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On Sunday 24 April 2005 09:17, Peter Fogg wrote:
> Many of the major European languages have had extensive reforms within the
> last hundred odd years; cutting out the accumulated dead wood, curing
> inconsistencies, simplifying spelling and the like. English seems to be an
> exception, and not because it isn't needed. American English received some
> rather more modest reforms proposed by Benjamin Franklin and they seem
> sensible ones, on the whole.
>
> However other English speaking nations (like England!) declined to adopt
> them. Australian English follows British English, mostly, but I think this
> is slowly changing in favour of American. One reason is the spell checkers
> of computers 'correct' British spellings despite promising otherwise.
> Another is the fact that many text books at tertiary level are American. So
> there is some confusion. Such is my own case. On the whole I use the
> spellings of standard English but have adopted some of Franklin's reforms,
> although this is admittedly inconsistent.
>
> Am still a bit puzzled by 'shew'. Not only is it unfamiliar, but it sounds
> positively Elizabethan?!

I've only seen "shew" used in old mathematics books (Whittacker and Watson has
been mentioned). I have seen o with an umlaut used as well. The usage seems
to be for the imperative form, viz. "Shew that..." which is a fairly common
way to start Mathematics questions.

Just my 2 cemts or pence worth or is that tuppence?

Glenn

>
> > From: Gordon Talge
> > I would like to get a little input.
> >
> > Quote:
> > I use British spelling so I end my verbs in "ise" rather than
> > "ize". I use the ending "our" rather than "or" (as in "colour")
> > and I use the correct spelling "shew" rather than "show".

   

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