On 3 October 2011 11:07, Darac Marjal <mailingl...@darac.org.uk> wrote: > On Sun, Oct 02, 2011 at 02:37:34PM +0100, Terence wrote: >> >> There never has been a single point of authority for spelling (or, >> indeed, grammar) in English (unlike the French Academy which has >> sought to standardise French) and it was only after the great Doctor >> produced his "Dictionary of the English Language" that spelling began >> to become standardised. That was, IIRC, 1755, and was followed by >> others, including Ash who produced his in 1775. > > Really? My understanding was that it was William Caxton, through the > development of the printing press in the 1470s, who began the > standardisation of spelling. By being able to produce thousands of > copies of a work, all identically spelled, he was able to exert much > wider authority than previously. >
To a degree but his compositors would only follow the manuscript given them, and I doubt the proof readers were sufficiently learned to be able to impose a consistent spelling even among themselves. After all there was no central authority upon which to draw.... Terence -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/CAFG91ENwN9cTvHhRVk2H=0xc-sj0vmh3u+n6nvrf1_2ruy+...@mail.gmail.com
