Everything about Oxford Spelling totally explained
Oxford spelling (or
Oxford English spelling) is the
spelling used in the editorial practice of the
Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and other English language dictionaries based on the OED, for example the
Concise Oxford English Dictionary, and many academic journals and text books published by
Oxford University Press. In digital documents, the use of Oxford spelling can be indicated with the
language tag en-GB-oed.
Oxford spelling follows British spelling in combination with the suffix
-ize instead of
-ise. For instance,
organization,
privatize and
recognizable are used instead of
organisation,
privatise and
recognisable. In the last few decades, the suffix
-ise has become very popular in the UK. Therefore, many people incorrectly regard
-ize as an
Americanism, although the form
-ize has been in use in English since the 16th century. The use of
-ize instead of
-ise doesn't affect the spelling of words ending in
-yse, which are spelt
analyse,
paralyse and
catalyse in line with standard British usage.
In the
Oxford English Dictionary, the choice to use
-ize instead of
-ise is defended as follows: "[...] some have used the spelling
-ise in English, as in French [...] But the suffix itself, whatever the element to which it's added, is in its origin the Greek
-izein, Latin
-izare; and, as the pronunciation is also with
z, there's no reason why in English the special French spelling should be followed, in opposition to that which is at once etymological and phonetic. In this Dictionary the termination is uniformly written
-ize."
Usage
Today, all major newspapers and magazines in the UK use
-ise.
The Times had been using
-ize until the early
1980s, when it decided to switch to the
-ise spelling.
The Times Literary Supplement, Britain's most influential literary review has continued to use Oxford spelling. Oxford spelling is also used in academic publications; the London-based scientific journal
Nature uses Oxford spelling, for example. Even though British dictionaries generally give
-ize variants first, the British government prefer
-ise.
Outside Britain, Oxford spelling is the
de facto spelling standard used in style guides of international organizations that belong to the
UN System, for example the
World Health Organization, the
International Labour Organization and
UNESCO. UN treaties and declarations, such as the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights generally follow Oxford spelling. Other international organizations that adhere to this standard include the
International Organization for Standardization, the
World Trade Organization and the
International Telecommunication Union.
Language tag comparison
The following table summarizes a few general spelling differences between the three most commonly used spelling systems.
Note:
en-GB simply stands for British English, it isn't specified whether
-ize or
-ise should be used. The
language tag en-GB-oed however requires the consistent use of
-ize and
-ization.
| analyse |
analyse |
analyze |
| centre |
centre |
center |
| globalisation |
globalization |
globalization |
Get more info on 'Oxford Spelling'.
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