So, Sorting out our Suffixes
Like many of my posts, this follows on a from a discussion at Imperial College London. It's a great place to have random conversations about random (preferably science-, technology- and medicine-related) things: the sheer concentration of people thinking about things is amazing, and sometimes disturbing.
It was also carried out partially due to my recent acquisition of the Oxford Concise English Etymology1 (along with Homer's "Odyssey" and a "Brief Introduction to Consciousness", which were on special offer at a Blackwell somewhere around the West End). And, a small part is due to being randomly assaulted2 with Lojban.
Suffixes. There are, to be honest, everywhere. I've already used quite a few in the previous two paragraphs of rambling, and I'll probably use even more when talking about them. Most of them are consistent across all of the English-speaking3 world: present participles formed with -ing, past participles with -ed. The famous pair which cause contention, of course, is -ise and -ize.
Leaving aside the practical issues, and looking at the history, the divide is really quite clear. The suffix entered the 'latin' alphabet as -izare, from the Greek -ιζειν. The preference for the z sound and litter is clear here, which rather raises the question4, where did the s come from? The answer is it came from the French suffix -iser which has the same root, but some variation caused the variation of z to s. This then became popular in England over the hundreds of years when French was considered the higher form of language, especially as it was the language of the court at various times.
I suspect a number of 'good British folk' would react rather differently if they were told that -ise is the French spelling, and that the Oxford Press (and the Americans) have had it right all this time. Of course, that's assuming that one can be said to be 'right': there isn't much difference between the two. It is, really, a question of taste - I personally intend to bloody well continue using -ise endings, because I think they look slightly nicer (I never did like the letter z) and, perhaps, also because it's also the initials of my degree course. I know of others who think that -ize makes more sense, especially as it better represents the phonic.
And so, I'll leave you with the opinions of a man much greater than myself: David Mitchell, and his short video called 'Dear Americans'. He doesn't mention this particular divide, but I am certain he would include it in permissible things...
- ^ I'm well aware all this info is on-line. I just like owning the book too...there's something about physical media.
- ^ There is no other word for having am IM conversation begin in a language the recipient doesn't even recognise, and Google can't translate.
- ^ Some may argue I'm using the term loosely. I would prefer not to comment in case of invoking Muphry's Law
- ^ Not 'begs the question'. Begging the question is nearly the same as asserting the conclusion in logic, and is a fallacy.