US vs. British spelling, and the most common spelling error I saw in Science & Engineering papers in 2022
Christa Bedwin ???? ???? ?? ???? elbows up, heart open
Can you guess the most common spelling error I saw over the last year? I dare you to drop it in the comments before you read on to discover what it is. And/or, share the most common error or language quirk that you saw this year! I'd love to hear.
BRITISH, AMERICAN, CANADIAN, & AUSTRALIAN SPELLING
Questions? Arguments? Jokes? Write [email protected]
“If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.”
– cartoonist Doug Larson
European, Canadian, Indian, African, and Australian English normally mostly follow British spelling, with some national and regional variations. This group of Englishes is known as Commonwealth English. You might sometimes want to submit papers to American journals, which means using American spelling.?
Why and how is American spelling different?
The answer is actually more scientific than you might assume. When Americans started their country and decided on their own spelling, they decided to try to make it more sensible and scientific. Remember, this was the period of history when revolution, optimization, industrialization, and efficiency were the prime ideas in society.
In a nutshell, British English spelling results from the polyglot experience of an indigenous language being revised, superseded, revived, changed, and added to by many invaders over the centuries: Picts, Celts, Gauls, Romans, Normans, Anglosaxons, Viking. By contrast, American English seeks to make some phonetic sense of the craziness from a single industrial perspective. Just be glad they didn’t go as far as they could have done. For example, we say you “bought” something, with that silent -ough, even though all you hear is “bot.”
But if you are wondering why American spelling seems to be missing some letters, now you know why. Industrial efficiency!
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Dictionaries
You can change your Microsoft Word dictionary to British, Canadian, Australian, or many language choices. In my current version of Word, you do this under Tools?à?Language. It offers me Canadian, American, and a host of other choices. If you are using a different version of Word than I am, Google will help you solve this problem!?
The most common spelling error I have seen in scientific papers this year personally, is for papers that are going to European sources to spell modelled and modelling with one l. That is correct spelling if you are submitting to an American journal, but if you are submitting to UK, European, or Canadian sources, modelling and modelled should use ll, as seen in the Oxford English Dictionary,?https://www.oed.com, and the many spinoff localized Oxford English Dictionaries, including the Canadian one.
If you want to spell in Australian English, use the Macquarie Dictionary,?https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au.
If you want to spell in American, the dictionary of choice is usually Merriam-Webster’s dictionary,?https://www.merriam-webster.com.
By the way, all of these dictionary pages offer amusing word games, and particularly in Macquarie’s, some very funny and interesting articles about how words come about and other fun language topics.
I hope that answers some of your questions. I am always happy to hear from you on LinkedIn or by e-mail. If you would like a PDF copy of this to share with colleagues, just drop me an e-mail, I am happy to share!
Christa Bedwin
SEO & Content Strategy | Strategic Digital Marketing
2 年Thx for this.. was wondering about ‘s’ vs. ‘z’ — what is “maths” vs. ‘’math” about?
The Wordsmith Namibia/AEA Chairlady
2 年In my part of Africa (Namibia), people still struggle to find their English of choice. Sometimes America wins, probably because they were never colonisers, unless you factor in the huge impact of Hollywood. Both Britain and South Africa have left a bad taste in the mouth. But I go for British English, thanks to my ancestry.
Holistic Sustainability | Social Impact Management | Communications and Stakeholder Engagement
2 年Canadian spelling is actually a hybrid of UK/US spelling (a regional variation as you note). We use the -our and - re (centre, theatre) endings, but -ize rather than ise. Other than Microsoft, I’ve found most embedded dictionaries for spelling tend to be either US or UK so I spend a lot of time “add(ing) to dictionary”….
Lead Business Analyst at Wesleyan
2 年I’ve noticed an increasing trend of people typing question marks on sentences which aren’t questions. Presumably to convey that in their head they’re intoning it like a question. Things like: I’m not actually looking for a job at the moment? And of course, missing off question marks when it IS a question! What is that about.