The Queen… S or Z?
23 June 2004 21:07 that's life!Hmm… I was just wondering about something.
In the American media and in books and such Queen Elizabeth (the 1st and the 2nd) is spelled with “z.” However, in England where she was/is queen is her name spelled with “z” or “s”? I see on the BBC and the Guardian it is spelled with “z.” I find this interesting.
I thought words in American English that are spelled with “z” (e.g. organize) were spelled with “s” in British English (e.g. organise). If that is the case, shouldn’t the Queen’s name be spelled with “s” instead of “z”?
Can any of my British readers (or anyone else) out there explain this anomaly?
24 June 2004 at 07:37
One simplified explanation for the -ize/-ise variation runs like this. The nineteenth-century effort at standardization (Websterization) of American spelling established -ize as the norm. In Britain, both spellings were (and still are) allowed (except in a subset of words where a -ize is regarded as linguistically wrong: ?advertise?, for example, and the -yse words). -ize (as preferred in the OED, but not all British English dictionaries) mirrors the Greek, but -ise in the UK has become the more popular over time (and it?s not unlikely that there?s a bit of anti-Americanism in this).
As for Elizabeth/Elisabeth (God bless her and all who sail in her, &c.), I believe that the -s- version is considered a variant of the commoner -z- (commoner in British usage, that is). -s- is the form used in the Authorized Version.
Neither of which is an explanation so much as a way of avoiding what I am supposed to be doing at my desk.