work of adding redundant vowels (reredundying the American
    language) was centred?

    Noah, being a good Connecticut Yankee, couldn't bear to waste
    anything, so he had to find a use for all those vowels he had left
    over.  
    
    This is the same reason certain Bostonians put the r's they drop
    from words like 'cah' onto the end of other helpless words like
    'parka' --  "Drive youa cah down to oua stoa and get a great deal
    on ski parkers!"
    
    --bonnie

    RE: 237.29

    >So the deletion of redundant vowels from the American language was
    >performed by Noah Webster in Hartford, Conn.

    Melvil Dewey (of Dewey Decimal System fame) wanted to simplify American
    English even more.  Many of his suggestions were ignored, except for
    the way he chose to spell his name and (in the U.S. at least) the
    spelling of catalog when referring to library indexing systems.

                                        Aaron

>>	Many of his suggestions were ignored, except for
>>  	the way he chose to spell his name and (in the U.S. at least)
    
    Only in part.  He wanted to spell his last name Dui.
    
    -dave