"Words: Woe and Wonder" is an excellent feature. Please keep up the good work!

The article Static over Style reminded me of a curious argument I had with a colleague over the proper Canadian spelling of words ending with the suffix "ize." He contends that "ize" is an Americanism and that "ise" is the British (and Canadian) way. I consider both to be correct, though I prefer to use "ise," probably because this lessened the confusion for me as a young Anglophone lad in a French Immersion program.

I need some help on this one. According to the Oxford dictionary on my shelf, "ise" is a variation of "ize," and "ize" is the principal entry. Neither are designated as particular to British or American English.

However, after a quick check of the Merriam-Webster Web site, it appears that "ise" is not recognised as American English.

Even more intriguing: I use the Canadian English setting for the "spell checker" function in my word processor. I've noticed that it rejects "ize" as a misspelling, offering only the "ise" form.

I consider this to be a hypercorrection. The American spell checker, of course, rejects "ise" in favour of "ize."

Some questions spring to mind. First, what are the origins of the two variations, "ise" and "ize," and is one "more correct" than the other for Canadian usage?

Second, are a growing number of Canadians (and Britons, I suppose) beginning to view "ize" as incorrect, or at least as an Americanisation? If yes, do others see the irony in Bill Gates et al. unwittingly redefining Canadian English?

Cheers,

Trevor Fenton
Waterloo, Ontario

It doesn't take long to realize (realise) that English spelling is untidy, if not a downright mess. But what some people find confounding others celebrate as charming.

Why are ise and ize scattered about pell-mell? It all began with izein in ancient Greek, which evolved into izare in post-classical Latin and then iser in French.

English has been colonized with words from all three languages, including pulverize, moralize, and monopolize.

While it's true that ise is often defined as a "British" preference, ize is actually a better choice most of the time, according to Britain's leading authority on language: the Oxford English Dictionary. (OED)

Since the suffixes of verbs that end with ise and ize are usually based on either Greek or Latin, editors at Oxford have insisted that ize is the more logical choice. They've also argued that many modern words, such as bastardize, Anglicize, and Americanize should be spelled this way for consistency.

"There is no reason why in English the special French spelling (iser) should ever be followed" in these cases, according to the OED. Exceptions are old words that are not even remotely related to izein, including advertise, apprise, comprise, devise, enterprise, exercise, and surprise. (Many Canadians would probably be quick to surmise a French connection.)

For decades most people in Britain appear to have ignored the organization's advice to use ize most of the time. Which is why the 1998 Canadian Oxford Dictionary offers second spellings of words like Canadianize (Canadianise), and then labels them "British."

North Americans, on the other hand, seem to have adopted the practice of using ize far more frequently, according to the 1997 Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage.

To further complicate matters, many news agencies (including the Canadian Press) pick ize over ise in words like organization but opt for yse instead of yze in verbs like paralyse and analyse. (Here lyse comes from the Greek noun lysis.) The Canadian Oxford endorses both spellings, with yze listed before yse each time.

Before our eyes glaze over, it's worth noting that some old French words originally based on Latin had ise at the end, but over the years these turned to ice – suffixes that survive in English today with words like justice and service.

A final point: although spell checkers are handy they're not intended to act as arbiters of proper English – which is why the better ones are designed to be customized to suit one's own preferences. To expand on a point made in the essay "Static over Style," allowing someone to change the way words are spelled in a dictionary is just one more reason Jonathan Swift would probably hate booting up a computer today.

January, 2001

top | other quick queries | contact us