On 11/10/14 12:45, mm0fmf wrote: > On 11/10/2014 10:37, Christian Gollwitzer wrote: >> Being a non-native English speaker/writer, I myself stick to the >> recommendations of the Oxford dictionary. >> >> Christian > > But you do realise the Oxford dictionary is different to English usage > and is renowned for using what is known as Oxford spelling? You wont > find -ize used by the BBC in content for the UK nor will you find > British newspapers using it. >
[snip] I don't know about the BBC etc. but it pretty much corresponds to my usage. I tend to use 'ize', but not for words like analyse (where for whatever reason it just doesn't look right with a 'z' - maybe because realization is fine but analyzis is not). I suspect some non-US English speakers, when faced with the option, assume the 'z' might be a US spelling and opt for the 's' instead. A useful rule of thumb perhaps, that might make 's' common usage for e.g. the BBC / newspapers. But 'z' is still used by some of us outside the media. The media have their own quirks when it comes to English. The BBC regularly use "top of" / "bottom of" in the sense of "start of" / "end of", but I don't know any British people who would (currently) use that in conversation. (This only started a few years ago, and the first time I heard it I had to work out what it meant from context.) Duncan -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
