Paul Magnussen -> RE: How many languages do you speak?? (Mar. 6 2016 1:29:45)
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Good to see you didn't use rationalize there I thought about it (although I was educated to use -ise), because • It's more phonetic and more etymologically correct (the ultimate source being the greek -izo, it says here). • It would bring my spelling into line with the OUP, CUP and Times, and also make it less strange to Americans. But, according to Fowler: “It must be noticed, however, that a small number of verbs, some of them in very frequent use, like advertise, devise, and surprise, do not get their -ize even remotely from the Greek -izo, and must be spelt with -s-. the diffiiculty of remembering which these -ise verbs are is in fact the only reason for making -ise universal, and the sacrifice of significance to ease does not seem justified. The more important of these exceptions are here given: advertise, advise, apprise, chastise, circumcise, comprise, compromise, demise, despise, devise, disenfranchise, enfranchise, enterprise, excise, exercise, improvise, incise, premise, revise, supervise, surmise, surprise, televise.” I couldn’t be bothered to memorise all these. So in the end I said Sod it.
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