In the Modern Coinages thread arnie asked a great question: When are alternate spellings accepted?

I had seen a major hotel (the Hilton) sign with the word "Millenium" in NYC recently. In fact, Jerry found the Web site of the "Millenium Hilton" in NY.

What would your answer be? My impulse is to say it should never be accepted, but I will wait to see what some of you say. Are there other examples?

Let's say that no alternative spellings are ever accepted. Then we can get rid of transatlantic misspellings such as "color", "hiccup" and "traveler".

Or maybe not.

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When are alternate spellings accepted?

I had seen a major hotel (the Hilton) sign with the word "Millenium" in NYC recently. In fact, Jerry found the Web site of the "Millenium Hilton" in NY.

What would your answer be? My impulse is to say it should never be accepted, but I will wait to see what some of you say. Are there other examples?

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RE has given "other examples" but these are not examples of "alternative spellings". They are examples of "American" spellings which happen to be distinct from "British" spellings. One would only think of these distinctions as "alternative" if one happened to favour the original British variety, probably as the result of an accident of birth.

When the 13 colonies unloaded all that tea at the Boston Tea Party, they also unloaded a lot of baggage they associated with the British aristocracy, including unnecessarily cumbersome spelling conventions.

Whereas these conventions helped to separate the classes back in England, the American colonists wanted none of that in the New World. Everyone in the New World would have to succeed by the sweat of their brow, so there was no place for needlessly distracting memory work in grammar schools.

Of course, this led to the disappearance of the double "l" in "traveler", the double "n" in "millenium", the unnecessary "u" in a host of words including "neighbor" and "honor", and generally every unnecessary letter beloved by the privileged in King George's England.

Altho, as a Canadian, "British" spelling was drilled into me in elementary school, I happen to prefer "American" spelling because it is cleaner and less pretentious, and it makes a statement about unnecessarily burdensome traditions and equality of opportunity which I happen to agree with. So there.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: straightarrow,

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When the 13 colonies unloaded all that tea at the Boston Tea Party, they also unloaded a lot of baggage they associated with the British aristocracy, including unnecessarily cumbersome spelling conventions.

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Um... Not exactly. The Boston Tea Party was in (IIRC) 1773, but Noah Webster didn't finish his dictionary until 1828. Give the (ex-) colonies time to get used to the new spellings in his book, and we have a gap of 50 to 100 years.

the double "n" in "millenium",

But, straightarrow, the point is that "millennium" is spelled with 2 "n's" in all dictionaries. I don't see any dictionaries, American or otherwise, that gives it 1 "n."

I brought up the subject because I was surprised that the Hilton would misspell its own name. Arnie then asked when "alternate" spellings are accepted as the "real" spelling. Obviously, people do misspell "millennium", just as they misspell "chartreuse," (or whatever)...but when does that become acceptable and included as an alternate spelling in a dictionary?

There is a restaurant in Seattle called Gingko Tea. The correct spelling is Ginkgo. Dictionaries list it both ways. M-W On line lists Gingko as a variant of Ginkgo. In reality, it's a mispelling. The confusion in spelling probably arises from the fact that the g is silent.

Actually, Ginkgo is a mispelling (probably an accidental misprint) of Ginkyo, but Ginkgo stuck.

Tinman

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Actually, Ginkgo is a mispelling (probably an accidental misprint) of Ginkyo, but Ginkgo_ stuck.

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Same with chaise lounge, from the French chaise longue.