h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A1012500

>looking for a way to publicize - publicise

Note: both -ize and -ise are considered standard British English. Does h2g2 have a preference?

Yes, both are correct, but '-ise' is the more common British usage - there's a neat little section in A1006507 and on a World Service 'Learning English' page http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv19.shtml there's an answer that suggests '-ise' is preferable to Brits. (Your posting led me to a little Google session

Suppose it's a grey area in terms of h2g2, though.

One of the first things stated in <./>SubEditors-Style</.> is 'Use British spelling [...]' - and thus I have always changed -ize to -ise while subbing. This may not be linguistically correct, strictly speaking, but never got a complaint...

I've always done the same, for the same reason

Gnomon is right, though; either are correct. From what I read last night, however, the -ize form is used almost exclusively in dictionaries and formal texts, whereas -ise is used everywhere else. I would suggest using -ise in any case, as it keeps a standard across the site and is used in British English spellcheckers - hence the majority of entries submitted would use that form.

Is that sensible?

Sounds sensible to me.

The thing I found most interesting is that the British have turned away from the more 'correct' Latin root (-ize) over the last century or so. We seem to put ourselves up as the last guardians of the Mother Tongue, where as we're the ones that have allowed an odd 'Britishisation' into our language. On this one it feels a little odd to admit that the Americans, technically, are looking after a purer form of the language.

We also broke the rules in naming chemicals when we decided we'd call it 'aluminium' instead of 'aluminum' as the Americans do. I think I'm right in saying that the suffix -ium in this case, as opposed to just -um, is unique in the Periodic Table.

I shouldn't really be posting 'where as' instead of 'whereas' on a Curator thread, should I?