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“Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

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Re: “Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

#41

Post by toyg »

marjwyatt wrote: post #19

I was just puzzling about this the other day. I live in the USA and I've always spelled the word as theatre. Only recently, I've noticed that spellcheck is balking at this. It's somewhat comforting to know that my way of spelling the word isn't wrong and I don't really mind that my country wants to spell it differently.

> It's somewhat comforting to know that my way of spelling the word isn't wrong

It might even be more comforting to know that your way is actually more correct, in a traditionalist sense: the Anglo-French theatre comes directly from Greek théatron (through Latin thĕātrum). Somehow "your country" is bent on morphing the word for whatever reason, similarly to what they are doing to center/centre.

Re: “Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

#42

Post by gpmcadam »

thret wrote: post #10
maxmcd wrote: post #2

I think I found another one, and it looks like it swapped twice: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Aesthetic.esthetic Edit: Another: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Archaeology.archeology A very early switch: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Toward.towards Another: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=catalogue.catalog And another: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=centre.center A weaker one: http…

http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=disk.disc

I'm not sure this is a valid comparison as 'disk' and 'disc' aren't synonymous, as evidenced by the lack of a clear pattern of change in the graph.

Re: “Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

#43

Post by gpmcadam »

dewiz wrote: post #22

on a different angle, "smartphone" first occurrence in 1998, which matches with wikipedia reporting it in 1997 from Ericsson blob: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/d4661696-f25d-47be-8a83-8996420...

Something I've noticed (anecdotally) over the past few years in the USA is the switch from the term 'cell phone' to 'mobile phone'. Here in the UK we've used the term 'mobile phone' exclusively I think for the past 20 or 30 years.

It's not as clear as other examples, but you can certainly see a visible trend in the last decade: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Mobile%20phone.Cell%20...

Re: “Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

#44

Post by gpmcadam »

ghshephard wrote: post #8
wyager wrote: post #5

These swaps are clearly "non-organic" (i.e. didn't emerge from gradual changes in colloquial language). Are they the result of a change in editing staff? Spelling correction software?

They updated their style guide.

Are the style guides updated to reflect the public use of these words? If so, I imagine if we were to graph the change in use over time in the public would be a much more gradual and organic one?

Re: “Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

#45

Post by levosmetalo »

pessimizer wrote: post #39
DanBC wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Constantinople vs Istanbul shows a nice clean switch: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=constantinople.istanbu... Burma vs Myanmar is messier http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=burma.myanmar

That one is a bit controversial because 'Burma' was changed to 'Myanmar' by the military dictatorship.

Why would that be controversial? State changed it's official name and newspaper started to call it by its new name.

Re: “Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

#46

Post by acjohnson55 »

itry wrote: post #23

Funny, how years get born and then forgotten over time: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=2010.2000.1990.1980.19... There is a little anticipation in the preceding years, then a big explosion in the year itself and then slow decline in the following years.

The secondary peaks 2-4 years out are interesting. Or perhaps it's better conceptualized as troughs the year after. Wonder what the reason is for that?

Re: “Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

#48

Post by sspiff »

maxmcd wrote: post #2

I think I found another one, and it looks like it swapped twice: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Aesthetic.esthetic Edit: Another: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Archaeology.archeology A very early switch: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Toward.towards Another: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=catalogue.catalog And another: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=centre.center A weaker one: http…

Nice list. Seems like they did a "major" reform around the turn of the century, many examples I've seen seem to be replacement around 1999/2000.

Re: “Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

#49

Post by jeffbr13 »

rdwallis wrote: post #16
maxmcd wrote: post #2

I think I found another one, and it looks like it swapped twice: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Aesthetic.esthetic Edit: Another: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Archaeology.archeology A very early switch: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Toward.towards Another: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=catalogue.catalog And another: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=centre.center A weaker one: http…

More interesting for programmers: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=program.programme And programme seems to be having a very slight resurgence since 2012.

It's "programme" in British-English for everything except "computer program" (in my experience). Probably because most programmer-culture is centred in North America.

I imagine that it's simply some NYT writer(s) using the British-English spelling, rather than a wider cultural trend, unless somebody is aware of any other examples?

Re: “Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

#50

Post by tnorthcutt »

danieltillett wrote: post #47

This is exactly what I have been trying to achieve with my CutSpel Chrome extension - so far not too much interest, but I might try another submission in a little while. http://www.cutspel.com

I'd argue there's a vast difference between using two different, accepted spellings of a word, and using a Chrome extension that alters English words, transforming them into not English words.
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