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Spelling
It is often said that English spelling is both irregular and illogical, and it is certainly
true that it is only indirectly related to contemporary pronunciation. English spelling
reflects not modern pronunciation but the pronunciation of the 14th century, as
used by Chaucer. This traditional spelling was reinforced in the 16th and 17th
centuries, in particular through the influence of the works of Shakespeare and the
Authorized Version of the Bible. However, in the two centuries between Chaucer
and Shakespeare English pronunciation had undergone huge changes, but spelling
had failed to follow.
In the 18th century, standard spelling became almost completely fixed. The
dictionaries written in this period, particularly Samuel Johnson's
Dictionary of the
English Language
(1755), helped establish this national standard, which, with only
minor change and variation, is the standard accepted in English today. The complex
history of the English language, together with the absence of any ruling body
imposing ‘spelling reform’, has ensured that many idiosyncrasies and anomalies in
standard spelling have not only arisen but have also been preserved.
The
Oxford Dictionary of English
gives advice and information on spelling,
particularly those cases which are irregular or which otherwise cause difficulty for
native speakers. The main categories are summarized below.
Variant spellings
The main form of each word given in the
Oxford Dictionary of English
is always the
standard British spelling. If there is a standard variant, e.g. a standard US spelling
variant, this is indicated at the top of the entry and is cross-referred if its alphabeti-
cal position is more than three entries distant from the main entry. For examples,
compare filo/phyllo and aluminium/aluminum.
Other variants, such as archaic, old-fashioned, or informal spellings, are cross-
referred to the main entry, but are not themselves listed at the parent entry. For
example, compare Esquimau/Eskimo.
-ise or ize?
Many verbs end with the suffix –ize or ise. The form –ize has been in use in
English since the 16th century, and, despite what some people think, is not an
Americanism. The alternative form –ise is found more commonly in British than in
American English. For most verbs of this class either –ize or –ise is acceptable; this
dictionary has used –ize spellings, with –ise given as an equally correct, alternative
spelling. For some words, however, -ise is obligatory: first, where it forms part of a
larger word element, such as –mise (= sending) in compromise, and –prise (=
taking) in surprise; and second, in verbs corresponding to nouns with –s- in the
stem, such as advertise and televise.
Hyphenation
Although standard spelling in English is fixed, the use of hyphenation is not. In
standard English a few general rules are followed, and these are outlined below.
Hyphenation of noun compounds: There is no hard-and-fast rule saying whether,
for example, airstream, air stream, or air-stream is correct. All forms are found in
use: all are recorded in the Oxford English Corpus and other standard texts.
However, there is a broad tendency to avoid hyphenation for noun compounds in
modern English (except when used to show grammatical function: see below). Thus
there is, for example, a preference for airstream rather than air-stream and for air
raid rather than air-raid. Although this is a tendency in both British and US English
there is an additional preference in US English for the form to be one word and in
British English for the form to be two words, e.g. buck tooth tends to be the
commonest form in British English, while bucktooth tends to be the commonest
form in US English. To save space and avoid confusion, only one of the three
potential forms of each noun compound (the standard British one) is used as the
headword form in the
Oxford Dictionary of English
. This does not, however, imply
that other forms are incorrect or not used.
Grammatical function: Hyphens are also used to perform certain grammatical
functions. When a noun compound made up of two separate words (e.g. credit
card) is placed before another noun and used to modify it, the general rule is that
the noun compound becomes hyphenated, e.g.
I used my credit card
but
credit-card
debt
. This sort of regular alternation is seen in example sentences in the
Oxford
Dictionary of English
but is not otherwise explicitly mentioned in the dictionary
entries.