Re: Misspelling (Was: Employment Oppotunity in Hong Kong)

johnl@informix.com (Jonathan Leffler) wrote: >I find it intriguing that the other misspelling in the emails about the >spelling in the job offer (except the original) has not been noticed. In >UK English (and Unix spell with the American option or the British option), >"mispell" is shown as erroneous. After all, the word is spell, the prefix >is "mis", so the compound with a hyphen would be "mis-spell", and the >hyphen is unnecessary, hence "misspell" and "misspelling" and "misspelled", >etc. The spell program doesn't recognise "spelt", let alone "misspelt", >even though Webster's New World Dictionary does recognize "spelt" as an >alternative to "spelled"... The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1984) states that the past participle of spell is "||spelt or spelled". The two vertical bars mean chiefly not US, ie UK and the commonwealth. (It even gives an example "surprise must not be spelt with a 'z'"). Under misspell it states "(for forms see spell)". However, my Unix spell accepts "misspell" correctly, but rejects "misspelt" and accepts instead "mispelt". I don't trust any electronic dictionary, instead I use my C.O.D. Incidently, a NZ Government publication on the use of English recommended the Shorter Oxford for correct English usage, with the exception of hyphenation, and then went on for three pages about when and how hyphens should be used.