Grammar Moment: British vs. American Spelling, and Sailing
OK, which side of the pond are we on?
I have noticed, as I travel through the blogosphere, that a whole lot of the sailing blogs that I frequent use British spelling – gybe vs. jibe, manoeuvre vs. maneuver, and so forth. I attributed that partly to the fact that some of these people are British, and to the fact that much of American sailing and sailors wish to keep a tie to Britain, where sailing has been a major part of the culture.
Because the American Sailing Association courses I have taken in basic keelboat and coastal cruising and navigation have used the American spellings, so have I. However, as part of my homework for my Adams Cup training, I am studying the US Sailing racing rules, and they use the British spelling.
I am hereby declaring that henceforth, I will be using situational spelling. When I am writing about racing, I will use the British spelling, and when I am writing about cruising, I will use American. The Wizards will continue to use American spelling, whether they are cruising or racing, because I’m not about to go through all of the 47 chapters I have written so far to make changes.
I have noticed, as I travel through the blogosphere, that a whole lot of the sailing blogs that I frequent use British spelling – gybe vs. jibe, manoeuvre vs. maneuver, and so forth. I attributed that partly to the fact that some of these people are British, and to the fact that much of American sailing and sailors wish to keep a tie to Britain, where sailing has been a major part of the culture.
Because the American Sailing Association courses I have taken in basic keelboat and coastal cruising and navigation have used the American spellings, so have I. However, as part of my homework for my Adams Cup training, I am studying the US Sailing racing rules, and they use the British spelling.
I am hereby declaring that henceforth, I will be using situational spelling. When I am writing about racing, I will use the British spelling, and when I am writing about cruising, I will use American. The Wizards will continue to use American spelling, whether they are cruising or racing, because I’m not about to go through all of the 47 chapters I have written so far to make changes.
posted by Carol Anne | 4:02 AM
2 Comments:
As a Brit transplanted to America I am now hopelessly confused as to which spelling is which. I used to pride myself on my spelling ability but the change has ruined my skill in this area completely.
I try and use the American spellings when I can but, even after all these years, jibe just doesn't gybe with me.
The spellings are probably not the hardest thing about trying to be bilingual in English and American; I think what's harder are word usages such as "The team is" vs "The team are", "in hospital" vs "in the hospital", "try to" vs. "try and", and so on.
I suppose you could really confuse a Yank crew member by mixing up some Anglo-American sports metaphors; try telling a crew or competitor that barging "isn't cricket".
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