Although I complain about the poor wording, I found myself feeling grateful that the word "apologise" was spelt correctly. The increased use of US spelling and pronunciation in this country is concerning. Shame on 'Sunday Politics' today, with a graphic referring to the BBC "license" fee (during the final segment of the show, after midday). And I see that we have TV Forumers using the same spelling in the RTE News thread.
I agree, 'se' endings, rather than 'ce' endings in words such as
licence,
is quite incorrect for use in British English, but I disagree with you regarging 'se' endings over 'ze' endings. Let's be clear about this, the word
apologize,
can be legitimately spelt this way in British English, indeed I prefer to use this spellling myself. It's just simply that
apologise
has become the preferred spelling in British English, but
apologize,
although a less common British English spelling, is also perfectly valid.
I qualified my statement moments after making the initial post. You must've been very quick off the mark with the quote.
In my book, it ought to be 'se' rather than 'ze'. British English, for example, does not permit 'Analyze' or 'Paralyze'. 'Apologize' and others such as 'Recognize' should be treated similarly - 'se' all the way!
If you begin on a quest of rationalizing the English language, you're on a hiding to nothing. It's chock full of anomalies!
Noah Webster tried to have a go in what became American English spellings and this was fairly unsuccessful, some words looked at, and other glaring examples ignored.
Colour
was perfectly fine, then he sought to change the spelling to
color,
which doesn't work for me. It needs the
'u',
otherwise I can't help thinking it needs to be pronounced
colore!
I just prefer
apologize
or
rationalize
(as I've used above) because I believe this spelling is more 'as it sounds'.
Apologise
would sound like
apologice
(to me).
It's funny to think that endings in
'ize'
was the sole original spelling in British English, then
'ise'
became the preferred spelling, though either is valid in British English. Conversely, the American English word for
Fall
was originally
Autumn.
Furthermore,
Autumn
has a related adjective, which is
Autumnal.
Is there an equivalent adjective with
Fall?
