Oxford spelling

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oxford spelling (or Oxford English spelling) is the spelling used in the editorial practice of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and other English language dictionaries based on the OED, for example the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, and in academic journals and text books published by Oxford University Press. In digital documents, the use of Oxford spelling can be indicated with the language tag en-GB-oed.

Oxford spelling follows British spelling in combination with the suffix -ize instead of -ise. For instance, organization, privatize and recognizable are used instead of organisation, privatise and recognisable. In the last few decades, the suffix -ise has become the usual spelling in the UK. Therefore, many people incorrectly regard -ize as an Americanism, although the form -ize has been in use in English since the 16th century. ^[1] The use of -ize instead of -ise does not affect the spelling of words ending in -yse, which are spelt analyse, paralyse and catalyse in line with standard British usage.

In the Oxford English Dictionary, the choice to use -ize instead of -ise is defended as follows: "[...] some have used the spelling -ise in English, as in French [...] But the suffix itself, whatever the element to which it is added, is in its origin the Greek -izein, Latin -izare; and, as the pronunciation is also with z, there is no reason why in English the special French spelling should be followed, in opposition to that which is at once etymological and phonetic. In this Dictionary the termination is uniformly written -ize."

1 Usage
2 Language tag comparison
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Usage

Today, all major newspapers and magazines in the UK use -ise. The Times had been using -ize until the early 1980s, when it decided to switch to the -ise spelling. The Times Literary Supplement, Britain's most influential literary review has continued to use Oxford spelling. Oxford spelling is also used in academic publications; the London-based scientific journal Nature uses Oxford spelling, for example. Even though British dictionaries generally give -ize variants first, the British government prefer -ise.

Outside Britain, Oxford spelling is the de facto spelling standard used in style guides of international organizations that belong to the UN System, for example the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization and UNESCO. UN treaties and declarations, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights follow Oxford spelling. Other international organizations that adhere to this standard include the International Organization for Standardization, the World Trade Organization and the International Telecommunication Union.

[edit] Language tag comparison

The following table summarizes a few general spelling differences between the three most commonly used spelling systems. Note: en-GB simply stands for British English, it is not specified whether -ize or -ise should be used. The language tag en-GB-oed however requires the consistent use of -ize and -ization.