On Mon, Jan 30, 2023 at 10:05 Scott Kostyshak <skost...@lyx.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 30, 2023 at 07:26:31AM +0100, Jürgen Spitzmüller wrote: > > Am Montag, dem 30.01.2023 um 08:28 +1300 schrieb Andrew Parsloe: > > > Just to confuse matters, my "New Oxford English Dictionary" (in fact > > > from the 1990s) has "acknowledgement (also acknowledgment)" whereas > > > with words like "colour" and "tyre" it has "colour (US color)", "tyre > > > (US tire)". In other words, it doesn't see the > > > "acknowledgement/acknowledgment" distinction as a UK/US one. > > > > Thanks. According to my (rather superficial) research, both variants > > seem to be used in both regions to _some_ degree, though the "e" > > variant seems to be significantly more frequent outside US than within > > US and Canada, where the other variant seems more common. > > > > Some dictionaries, and particular spelling-related blogs and fora do > > make the distinction explicitly. I have become aware of it while > > revising the English Additional Features manual, as my (US) English > > spellchecker (hunspell) nagged about Acknowledgement and suggested > > Acknowledgment. > > > > Such national variety distinctions are always fuzzy when you look > > closer. The question here probably boils down to what users from that > > regions would expect. > > I wish I could give a helpful perspective from a "native" U.S. English > speaker, but this word (and its friends "judgment" and "judgement") have > haunted me for a long time. Just going off of memory, I think I usually > spell it "acknowledgement" because that makes more sense to me from a > spelling "rules" perspective, but I remember searching and realizing > that "acknowledgment" is indeed the U.S. way to spell it. So now I try > to use that for consistency. But every few months or so, whenever I > spell it the U.S. way I second-guess myself and think I've made a > spelling mistake and I spend 10 minutes googling and looking at > discussions and historical origins and then I spend another 2 minutes > lamenting that the time I spent googling was not worth the cost of a > potential spelling mistake. > > In summary, I think you are right that in U.S. English the most common > is "acknowledgment". In these circumstances and others for style and grammar, I’ve started turning to the Chicago Manual of Style. It has been a tremendous resource and “rule book” to help ensure consistency for all of the above. In this case, section 7.1 of the 17th edition would point us to Merrimam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary as the preferred source, which indicates acknowledgment. Hope this helps, Joel P.S., just recently I was writing a paper and LyX had red underlined and encouraged me to change from acknowledgement to acknowledgment. :-)
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